LAW DAY 2013
ABA President Laurel Bellows
on Human Trafficking
[email protected]
By Laurel Bellows
President, American Bar Association
A
s a 13-year-old growing up and going to school in
Mexico, Gloria saw her life change in an instant
when she was thrown into the back seat of a car
and punched until she fell unconscious. Waking up in an
unfamiliar hotel room, she was raped four times that day by
her kidnapper. The trafficker soon made her leave her home
country, forcing her into prostitution across the border.
Because of Gloria’s young age, the trafficker found her
to be in high demand. She was sold for sex up and down
the East Coast. Gloria was forced to meet quotas of 120
clients per week. After multiple pregnancies, an involuntary
abortion, an attempt to flee, a savage beating and more
rapes, she was finally able to escape when Immigration and
Customs Enforcement stopped her on a bus and asked for
identification.
With a lawyer from the Georgia Asylum and Immigration
Network (GAIN) and the assistance of Tapestri, an
organization in Atlanta that helps immigrant and refugee
families affected by domestic violence, sexual assault and
exploitation, Gloria was able to receive a T-visa this February.
A T-visa allows victims of human trafficking and immediate
family members to remain and work temporarily in the
United States if they agree to assist law enforcement in the
investigation or prosecution of their traffickers.
Human trafficking is one of the fastest-growing and most
lucrative crimes in the world. According to the U.S. State
Department, 27 million people are held involuntarily as
modern-day slaves across the globe. Eighty percent are
women and children.
Thousands of those human trafficking victims, like Gloria, are
in the United States. Many victims are compelled to perform
labor in homes and sweatshops. More than 100,000 U.S.
citizens are forced to provide sex and labor services for their
captors’ profit.
Human trafficking is taking place here. According to the
Georgia Bureau of Investigation, around 500 girls are
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THE ATLANTA LAWYER
April 2013
trafficked for sex all around Georgia each month. The FBI
named Atlanta as one of the cities with the highest incidence
of children exploited in prostitution and one of the cities with
the most incidences of human trafficking. Every night, girls
are hidden from public view in brothels, massage parlors
and truck stops, held captive through sexual exploitation.
The inspiring story of lawyers who represent human
trafficking victims motivated me to choose the battle against
human trafficking as one of the American Bar Association’s
priorities this year. My own experience also guided me.
As a young lawyer, I handled prostitution cases and helped
women who were victimized by traffickers, prosecuted in the
courts and denied their freedom. They were also left without
services — such as job training or housing placement — that
would have provided opportunities for their recovery and
self-sufficiency.
Fortunately, awareness of human trafficking in our own
country is growing, as are the programs to combat this
crisis. As lawyers, we must commit ourselves to the fight
for trafficking victims’ fundamental human rights.
The ABA combats trafficking by urging courts and police to
screen for victim abuse and exploitation. We also seek to
protect victims by encouraging lawyers to provide pro bono
legal assistance. But our work is far from complete.
The ABA’s Task Force on Human Trafficking has begun
several initiatives to strengthen pro bono networks to address
the civil le gal needs of trafficking victims. The task force
recently conducted one of three national training sessions for
individuals in the legal system to learn how to treat victims
as victims and not as criminals.
These programs are attended by medical personnel,
social service agency employees, prosecutors and judges,
nonprofit representatives, volunteer lawyers interested in
helping trafficking victims, and policymakers. The goal of
these training programs is to help those likely to come into
The Official News Publication of the Atlanta Bar Association