By Dave Schwab

The fifth annual Human Trafficking Awareness Rally, held Jan. 13 at Balboa Park, dragged the ugly crime of sex trafficking out of the shadows and into the light.

The rally drew a host of local, federal and state legislators, attorneys, social workers, law enforcement agents and concerned citizens, all bent on educating — and eradicating — human trafficking.Human trafficking includes everything from forcing people into prostitution, to subjecting them to slavery or involuntary servitude.

The FBI has named San Diego as one of the nation’s top 13 areas with the highest rates of child sex trafficking.

“Over the years we’ve tackled a lot of different issues from domestic violence to illiteracy to child obesity,” said Rachel Thompson, president of Junior League of San Diego. The Junior League is a network of female civic leaders working with community partners to address pressing social issues, and they co-sponsored the human-rights event.

Thompson headed a list of speakers at the rally, which was immediately followed by women hoisting signs with slogans such as, “Not in our city,” and “End modern-day slavery,” and marching through Balboa Park.“About five years ago, we discovered a couple of other unmet needs,” Thompson said. “One was the plight of youth transitioning out of the foster care system, who are disproportionately more likely to become victims of human trafficking. That is how we got started in this work.”

Characterizing human trafficking as a “serious epidemic in our community,” Thompson added, “It was a natural fit for us [Junior League] to take this issue and bring it into the light, joining with all our community partners here today. We’re raising our voices, and marching, to spread the word about human trafficking, and making our community more aware of it.”

“On Martin Luther King weekend, we are reminded of the fight for justice and equality, and how important this effort [opposing trafficking] is,” said Rep. Susan Davis, a Democrat who represents District 53. “I’m always shocked that there are between 8,000 and 11,000 victims of human trafficking right here in San Diego.

What can we do, what can our workplaces do, what can people do?” Davis asked rhetorically.

The Congress member cited teachers as one occupation that needs to be more aware of sex trafficking.

“One of the things we focus on is empowering our teachers to learn and know the signs,” Davis said. “They might be looking at a young woman in their classroom every day. She gets to school late every day, especially after the weekend. She looks like she’s really tired. But they are actually suffering because they’re being trafficked.”

Davis concluded money is essential to fighting sex trafficking.

“People need to have the resources to do something about it,” she said.

San Diego District Attorney Summer Stephan sent a message that “each one of us needs to care about exploited and enslaved people. … The time is really now to stand up and to stamp out exploitation and slavery.”

Noting that human traffickers are “hiding in plain view, hiding behind phones and posing as friends,” the district attorney said there are many “diabolical methods” used by traffickers to recruit their victims.

“Right now, there is someone in some hotel in San Diego being sold like they were a piece of pizza,” Stephan said. “There’s a woman trying to put food on the table as a janitor who is being sexually abused; but she’s afraid to tell someone because she doesn’t have all the right immigration papers. There are boys being abused on camera and sold to pornographers. As long as those exist — our fight must continue.”

Assemblymember Brian Maienschein, who was also on hand, shared that he is a single parent with two daughters ages 13 and 15.

“I tucked them in last night and one of them had a stuffed animal she was sleeping with in bed,” he said. “Girls of that age are being trafficked. It’s an American tragedy, and it has to stop.”

Maienschein has sponsored AB 1791, which strengthens penalties for human trafficking crimes involving minors.

Jamie Quient, president of Free to Thrive — an organization that empowers survivors of human trafficking by providing them with legal services and connecting them to other supportive services — talked about clearing victims’ arrest records.

“Survivors of trafficking shouldn’t forever be degraded by being labeled as criminals,” Quient said, who also described the victims of trafficking as “the most driven people I’ve ever met.”

Quient said that when she asks most reclaimed trafficking victims what they’d most like to do, they say they wish to use their personal experience to help other victims.

Ex-Marine Joseph Travers, executive director of Saved in America — a nonprofit involving insured private investigators who locate missing and runaway children — said the objective of combating sex trafficking is to catch violators, and their potential victims, early.“We’re trying to prevent runaways from getting caught in sex trafficking, and we’ve rescued 57 of them since 2014,” Travers said. “Out of the 57 rescues, 40 percent of them were actually involved in trafficking in one form or another.”

Travers talked about one trafficking victim, Brittany, who didn’t make it out.

“A gang member pimp befriended her and took her across state lines where he raped and murdered her,” Travers said. “What we want to do here today, with you and I as partners, is to make sure that never happens again.”

If you see something, say something. To get involved with the nonprofits mentioned in this story, visit jlsd.org, savedinamerica.org or freetothrive.org.

— Reach Dave Schwab at [email protected].