Domestic Human Trafficking: An Internal Issue

Human trafficking is the exploitation of a person for the purposes of forced labor or commercial sex, regardless of citizenship or nationality. However, Americans generally tend to think that human trafficking is a crime that occurs in other countries, to foreigners who should have known better, or to those who brought it upon themselves. These assumptions are misconceptions; trafficking happens here in the United States to U.S. citizens (USC), and in every state in the nation.1 While foreigners who arrive in the U.S. legally and illegally are susceptible to human trafficking situations, U.S. citizens too fall victim to this crime at an alarming rate.2 Without regard to nationality of victims and with greed as their motivation, traffickers seek to exploit those who are most vulnerable - the young, the desperate, and the easily manipulated. When trafficking is mentioned, Americans often visualize a foreign female who was deceived upon arriving in the U.S. and finds herself being sexually exploited. They do not imagine a USC child or adult who was kidnapped or lured from home and is prostituted at a local truck stop. Sadly, Americans tend to refer to USC trafficking victims as anything but victims. They are referred to as criminals, prostitutes, child prostitutes, runaways, throwaways, addicts, or juvenile delinquents. Traffickers are often referred to only as pimps, perpetrators, or criminals. In the U.S., the criminal definition of human trafficking covers both USC and foreign victims. While the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA) was comprehensive in scope to include foreign nationals and USCs, women and men, and children and adults, the civil victim protection provisions were conceptualized to protect foreign nationals who are trafficked into the U.S. for commercial sex acts or forced labor and who, because of their immigration status, would otherwise be subject to deportation and ineligible for social service programs.3 While USC trafficking victims are often controlled and used for commercial sex acts in the same manner as foreign nationals, the TVPA does not provide USC victims with any special benefits or services.