There are very strong writers throughout Good Counsel – some who may be apprehensive to share their written work on a larger platform even when it is a great piece of writing. However, The Talon hopes to change that with a new project- “Falcon Speaks”. 

The “Falcon Speaks” project aims to provide Falcons an opportunity to put their written work on a larger platform, or even to share their opinion on a topic that may be of interest to them.

Our debut article comes from Dijon Fosu ‘26, who deals with a very sensitive topic: human trafficking. 

He shares why the US is guilty of contributing to the human trafficking problem and how we can stop this issue from continuing.

Trigger warning: this article contains sensitive content

Being human trafficked is one of the most horrific situations one can experience, and it is much worse when the victim is a minor. This was the case when a fifteen-year-old girl named Tonya was trafficked in 2015, according to ICE.  She had met a man named Eddie in Dallas, Texas, when she was thirteen. They built a connection, but it was not serious until they met again when Tonya was fifteen. One night at a party, Eddie wanted Tonya to have sex with another man for money, and she reluctantly agreed after half an hour of pressure. It soon became a nightly occurrence. Tonya was beaten and abused while Eddie constantly reminded her that running away was not an option. She spiraled into depression as she blamed herself for the physical and mental abuse she was enduring. What happened to Tonya is a serious problem that needed a solution. There are many other victims like Tonya who continue to suffer in silence, but we cannot let this go on any longer.

Human trafficking has become a serious nationwide problem because it is such an unpredictable crime. In 2021 alone, 10,359 human trafficking situations were reported to the U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline with 16,554 victims (Polaris Project 2021). Human trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery involving the illegal transport of individuals by force or deception for different purposes. It branches out to a few different categories: forced labor for profit, sex labor, and drug trade. The attacks are often deliberate and meticulously detailed, so they are hard to detect beforehand for both victims and law enforcement. Traffickers will have various ways of going about their attacks. Some of the attacks, like Eddie with Tonya, will have the trafficker build a relationship with the victim and gain their trust. Other attackers will simply kidnap their victims without knowing them first. The traffickers also have different ways to keep their victims from escaping or reporting them. They will either threaten and abuse the victims or manipulate them to the point where the victim feels like escaping is pointless. The issue continues to worsen. It has been reported that an estimated 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked worldwide annually for forced labor or prostitution (By the Numbers) and the U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline has received 399,494 signals since its inception (National Human Trafficking Hotline). Because human trafficking is a highly structured and organized criminal activity, it requires money to execute a plan. It continues to become more of a problem because the traffickers keep profiting so they can continue to carry out their crimes. Research shows that the “modern-day slavery” business generates up to $150 billion annually (Hope for Justice 2023). These criminals not only get away with it, but they also benefit from it. A substantial amount of evidence points to the fact that we need a solution for this issue. 

The solution to this nationwide crisis has to come from U.S. citizens because the government can only do so much. In 2000, the government passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) to address trafficking formally. The problem, however, was that there wasn’t enough emphasis on trafficking to convince people that it needed attention. 

While the passage of the TVPA was a major step forward in the fight against human trafficking, the bigger issue is that the US government is not proactively preventing crimes from taking place to begin with. Increased awareness by US citizens will hopefully lead to decreases in human trafficking crimes. The aim of the TVPA was just to assist the victims and because there was no awareness from the citizens, people overlooked the issue. There wasn’t any initiative to help stop the problem. 

The first step to suppressing human trafficking is to educate people on the issue. The citizens of the United States have to spread awareness so people understand what they are dealing with when it comes to human trafficking. Like what happened with the TVPA in 2000, there is no way to effectively help human trafficking victims if there is no awareness of it. 

The other way that the people of the United States can help out with this crisis is to donate money more frequently. Human trafficking is very calculated and takes a lot of money to execute. This means that the solution to combat it will also cost a lot of money. The money contributed can go into a variety of things that can help the government deal with human trafficking. Oftentimes, the criminal justice system will fully focus on the criminals and neglect the voice of the victims. With financial contributions, law enforcement that deals with human trafficking can get special training. The University of Maryland School of Social Work supports a class called “The Human Trafficking for Law Enforcement Trainings”. The goal of this program is to train law enforcement to better understand how to better “identify and investigate cases of human trafficking”.

Hopefully after officers take these classes, when situations arise, they are handled appropriately, especially when victims have the courage to come forward. The attacker is punished, but the victim doesn’t feel dehumanized or neglected. Funding can also be used towards resources that make it easier to deal with human trafficking cases. 

Human trafficking is a very complex problem, and it is not possible to rely on the government to solve the problem. The people have to step forward and take action by spreading awareness and making financial contributions. Organizations such as the Polaris Project provide a platform for survivors of human trafficking to tell their stories. Polaris also runs the US National Human Trafficking Hotline, which is a critical resource. The Catholic Church, through the USCCB, sponsors the Coalition of Catholic Organizations Against Human Trafficking (CCOAHT). The goal of CCOAHT is to work alongside government officials and public policy experts to help raise awareness and support survivors of human trafficking. Additionally, Shared Hope is an international organization that aims to tackle human trafficking in three major ways: preventing attacks from happening, supporting survivors and their families, and speaking out and campaigning state and federal leaders to pass bills to protect survivors and hold offenders accountable.

With partnerships from the community, state and federal levels, the country can ensure that what happened to Tonya in 2015 does not happen again to anyone else. Americans should strive to make the country a safer place for everyone, including for people like Tonya and her children. However, everyone must be willing to buy into supporting this cause- because we are all a part of the battle against human trafficking. 

*A special thank you to Dr. Roeder of the Counseling Department for her assistance.