Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has released the legislatively mandated Office of the Attorney General's (OAG) Human Trafficking Report detailing the impact of human trafficking on the State of Texas. It examines how legislative changes could reduce human trafficking and provide better services for victims. Human trafficking is the recruitment, harboring, transporting or obtaining of a person for labor or services for the purpose of subjecting victims to involuntary servitude, slavery or forced commercial sex acts.
“Human trafficking is a horrific crime that deprives its victims of basic human rights,” Attorney General Abbott said. “Sadly, human trafficking victims are coerced into modern day slave labor and forced prostitution rings. The State of Texas must continue to focus on preventing human trafficking and protecting its victims.”
The U.S. Department of State estimates that between 14,500 and 17,500 people are trafficked into the U.S. from Asia, Central and South America, and Eastern Europe, and many more are trafficked domestically within the United States each year. Additionally, about one in five people trafficked have been in Texas. Houston and El Paso are included among the U.S. Department of Justice's “most intense trafficking jurisdictions in the country.”
The OAG's 57-page report, “The Texas Response to Human Trafficking,” offers 21 recommendations that are intended to reduce human trafficking and improve services to victims. These recommendations include possible statutory changes and improved outreach efforts that would better educate law enforcement personnel about identifying human trafficking. The report is available online at www.oag.state.tx.us/AG_Publications/pdfs/human_trafficking.pdf.