One year after Rex Heuermann was arrested in New York, accused of the murders of six sex workers between 1993 and 2010, the Coalition of New Yorkers for a Model of Equality is calling on authorities and society in general to push for the implementation of a measure stalled in the state Legislature.
If passed, the Sex Trade Survivors Justice and Equality Act (STSJEA) would begin to penalize sex buyers. It would also expand support for survivors of violence, such as the violence that led to Heuermann’s arrest, as well as trafficking victims and their families.
At a virtual meeting held this week to mark World Day Against Human Trafficking, Democratic Senator for District 28 Liz Krueger, sponsor of the STSJEA, stressed that the sex trade “always takes advantage of the most vulnerable in our society” and insisted that “violence and coercion” are the norm in this activity.
In this regard, Krueger points out that the STSJEA resolution that she is sponsoring with Congresswoman Pamela Hunter, “is a proven approach to help survivors and hold exploiters accountable,” which has already been tested in other countries. She insisted that sex trafficking continues to be a hidden but devastating reality throughout the state of New York. And for this reason, it is urgent to “decriminalize and help people who engage in prostitution.”
Gabrielle Prieto, an advisor to the Sanctuary for Families organization, says that as a survivor of human trafficking and prostitution, stories like Heuermann’s “chill me to the bone” because she could have been “one of his victims.”
Prieto recalled that Heuermann’s murders of women in the sex trade “are not an anomaly.” He cited a study in which up to 43% of the victims of serial killers between 2000 and 2009 “were engaged in prostitution.”
For the same reason, the approval of the STSJEA is also urgently needed to change the cultural paradigm that considers “women who prostitute themselves as disposable and sex buyers as worthy of protection and privacy.” Gabrielle Prieto insists that it is necessary to end the demand for paid sex and begin to apply “laws that penalize the demand for prostitution” because that “would discourage potential buyers of sex” and protect those who are exploited.”
Katrina Massey, leader of PACT, an organization that has been dedicated to uncovering and reporting the sexual exploitation of minors since 1991, illustrates that trafficking and sexual exploitation of minors occur throughout the country, “disproportionately affecting vulnerable communities that suffer from generational trauma and systemic inequality.” She refers in particular to LGBTQ+ children and children of color. She clarifies that any record of child exploitation is conservative because many cases are not reported.
Trafficking, a problem for everyone
Also at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, Pastor Enrique Salvo, the cathedral’s first Hispanic rector, received this week a panel of fighters against this scourge that, according to the UN, allows criminal organizations to obtain profits of 3 billion dollars a year in Europe alone.
“Let us remember that Saint Patrick himself was a victim of human trafficking,” said Salvo, and he rehearsed a prayer in which he expressed his gratitude for the opportunity to be an instrument in helping those most in need.
Karola de la Cuesta, a survivor in Mexico of the Trevi-Andrade clan and now director of the organization Commission United Against Trafficking, recounted how from the age of 8 she was coerced by the famous Mexican singer who “became part of my family,” and how at the right time he took her out of her home under the promise of “making her an artist.” This is how from the age of thirteen the infamous producer abused Karola, first by making her work for free and over time escalating to sexual abuse.
She claims that 24 years after her release, her abusers were neither prosecuted nor prosecuted. That is why she decided to become an activist to help others and try to get some of the 40 accusations filed in Mexico to have some channel. She also said that the singer who started the abuse against her earned $7 million dollars to make a docuseries in 2013 with this story that has re-victimized some of them.
Father Darsi Don Bosco, director of Taltha Cumi Unnati in India, said that most of the trafficked women are Catholics. He illustrated how they use the acronym AMEN to guide their work: A for accompaniment, M for mentoring, E for education and N for networking.
She explained that she has a network of 10,000 women who, after having been victims, have now become the support of others, helping them first to leave the poverty-stricken environments that predispose them to trafficking, and then to break the circle of silence that leads to more abuse.
Jamie Manirakiza, Executive Director of Partnership to End Human Trafficking (PEHT), said that many of the victims they help began being trafficked at age 11 or older. She said the vulnerabilities that pushed anyone into trafficking were poverty, racial disparity, immigration status, isolation or having previously experienced abuse.
She said they have dealt with cases where some migrants in search of better opportunities fall into the networks of traffickers who fraudulently promise them a better life, exploiting their need.
Mary Monahan, deputy director of the Human Trafficking Unit at the Kings County District Attorney’s Office, said that a trafficker can come from anywhere, regardless of socioeconomic status or gender, but one characteristic that distinguishes them is that they are all predators who hunt for the weaknesses of their victims, whom they then hook into labor or sexual trafficking.
Finally, Rosi Orozco, who implemented and promoted the trafficking law in Mexico when she was a congresswoman (2009-2012), recalled the times she has gone to the border to see firsthand how many children cross into the USA without the accompaniment of an adult. She said that in Mexico 7 minors disappear every day, many of whom end up being victims of trafficking. She described it as a “nightmare” to know that there are children in this situation and that in countries like Mexico many leaders lack the political will to apply the laws.