Pastor Paula White-Cain has seen the devastation of human trafficking firsthand.
“Our local church in Central Florida – City of Destiny – is partnered with organizations that literally rescue boys and girls off the street. It is shocking to realize victims can be as young as 10 and 12-years old. But regardless their age, it is absolutely devastating to look into the eyes of a victim of human trafficking and have some idea of what they have been subjected to.”
Pastor Paula says human trafficking is not only a local problem everywhere but also a global crisis that stretches across every continent. Pastor Paula’s global outreach through Paula White Ministries, also partners with several organizations to fight human trafficking worldwide.
Here, she discusses how churches and faith organizations are on the front lines of battling this humaitarian crisis that has created one of the most often-overlooked segments of the world’s population, both globally and in the United States.
How Widespread Is Human Trafficking in the USA?
According to a report from the United Nations, the United States is a significant destination for human trafficking. Over 70% of victims get trafficked into North America for sexual exploitation. As well, victims get trafficked to be used as forced labor, for exploitative street begging, for forced criminal activity, and into forced marriages. Most shocking, in the United States alone, more than 53% of the sexual exploitation cases involved minors, according to the 2020 Federal Human Trafficking Report from the Human Trafficking Institute (HTI).
Pastor Paula warns it’s difficult to get precise numbers on human trafficking victims in the United States since many victims go undetected. The problem can be so ubiquitous that it becomes almost invisible in places such as nail salons, restaurants, rural farms, and even in hotels and residential homes.
Estimates suggest up to 17,500 people get trafficked into the USA each year. These victims are mostly migrants and refugees, with traffickers often holding their victims’ illegal status in the country as a tool for coercion.
Why is Human Trafficking so Prevalent?
There are many reasons human trafficking is so prevalent worldwide but the main reason bils down to profits. Human trafficking is one of the world’s highest profit margin crimes and rivals even the highest profit margins of any industry.
According to Pastor Paula White, another common reason human trafficking is so widespread in the USA is that it’s a “hidden” crime. It’s very hard to detect when or where it happens, and because law enforcement has such limited information on how it operates, they have limited means to curb it.
Worse, some human traffickers have admitted after being caught, that the legal repercussions of being caught are worth the risk to make such a lucrative living. But the likelihood of being caught is low. Just 3,169 people were convicted of human trafficking crimes between 2000 and 2020, according to the HTI. In 2020 alone, only 163 defendants were convicted and sentenced to spend up to 15 years in jail for their heinous crimes in human trafficking.
However, the number of human trafficking convictions in the United States has been growing each year but the government and law enforcement need more resources to help reverse the growing trend of human trafficking in the U.S.
Faith Groups vs. Human Trafficking Organizations
More and more churches and faith groups across the United States, are getting involved to help victims of human trafficking and assist law enforcement with securing convictions against the criminals inside this industry. In addition to Paula White Ministies and City of Destiny church, Paula White points to several organizations working hard to combat this crisis:
Churches Against Trafficking
An organically-grown network in San Diego has taken aim at combatting human trafficking across their area.
Churches Against Trafficking is a coalition of San Diego churches actively engaged in confronting human trafficking in their city by raising awareness through education and engagement within the community. The group connects local Christian communities with victims services organizations, and helps to provide needed resources and finances.
Churches Against Trafficking was founded in 2013 by Rancho Bernardo, Skyline Church, and Journey Community Church. The network has continued to grow since then, making connections across San Diego faith communities toactively confront human trafficking efforts there.
Street Grace
This faith-based group is dedicated to raising awareness about the sexual exploitation of minors. According to Street Grace, human trafficking is a $290 million industry in the United States alone.
Street Grace collaborates with churches, businesses, and community leaders to mobilize community resources, including financial and material support, to advocate for the protection of affected minors.
The group’s website houses a wealth of online resources on a variety of relevant subjects, from raising awareness with parents and schools to identifying the warning signs of human trafficking and providing information on reporting incidences.
Street Grace has also helped to develop several initiatives for communities to tackle human trafficking and even offers support and guidance to help law enforcement first-responders properly identify and treat potential victims of human trafficking.
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is an assembly of Catholic bishops across the country that jointly exercises pastoral functions across the United States. One of the group’s initiatives is BRYCS (Bridging Refugee Youth & Children’s Services).
BRYCS offers several anti-trafficking programs:
- The Amistad Movement: The program trains people to conduct outreach to immigrant communities where individuals are particularly vulnerable to exploitation
- Become a SHEPHERD Campaign: SHEPHERDs are community leaders who learn about human trafficking from a Catholic perspective and recognize the signs of possible forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation.
- Trafficking Victim Assistance Program (TVAP): A joint program with the Department of Health & Human Services that provides case management to immigrant victims of trafficking and their families
- The Unaccompanied Refugee Minor (URM) Program: Designed to meet the needs of foreign-born children and includes survivors of human trafficking
- The COMPASS Program: A joint program with the State Department that strengthens the global Catholic response to maritime trafficking.
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America claims nearly 3.3 million members across all 50 states. Their parishes emphasize working with local communities and part of that work involves battling human trafficking, its causes, and its consequences for its victims.
One of their most notable programs is Cherish All Children, a ministerial education program that works with churches and communities to prevent child sexual exploitation and trafficking.
The Church has also deployed a “Social Message on Commercial Sexual Exploitation” that explains how the church addresses the problem of human trafficking from a Lutheran faith perspective.
Conclusion
Pastor Paula White-Cain states the undeniable; that human trafficking is a huge problem both nationally and globally. Fortunately in the U.S., the work of churches and faith groups across the country is helping to expose where human trafficking happens, and help the victims rebuild their lives.
