Discussion Response

The key obstacle to implementing my recommendations for Human Trafficking is that so many different businesses rely on human trafficking for profit. Imagine having cheap labor to work for you? This brings down the costs of production and allows more profit in your pockets! The main focus of building a business is to make money, so if you can find a way to find cheap labor, then you would do anything to get your hands on this right?

Although not officially part of Virginia Beach, the Eastern Shore of Virginia, also known as the Delmarva Peninsula, farms and industry rely on human trafficking. Most of the workers are undocumented immigrants who work for many of the farms (Vaughn, 2017). While this may not initially be considered labor trafficking, the problem is many of these workers come to the United States with Work Visas to work a specific company. Basically the company now owns this individual; this individual cannot work elsewhere because their Visa states they are only there to work with that job (Senachai, 2019). Busch Gardens in Williamsburg Virginia and many of the oceanfront businesses in Virginia Beach use migrants for the many summer jobs, with most of them working under Work Visas for this specific business. This allows the business to treat them and pay them any which way they like. While most of the businesses probably treat their employees with dignity and respect, those that are working for construction companies and farms are not as fortunate.

When these migrant workers get sick, they still must work. If they do not work, they do not get paid. Although this goes for most minimum wage jobs, it still does not make it right.

Labor traffickers even use the migrant children to sell stuff door to door which is sickening. It is one thing to have your own kids sell popcorn or cookies as a Scout, however that does not even happen very often anymore. Right now as we speak, many of us are terrorized by the Girl Scouts selling their cookies. Of course I am saying that sarcastically; I love Thin Mints but my waistline does not so I try to avoid them at all costs. Back on point, these traffickers use the power of persuasion by using children to sell products. Very suspicious indeed.

The problem with implementing my recommendations for the sex trafficking victims in Virginia Beach is prostitution is not a priority for sting operations. Most precincts have a limited budget and if the department is spending money on an operation but not arresting many people, it is considered a waste of money. It is not often that a sex trafficking victim is going to just walk out and claim they are a victim. The perception still is that they are prostitutes and criminals, not victims. Even if my recommendations are implemented, it takes a while for them to go into effect. Let us be honest, many of us do not like change, especially if it is going to mean more work for us.

You will have some employees immediately start to do this, especially if they believe they are going to help people from being trafficked. The problem is, unless it becomes mandatory and the actual supervisors and other leadership positions conduct spot checks or ask for numbers, it is unlikely it will happen.

In the court systems, it will be difficult to get victims to testify against their traffickers. Keep in mind, many of these victims are abused and coerced into working. Even when they are away, the fear still lingers. This will take a lot of mental health professionals to be able to break this cycle. But who pays for this? I do not see a bunch of taxpayers jumping up and down stating they would not mind paying more taxes. The budget will decide on if it becomes mandatory or not, and if hospitals and police departments are not receiving more money to do this, it is unlikely to happen. Many of the victims who have been labeled as criminals will most likely not be taken seriously if they were to stand up and testify against their traffickers, and the traffickers know this. If they are making lots of money off of their victims, it is likely they will be able to hire good defense attorneys that will be able to destroy the credibility of the witness (Vaughn, 2017). This in itself is an ethical dilemma, even if the defense attorney knows that they are destroying a victim because they must defend the one who hired them.

I might be shooting myself in the foot and making my own recommendations unlikely to occur with this post, however I am a realist. I do hope that the issue with human trafficking will get better. This frightens me to the core, however changing public perception must happen before anything else occurs. Changing public perception will take time, time that many of these victims do not have.