File Photo
File Photo
Texas has made it a priority to eradicate human trafficking, and legislation directed the state Attorney General’s office to establish the Human Trafficking Prevention Coordinating Council, whose recent report called for a collaboration of private agencies, nonprofits, faith-based organizations and state resources to combat trafficking.
One such group collaborating with Attorney General Ken Paxton’s council to fight human trafficking is the Alamo Area Coalition Against Trafficking (AACAT).
Erin M. Barry, J.D., co-chair of the AACAT, told the Lone Star Standard that AACAT focuses on eliminating child sex trafficking and, in collaboration with other organizations, adult trafficking.
Barry is the president and CEO of the Youth Center of Texas, which provides 24-hour crisis intervention center in San Antonio for victims of child sex trafficking.
In its May 2020 report, the Human Trafficking Prevention Coordinating Council explained that according to the Texas Penal Code, “traffic” is “to transport, entice, recruit, harbor, provide, or otherwise obtain another person by any means.”
Many confuse it with smuggling, which is a crime against the border, Barry said. Child trafficking, however, is a crime against a child’s body.
The four main types of trafficking, the report explained, are adult sex trafficking, adult labor trafficking, child sex trafficking and child labor trafficking.
Texas has a high number of trafficking cases, with 2,108 trafficking victims identified in 2018. However, the “true magnitude of this hidden crime is largely unconfirmed as human trafficking data is often difficult to collect,” the council’s report stated.
“We pretty much know we can’t take anything this large on without public/private enterprises,” said Barry. “Everyone has to step up to the plate and work collaboratively.”
According to Barry, “runaway children and foster children are more susceptible to being trafficked,” She explained in the past when law enforcement picked up these children they had nowhere to bring them except a detention center, which is why AACAT decided that a 24-hour center was necessary to meet the children's needs.
For children trafficked from other areas and across jurisdictions, Barry said “law enforcement is good as to who has jurisdiction if it is across state lines” and the FBI will be contacted.
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted human trafficking, as drug dealers finding it difficult to deal in drugs due to the border closure are now resorting to trafficking.
“The problem we’re finding right now especially with COVID-19 and the closing of borders, it is making it difficult for drug dealers,” said Barry. “They find it easier to traffic a child from a hotel.”
Barry said she is hearing, “we used to sell marijuana, we used to sell heroin….now we sell girls, it’s easier.”
“We are seeing an increase as a result of COVID-19,” said Barry.
When asked if she had those statistics, Barry said they were not available as of yet.
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