As defined by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: “Human trafficking is a modern-day form of slavery. Victims of human trafficking are subjected to force, fraud, or coercion, for the purpose of sexual exploitation or forced labor. Victims are young children, teenagers, men and women.” Texas, and specifically Houston, is a major human trafficking hub in the United States. Some key facts:

• • • Human Trafficking is 2nd only to Drug Trafficking.  Why?  You can sell a gun once, you can sell a bag of cocaine once but you can sell a human over and over and over.
    • Human trafficking generates $9.5 billion yearly in the United States. (United Nations)
    • Approximately 300,000 children are at risk of being prostituted in the United States. (U.S. Department of Justice)
    • The average age of entry into prostitution for a child victim in the United States is 13-14 years old. (U.S. Department of Justice)
    • A pimp can make $150,000-$200,000 per child each year and the average pimp has 4 to 6 girls. (U.S. Justice Department, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children)
    • The average victim may be forced to have sex up to 20-48 times a day. (Polaris Project)
    • Fewer than 100 beds are available in the United States for underage victims. (Health and Human Services)
    • 25% of all human trafficking victims are in Texas (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.)
    • 30% of all human trafficking tips to the National Rescue Hotline came from Texas (Polaris Project)
    • Texas and the Southwest border continue to serve as the biggest point of illegal entry into the U.S., largely because traffickers are able to get aliens across without documents.

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