The first Annual Trafficking in Persons Report, 2001 released by the State Department noted that human trafficking is recognized as a worldwide phenomenon. Marisa Ugarte, president of the Bilateral Safety Corridor Coalition (BSCC) stated that of the 50,000 people annually trafficked into the United States, a third are Latin American. In response to this, Ms. Ugarte established the BSCC in 1997 to help coordinate governmental and nongovernmental organizations working to address the complex challenges presented by human trafficking in and throughout the U.S.-Mexico border region. The mission of BSCC is to prevent the trafficking of persons; educate the community and social service providers on the issues of trafficking, commercial and sexual exploitation; and intervene to protect victims and provide the with the appropriate care and services.

The greatest danger for forced prostitution, forced labor and child sexual exploitation occurs along the U.S.-Mexico border. As Ms. Ugarte mentioned, “while the impact of this horrible practice on victims is well documented and increasing attention has been paid to the difficultie in the prosecution of traffickers, witness development, and establishing legal status for victims, [there is still a lack of recognition for] suitable legal remedies.” Part of the problem resides in victim “mistrust” toward current legal remedies, partly because past encounters with law enforcement have resulted in deportation, leading to reinforced mechanisms that traffickers use to control victims and prevent them from disclosing details vital to building a case.

To address this issue, ICF granted the BSCC $20,000 to begin addressing the legal facets in combating human trafficking and commercial and sexual exploitation along the San Diego- Tijuana border. The project focuses specifically on assisting victims to obtain legal status, an advocates for the prosecution of traffickers and trafficking consumers. 75% of these funds will support a new legal resource center through which new training models on identifying trafficking victims, witness development, prosecution, ORR certification and visas will be implemented for NGOs, legal practitioners, attorneys and law enforcement agents. The remaining 25% will be used for organizational capacity building, as well as increasing the outreach and promotional activities of BSCC along the border to facilitate bilateral cooperation in the extradition and prosecution of traffickers.

I n the long-run BSCC hopes to implement the program in three additional sites along the U.S.-Mexico border: Nogales, Arizona/Nogales, Sonora; Laredo, Texas/Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas; and El Paso, Texas/ Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua. These sites were chosen by the BSCC because of the number of unaccompanied minors and immigrants crossing the border at these points, indices of violence, the presence of bustling tourist industries, available social capital, the number of social service providers, and the proximity of military installations. For more information on BSCC you may visit their website at www.bsccoalition.org, or to learn how you can contribute to their cause, contact Amy Carstensen at amyc@icfdn.org.