Key issues in the resettlement of formerly trafficked persons in the United States

University of Pennsylvania Law Review

Volumn 158, Issue 6, 2010, Pages 1581-1608

  Brennan, Denise ^a  

^a GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY   (United States)

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EID: 77954728507     PISSN: 00419907     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
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References (133)

1. I have changed the names of all the T visa recipients, such as Carmen, throughout this Article. Nor do I identify names of social service organizations (or specific social workers or case managers) that oversee the resettlement of formerly trafficked persons. Additionally, in some cases I do not make clear exactly where someone lives now or where specifically she/he had been in forced labor. Rather, at times I write general-ly of "a social worker in New York" who helped "resettle a woman who was trafficked to the Midwest," so that it is not easy to identify the case about which I am writing. However, I name migrant-rights organizations (with their permission) as part of their organizing strategy to get the word out about their issues and programs.
2. The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA) defines "severe forms of trafficking in persons" as follows: (A) sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such an act has not attained 18 years of age; or (B) the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery. Pub. L. No. 106-386, § 103(8), 114 Stat. 1466, 1470 (2000) (codified in scattered sections of 18 and 22 U.S.C.).
3. A recent State Department report notes that "[a] victim need not be physically transported from one location to another in order for the crime to fall within these definitions." U.S. DEP'T OF STATE, TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS REPORT 6-7 (2009), available at http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/ 123357.pdf.
4. A nonimmigrant T visa is available to a person "who (1) is a victim of a severe form of trafficking in persons; (2) is physically present in or at a port-of-entry to the United States (as defined in the immigration laws), American Samoa, or the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands on account of human trafficking; (3) has complied with reasonable requests for assistance in the investigation and prosecution of acts of trafficking or is less than 18 years old; and (4) would suffer extreme hardship involving unusual and severe harm upon removal." 2009 ATT'Y GEN. ANN. REP. TO CONGRESS & ASSESSMENT OF U.S. GOV'T ACTIVITIES TO COMBAT TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS FISCAL YEAR 2008, at 34, available at http://www.justice.gov/ag/annualreporu/tr2008/ agreporthvmiantnifficing2008.pdf
5. [hereinafter ATTY GEN. 2008 TRAFFICKING REPORT].
6. "The TVPA authorizes the 'certification' of adult victims to receive certain federally funded benefits and services, such as cash assistance, medical care, food stamps, and housing. Though not required to receive certification, minors who are found to be victims receive 'Eligibility Letters' from [Health and Human Services] to obtain the same types of benefits and services." ATT'Y GEN. 2008 TRAFFICKING REPORT, supra note 2, at 10.
7. The book is tentatively called, Settling In: Life After Trafficking into Forced Labor in the United States.
8. Since the term "trafficking" has been misused-often with sensational effect in the media-I use the term forced labor throughout the Article (unless I am referring to the legal term "trafficking").
9. See generally Jacqueline Berman, (Un)Popular Strangers and Crises (Un)Bounded: Discourses of Sex-Trafficking, the European Political Community and the Panicked State of the Modern State, 9 EUR. J. INT'L REL. 37 (2003) (discussing the problems resulting from oversimplified and distorted media coverage of trafficking in persons in Europe).
10. Of course, not all trafficked persons voluntarily come to the United States for work. Some are transported against their will, while others come as the girlfriends or wives of their eventual traffickers.
11. For a discussion of one particularly publicized slavery case, see JOHN BOWE, NOBODIES: MODERN AMERICAN SLAVE LABOR AND THE DARK SIDE OF THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMY 64-72 (2007),
12. and Candace Rondeaux, Fear and Knowing in Immokalee, ST. PETERSBURG TIMES, Dec. 1, 2002, available at 2002 WLNR 12948137.
13. For a description of the campaigns against fast food restaurants that use subcontractors that pay tomato pickers poverty wages, see Steven Greenhouse, Campaign to Raise Tomato Pickers' Wages Faces Obstacles, N.Y. TIMES, Dec. 24, 2007, at A10;
14. Kris Hundley, Fast Food Fight: Tomato Pickers vs. Big Mac, ST. PETERSBURG TIMES, Mar. 5, 2006, available at 2006 WLNR 3726545;
15. Evelyn Nieves, Fla. Tomato Pickers Still Reap "Harvest of Shame, "WASH. POST, Feb. 28, 2005, at A3;
16. and Eric Schlosser, Op-Ed., Penny Foolish, N.Y. TIMES, Nov. 29, 2007, at A31.
17. See also Dick Durbin et al., Op-Ed., Florida Tomatoes: We Must Treat Farmworkers Fairly, MIAMI HERALD, Apr. 21, 2008, available at 2008 WLNR 7384830 (advocating legislative change following a Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee hearing on the poor working conditions and low wages in Florida's tomato fields).
18. Laura Germino, the Antislavery Campaign Coordinator with the CIW, pointed out to me that it is important to note that some migrants exploited in farm labor have documentation. Throughout this piece, I discuss how a lack of documentation gene-rates additional fear and greater vulnerability to exploitation.
19. See generally JENNIFER GORDON, SUBURBAN SWEATSHOPS: THE FIGHT FOR IMMIGRANT RIGHTS (2005) (describing immigrant life and activism to improve working conditions).
20. See generally KEVIN BALES & STEVEN LIZE, TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS IN THE UNITED STATES (2005), available at http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffilesl/nij/ grants/211980.pdf (explaining the varying challenges for workers in different industries).
21. The dearth of labor protections and the insufficient number of Department of Labor inspectors allow rampant labor abuses to go unchecked. Id. at 5-40.
22. See PETER KWONG, FORBIDDEN WORKERS 33-36 (1997) (revealing the widespread acceptance of a range of labor abuses that occur within a highly orchestrated, profitable, violent, and underground system of indentured servitude among Chinese communities in the United States).
23. ADMIN, FOR CHILDREN & FAMILIES, U.S. DEP'T OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVS., FACT SHEET: HUMAN TRAFFICKING 1 (2009), available at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking/about/fact-human.pdf.
24. See ATT'Y GEN. 2008 TRAFFICKING REPORT, supra note 2, at 34-35 ("Victims who receive T nonimmigrant status are eligible to remain in the United States for up to four years, and their status may be extended if the law enforcement authority investigating or persecuting activity related to human trafficking certifies that the presence of the alien in the United States is necessary to assist in the investigation or prosecution of such activity. After three years, T non-immigrants are eligible to apply for adjustment of status to lawful permanent residence subject to certain statutory criteria.").
25. There is excellent scholarship on exploitative labor practices in a number of industries in which migrants work. For a review of labor practices in factories, see generally EDNA BONACICH & RICHARD P. APPELBAUM, BEHIND THE LABEL: INEQUALITY IN THE LOS ANGELES APPAREL INDUSTRY (2000);
26. MIRIAM CHING YOON LOUIE, SWEATSHOP WARRIORS (2001);
27. NO SWEAT: FASHION, FREE TRADE, AND THE RIGHTS OF GARMENT WORKERS (Andrew Ross ed., 1997);
28. and ELLEN ISRAEL ROSEN, MAKING SWEATSHOPS: THE GLOBALIZATION OF THE U.S. APPAREL INDUSTRY (2002).
29. For a discussion of exploitative practices in domestic work, see generally GRACE CHANG, DISPOSABLE DOMESTICS: IMMIGRANT WOMEN WORKERS IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY (2000),
30. and PIERRETTE HONDAGNEU-SOTELO, DOMÉSTICA: IMMIGRANT WORKERS CLEANING AND CARING IN THE SHADOWS OF AFFLUENCE (2001).
31. For observations on abuses in the agricultural industry, see generally DAVID GRIFFITH & ED KISSAM, WORKING POOR: FARMWORKERS IN THE UNITED STATES (1995),
32. and DANIEL ROTHENBERG, WITH THESE HANDS: THE HIDDEN WORLD OF MIGRANT FARMWORKERS TODAY (1998).
33. For information on abuses faced by migrant workers in poultry processing, see generally LEON FINK, THE MAYA OF MORGANTON: WORK AND COMMUNITY IN THE NUEVO NEW SOUTH (2003);
34. STEVE STRIFFLER, CHICKEN: THE DANGEROUS TRANSFORMATION OF AMERICA'S FAVORITE FOOD (2005);
35. and DONALD D. STULL & MICHAEL J. BROADWAY, SLAUGHTERHOUSE BLUES: THE MEAT AND POULTRY INDUSTRY IN NORTH AMERICA (2004).
36. Day-labor conditions are detailed in THE HOMELESS PERSONS REPRESENTATION PROJECT & CASA DE MARYLAND, BALTIMORE'S DAY LABORER REPORT: THEIR STOLEN SWEAT (2004)
37. , and ABEL VALENZUEL, JR. ET AL., ON THE CORNER: DAY LABOR IN THE UNITED STATES (2006).
38. See Denise Brennan, Methodological Challenges in Research with Trafficked Persons: Tales from the Field, 43 (1/2) INT'L MIGRATION (Special Issue) 35, 45 (2005) (discussing the ethical dilemmas that arise and safeguards that must be in place to assure this particularly vulnerable population's safety, privacy, and well-being).
39. See id. at 39-40 (explaining that since resettled persons are geographically dispersed, a researcher must choose whether to focus on one resettlement site or conduct multisite interviews).
40. Id.
41. The "American Samoa" case involved Kil Soo Lee, a Korean national who was sentenced on January 29, 2004, for conspiracy, extortion, money laundering, and holding individuals in involuntary servitude in a factory he owned in American Samoa. See Civil Rights Div., U.S. Dep't of Justice, Attorney General Announces Sentences in Soto and Kil Soo Lee Prosecutions, ANTTTRAFFICKING NEWS BULL., Feb. 2004, at 1, 1-3, available at http://www.justice.gov/crt/crim/trafficking-newsletter/antitraffnews-feb04.pdf (describing the convictions of Kil Soo Lee and his accomplices, the Soto brothers).
42. From 1999 through November 2000, Lee "used threats, arrest, deportations, starvation, confinement, and beatings to hold over 200 Vietnamese and Chinese garment workers in servitude." Id. at 2.
43. The conviction of Lee and his co-conspirators is the largest human-trafficking case the Department of Justice has prosecuted. Id. at 1. I have interviewed some of the resttled T visa recipients from this case in Northern Virginia and in Orange County, California.
44. See Frank Laczko, Introduction, 43 (1/2) INT'L MIGRATION (Special Issue) 5, 10-11 (2005) (explaining how the definition of "trafficking" has changed over time).
45. See Nancy Foner, Introduction to AMERICAN ARRIVAL 3, 5 (Nancy Foner ed., 2003) (explaining that the authors tackle "particular issues" and thereby "show the broad range of andiropological concerns" in immigration issues);
46. Jeremy MacClancy, Introduction to EXOTIC NO MORE 1, 2 (Jeremy MacClancy ed., 2002) (focusing on how anthropology can make a contribution by "exposing the weaknesses in grand policy programs, acting as advocates for the unvoiced, championing the downtrodden, and so on");
47. Nina Glick Schiller, The Centrality of Ethnography in the Study of Transnational Migration: Seeing the Wetland Instead of the Swamp (contrasting an edinographic approach to studying transnational migration with the broad-based social survey approach), in AMERICAN ARRIVALS, supra, at 99.
48. This issue calls out for both more macro- and microlevel research. Migration and labor researchers across disciplines "could work collaboratively to produce comparative research across sites within the United States, particularly since [severely exploited persons who have qualified for T visas] show up in large cities and small towns." Brennan, supra note 16, at 40.
49. Scholars have joined forces in a number of substantial migration stuthes. One large, collaborative migration project in the United States combined macro- and micro-level data. See Louise Lamphere et al., Introduction to NEWCOMERS IN THE WORKPLACE 1, 4-5 (Louise Lamphere et al. eds., 1994) (describing their research as drawing on individual ethnographic stuthes, as well as data on larger economic forces);
50. see also Philip Kasinitz, John H. Mollenkopf & Mary C. Waters, Worlds of the Second Generation (describing a study of second-generation New Yorkers conducted by combining telephone surveys of 400 eighteen- to thirty-two-year olds from the five largest immigrant groups with both loosely structured in-depth interviews and the researchers' own ethnographic field projects), in BECOMING NEW YORKERS 1, 1-3 (Philip Kasinitz, John H. Mollenkopf & Mary C. Waters eds., 2004);
51. Peggy Levitt & Mary C. Waters, Introduction to THE CHANGING FACE OF HOME 1, 19-24 (Peggy Levitt & Mary C. Waters eds., 2002) (focusing their large collaborative study on the second generation);
52. Douglas S. Massey & Rene Zenteno, A Validation of the Ethnosurvey: The Case of Mexico-U.S. Migration, 34 INT'L MIGRATION REV. 766, 766-67 (2000) (discussing the edinosurvey, "a multimethod data-gathering technique that simultaneously applies edinographic and survey methods within a single study").
53. Stuthes that combine research from across fields help maximize the breadth and depth of research on trafficking in the United States. See, e.g., CTR. FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF HUMAN RIGHTS, FLA. STATE UNIV., FLORIDA RESPONDS TO HUMAN TRAFFICKING (2003), available at http://www.abanet.org/irr/enterprise/tip/ resources/FSU-Report-on-Trafficking-Response.pdf (acknowledging that their study represents an "unprecedented statewide collaboration of people, resources and information on human trafficking");
54. FREE THE SLAVES & HUMAN RIGHTS CTR., UNIV. OF CAL., BERKELEY, HIDDEN SLAVES: FORCED LABOR IN THE UNITED STATES 6-7 (2004), available at http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/forcedlabor/8 (describing the collaborative combination of research methodlogies used to study "the nature and scope of forced labor in the United States");
55. HUMAN RIGHTS CTR., UNIV. OF CAL., BERKELEY, FREEDOM DENIED: FORCED LABOR IN CALIFORNIA 6 (2005), available at http://hrc.berkeley.edu/pdfs/freedomdenied. pdf (listing several distinct sources of data and methods of data collection).
56. See Brennan, supra note 16, at 38 (citing the diversity of trafficking victims and contexts as a challenge to research).
57. Id.
58. See ATT'Y GEN. 2008 TRAFFICKING REPORT, supra note 2, at 35 ("Since 2001, the United States government has granted more than 2, 300 T visas to victims of human trafficking and their immediate family members.").
59. -8 U.S.C. § 1184(o)(2) (2006).
60. U.S. DEP'T OF STATE, TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS REPORT 23 (2004) available at http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/34158.pdf.
61. Estimates of the scope of trafficking to the United states have fluctuated significantly. The U.S. Department of State's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons has revised its own estimate downward from 50,000 in 2000 to 18,000 to 20,000 in 2003, and to 14,500 to 17,500 in 2004. Compare U.S. DEP'T OF STATE, TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS REPORT 3 (2000), available at http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/4107.pdf,
62. with U.S. DEP'T OF STATE, TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS REPORT 7 (2003), available at http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/21555.pdf,
63. and U.S. DEP'T OF STATE, TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS REPORT 23 (2004), available at http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/34158.pdf.
64. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report that finds the U.S. government's estimates of global trafficking " questionable" because of "methodological weaknesses, gaps in data, and numerical discrepancies." U.S. GOV'T ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE, HUMAN TRAFFICKING: BETTER DATA, STRATEGY, AND REPORTING NEEDED TO ENHANCE U.S. ANTTTRAFFICKING EFFORTS ABROAD 2 (2006), available at http://www.gao.gov/new. items/d06825.pdf.
65. And, domestically, a 2007 GAO report notes that "pursuing trafficking in persons crimes continues to present special challenges to federal investigators and prosecutors" since "victims are often hidden from view, employed in legal or illegal enterprises, do not view themselves as victims, or are considered to be criminals or accessories to crimes." U.S. GOV'T ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE, HUMAN TRAFFICKING: A STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK COULD HELP ENHANCE THE INTERAGENCY COLLABORATION NEEDED TO EFFECTIVELY COMBAT TRAFFICKING CRIMES 2 (2007), available at http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d07915.pdf.
66. Consequendy, "trafficking in persons cases are difficult to pursue because they are multifaceted, complex, and resource intensive." Id.
67. As a report from the Immigration Policy Center notes, The large discrepancy between the number of trafficking victims estimated to be present in the United States and the total number of victims receiving protection under the TVPA is the result of several factors: (1) the imperfect nature of trafficking estimates; (2) misidentification of victims by law enforcement; (3) the conditional nature of victim protections; and (4) overly restrictive eligibility requirements for the T-visa. Alexandra Webber & David Shirk, Hidden Victims: Evaluating Protections for Undocumented Victims of Human Trafficking, IMMIGR. POLY IN FOCUS, Dec. 2005, at 1, 1.
68. The authors thus conclude that providing more resources to combat an ill-defined problem is not the answer. First and foremost, government assessments of human trafficking into the United States need to be seriously re-evaluated, both in terms of the numerical estimates and the type of human trafficking cases (either labor or sex) occurring on U.S. soil. Id. at 10.
69. GORDON, supra note 10, at 15.
70. See KWONG, supra note 12, at 38 (quoting a worker stating, "I hate to owe people money. These debts are hurting me like nails stuck into my body").
71. The Coalition of Immokalee's investigative work has resulted in the identification of over a thousand tomato and orange pickers held in debt bondage. Their work has also led to prosecutions by the U.S. Department of Justice of traffickers who bodi threatened workers if they tried to leave and pistol-whipped passenger-van-service drivers who gave rides to farm workers leaving the area. See Rondeaux, supra note 8 (noting that the CIW "play[s] a key role in pressing criminal cases").
72. For examples of such prosecutions, see United States v. Flores, No. 984178, 1999 WL 982041, at *1-2 (4th Or. Oct 29, 1999);
73. United States v. Evans, No. 05-00159 (M.D. Fla. Feb. 5, 2007);
74. United States v. Cuello, No. 99-00050 (M.D. Ha. Sept. 20, 1999).
75. Virginia's Prince William County is one example of the deleterious effects of local law enforcement targeting migrant communities. See N.C. Aizenman, In N. Va., a Latino Community Unravels, WASH. POST, Mar. 27, 2008, at Al (observing that law enforcement targeting of migrant communities, combined with the mortgage crisis and displacing construction, transformed once vibrant Latino communities into ghost towns);
76. Karin Brulliard, Crackdown on Illegal Immigration Quiets Soccer Fields in Pr. William, WASH. POST, Mar. 12, 2008, at Al (reporting that fears of being detained led migrant workers to avoid attending local soccer games);
77. Theresa Vargas, Team Will Track Pr. William's Illegal Immigration Crackdown, WASH. POST, Mar. 17, 2008, at B1 (describing the work of sociologists to document the effects of the crackdown). Federal actions have also caused problems.
78. See Adam Nossiter, Hundreds of Factory Workers Are Held in Immigration Raid, N.Y. TIMES, Aug. 26, 2008, at A12 (documenting criticisms of an ICE raid on a factory in Mississippi);
79. Preston, After Iowa Raid, Immigrants Fuel Labor Inquiries, N.Y. TIMES, July 27, 2008, at Al (noting that pervasive labor violations, such as employing children as young as thirteen years old, were found after a raid at an Iowa meatpacking plant).
80. Denise Brennan, Competing Claims of Victimhood? Foreign and Domestic Victims of Trafficking in the United States, 5 SEXUALITY RES. & SOC. POL'Y 45, 49 (2008).
81. For an examination of adult women's use of the sex industry with foreign tourists as an "advancement strategy" through the possibility of out-migration through marriage, see DENISE BRENNAN, WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT? TRANSNATIONAL DESIRES AND SEX TOURISM IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC (2004).
82. These task forces partner local U.S. Attorney Offices with state, local, and territorial law enforcement agencies and with community-based organizations "to create a victim centered human trafficking task force 2007 ATT'Y GEN. ANN. REP. TO CONGRESS & ASSESSMENT OF U.S. GOV'T ACITIVITIEs TO COMBAT TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS FISCAL YEAR 2006, at 6, available at http://www.jusdce. gov/archive/ag/annualreports/tr2006/agrepordiumantrafficing2006.pdf
83. [hereinafter ATT'Y GEN. 2006 TRAFFICKING REPORT].
84. See Brennan, supra note 30, at 49 (arguing that subsuming all trafficking into sex trafficking and equating all sex work with sex trafficking diverts attention away from investigation into migrants' labor conditions and undocumented status).
85. Denise Brennan, Woodrow Wilson Int'l Ctr. for Scholars, Ending Forced Labor by Securing Immigrant Workers' Rights (Dec. 2009), http://www. wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=sf.item&news-id=565874.
86. These 287(g) agreements have been widely criticized. An editorial in the New York Times denounced President Obama's Department of Homeland Security's decision to expand "old, bad Bush administration ideas about immigration enforcement." Editorial, More Immigration Non-Solutions, N.Y. TIMES, July 13, 2009, at A18.
87. A number of reports call for an end to 287(g) programs. See ANITA KHASHU, POLICE FOUND., THE ROLE OF LOCAL POLICE: STRIKING A BALANCE BETWEEN IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT AND CIVIL LIBERTIES 31 (2009) (arguing that the costs of the 287(g) program outweigh the benefits);
88. see also AARTI SHAHANI & JUDITH GREENE, JUSTICE STRATEGIES, LOCAL DEMOCRACY ON ICE: WHY STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS HAVE NO BUSINESS IN FEDERAL IMMIGRATION LAW ENFORCEMENT 1 (2009) (contending that the 287(g) program has failed);
89. NAT'L COMM'N ON ICE MISCONDUCT AND VIOLATIONS OF 4TH AMENDMENT RIGHTS, RAIDS ON WORKERS: DESTROYING OUR RIGHTS 1 (2009) (describing ICE actions as a "dramatic departure from our nation's ideals").
90. The membership of the National Commission on ICE Misconduct includes Tom Vilsack, the current U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. NAT'L COMM'N ON ICE MISCONDUCT AND VIOLATIONS OF 4TH AMENDMENT RIGHTS, supra, at 73.
91. See supra note 29 and accompanying text
92. WOMEN'S COMM'N FOR REFUGEE WOMEN & CHILDREN, THE U.S. RESPONSE TO HUMAN TRAFFICKING: AN UNBALANCED APPROACH 4 (2007).
93. According to a "needs assessment" survey of social service providers, formerly trafficked persons "have fewer resources available to them" than do battered immigrant women, and they "lack basic resources, such as [places] to eat, sleep, or live. They are more vulnerable to exploitation." HEATHER J. CLAWSON, ET AL., CALIBER ASSOCS., INC., NEEDS ASSESSMENT FOR SERVICE PROVIDERS AND TRAFFICKING VICTIMS 19 (2003).
94. See generally ELZBIETA M. GOZDZIAK, REFUGEE WOMEN'S PSYCHOLOGICAL RESPONSE TO FORCED MIGRATION: LIMITATIONS OF THE TRAUMA CONCEPT 10 (2005) (describing "[t]he trauma model" as based on values that "are very different from the values of many refugee women");
95. ARTHUR KLEINMAN, WRITING AT THE MARGIN: DISCOURSE BETWEEN ANTHROPOLOGY AND MEDICINE 174 (1995) ("The suffering that results from political violence includes a range of traumas: pain, anguish, fear, loss, grief and the destruction of a coherent and meaningful reality.");
96. ALAN YOUNG, THE HARMONY OF ILLUSIONS: INVENTING POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER 229-63 (1995) (describing the diverse symptoms and treatment of individuals diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder).
97. See generally LIISA H. MALKKI, PURITY AND EXILE 2 (1995) (detailing the experiences of Hutu refugees that fled from Burundi to Tanzania);
98. Beatriz Manz, Terror, Grief and Recovery: Genocidal Trauma in a Mayan Village in Guatemala (describing the psychological effects of genocide in a Guatemalan village), in ANNIHILATING DIFFERENCE: THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF GENOCIDE 292, 301-04 (Alexander Laban Hinton ed., 2002);
99. Kimberly Theidon, Intimate Enemies: Toward a Social Psychology of Reconciliation (surveying the "social afflictions" that lingered in Peruvian villages after the armed conflict of the late twentiedi century), in 2 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RESOLVING GLOBAL CONFLICTS 211, 217-23 (Mari Fitzduff & Chris E. Stout eds., 2006).
100. See, e.g., LINDA GREEN, FEARAS A WAY OF LIFE 4 (1999) (focusing on "the lives of some Mayan widows who live in Xe'caj," a Guatemalan village).
101. While the violence in trafficking is often hidden, cases of state-sponsored violence and terror have been spectacularly public, creating an atmosphere of fear. Green describes "[h]orror, fear, and spectacle, along with murder and brutality" as "weapons of control" used against the Mayan population living in the western highlands of Guatemala. Id. at 173 n.2.
102. Disappearances, "scorched earth campaigns" that burn and raze villages and displace entire communities, and massacres are all public acts of horror meant to scar the survivors. Id.
103. However, while communities may have been caught up in a kind of public violence together, this does not mean that they talk about it Green found such silence in Guatemala, where the civil war was referred to in "public discourse simply as la violencia or la situacion" and "public discussions about widows or orphans were nonexistent" Id. at 3.
104. As an example of efforts to publicly heal and break the silence about violence, members of a community in Guatemala wrote and performed a play about the violence they experienced as a community. See BEATRIZ MANZ, PARADISE IN ASHES: A GUATEMALAN JOURNEY OF COURAGE, TERROR, AND HOPE 233 (2005).
105. Brennan, supra note 16, at 42 ("There are many pressures on trafficked persons to maintain silences about their status.").
106. See generally MISTRUSTING REFUGEES (E. Valentine Daniel & John Chr. Knudsen eds., 1995).
107. See generally RICHARD ALBA & VICTOR NEE, REMAKING THE AMERICAN MAINSTREAM: ASSIMILATION AND CONTEMPORARY INTEGRATION 47-49 (2003) (noting that while social networks may help with "finding a first job, and other practical aspects of workaday lives," they can also have the effect of "giv[ing] rise to dependence on the ethnic community");
108. TIMOTHY P. FONG, THE FIRST SUBURBAN CHINATOWN: THE REMAKING OF MONTEREY PARK, CALIFORNIA 31 (1994) (discussing how the network of Chinese immigrants in Southern California contributed to their population increase in concentrated areas);
109. TERRY A. REPAK, WATTING ON WASHINGTON: CENTRAL AMERICAN WORKERS IN THE NATION'S CAPITAL 78-83 (1995) (providing evidence of the strong ethnic networks operating among Central American immigrants in Washington, D.C.);
110. ROGER WALDINGER & MICHAEL I. LICHTER, HOW THE OTHER HALF WORKS: IMMIGRATION AND THE SOCIAL ORGANIZATION OF LABOR 83-99 (2003) (discussing generally social-networking theory and its impact on job markets).
111. Because a kind of learned silence often emerges as a survival strategy during civil war or genocide, refugees also are known not to speak about their past experiences. Aiwha Ong writes about Cambodian refugees who, while living under the terror of the Pol Pot regime, "[i]n the midst of life-and-death choices and the extremity of daily survival... depended on subterfuge, disguise, lying, and silence." AIHWA ONG, BUDDHA IS HIDING: REFUGEES, CITIZENSHIP, THE NEW AMERICA 47 (2003).
112. Once resetded in Oakland and San Francisco, "[the refugees] tried to disappear into the local old people among whom they were setded." Id.
113. Julie A. Su & Chanchanit Martorell, Exploitation and Abuse in the Garment Industry: The Case of the Thai Slave-Labor Compound in El Monte (detailing the history of the E1 Monte workers and their plight), in ASIAN AND LATINO IMMIGRANTS IN A RESTRUCTUR-ING ECONOMY: THE METAMORPHOSIS OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 21, 25-26 (Marta Lo-pez-Garza & David R. Diaz eds., 2001).
114. Su and Martorell argue that "Thai women[] are especially vulnerable to exploitation" since "[t]raditional Thai values confer on Thai women a social position that is inferior to that of males and thus predisposes many women to enter exploitative forms of labor." Id. at 24.
115. In the El Monte case, four workers were men and sixty-seven were women. Id. at 25.
116. The slave-labor compound in which the Thai workers were confined was a twostory apartment complex consisting of seven units, surrounded by a ring of razor wire and iron guardrails with sharp ends pointing inward." Id. at 22.
117. At the compound, "[a]rmed guards kept constant surveillance of their every movement and censored and monitored their actions, phone calls, and letters home." Id. at 21.
118. Since the TVPA, there have been cases in which those swept up in raids and rescues (particularly of massage parlors and brothers) were placed in immigration detention until their trafficking status could be determined. Those who are designated as trafficking "victims" begin receiving legal and social services (including housing assistance), while those who are designated as "not trafficked"-and who are undocumented-are deported. See, e.g., Allan Lengel, 31 Arrested in Reputed Korean Sex-Slave Trafficking Along East Coast, WASH. POST, Aug. 17, 2006, at B8 (describing the breaking up of a trafficking ring that resulted in sixty-seven Korean women being "rounded up and interviewed to determine whether they were involuntarily part of the ring");
119. Paul Meyer, Asian Spa Arrests Fuel Debate on Human Trafficking, DALLAS MORNING NEWS, May 7, 2006, available at 2006 WLNR 8309083 (describing a nationwide sting that included a Dallas spa where many of the women were working, who had been illegally smuggled into the country, were classified as nonvictims and sent to immigration court).
120. Su & Martorell, supra note 46, at 27-28.
121. For example, Sweatshop Watch, a statewide network "dedicated to eliminating the exploitation and illegal and inhumane conditions that characterize garment industry sweatshops," "reacted immediately to secure the release of the Thai workers from continued detention." Id. at 28.
122. For research on the difficulty of getting a jump out of poverty in the United States, see generally DANIEL DOHAN, THE PRICE OF POVERTY: MONEY, WORK, AND CULTURE IN THE MEXICAN AMERICAN BARRIO (2003);
123. KATHERINE S. NEWMAN, NO SHAME IN MY GAME: THE WORKING POOR IN THE INNER CITY (1999);
124. and WILLIAM JULIUS WILSON, WHEN WORK DISAPPEARS (1997).
125. In a report commissioned by the National Institute of Justice, the authors write about Emilio who, while waiting for a decision on his T visa application, had turned to "illegal work in unsafe conditions" since his "most important concern" was not "safety, health, housing, or food stamps," but "to earn an income he can live on, and ideally, to send money home to his child." BALES & LIZE, supra note 11, at 114.
126. See Elizabeth Bernstein, The Sexual Politics of "New Abolitionism, "18 DIFFERENCES 128, 130 (2007) (arguing that state and federal antitrafficking laws "equate prostitution with human trafficking").
127. As Suárez-Orozco notes, since immigrants to the United States often settle in areas of "deep poverty," they may not find "meaningful work opportunities" in these communities. Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco, Right Moves? Immigration, Globalization, Utopia, and Dystopia, in AMERICAN ARRIVALS, supra note 20, at 45, 65.
128. There has been a wide variety of literature on the lack of protections in domestic work. See generally CHANG, supra note 15 (examining the harms of excluding immigrant women from welfare benefits);
129. NICOLE CONSTABLE, MAID TO ORDER IN HONG KONG: STORIES OF MIGRANT WORKERS (2d ed. 2007) (describing the plight of Filipina workers in Hong Kong);
130. HONDAGNEU-SOTELO, supra note 15 (describing the experience of Latina domestic workers California);
131. HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, SWEPT UNDER THE RUG: ABUSES AGAINST DOMESTIC WORKERS AROUND THE WORLD (2006), available at http://www.hrw.org/reports/2006/wrd0706/ index.htm (describing abuses against domestic workers around the world);
132. RHACEL SALAZAR PARREÑAS, SERVANTS OF GLOBALIZATION: WOMEN, MIGRATION, AND DOMESTIC WORK (2001) (describing the work conditions for Filipina domestic workers in Rome and Los Angeles);
133. Joy M. Zarembka, America's Dirty Work: Migrant Maids and Modem-Day Slavery (describing how immigrant women are denied the protections of labor laws), in GLOBAL WOMAN: NANNIES, MAIDS, AND SEX WORKERS IN THE NEW ECONOMY 142, 146 (Barbara Ehrenreich & Arlie Russell Hochschild eds., 2002).