Senate president pro tem Darrell Steinberg’s human trafficking bill, SB 1193, went into effect in 2013, but the implementation of the bill has been sluggish.

As NCJW/LA executive director Hillary Selvin (left) looks on, Maria Suarez shares her story about being sold for $200 at the age of 15. (photo by Aaron Blevins)

That is why the National Council of Jewish Women, Los Angeles (NCJW/LA), and its partners, have launched a grassroots effort to ensure that the bill’s mandates are at least carried out in Los Angeles County.

The legislation calls for specified businesses and establishments to post human trafficking hotline information or face fines and penalties. NCJW/LA, its partners and their group of volunteers have begun an outreach program to ensure that businesses comply.

“Human trafficking is a $32 billion business. It is modern day slavery,” NCJW/LA executive director Hillary Selvin said.

The organization hosted a press conference on Monday to announce the initiative alongside elected officials from the city and county. The effort includes the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking (CAST), OASIS USA, the Jewish Labor Committee Western Region, T’ruah and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP.

“We all felt that this law really needed to be implemented,” said Maya Paley, NCJW/LA’s director of legislative and community engagement. “So we came together to create this outreach project, to train volunteers from all over Los Angeles to go from door to door to inform businesses and establishments about this new law.”

She said approximately 100 men and women ranging in age from 18 to 85 attended the first day of training on Sunday.

Paley said 11 states require the posting of human trafficking hotlines, and in other states that have passed such legislation, the number of people calling the hotlines has increased “tremendously.”

“We know these posters will make a difference, which is why NCJW and CAST both cosponsored this bill. We believe in its goals and purpose, and we want to see it do what it is capable of doing,” Paley said.

Mayor Eric Garcetti called human trafficking “one of the biggest ethical issues of our time.” He said more people are enslaved now than any other time in human history, yet there are still misconceptions about trafficking. For example, some people believe human trafficking is only related to sex or only affects women.

“Trafficking happens in our backyard,” Garcetti said, referencing Western Avenue. “It happens from neighborhood to neighborhood. It happens right here. …It happens in mini malls. It happens at establishments that seem like reputable businesses. It happens with children. It happens with men. It happens for all sorts of reasons.”

He said SB 1193 requires that the posters be displayed in mass transit hubs, emergency rooms and other establishments. Garcetti said the posters have the phone numbers for the CAST hotline and the National Human Trafficking Resource Center hotline.

“Today, I think, is a giant step forward. …Trafficking is happening in this city right now,” he added. “Do something about it. Help us. Step forward.”

City attorney Mike Feuer shared a personal anecdote from 10 years ago, when he received a phone call from a friend who was concerned about a woman who was performing housekeeping and childcare duties for a Westside neighbor. He said the woman told his friend that she was enslaved and desperate to find someone to help her, which they did.

“But it was a turning point in the recognition, for me, of how pervasive human trafficking can be,” Feuer said. He added that as chair of the Judiciary Committee in the Assembly in 2012, he conducted the hearing on SB 1193. “It can have that impact here — in the truest sense of the word, a liberating impact — on women and men who are victims of human trafficking, be it sex trafficking or otherwise.”

The city attorney said his office sent out approximately 200 letters to businesses throughout the city, alerting them about the obligations set forth in SB 1193. Feuer said the posters should be a positive thing, but if businesses are unwilling, his office will pursue penalties.

“But let’s do it by collaboration, as partners, as a team,” he said.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, 2nd District, said human trafficking is a “critically important issue.” Sometimes, the victims can be as young as 12 years old, he said.

“It is inhumane. It is sickening. It is disgusting for a grown person, typically a man, to subject a child to his indecent and inhumane acts,” Ridley-Thomas said.

He said the posters are low-risk and non-confrontational, but are important nonetheless. Ridley-Thomas also said the supervisors would introduce a motion soon to extend the program to Los Angeles County.

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, our children are not for sale,” he added.

Supervisor Don Knabe, 4th District, said many people think that human trafficking is a third-world problem, when the reality is that the issue is “right here in front of us.” He said criminals sometimes consider human trafficking to be much easier than dealing guns or drugs.

“So we need to toughen those laws, and that’s what we’re attempting to do,” Knabe said. “This issue should have the same credibility and the same awareness as the war on drugs did many years ago. It is that bad, that horrific. …We need to do something about it.”

City Councilwoman Nury Martinez, 6th District, said she recently participated in a ride-along with officers who arrested almost 23 people in the San Fernando Valley for human trafficking. She said there are two main areas of trafficking in the Valley — in Van Nuys and at the corner of Lankershim Boulevard and San Fernando Road.

“I was shocked to see how young these girls are,” Martinez said.

Kay Buck, CAST’s executive director, said the initiative began two years ago when a group of human trafficking survivors gathered around a table at CAST. They wanted to bring greater awareness to the issue, and suggested a poster with the trafficking hotlines, she said.

“We didn’t think it was possible to have such breadth of support,” Buck said. “It has taken a lot of hard work, but I’m here to say that with this widespread support in the city and the county, it has been worth it.”

She told the story of “Tina,” who was enslaved for eight years and endured “unspeakable violence” in a country abroad. When her captors decided to move to the U.S., they brought her along, Buck said.

While they were at the U.S. consulate, Tina was given a small card with the human trafficking hotline on it, she said. Buck said the woman kept the card in her bra strap for several months.

“It took tremendous courage, but one evening, she did call the hotline number,” she said, adding that CAST deployed resources to help her escape. After 18 months of receiving support for the organization, Tina is now employed and active in her community, and even helped advocate for SB 1193, Buck said.

Maria Suarez, a volunteer coordinator at NCJW/LA, was a victim of human trafficking in the 1970s. She said she was purchased for $200 at the age of 15, and was abused in “every way you can imagine” by her 68-year-old captor.

“We’re going to stop it because we’re all together,” Suarez said.

Buck advised residents to be on the look out for any red flags that suggest a person may be a victim of human trafficking. She said people generally get the suspicion that something is just not right. Oftentimes, victims will be afraid to make eye contact, won’t have access to their ID or passport, and will not have control over their freedom of movement.

Garcetti said it does not matter if a person is undocumented, as the U.S. provides a special visa for victims. He also said every LAPD officer has received human trafficking training.

If residents suspect that a person is a victim of human trafficking, they can call the CAST hotline at (888)539-2373 or the National Human Trafficking Resource Center hotline at (888)373-7888. For information, visit www.castla.org.