Texas Human Trafficking Expert to Speak May 21
|
Star Republican Women will feature guest speaker Texas Department of Public Safety human trafficking expert and organized crime liaison Captain Cliff Manning at its May 21 meeting.
The meeting will be held at Quail Point Community Center and will start with a complimentary light lunch at 12:30 p.m. followed by the program at 1:00 p.m. On any given day in Texas, there are 234,000 victims of labor trafficking and 79,000 victims of youth and minor sex trafficking. Human trafficking is real, and these statistics, provided by the office of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, are staggering. Human trafficking is modern-day slavery. It is the exploitation of men, women and children for forced labor or sex by a third-party for profit or gain. As citizens, we should be aware of these organized crimes and how we might play a role in helping to identify victims and perpetrators. Captain Manning, who previously served in the U.S. Marine Corp and joined the Texas DPS in 1994, is stationed in Austin and serves as the subject matter expert on human trafficking and the organized crime liaison for Regions 2 and 3. He works within the Organized Crime Section of the DPS Criminal Investigations Division. Captain Manning, named DPS’s first human trafficking task force supervisor in 2014, will provide an overview of how Texas DPS is combatting human trafficking in Texas and tips on how citizens can help spot victims and offenders. The Texas DPS, along with the office of the Texas Attorney General, are taking aggressive measures to stop human trafficking. Attorney General Ken Paxton launched a special initiative in 2016 to address the issue. To learn about more about human trafficking and his initiative go to the following website link: https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/initiatives/human-trafficking. There are many myths about human trafficking. Here are a couple of myths and the related truth: Myth: Trafficking is a crime all about movement, immigration, and 18-wheelers. Reality: Smuggling and Trafficking are two distinct crimes. Smuggling is a crime against the border where someone enters a country without the appropriate documentation, typically by paying someone else to smuggle them across the border. It requires transport and movement from one country to another, and both the person coming in without permission and the person bringing them in are committing a crime. Trafficking on the other hand does not require movement. You can be trafficked in your own home, and you can be trafficked in your own country by a fellow U.S. citizen. For example: A mother who brings people to her home to have sex with her underage child is trafficking the child even though the child never leaves the house. Only the trafficker is committing a crime when they exploit someone else for forced labor or forced sex. Myth: This doesn’t happen in my hometown. Reality: Trafficking is occurring in cities and towns all across Texas. There are four major types of trafficking: Adult Sex Trafficking - Trafficking of adults for sex by force, fraud, or coercion in strip clubs, brothels, massage parlors, street prostitution, or internet-based prostitution Adult Labor Trafficking - Trafficking adults for labor by force, fraud, or coercion into industries, such as agriculture, food service, manufacturing, domestic servitude, or hospitality Child Sex Trafficking - Trafficking children, under the age of 18, by any means into the commercial sex industry Child Labor Trafficking - Trafficking children, under the age of 18, by force, fraud or coercion into industries such as agriculture, food service, manufacturing, domestic servitude, or hospitality |