HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND BORDERS 2
Abstract
In today’s world we witness a heightened level of division, which is extremely
disheartening and filled with dangerous aspects since most of these aspects derive from lack of
morality and mirroring God’s image. Due to the lack of essential justice and poor character the
world is suffering greatly from border control, human trafficking, and sadly child pornography.
Human trafficking is definitely not a new concept or trend and has been around for centuries but
the cartel have now evaluated the benefits of selling a human body for use rather than drugs,
because drugs are a one time use and a human body can be used numerous times a day for
sometimes even more money, creating unimaginable profits. It is now a worldly crisis,
specifically in the United States, with difficulties such as tracking origins of the smugglers,
complexity of border monitoring, and identifying victims in daily operations.
HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND BORDERS 3
Research Paper
Since the movie Sound of Freedom was finally released human trafficking is starting to
get the publicity it deserves in order to make our communities more aware of the potential deadly
threats and unsafe environments surrounding everyday activities. There are an array of
government agencies and non-profit groups whose sole focus is on the elimination of the human
trafficking empire, but wistfully the human trafficking business is growing and the side effects
are rippling through the communities and countries involved.
Evaluating Human Sex Trafficking and Data
The aftermath for victims of human trafficking and their survival encounters are
excruciatingly painful. A Study from the United States Human Trafficking Hotline with 107
survivors concluded that “nearly all respondents (99.1%) reported at least one physical health
problem, 95.1% reported experiencing some form of violence or abuse, 98.1% indicated they had
experienced at least one psychological issue (e.g., depression, flashbacks, shame/guilt, PTSD, or
attempted suicide), and 84.3% reported substance abuse” (Smith and Tiller, 2021). These
statistics are exceedingly high, but it is also difficult to precisely measure the full spectrum of
factors of human trafficking and its victims because of the restricted amount of data and the
questionable entry of the information. “Systems often are not set up to collect information on
trafficking victims for a comprehensive understanding of the problem from a public health
perspective. When they are, the data infrastructure often precludes sharing, integration, or
comparison with other systems” (Anderson et al, 2019). Another adverse aspect is that the
database systems used throughout the United States for the collection of information are
HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND BORDERS 4
deficient because of individuals not self-identifying, non-reporting, and individuals being
processed through the criminal justice systems as offenders instead of the victims they are. This
is not an insult to our law enforcement agencies or government organizations, it’s honestly just a
growing period on the efforts to battle such a horrific problem across the globe. In reality, our
Federal and State Governments completely support all efforts to fight human trafficking, its
nefarious impact on the victims, families and communities involved, and harshly punishing all
offenders on this front.
Human Trafficking and Law Enforcement
“Though legislators may take steps to pass laws with provisions aimed at promoting the
arrest and prosecution of human traffickers, theories of political responsiveness suggest that the
context in which laws are expected to be enforced plays an important role in promoting or
discouraging the enforcement of new laws” (Farrell, Bouché, & Wolfe, 2019). Law enforcement
is enduring the fight on the front lines to counter human trafficking. They are conducting more
and more training to further understand and have the ability to properly identify suspects and
victims, and aggressively urging for resolution through after action reviews. The victory over
human trafficking cannot fully advance without more legislation being passed at our highest
levels. It’s difficult to assess the full spectrum of human trafficking effects, therefore processing
the data accordingly is nearly impossible. Identifying suspects and victims is key to this issue.
“Whether human trafficking victims receive services or enter the criminal justice system as
prostitution offenders depends on how police identify them, as police officers are usually the first
to interact with human trafficking victims” (Reis et al, 2021). Law enforcement officials and
officers are working tireless hours to break the human trafficking cycle, but there are many
HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND BORDERS 5
struggles ongoing with no end in sight as this time. Youth and young children are particularly
vulnerable and easier to manipulate by promoters and/or pimps who purposely “Grecruit at public
places such as malls, homeless shelters, foster homes, bus stops, parks, nightclubs, group homes
and even schools” (Reis et al, 2021) and finding a child or young adult’s weakness to prey is
unfortunately uncomfortably easy allowing the criminals to create a bond, as dysfunctional as it
may be, resulting in a lifetime of human trafficking. This is just one example of the ongoing
difficulties for a law enforcement officers to properly identify this child or adult as a human
trafficking victim and not a prostitute or criminal because they won’t volunteer their master(s) or
owner(s) identity, resulting in the victim taking full blame of the criminal offense. This bond is
almost always driven by pure fear and manipulation.
Border Control and Human Trafficking
It is no covert operation that the southern and northern borders of the United States are
without control, violence has increased immensely and in dire need of regularity and strict
guidance to include more funding and the increasing amount of unaccompanied children crossing
the border are just some of the major problems with border control at this time. “Unaccompanied
minors have been journeying to the United States-Mexico border in great numbers in order to
escape violence, poverty, and exploitation in their home countries” (Ataiants et al, 2018) but the
increasing number of predators and human traffickers along our borders is making it
progressively more dangerous and the farthest thing from an exceptional life. Even if some of
these children are apprehended by Border Patrol or Law Enforcement Officer, the process for
placement is long and lacks responsibility of any one government agency. “It is estimated that
HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND BORDERS 6
between 15,000 and 50,000 women and children are forced into sexual slavery in the United
States every year” (Deliverfund.org, 2023) with a big chunk of them coming from lack of border
control. GOutside of the human trafficking “around 90% of the cocaine in the U.S. comes from
Mexico” (Jancsics, 2019) and the list of issues continues to grow.
Solving Human Trafficking
“Every year, millions of men, women, and children are trafficked worldwide with victims
spanning all ages, races, genders, and nationalities” (Keskin, Bott and Freeman, 2021).
Discovering a solution is the elephant in the room right now for many law enforcement agencies,
governments organizations and households int he United States. There are so many moving
pieces and the dark web isn’t making it any easier to pinpoint trafficking locations. Ultimately
though, if the United States had more border control, actual walls and strictly enforced entry
points for the United States I know there would be more traffickers apprehended and the
corruption would be significantly reduced.
Conclusion and Christian Worldview
Our world is allowing the Devil to win far too many battles and anything sabotaging the
innocence of children is one battle we has God’s children must not let him win. Human
trafficking and specifically sex trafficking of minors cannot grow anymore and must be stopped
by any means possible. I understand that we must also try and live in God’s image by not
judging and being kind to those who have wronged us or someone we love, but we also must
HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND BORDERS 8
References
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Unaccompanied children at the United States border, a human rights crisis that can be
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