Slavery in the United States?

Are you aware that the Justice Department estimates that about 18,000 people are trafficked per year into the US and that over 200,000 people are trafficked within the boundaries of  the United States in that same year?

The slave population here originates in 35 different countries with most being trafficked from China, Mexico or Vietnam.   46% of those trafficked will be found in prostitution and sex trade, 27% in domestic servitude, 10% in agriculture, 5% will be in sweatshop labor (especially in the garment industry) and factory work and 4% in restaurant/hotel/motel work.

 Sex trafficking in the US is a growing problem that has just recently started to be assessed by groups like Shared Hope International (www.sharedhope.com) at the behest of the Justice Department. Increasingly, underage girls are being trapped in some kind of sex trafficking which may include prostitution, pornography, Internet pornography, massage parlors and strip clubs.  Many of these girls are minors (the average age is 12-14 according to the Justice Department) when they are initially entrapped and although some are trafficked from Mexico, China or other countries a growing number are American teen runaways and foster children that slip through the cracks or minors that are enticed through the Internet. Shared Hope Internationale's assessment of Las Vegas reported that 1,496 children from 40 states were trafficked into and arrested for prostitution in Clark County, Nevada between January 1994 and July 2007 showing that sex trafficking of under aged minors is truly an American Problem. 

Our children and teens need to be educated at home and at school about trafficking and how to asess whether they are being approached by a trafficker either online or in person. One study estimates that 80% of all runaways are trapped in trafficking within 48 hours of leaving home.