Houston Republic

Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, with more than 2.3 million people, and the largest city in Texas. 

It has world-renowned medical facilities, impressive public and private schools, colleges and universities, majestic parks, a thriving commercial district, a massive oil and gas industry, a blend of many cultures and professional sports teams with impressive records of success.

It also has a big problem with human trafficking. Houston has repeatedly been labeled the No. 1 city in the nation for sex, child and labor trafficking.

United Against Human Trafficking Community Engagement Coordinator Veronica Bucio said her organization wants to end that high ranking. Its services and programs assist 12,000 people annually, she said.

“United Against Human Trafficking [UAHT] fights human trafficking in five ways: education, prevention, outreach, direct services and coalition-building,” Bucio told Houston Republic. “We are a leader in the greater Houston area’s anti-trafficking movement and work side-by-side with survivors and other experts to ensure no human life is for sale. We provide youth prevention and awareness, trauma-healing support groups, case management, community workshops, street outreach, frontline professional training, and much more.”

It’s a battle against diverse foes with multiple battlegrounds, she said. That’s why UAHT continues to adapt to deal with new challenges.

“Our most recent achievement has been launching our case-management program for survivors of sex and/or labor trafficking,” Bucio said. “There is a serious lack of case-management professionals in the greater Houston area who specialize in assisting trafficking survivors. Case managers help their clients by advocating for their care and supporting them to reach their goals.

“We were very fortunate to have been able to hire one case manager in May. She now has five clients and is working hard to obtain more. We will be hiring additional case managers to expand the program very soon.”

During its 13-year history, UAHT has evolved to better serve the thousands of victims of modern-day slavery. Its efforts include an invitation from the White House to participate in a stakeholder meeting to advise the government on how best to strengthen victim services for survivors of human trafficking and an appointment by the Texas attorney general to serve on the statewide task force on human trafficking, The Human Trafficking Prevention Task Force, and receiving the FBI director’s Community Leadership Award in Washington, D.C.

Bucio said the organization relies on partners and collaborators to wage this war for human dignity. A lot of people share its values.

“UAHT values unity in the fight to end human trafficking,” she said. “We lead the Houston Rescue and Restore Coalition [HRRC], which is comprised of over 70 organizations of diverse backgrounds – nonprofit and for-profit, governmental and private, faith-based and secular. We strategize and solve problems together, ensuring our efforts against trafficking are not fractured or inconsistent.

“We will fight exploitation with cohesiveness, not with competition. Some of our closest partners are the city of Houston's anti-trafficking division, The Landing, Children at Risk and Unbound Houston.”

As the problem is studied and better understood, efforts are organized to reduce the demand for sex workers and others who are trafficked. Increasingly, victims’ advocates have seen that as a major part of reducing the numbers of people who are exploited.

“Recent years have seen a focus on demand reduction [DR] in the anti-trafficking world,” Bucio said. “Instead of focusing on exploited persons, DR targets those who enable and/or do the exploiting. The idea is to lessen demand for trafficked services. With no demand there is no profit and, therefore, there is no human trafficking industry to drive exploitation.

“There are very few services in the category of DR offered in the greater Houston area. To fill this gap, UAHT is working hard to launch programs and services that would reach out to sex buyers to non-judgmentally engage their preconceived notions of masculinity, women and sex. With the implementation of DR, we will be able to offer a total array of anti-trafficking activities to help stem the tide of exploitation in the community.”

These educational efforts are crucial, she believes. If more Lone Star State residents become aware of the vast number of people being exploited and abused, they would assist in freeing them from this captivity, Bucio said.

The numbers are staggering. Human trafficking is a $150 billion industry and enslaves 25 million people worldwide. In 2018, the United States identified 23,078 domestic victims.

Texas has the second highest rate of human trafficking in the United States, and the number of identified cases rises each year.

“Human trafficking is an often misunderstood crime that hides in plain sight,” Bucio said. “Texans can get involved in the fight by learning more about the crime. Trafficking does not just happen overseas, it does not happen only to women and it is not solely about sex/prostitution. There is a grave amount of misinformation circulating about the issue.

“The more people learn about the realities of human trafficking, the more visible its atrocities become. Texans can learn most from those with lived experiences – i.e., survivors of human trafficking themselves. Look for sources of information that include and respect survivor points of view on the issue.”