Mexican-American Human Trafficking

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In the late 1800s, the United States of America was locked in a Civil War among its Southern and Northern states. Chief among their grievances with each other was that of slavery. President Lincoln aided in the North’s victory and subsequent abolishment of slavery in the United States, and subsequently, North America as a whole. However, the continent never truly stayed “slave-free.” In Mexico, modern slavery still exists in the form of human trafficking. Innocent people are smuggled into, out of, and around the country for pornography, sex work, drug trafficking, illegal immigration, organ harvesting, and other forced labor and illicit activities. These crimes and their slavery have spread to the United States. Across the Mexican-American …show more content…
Though these obstacles are tough, we can start by liberating the Mexican-American border from human trafficking. Human trafficking stems from two things: desperateness and depravity. Migrants pay cartels, such as the Gulf Cartel, to smuggle them through Mexico and into other countries, mainly the United States. Despite the transaction, Cartels have no obligation to complete their side of the deal, and often kidnap these people and force them into committing crimes instead of their own members, and other times captured migrants are used for forced labor. Sex tourism, the act in which one travels for the purpose of engaging in sexual activities with prostitutes, is a popular form of human trafficking and abuse, with the victims typically women and children. Not only is human trafficking a major source of profit for cartels, but drug trafficking, gun smuggling, and oil theft, too. The first issue at hand is the lack of awareness from groups that can help with or are directly affected by human …show more content…
In the United States alone, there are three major cartels along the border: the Gulf Cartel in Texas, the Juarez Cartel in New Mexico, and the Sinaloa Cartel, which happens to be spread heavily across the Eastern half of the United States, in Arizona and California. DEA: On the other side of the border, there’s around 47 different groups actively trafficking humans, and all have a part in trafficking people across the Mexican-American border. The American government has attempted to intervene by forming child exploitation and human trafficking task forces in partnership with the FBI, along with working with the government of Mexico nationally, and on a smaller scale with local police departments and tribal leaders. The FBI, in conclusion, is capable of subduing the prevalent issue of human trafficking over the Mexican-American border by providing hotlines for citizens reporting crimes and for therapy, creating stricter laws for migrant screenings, and working alongside Mexico federally and locally. Through cooperation and legislation, we can make the border safer for both citizens and migrants