Human Trafficking

Our class discussion on human trafficking was really enlightening to me. As far as the sex trafficking goes I knew that it was not only a problem "over there" in poor countries but I had no clue our large of a port the twin cities was for human sex trafficking. I was shocked at some of the statistics we covered, such as 83% of people trafficked here are U.S. citizens and 76% of those are controlled by a pimp. I also found our discussion on domestic slavery as a form of human trafficking very enlightening as well. I guess I had never really heard to much about this, as I am sure it is hushed, but now that I do know I really don't find it that surprising- which is sad. Regular Americans are using their privilege to lure others over here by paying for their visa and giving them a place to live and paying them less than minimum wage. Once they get here they are completely dependent on the person who brought them here. They are socially dependent, dependent in means of transportation and living, etc. I'm sure that these people try to justify their actions by using excuses like "They chose to come here, it's not like I kidnapped them and brought them here by force." or "They can leave whenever they want, they just choose to stay." When really these people cannot leave whenever they want. They have to other friends, family, money, means of living. When you make this person solely dependent on you to the point where they have no other options that is domestic slavery!
I find that a lot of the topics in this class are really intense and difficult to talk about. It makes me feel as though I don't even want to know these things because it leaves me feeling so depressed and hopeless but I know that staying ignorant only perpetuates ignorance and being informed is half the battle.