Support for the Victims

According to the National Human Trafficking Hotline Statistics 2021, highest rated states in 2018 for human trafficking were:⁵⁵

• California

• Texas

• Florida

• Ohio*

• New York

• Michigan

• Nevada*

• Georgia

• Pennsylvania

• Washington

**An example reported for Ohio is that there is farmland for the trafficking of domestic and farm workers who are brought into the state and this makes the rates higher. Examples for Nevada would be the casino environment and the high rate of substance abuse/opioid addiction in both states. Polaris outlines the traffic patterns in the United States and the increased numbers of the high traffic areas in both the east and west coast areas.⁵³ At the time of this course, May 2024, many immigrants are entering the United States through the border with Mexico. The numbers of domestic workers and labor workers are expected to increase in all areas of the country as many migrants are distributed from the border to many states throughout the country. This influx of persons is also expected to increase human trafficking victims making the identification of victims very important. As events occur, the limitations on identifying and documenting cases of human trafficking in all forms must be re-evaluated since the numbers are constantly changing. The influx of young children with some questionable relationships may or may not be with family members and may end up in continued human trafficking situations.* A publication in 2023, by Hannah Dreier, exposed and documented the all-time high of over 130,00 unaccompanied minors entering the United States in one year. The majority, 85,000, of the children were not able to be located a month later even though they had been released to sponsors. It is known that the children most often work to pay back the sponsor, trafficker, smuggler and to maintain living expenses. The injury rates and deaths of these children is addressed in the article and federal laws are in place to protect children against dangerous jobs.⁵²