Officials Provide Update On Efforts Against $32 Billion Human Trafficking Industry

U.S. Rep. Mike Honda, D-San Jose, joined Santa Clara County officials to report back on what’s being done at the federal and local levels to deter human trafficking.

“Human trafficking is a crisis inside and outside of the United States that too many people have been willing to overlook,” Honda said during a news conference at the sheriff’s office in San Jose Monday afternoon.

Honda authored the Survivors of Human Trafficking Empowerment Act, signed into law in May by the President, which creates an advisory council comprised of human trafficking survivors and nongovernmental experts to advise President Barack Obama, the President’s Cabinet and Congress on federal practices on the crime.

“This legislation values survivors beyond just their story,” he said. The goal of the council is to hear from human trafficking survivors and determine the best practices to help victims, Honda said.

Also at the news conference were Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez, District Attorney Jeff Rosen and Sheriff Laurie Smith, all members of the county’s Human Trafficking Commission that launched last year.

“We’re looking at prostitution in a different way than we have. In addition to the sex trade we’re also looking at any kind of forced labor,” Smith said.

The Board of Supervisors has set aside $743,000 for the county’s efforts against human trafficking to support services for commercially sexually exploited children, expand training and raise public awareness, according to Chavez’s office.

Late last year, the county formed a task force of three deputy sheriffs, a deputy district attorney and a district attorney investigator to identify, investigate and prosecute human trafficking cases as well as educate the public on the issue, according to Chavez’s office.

“We understand that these are criminal networks and enterprises. And that we need to be as strong and fierce as we can be in order to end this kind of scourge in our community,” Chavez said.

• Related: Human Trafficking Task Force Rescued 8-10 Victims Since Summer In Santa Clara County

In the past year, more than 1,000 county employees have been trained in identifying human trafficking cases, Chavez said. More than 750 of the employees work at the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Agency, which provides thousands of public rides daily throughout the county, she said. Since the training started a year ago, the county has received multiple leads on human trafficking cases, she said.

One of those cases happened on June 5, when 23-year-old Alfonso David Edington allegedly abducted a 3-year-old boy from the Milpitas Public Library and boarded a bus to the Fremont BART station, police said.

• Story here: Suspect Arrested In Alleged ‘Horrific, Horrific’ Abduction Of Toddler From Milpitas Library

Tim Watson was driving the VTA bus and identified the pair based on an alert from agency dispatchers, police said. Fremont police arrested Edington as he exited the bus with the boy, who was not injured, according to police. Watson attributed the rescue in part to recent human trafficking training he had before the alleged kidnapping, Chavez said.

Human trafficking is a $32 billion a year industry. It’s growing faster and making more money than arms or drugs trafficking, Rosen said. The District Attorney’s Office is currently prosecuting more than a dozen human trafficking cases, Rosen said, and some victims are as young as 13 or 14 years old.

Human trafficking survivor Regina Evans said a survivor has an “up close and personal, more than well acquainted” experience of human trafficking.

“We understand that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for survivors is inextricably tied to the continued creation of policies and laws,” Evans said.

• Also see:
• Billboard Campaign Against Human Trafficking Launched in East Bay
• Man ‘Pimped’ Girl At Sunnyvale Motel After Meeting Her At Bible Study: DA
• Sonoma Co. Man Gets 6-Year Sentence For Human Trafficking Of Minor
• Brown Signs Bill to Fight Human Trafficking

--Bay City News

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