How Has the COVID-19 Pandemic Affected the Rate of Human Trafficking In the United States?

COVID-19 has pretty much affected every aspect of life thus far, we live in a world where half of our face is covered, and we must stand 6 feet away from each other. All across the United States, we saw mask mandates, stay-at-home orders and advisories, and travel restrictions to stop the spread of COVID. All of the safety protocols and restrictions left people cooped up in their homes with nothing to do. Nobody could work or go to school, so the economy crashed. So many people experienced financial hardship during this time, specifically vulnerable groups, like human trafficking victims. It seemed to be common sense, that if everyone is staying inside, human trafficking would decline. But, the research I had done told me otherwise. I found that during the pandemic there was actually a spike of human trafficking cases in the United States. The unemployment rate skyrocketed and the “vulnerable population” increased. People were out of work, businesses were losing tons of money and poor people were just getting poorer. Specifically, I found that immigrants, substance abusers, and young, runaway children are most at risk to becoming victims of human trafficking. So, how exactly did a virus lead to a spike in human trafficking?

First, I had to read into and understand the many myths surrounding human trafficking. Two of the most common myths is that it doesn't happen in the United States and human trafficking is only sex trafficking, the sexual exploitation of an individual. In reality, the research showed that the United States Department of Homeland Security has a special unit for human trafficking.  One story I found was located in Northern California, a construction contractor was put on trial for the trafficking of 13 undocumented Mexican immigrants. He recruited them in Mexico and made them work unruly shifts, some lasting up to 24 hours. The jury found him guilty of obtaining forced labor and he was sentenced to 8 years in prison. Studies show that the second most common form of human trafficking is forced labor (Luttrell). Traffickers take their victims and force them to do labor for little to no pay. Victims are coerced into working for the capturer by physical abuse, mental abuse, or by sexual exploitation.This hightened my understanding of what human trafficking was. I now understand that it can happen anywhere, in any country, and that a big part of human trafficking is slave labor. During my research, I found that human trafficking is so severe that the governemnt has dedicated a section of the Department of Homeland Security to human trafficking. 

Statistics show that risk factors that can lead to one becoming a victim of  human trafficking are immigrantion status, the use of drugs or alcohol and “grooming”. Grooming is the act of manipulating someone to trust you by buying gifts or romantic intentions (Luttrell). Migrants are more inclined to be taken advantage of because the legal process of becoming an American citizen is unnecessarily long. Some immigrants cross the border illegally and have to stay under the radar so that the government doesn’t find them and prosecute them. Traffickers recruit immigrants to the U.S. on a work visa and then the immigrants get charged illegally for those visas. If they complain, they are abused physically and mentally, and threatened with deportation (Luttrell). Another risk factor is the use of drugs. Drug dealers incite addiction in their customers by adding other, more addictive drugs, to their products. This forces the user to keep coming back to the dealer, doing anything they can to get more of the drugs. This often turns into an exchange of drugs or sexual acts. Traffickers use grooming to entice people into doing what they want by buying them gifts or being romantic with them (Luttrell). Minors are especially susceptible to this type of trafficking because their brains’ are still in the process of developing, specifically the prefrontal cortex, which is mainly responsible for decision making. Those who come from damaged homes tend to be the most vulnerable to this type of trafficking because they lack the attention, love, and support from their families, and the constant appraisal puts them in a false sense of trust. Human trafficking is a much more serious issue than I had thought and I wanted to delve even deeper into this concept to see if a pandemic could deter traffickers or lessen trafficking because of the fear of contracting the virus. 

The Coronavirus Pandemic has forced the entire world into a lockdown. Countries all over the world lost millions to the virus and deaths are still increasing. The United States was, and still is, the leading country for cases and deaths. As of today, the United States, alone, has seen 30.1 million coronavirus cases and lost almost 550,000 lives. March 2020 was the art of the nationwide lockdown. States imposed mask mandates, stay-at-home advisories and orders, and many people stayed home. Because of the shutdowns, the global economy saw a steep decline. This prompted many to come to the US in search of a better life and some assistance during the pandemic. Increased immigration through the previously mentioned states, was a cause to the spike in human trafficking (National Human Trafficking Hotline). Migrants were desperate for work and money that they found themselves being controlled by someone else for their money/life. In addition to immigrants, the economic impact of COVID-19 led many to go homeless and fall into severe debt. Another incentive for traffickers to take them. Since the economy was declining so sharply, people were trying to find shelter and homeless shelters were becoming overcrowded. But, with the social distancing protocols homeless shelters faced, they couldn’t take in many people. This led to many people being left to fend for themselves and live on the streets (Gainey). Personally, my family experienced quite the financial loss during the pandemic. I live with my mother, grandfather, and younger brother in a house that we rent for around $2000 a month. But since the pandemic pushed us out of work, we were not able to make enough money to pay for everything we needed. At that point, I was willing to do anything if that meant my family could make ends meet and we could survive through the end of the pandemic. With financial instability, people were desperate to make ends meet and would do anything to get it. Financial status is a big factor in the vulnerability of victims. Traffickers can easily coerce people into doing what they want. The financial crisis that COVID-19 brought to the world, intensified the common risk factors for trafficking victims.

Those already in trafficking situations and survivors of trafficking have also taken a hard hit from the pandemic. Specifically, sex trafficking victims lack the choice to wear a mask or not and also lack the ability to insit others to put a mask on. Also, social distancing is virtually impossible in a sex trafficking environment, considering sexual acts are performed in close proximity to one another. When survivors of human trafficking are identified, they are typically taken to a hospital for physical and psychiatric treatment, then they are given educational and occupational training, legal services, and more (Todres and Diaz). But during a pandemic, a hospital could be the worst place to go and could even refuse care because all of their attention is focused on treating and beating the global health crisis. Hospitals are the place where the most action is taken and the most severe protocols are in place during a pandemic because they house patients who are currently suffering. Many physicians need to take extraordinary measures to build and hold trust with a survivor to give them the best physical and mental treatment they can get. Although many have taken to adaptive strategies to combat the spread, like telehealth appointments, many of these services are unavailable to survivors because they lack the finances to obtain a device to attend a telehealth meeting (Todres and Diaz). I work in hospital administration and I saw first-hand the impact that the virus was having on patients. Most of the appointments were telehealth appointments, which disable the doctor from getting a view of what is wrong with the patient. Many surgeries had to be pushed back because the hospital was focusing on COVID-19 patients, and doctors struggled to find ways to connect and accurately treat their patients.

After thorough research of the rate of human trafficking in the United States, along with the impact that the pandemic had on the country, I expanded my knowledge and understanding of the pandemic’s direct effects on human trafficking. While I was browsing articles and journals and reports, I learned that there are some misconceptions around human trafficking, including the idea that it only happens outside of U.S. borders, human trafficking only consists of sexual exploitation; many marginalized groups, like immigrants and the poor, are targeted and vulnerable, and I learned how all of the COVID protocols and financial effects lead to the spike in human trafficking. Personally, I think that there is much more the United States can do in order to stop human trafficking, such as assigning a specific human trafficking police force that stays at our borders and each county should have a central, human trafficking treatment building where survivors and bystanders can report cases of human trafficking. I think that the government is juggling around a lot of problems at this point in time, but I feel that more attention should be directed to human trafficking.