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It’s time we pay more attention to sex trafficking

January 28, 2016 / Blog, Guest Contributions Molly Gochman

Molly Gochman is an artist, human rights activist and Director of the Freedom Fund Board. Read the full  article on the Houston Chronicle here.


Men, women and children are enslaved all around us,even in the United States, as area brothel bust showed.

When we hear about human trafficking, many of us think about a problem that exists in the developing world – something that happens primarily outside of U.S. borders.

But while countries such as Syria, Qatar, Sudan and the Central African Republic are the worst transgressors when it comes to slave labor, each year thousands of people are trafficked illegally in the United States – and right in our neighborhoods.

That became even more clear last week, when the madam of the Las Palmas II cantina, a notorious Houston brothel, was sentenced to life in prison for her role in forcing young women and girls into prostitution through an international sex trafficking ring.

The rampant crime of human trafficking is hidden in plain sight. If we don’t take action against it, we are complicit.


Photo: Las Palmas II, along the 5600 block of Telephone Road, was a former cantina and brothel, where Mexican and Central American women were held against their will, and subjected to beatings, rape and threats of further abuse if they didn´t work as prostitutes Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2015, in Houston, Texas. They worked and lived in rooms above the bar, which was downstairs and drew thousands of customers. The site is one of the largest sex trafficking rings ever busted in Houston. ( Gary Coronado / Houston Chronicle )