A chilling investigation reveals that sex trafficking is rapidly expanding across the United States, primarily by migrants crossing the southern border. Under current U.S. immigration policies, human traffickers are exploiting vulnerable immigrant women and children at unprecedented rates. As revealed by the Free Press, they lure them with promises of work and force them into prostitution.
The investigation centers on Lisa (not her real name), a former communications engineer who now dedicates her life to tracking down sex trafficking rings. Lisa runs Shepherd's Watch, a nonprofit organization that works with law enforcement to identify human traffickers and rescue victims.
“Law enforcement is understaffed and stretched too thin,” she explained to the Free Press. “That’s where we come in.”
Lisa's small investigative team provides critical information to law enforcement departments throughout Texas and beyond.
Trade in immigrant girls is booming
The study reveals a link between the rise in sex trafficking and the Biden administration's border policies. An estimated 8 million migrants have crossed the southern border since the administration took office. Many of them are unaccompanied women and minors. Once these immigrants enter the United States, they are often targeted by sex traffickers.
Lisa witnessed this change firsthand. She explained that prior to 2021, the majority of human trafficking victims tracked were American citizens. That changed within just a few months of the administration's immigration policy taking effect. the woman says,
“Nearly all of my sex trafficking rings are immigrant girls. Advertising (on social media) exploded within the first three months of borders opening. New sites and advertising I started noticing that it was written in Spanish. There used to be very little of it. Then sites dedicated to Latin girls started popping up all over the place,” says Lisa. She added that since it opened, more than 90 percent of its ads have been aimed at immigrant girls.
Her team tracks tens of thousands of ads each week on platforms like TikTok, OnlyFans, and Facebook, including 14,000 ads in Dallas alone.
According to Lisa, traffickers move their victims across the country and from city to city to avoid law enforcement and maximize profits. These girls typically sell for between $130 and $160 per 30-minute session. “If you feel like it, you can order a girl within 15 minutes,” Lisa said, emphasizing how incredibly easy the process is.
Systemic failure at the border
The report draws attention to flaws in the U.S. immigration system, particularly how gangs are exploiting the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) to traffic migrant children. Once minors cross the border, authorities hold them in temporary detention facilities until they can be matched with someone. Ideally, it's a family member in the United States. But in the absence of family sponsors, traffickers often intervene.
As revealed by whistleblowers including federal employee Tara Rodas, traffickers posing as sponsors are bypassing the vetting process with alarming regularity. It was introduced in July at a roundtable co-sponsored by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana), and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.). In his testimony, Mr. Rodas explained how the children had been detained. Famous gang member.
“Traffickers are exploiting unaccompanied children at HHS,” Rodas said. She recounted cases in which authorities handed over immigrant children with criminal records to sponsors, some of whom were affiliated with notorious gangs such as MS-13.
statistics
The numbers bear out the scale of the problem. According to the report,
During the four years of the Trump administration, the government issued an average of 625 letters (Child Status) annually to immigrant minors who managed to escape from traffickers.
But in 2021, the first year of the Biden administration, that number jumped to 1,143. In 2022, the number increased again to 2,226 people. Last year, that number was 2,148, but that was through September. The fourth quarter had not yet been counted. In other words, under President Biden, forced labor and prostitution for immigrant minors has more than tripled, reaching an all-time high.
Child Eligibility Certificates are issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). These letters are provided to immigrant minors who have escaped their traffickers and are eligible for assistance as victims of human trafficking. This letter will give you access to various support services. This includes food, medical benefits and other forms of aid. The report stresses that the figures cited represent only a small number of minors who successfully escaped. Thousands more remain in the hands of traffickers.
Gang-controlled human trafficking ring
Gangs such as Venezuela's Torren de Aragua, Mexican cartels, and organizations in Cuba and El Salvador are primarily responsible for the influx of sex trafficking. They take advantage of desperate situations to recruit immigrant women. According to the report,
Their modus operandi is to lure immigrant women and girls across the southern border with promises of good jobs once they arrive in the U.S., ostensibly to pay off the debts they incurred to enter the United States. The idea is to force women into prostitution.
Traffickers then move these women around the country, subjecting them to constant fear and isolation. As Lisa said during a field trip in Dallas, human traffickers operate out of seedy motels and manipulate their victims through violence, intimidation, and coercion.
fear of human trafficking
Victims of sex trafficking often endure extreme physical and emotional abuse. The report focused on the work of Bob's House of Hope in Denton, Texas, the nation's only shelter for male victims of sex trafficking. Landon Dickinson, director of the shelter, said many of the boys had endured harsh conditions at the hands of human traffickers.
The man said some teenagers had been tortured so brutally that they “could barely function.” Some suffered brain damage from being systematically drugged, while others were tortured, including having their fingernails removed.
Bob Williams, the shelter's CEO, added that trafficked minors, both male and female, often fall through the cracks of the system. “There is not a single shelter in this country for children between the ages of 12 and 17,” he said. As a result, children lack adequate care and are more vulnerable to re-trafficking.
Initiatives to combat human trafficking
Despite this frightening reality, law enforcement efforts to combat sex trafficking have achieved some success. Local police departments, sometimes working with federal agencies, were successful in arresting traffickers and rescuing victims. Recent high-profile busts include the dismantling of a Venezuelan human trafficking ring in Indianapolis and the rescue of seven girls from a Texas human trafficking facility near El Paso.
But as Sheriff Grady Judd of Polk County, Florida, pointed out, the key to reducing human trafficking is to prioritize enforcement. The department's efforts resulted in hundreds of arrests and the rescue of several migrant trafficking victims.
As human trafficking continues to grow, the urgent need for resources, public awareness and institutional reform cannot be overstated. ORR and other agencies are facing increasing scrutiny. They do not properly vet sponsors, leaving vulnerable children in the hands of traffickers.
Going beyond government action, community engagement is essential to combating this crisis. This report highlights some harsh realities:
It's no secret to everyone in the system that gangs are sex-trafficking women and girls coming across the border, and that the Office of Refugee Resettlement is making it so easy for them. It's the secret.
Because the federal government often turns a blind eye to the horrors of sex trafficking, it is up to individuals like Lisa, local law enforcement, and community members to step in and dismantle criminal organizations. Investigators say community awareness and cooperation with law enforcement are essential to thwarting traffickers and protecting vulnerable people.
