Congressman Royce Hosts House Foreign Affairs Committee on Sex Trafficking

By TIM WORDEN, City News Service

Victims and Orange County officials used a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs committee today at Cal State Fullerton to ask Chairman Ed Royce for more help fighting human trafficking.

Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas told the committee that his office's newly formed Human Exploitation and Trafficking Unit has put two dozen people in prison, with sentences ranging from one to eight years despite pressure to reduce prison overcrowding, but more needs to be done to help victims.

"The human trafficking victims need to be rescued, and we need to have resources to do that," Rackauckas said. "They need a place to go, or they will end up back with their abusers.

"In Orange County, the public-private partnership made up of corporations, nonprofits, faith-based groups, law enforcement, and victims' rights groups work hard to rescue these girls off the street. But, sadly, we need a lot more resources."

The unit has taken particular aim at pimps and those who help them exploit prostitutes. One aspect of the law enforcement push includes embarrassing those who solicit prostitutes by publishing their names when they are convicted.

Rackauckas said his office has more than 40 active felony cases with five defendants facing life in prison if they are convicted at trial.

"We've had six victims that were foreign nationals, and we presently have multiple cases currently under investigation in which the victims are foreign nationals," Rackauckas said.

The average age of children exploited by human traffickers throughout the nation is 12, Rackauckas said. Some are forced into a life of prostitution or are the subject of child pornography, he added.

"One of our defendants made $25,000 in two weeks off just one trafficked victim," Rackauckas said.

The District Attorney's Office has taken to referring to defendants as "modern-day slave owners," and cited one defendant, Berneal Holman, who was convicted of pimping a 16-year-old victim in Orange County.

"Before he perpetrated this crime, he had previously attempted to rape a 10-year-old girl and tried to use a 13-year-old girl to turn tricks on the 10- year-old," Rackauckas said.

Over the past two years, the Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force has helped 250 human trafficking victims, said Royce, R-Brea.

Ninety-three percent of the victims were women, Royce said, adding about one-third were foreign nationals.

Royce recently introduced a bill that would crack down on and provide greater scrutiny of labor recruiters.

"We are taking this just as seriously as prosecuting cases for drug crimes," Royce said. "When you are targeting 12- and 13-year-olds ... and trying to force them into prostitution, you have become a target."

Three victims of human trafficking also testified today, saying that a compassionate and supportive community can help get the exploited back to normal.

"I think the number one protective factor that's come up is information and education -- it's empowering those young women and boys," said Carissa Phelps, a former human trafficking victim, who is now an attorney and founder of the advocacy group Runaway Girl.