Human trafficking in Texas

Human trafficking in Texas is the illegal trade of human beings as it occurs in the state of Texas. It is a modern-day form of slavery and usually involves commercial sexual exploitation or forced labor, both domestic and agricultural.

Human trafficking is particularly relevant to Texas because of its close proximity to the U.S.–Mexican border, one of the most-crossed international borders in the world,[1] and its extremely diverse population, especially in Houston.[2] According to the Department of Health and Human Services, of the more than 50,000 people annually trafficked from foreign countries into the United States, a quarter enter the country through Texas.[3] Additionally, at any given time, Texas contains around 25% of the trafficked persons in the United States, and almost a third of the calls to the National Human Trafficking Hotline are from Texas.[3] Texas is also a huge transit site for domestic trafficking, with around twenty percent of domestic trafficking victims traveling through Texas.[3]

The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA) defines sex trafficking as the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act, in which the commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age.[4] The National Human Trafficking Resource Center reported receiving 1,731 calls and emails in 2015 about human trafficking in Texas.[5]

  1. ^ Servin, Argentina, Kimberly Brouwer, Leah Gordon, Teresita Rocha-Jimenez, and Hugo Staines. "Vulnerability Factors and Pathways Leading to Underage Entry into Sex Work in Two Mexican–US Border Cities." Journal of Applied Research on Children: Informing Policy for Children at Risk 6, no. 1 (2015): 1-17.
  2. ^ Center for Public Policy Studies. "Texas Human Trafficking Fact Sheet." (2013). Accessed November 15, 2015.
  3. ^ a b c Butler, Cheryl. "Sex Slavery in the Lone Star State: Does the Texas Human Trafficking Legislation of 2011 Protect Minors?" Akron Law Review 45 (2012): 843-85.
  4. ^ "FACT SHEET: HUMAN TRAFFICKING". U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Retrieved 1 August 2014.
  5. ^ "United States Report: 1/1/2015 – 12/31/2015" (PDF). National Human Trafficking Resource Center. National Human Trafficking Resource Center. Retrieved 19 May 2016.