Speaker 1: Hudson River Radio dot com.
Speaker 2: It beats listening to nothing.
Speaker 3: My goodness, being Frank fright were The only way to
Speaker 3: be is Frank. Hello everyone, and welcome to being Frank.
Speaker 3: We're the only way to be is Frank. I'm your host,
Speaker 3: Frank Lebuono, and I'd like to thank you for joining
Speaker 3: us on what we like to call the Intelligent Conversation podcast,
Speaker 3: where no conversation is out of bounds and all points
Speaker 3: of view are welcome. Regular listeners will know our routine
Speaker 3: is that we record live to tape and I give
Speaker 3: you the date so you get some relevance. It is
Speaker 3: the seventh of January twenty twenty six, the first time
Speaker 3: I got to say that, as this is the first
Speaker 3: program of the new year. You know, every month of
Speaker 3: the year is designated to raise awareness of a cause
Speaker 3: or a situation that deserves our attention. January has been
Speaker 3: declared Human Trafficking Awareness Month, and when you hear the
Speaker 3: most recent statistics were regarding this deplorable act, you will
Speaker 3: realize why our attention is so desperately needed. Here they
Speaker 3: are according to the most recent statistics that were compiled
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty four. It is estimated that twenty four
Speaker 3: thousand Americans fell victim to this heinous crime in twenty
Speaker 3: twenty four. Seventy five percent of the victims were female,
Speaker 3: forty percent were miners. Two thousand cases, probably a low estimate,
Speaker 3: have been reported to the National Human Trafficking Hotline. All
Speaker 3: fifty states were affected. Ten thousand arrests were made. The
Speaker 3: global profit of one hundred and fifty billion dollars was
Speaker 3: reported from human trafficking. It's extraordinary, and unfortunately, the bad
Speaker 3: news about this abomination is increasing. However, there is also
Speaker 3: light at the end of the tunnel. It has been
Speaker 3: estimated that about five hundred nonprofit organizations are actively working
Speaker 3: to address the scourge. Organizations like the Center for Safety
Speaker 3: and Change in Rockland County, New York and representing for
Speaker 3: our second visit here at Being Franks. Stephanie Ovallez Esquire
Speaker 3: the Deputy Program Officer at the Center for Safety and Change, Inc.
Speaker 3: Where she works with survivors of human trafficking, domestic violence,
Speaker 3: and sexual assault. Prior to that, she was the director
Speaker 3: of Immigration and Human Trafficking Services. She is also the
Speaker 3: chair of the Rockland County Anti Trafficking Task Force. In addition,
Speaker 3: she is a Wonder Girls, mentor and supporter. She's a
Speaker 3: graduate of Rutger's School of Law in Newark, where I
Speaker 3: went to school, not to the law school, but undergraduate there,
Speaker 3: so we got that in government, where she participated in
Speaker 3: the Immigrant Rights Clinic, was a student teacher for Street Law,
Speaker 3: and was the vice president of the Association of Latin
Speaker 3: American Law Students before joining the Center in twenty eighteen.
Speaker 3: Extensive experience but representing both private and public clients. She's
Speaker 3: currently a member of both the New Jersey and New
Speaker 3: York Bar Stephaniel Vaulis, thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 3: Welcome back. This is a serious and important topic. So
Speaker 3: we'll get to you.
Speaker 4: Yes, thank you so much for having me, and I
Speaker 4: will correct you. This is actually my third time on
Speaker 4: the podcast, not the second.
Speaker 3: Okay, you get if you make five, we get your jacket.
Speaker 4: Like I said, I'm hoping for merch That's what I'm
Speaker 4: hoping for.
Speaker 3: You know, you're always welcome here. Of course, we hope
Speaker 3: we're always increasingly better news. As I mentioned, as we
Speaker 3: deal with this as a scourge, and it really is.
Speaker 3: But before we kind of get into it again, even
Speaker 3: though you'd been on before, let's assume we have some
Speaker 3: new listeners and we'll refresh the memory of those who've
Speaker 3: listened before. Tell us a little about the Center for
Speaker 3: Safety and Chain.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So, the Center for Safety and Change is the
Speaker 4: only victim service provider agency in Rocklin County that helps
Speaker 4: victims and survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking.
Speaker 4: I like to refer to us as a buffet of
Speaker 4: services for victims in the sense that we're multidisciplinary and holistic.
Speaker 4: So a person can come to the Center for Safety
Speaker 4: and Change and say, I need shelter, I need legal intervention,
Speaker 4: I need therapy, and I need supportive counseling when I
Speaker 4: want to report this crime, and we literally have people
Speaker 4: in the center that help with all of that. So
Speaker 4: we have a shelter where we can help people stay
Speaker 4: for a period of time when they're escaping a situation.
Speaker 4: We have therapeutic services for both adults and children. We
Speaker 4: have legal services to help victims get in order protection,
Speaker 4: obtain a humanitarian visa, you know, any type of legal
Speaker 4: get a divorce from your abuser, And we also have
Speaker 4: a plethora of other programs that help on the prevention, intervention,
Speaker 4: and healing side of a journey of a survivor.
Speaker 3: You know, it's so interesting, Stephanie, because it is so holistic.
Speaker 3: You know, one of the issues live in Nyak. We've
Speaker 3: had the mayor on and other people talk about the
Speaker 3: homeless situation here and how desperate it can become. But
Speaker 3: often they only address single issues, sometimes just the homelessness,
Speaker 3: not the mental health issues, the other support issues that
Speaker 3: the education, the housing, all those other things. So I
Speaker 3: think it's important that you deal with it from a
Speaker 3: total aspect, if you speak a little to that, how
Speaker 3: important that is to save people that way.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And I think you know that's it's the only
Speaker 4: fair way to see someone, right, because if you're only
Speaker 4: thinking about them in this particular situation, oh I have
Speaker 4: I'm a victim of domestic violence, or this one incident
Speaker 4: of domestic violence, you're not addressing the bigger picture. And
Speaker 4: you're also not making it so that they're in the
Speaker 4: best position to actually heal and move forward in their lives.
Speaker 4: And so if you're not addressing trauma, if you're not
Speaker 4: addressing well, I was a victim of past sexual abuse,
Speaker 4: which made me then more susceptible to X, Y and
Speaker 4: Z or I am undocumented and therefore I'm always going
Speaker 4: to be vulnerable in this way because the threat of
Speaker 4: deportation is something that can be used against me continuously.
Speaker 4: Then you're not really sort of meeting people where they're at,
Speaker 4: and you're also not really serving them in the way
Speaker 4: that they need because if the threats of everything else
Speaker 4: still persist and still continue, then you're putting a band
Speaker 4: aida over a situation. Whereas we try to really sort
Speaker 4: of mend the wound and empower people so that they
Speaker 4: feel like they have the agency the autonomy to be
Speaker 4: able to say, you know what I deserve better and
Speaker 4: I'm not going to look for this in the next partner,
Speaker 4: or I'm not going to, you know, try and repeat
Speaker 4: maybe the same patterns that I was repeating, because now
Speaker 4: I have I'm in therapy, Now I have more knowledge.
Speaker 4: Now I'm able to sort of get past the situation
Speaker 4: that I was in.
Speaker 3: But in a sense, you're breaking the cycle of violence
Speaker 3: that many of these people get caught up in. It's
Speaker 3: almost like a whirlpool. You get in and it's so
Speaker 3: difficult to get out. Yeah, let's do specifically and Human
Speaker 3: Trafficking Awareness Month. Let's talk about it again we've had
Speaker 3: in the past, but again assuming new new listeners, et cetera,
Speaker 3: it needs to be said over and over again until
Speaker 3: it's completely dealt with what constitutes human trafficking. What is
Speaker 3: it about?
Speaker 4: So it's essentially being exploited through force, fraud, or coercion
Speaker 4: into either being labor trafficked or commercially sexually exploited for
Speaker 4: someone else's game. And so we see that most commonly
Speaker 4: on the sex trafficking front, through sex trafficking through sex
Speaker 4: work and sometimes forced sex work through lover boy pimping,
Speaker 4: which is oftentimes a man will coerce a female and
Speaker 4: to thing that they're in a romantic relationship and then
Speaker 4: will inevitably pimp that girl out so that she has
Speaker 4: to do sex sexual things with other men for his
Speaker 4: own gain, whether that be money or otherwise. And then
Speaker 4: on the labor trafficking front, we see so many industries
Speaker 4: where people are exploited because they have they fall into
Speaker 4: a particular marginalized group, and whether it's agriculture, construction, nail salon, spas,
Speaker 4: they a trafficker can use that to then keep someone
Speaker 4: in a indebtured servitude situation, a debt bondage situation, or
Speaker 4: trapped in a situation through threats of violence where they
Speaker 4: have to work for free or under for little money,
Speaker 4: but with terrible underlying circumstances.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 3: And I think people make the assumption that it's always
Speaker 3: done by strangers, but that's not necessarily the case, is it, Stephanie.
Speaker 3: It's often people who are closest to them who betray
Speaker 3: them in a sense. Is that true?
Speaker 4: Absolutely?
Speaker 1: So.
Speaker 4: I think that the movie Taken, right, I always sort
Speaker 4: of bring this up in a lot of these, but
Speaker 4: I think that the movie Taken is, Yeah, it has
Speaker 4: skewed I think the perception in some ways of what
Speaker 4: human trafficking looks like for people, because people assume that it's, oh,
Speaker 4: you know, I'm going to end up in Paris and
Speaker 4: airport right when I get to my Airbnb. And I'm
Speaker 4: not saying that obviously, kidnappings don't happen. I'm not saying that,
Speaker 4: you know, what's called gorilla pimping doesn't happen where you're
Speaker 4: put in a situation by force. But in like ninety
Speaker 4: something percent of trafficking cases, you are trafficked by someone
Speaker 4: that you know and someone that you trust.
Speaker 3: Wow, ninety. Wow, that's extraordinary stuff. People have to know that.
Speaker 3: I'm going to talk a little bit how we recognize
Speaker 3: someone that's being trafficked and justice. But you also mentioned
Speaker 3: in my intro I mentioned women, females who seem to
Speaker 3: be the most affected. In seventy percent is the number.
Speaker 3: I believe what other but you also mentioned there are
Speaker 3: other vulnerable marginalized groups who are the most vulnerable people
Speaker 3: in a situation like this. In addition to win so,
Speaker 3: I mean, I think.
Speaker 4: That there should be special considerations for young boys and
Speaker 4: young men. I think that they're oftentimes not talked about
Speaker 4: and not represented in when we talk about statistics related
Speaker 4: to human trafficking because and that makes it so that
Speaker 4: it's wildly underreported. I also think that you know, something
Speaker 4: else to address is people who are undocumented are posing
Speaker 4: a significant risk of being trafficked under this current political climate.
Speaker 4: Marginalized groups, people of color, Indigenous women, if you are
Speaker 4: marginalized in any other facet of life, that is something
Speaker 4: that can be used to exploit you in order to
Speaker 4: traffic you something. Another special consideration is LGBTQ plus youth
Speaker 4: oftentimes if they're not accepted at home based on their
Speaker 4: sexual orientation or gender expression or gender identity, and they
Speaker 4: run away. Right, you look at runaway youth and what
Speaker 4: vulnerabilities they have, one for basic necessities, but also just
Speaker 4: for love and acceptance, and if someone will give that
Speaker 4: to them and also exploit that, then that creates sort
Speaker 4: of a perfect storm for human trafficking. So I think
Speaker 4: that you know, there is a heavy focus on young
Speaker 4: women and girls, and there should be, because they do
Speaker 4: make up the most of the statistics. But I think
Speaker 4: that there's also one like an intersectionality of like, okay, well,
Speaker 4: if it's an indigenous young girl, if it's a African
Speaker 4: American young girl, if it's a Latina undocumented young girl,
Speaker 4: those vulnerabilities obviously increase. But also we shouldn't shy away
Speaker 4: from talking about young boys and men and how they
Speaker 4: are also exploited this way.
Speaker 3: You know, that's a great point. And I saw some
Speaker 3: staggering statistics involving suicide with young men and we're getting ignored.
Speaker 3: They really are a conversation for another day. But I
Speaker 3: think an important point to make here, which brings us
Speaker 3: to our next how do we recognize when someone is
Speaker 3: being trafficked? Is there a sign to look for. Often
Speaker 3: there are normal situations out for dinner or whatever. Is
Speaker 3: there anything in particular we can look for?
Speaker 4: So, I mean, I think that it's important to note
Speaker 4: that human trafficking can look different depending on the type
Speaker 4: of trafficking, but also depending on the industry and depending
Speaker 4: on the person. I think that it's not something that
Speaker 4: you know you'll be at a restaurant and be like,
Speaker 4: there's trafficking right there, right like, and it's I think
Speaker 4: it's naive to think that you're going to spot it
Speaker 4: in that way unless you're seeing someone being forcibly kidnapped,
Speaker 4: like you see in the movie Taken as an example.
Speaker 4: But I think that if you're a service provider, if
Speaker 4: you're not just in the Center for Safety and Change,
Speaker 4: but if you do any type of trauma informed work
Speaker 4: at all, you know, maybe having some screening questions to
Speaker 4: ask someone what's your living situation, like where do you work?
Speaker 4: Do you feel like you're free to leave? Do you
Speaker 4: feel like you're free to come and go as you wish?
Speaker 4: You know, if someone is has tattoos and bruises that
Speaker 4: they can't explain or can't quite sort of give an
Speaker 4: answer to you for that's something to look out for.
Speaker 4: It's not so much that like one particular thing will
Speaker 4: immediately make something human trafficking, but it's oftentimes the totality
Speaker 4: of the circumstances. And so something that I always tell
Speaker 4: people is, you know, someone could be withdrawn, but that
Speaker 4: can be human trafficking. That could be they're shy, that
Speaker 4: could be you know. So it's important to also sort
Speaker 4: of see other things to create a more holistic picture,
Speaker 4: but also be a place where or a person where
Speaker 4: people feel like they can trust you with disclosing because
Speaker 4: oftentimes people don't self identify as a victim or a
Speaker 4: survivor of human trafficking. It's usually when they're talking to someone,
Speaker 4: usually a service provider, and we're able to say, do
Speaker 4: you know that everything that you're describing sounds like this?
Speaker 4: Do you feel like that's what happened to you?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 4: And then we can kind of take it from there.
Speaker 3: Good segue into my next question. If someone were to
Speaker 3: find themselves in that situation and wanted to escape, are
Speaker 3: there subtle signs? I mean, you've seen it sometimes on
Speaker 3: social media, a hand signal, a certain sequence of words.
Speaker 3: Is there anything like that that's considered a signal that
Speaker 3: people can look for that someone might be giving.
Speaker 4: I think, I mean, there is that signal with the
Speaker 4: hands that I've seen sort of most popular on social media,
Speaker 4: and I have seen it on human trafficking websites. But
Speaker 4: I also think it's important to note that what escaping
Speaker 4: and getting out looks like for everyone can vary, and
Speaker 4: we want to ensure that victims and survivors are in
Speaker 4: the safest position possible to get out whatever that looks
Speaker 4: like for them, and it will be customized and it
Speaker 4: will be personalized. And so, you know, there was a situation.
Speaker 4: I can actually bring up a case example where a
Speaker 4: client that I was working with was a victim of
Speaker 4: sex trafficking and although she was moved around a lot,
Speaker 4: her main hub was Corona, Queens And while in Corona Queens,
Speaker 4: the one thing that she was able to do as
Speaker 4: part of the trafficking scheme was send money back home
Speaker 4: to her mom who was taking care of her children.
Speaker 4: And it was like a Western Union type of money
Speaker 4: sending place. And so she was oftentimes, you know, taken
Speaker 4: there by the traffickers who would wait outside. She would
Speaker 4: go inside and do whatever, and then they would escort
Speaker 4: her out the person working at this Western Union type
Speaker 4: place said, you know, I don't know what's going on
Speaker 4: with you. I see strange men with you every single time.
Speaker 4: You seem a little, you know, nervous all the time.
Speaker 4: My brother is a detective with the Bring Valley Police Department.
Speaker 4: Here's his business card, and if you ever feel the
Speaker 4: need to do whatever, you hold onto it. And she
Speaker 4: held onto this card for seven months before she decided
Speaker 4: to call the police and decided that that was the
Speaker 4: time for her to be able to get out and escape.
Speaker 4: And I think that what I want to highlight with
Speaker 4: that story in particular is it takes very little right
Speaker 4: to be able to at least spark the seed of
Speaker 4: hope in a victim of or survivor in order to
Speaker 4: get out. This guy wasn't trying to save her quote unquote, right,
Speaker 4: He's not going around being like, you know, for you whatever,
Speaker 4: But he is offering this gesture, and she took it
Speaker 4: upon herself, however, many months later, when she felt ready
Speaker 4: to be able to get out of her situation. And
Speaker 4: so I think that that's important to really sort of
Speaker 4: recognize that people are in control of when it is
Speaker 4: that they want to get out well, they're not necessarily control,
Speaker 4: but they should be the ones in control of when
Speaker 4: it is that they feel like it's safe to get out.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Love when it works out like this perfect say
Speaker 3: into my next question, we as as this person with
Speaker 3: the Western Union or the money Graham whatever sending the money,
Speaker 3: realize something was up? When when? When we do? If
Speaker 3: we have suspicions, what are some of the things we
Speaker 3: can do to as you mentioned, at least get the
Speaker 3: ball rolling? What are those things?
Speaker 5: So?
Speaker 4: I mean, if you are local to Rockland County, I
Speaker 4: think giving them information about the Center for Safety and
Speaker 4: Change is great. Right, Hey, there's a agency that helps
Speaker 4: victims and survivors of crimes. Maybe you should look into this. Right,
Speaker 4: they help human trafficking because again, most people don't know
Speaker 4: to self identify. So it's also important to note that
Speaker 4: if you're somewhere, if you're in North Dakota and it's
Speaker 4: and you're seeing something happening that's off, there is the
Speaker 4: human trafficking hotline that people can call, and so that
Speaker 4: the human trafficking hotline is great, which you mentioned in
Speaker 4: your statistics earlier based on how many calls and tips
Speaker 4: that they got. But that's great because it connects people
Speaker 4: to the most local of this provider that can help them.
Speaker 4: And so that's why you know, it's something I always
Speaker 4: plug in addition to the Center for Safety and Change
Speaker 4: as a resource, because you could be in a situation
Speaker 4: where you're in you know, the middle of nowhere, but
Speaker 4: you're seeing something that's off and you're like, well, I
Speaker 4: can't give them the Central for Safety and Changes number,
Speaker 4: what are they going to do with that from here?
Speaker 4: But you can give them this National Trafficking hotline and
Speaker 4: they'll be able to connect them to resources.
Speaker 3: And we'll be giving all that information a little bit
Speaker 3: later on in the program. Two part question. You know
Speaker 3: social media factors into everything we do, Yes, everything, good, bad,
Speaker 3: and different. The good enabled me to contact you through
Speaker 3: the safety through social media. The bad is some of
Speaker 3: the things we're going to talk about the role that
Speaker 3: it plays in sex trafficking and with a particular word, uh,
Speaker 3: sex stortion. And you had a particular example of something
Speaker 3: that happened right here where where our broadcast m and
Speaker 3: from here in Rockland County. So in stages if you
Speaker 3: will a little bit about how social media has changed everything,
Speaker 3: how sextortion plays a role within that and the story
Speaker 3: itself as an example of how dangerous it can be
Speaker 3: and harmful.
Speaker 4: Please sure, So I think it's important to note that,
Speaker 4: let's say, for the most recent generations that we're talking about,
Speaker 4: you know, gen z Jen Alfa, they don't know a
Speaker 4: life before the Internet. True, they are also getting cell
Speaker 4: phones at five, six, seven years old, and you know,
Speaker 4: you see the damage that it does to adults who
Speaker 4: grew up without the Internet and are susceptible to falling
Speaker 4: victim to scams or anything like that on social media.
Speaker 4: And so imagine being an impressionable child with quite literally
Speaker 4: all of the information of the world in the palm
Speaker 4: of your hands that you can search, and having Instagram,
Speaker 4: snap Chat, every TikTok, on every single gaming app you
Speaker 4: can imagine. And while that's great for their sense of
Speaker 4: community building and entertaining and all of that, and obviously
Speaker 4: social media has its its benefits, the dangerous side of
Speaker 4: social media is that now predators know that kids are
Speaker 4: on Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, these gaming apps, and they will
Speaker 4: use that to exploit them.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 4: So, we've seen situations where let's say someone is on
Speaker 4: roadblocks and they are pulled into some group chat randomly
Speaker 4: and they're like, okay, accept because we're playing a game,
Speaker 4: and then out of nowhere, you know, the person on
Speaker 4: the other end says, well, we actually have all of
Speaker 4: your information. We know where you go to school, we
Speaker 4: know your address, we know how to get in contact
Speaker 4: with your mother, your father, we know where your little
Speaker 4: sister plays volleyball. And if you don't send us insert
Speaker 4: request here, whether it's oftentimes it's sexually explicit material in
Speaker 4: the form of pictures and videos. But if you don't
Speaker 4: send us this, then we'll go after your sister. Well
Speaker 4: you know, we'll harass your mom, your dad, will put
Speaker 4: your information up on the school website. And so children,
Speaker 4: being naturally afraid, will submit and give the person or
Speaker 4: the people this sexually explicit material. And then now they
Speaker 4: can use that to not just get more sexually explicit material,
Speaker 4: but continue on with threats and then keep a hold
Speaker 4: of these children who don't know that there is a
Speaker 4: way out and that there's help. And we saw that
Speaker 4: most recently at a local middle school where a fellow
Speaker 4: student was doing that to his classmates.
Speaker 3: Well not even an adult, it's fellow student. Wow.
Speaker 4: And so we see financial extortion and a sextortion where
Speaker 4: you know someone is trying to get money out of
Speaker 4: you with gift cards, you know, cash, appell whatever, in
Speaker 4: order to not submit or not publish sexually explicit material
Speaker 4: that you've sent before. But we also see it just
Speaker 4: for the purposes of getting more and more sexually explicit material.
Speaker 4: And while that in and of itself is not human trafficking,
Speaker 4: we recognize that whatever can make you vulnerable to a
Speaker 4: trafficker includes past sexual abuse, trauma, et cetera. So it
Speaker 4: can lead to a more dangerous trafficking scheme. And it's already,
Speaker 4: you know, on the rise among our youth ever since
Speaker 4: the pandemic.
Speaker 3: In our discussions to prepare for today, one of the
Speaker 3: things you mentioned that didn't come up in my head.
Speaker 3: Of course, we shared some like mindedness. Of course, what
Speaker 3: was the World Cup and what role the World Cup?
Speaker 3: It's coming to New York, the New York area, et cetera,
Speaker 3: And you said it plays a role. Explained if you would.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So sporting events are actually huge hubs of human
Speaker 4: trafficking activity, which people don't think about because you're like, oh,
Speaker 4: I'm here to watch football, I'm here to watch soccer,
Speaker 4: I'm here to you know, enjoy the game. And while
Speaker 4: that's true for a bunch of the audience, it can facilitate,
Speaker 4: you know, bringing girls from other parts of the country
Speaker 4: so that people can sectually exploit them. It includes, you know,
Speaker 4: trafficking for labor workers that you know, work however many
Speaker 4: hours and don't get paid what they're worth. Because this
Speaker 4: event needs to move forward. And so while the World
Speaker 4: Cup is happening in New Jersey, it's important to note
Speaker 4: that there will be some overflowing rock And County. By
Speaker 4: all accounts, Piermont, you know, touches Bergen County in New
Speaker 4: Jersey very closely, and so to think that there won't
Speaker 4: be an overflow of people staying in our hotels locally
Speaker 4: who may want to travel to games, or that there
Speaker 4: won't be watch parties at different local businesses where that
Speaker 4: can also happen, I think would be naive. And so
Speaker 4: I think that as a county, we need to prepare
Speaker 4: for what that may look like, right, And I think
Speaker 4: that for the center of saighteen change in particular, we
Speaker 4: started our entire sort of practice in working with human
Speaker 4: trafficking victims years ago when the Super Bowl came to
Speaker 4: New Jersey and that was the Super Bowl. You know,
Speaker 4: it's one day, it's a week long event of like
Speaker 4: free events, et cetera leading up to it. The World
Speaker 4: Cup is like months, like weeks of not just preparation
Speaker 4: the games, you know, the aftermath. The players are staying
Speaker 4: locally as well. And so to think that that might
Speaker 4: not ever touch Rock and County, or or that it's
Speaker 4: happening in New Jersey, so it's going to stay in
Speaker 4: New Jersey, I think it would be naive of service providers,
Speaker 4: and I think we need to as a community come
Speaker 4: to terms with what that can look like locally.
Speaker 3: Mentioned in the intro too, against disturbing because it seems
Speaker 3: to be increasing and you're like, why why there has
Speaker 3: been increased awareness even funky movies, as you mentioned, and
Speaker 3: the bad guys get punished in the most terrible ways.
Speaker 3: Hodjus's exactly, And there's the real world. But in the
Speaker 3: real world the statistics seem to be increasing.
Speaker 4: Why so, I think it's a matter of the availability
Speaker 4: of social media and how access to people has increased
Speaker 4: over recent years. I also think there's something to be
Speaker 4: said about other factors that play a role. You know,
Speaker 4: we're kind of in a charged political climate, and what
Speaker 4: that does for marginalized groups who feel very isolated, who
Speaker 4: feel very fearful of how they may be affected. We're
Speaker 4: also looking at things like climate change and what that
Speaker 4: does for mass migrations of people from other countries who
Speaker 4: are experiencing drought and the coffee rust and you know,
Speaker 4: things like that, and so, you know, while it ebbs
Speaker 4: and flows like everything else does, I think there's something
Speaker 4: to be said about human trafficking in particular, where people
Speaker 4: that were maybe you know, in the drug industry, before
Speaker 4: you sell a drug and it's gone and it's in
Speaker 4: the but you can continue to sell a person over
Speaker 4: and over and over again and continue to exploit them.
Speaker 4: And so that's what makes it the lucrative business that
Speaker 4: it is. And I think that that's why we're seeing
Speaker 4: an increase in people using this industry to further exploit others.
Speaker 3: Right then, part two, that question what do we do?
Speaker 3: What can be done?
Speaker 4: I think talking about it it goes such a long way.
Speaker 4: I think educating ourselves on it. You can go on
Speaker 4: the Center for Safety and Changes website. You can go
Speaker 4: on the National Human Trafficking Hotlines website. New York By
Speaker 4: all accounts is the fourth state, number four on tips
Speaker 4: of human trafficking that get reported to the National Trafficking Hotline,
Speaker 4: with California, Texas, and Florida being states one through three.
Speaker 4: And so that's significant, right if we understand and as
Speaker 4: you mentioned earlier, human trafficking touches all fifty states, but
Speaker 4: obviously some states are more effective than others, and if
Speaker 4: we're number four of fifty, then that means that it's
Speaker 4: happening quite literally in our own backyards. And so I
Speaker 4: think informing ourselves looking for information is so important. Raising
Speaker 4: awareness through public platforms like this is so important. So
Speaker 4: I very much appreciate the invitation to speak about this
Speaker 4: very important topic, and I think just staying informed.
Speaker 3: You have some events schedule, we're can talk take a
Speaker 3: quick break. We're going to talk about very excited movie
Speaker 3: at the NIAC Center specifically on human trafficking. Other events
Speaker 3: give you an opportunity to give websites you mentioned information
Speaker 3: about hotlines and how the people can contact you get
Speaker 3: to the Center for Safety and Change. There's a lot
Speaker 3: lot more to discuss in some really good information. I
Speaker 3: really want to talk about that film. It sounds really interesting.
Speaker 3: So my very special guest is Stephanie Ofvalis from the
Speaker 3: Center for Safety and Change here in Rockland County. We're
Speaker 3: talking about human trafficking, how it happens, why it happens,
Speaker 3: and what we can do about it. We've got so
Speaker 3: much more coming up on Being Frank. I'm your host,
Speaker 3: Frank Lebono, will be right back right after these brief
Speaker 3: commercial messages. Don't go anywhere yet, Hudson River.
Speaker 1: Radio dot com.
Speaker 4: This is Hudson River Radio dot com.
Speaker 1: Hudson River Radio dot com, Hudson River Radio dot com.
Speaker 3: Welcome back to Being Frank, the Intelligent Conversation podcast. Thanks
Speaker 3: for sticking with us. I'm your hosts Frank Bubono and
Speaker 3: as always our engineer as the mailman, mister Neil Richter.
Speaker 3: We bring our audience a fresh topic every week and
Speaker 3: we stream from Hudson River Radio, located and beautiful and
Speaker 3: historic Stony Point, New York. But remember you can catch
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Speaker 3: All right, let's get back to our guest Stephaniel Vaalis
Speaker 3: from the Center for Safety and Change here in Rocklean County,
Speaker 3: and we're discussing human trafficking, what it's about, how to
Speaker 3: recognize it, when we do, what we can do about it,
Speaker 3: and also an effort to raise awareness. We mentioned before
Speaker 3: the break, we tease that there are a few events
Speaker 3: coming up. One of them, in particular is a movie
Speaker 3: that's coming up at the NIAC Center this Sunday. Let
Speaker 3: me check my county the eleventh, So if you're watching
Speaker 3: us before then, highly recommended, please tell us a little
Speaker 3: bit more about the film.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So we are having an event on January eleventh, and
Speaker 4: the significance of January eleventh is that it's actually National
Speaker 4: We're Blue Day, So it is although the entire month
Speaker 4: is dedicated to raising awareness on human trafficking, on this
Speaker 4: particular day, it's a call to action for people to
Speaker 4: wear blue to stand in solidarity with victims and survivors.
Speaker 4: With that said, we are screening a frontline PBS investigative
Speaker 4: documentary on a Ohio egg farm and how it exploited
Speaker 4: young Guatemalan youth back in twenty fourteen, and you know
Speaker 4: how it started, how they were brought into the scheme,
Speaker 4: what happened during, and it kind of really gives you
Speaker 4: a nice ark of how this begins, what the scheme
Speaker 4: looks like, and the deplorable conditions that they were in,
Speaker 4: and what healing looks like after and what justice can
Speaker 4: look like after. And so it's going to be a
Speaker 4: great film. It's at the Nayac Center. Doors open at
Speaker 4: three pm. The event is free, and after the event,
Speaker 4: I will be moderating a panel discussion. We have someone
Speaker 4: from the FBI, we have someone from the Department of Labor,
Speaker 4: and we have someone from the Naiak School District. And
Speaker 4: so the hope is to give a really sort of
Speaker 4: holistic view of what that looks like from people that
Speaker 4: are on the front lines dealing with this day in
Speaker 4: and day out.
Speaker 3: He's the title. The title of the documentary is it.
Speaker 4: Is Traffic in America.
Speaker 3: Traffic and which is you know, quite descriptive, you know,
Speaker 3: And I want to continue on to information and websites
Speaker 3: and so important. But you mentioned something, and it came
Speaker 3: up also in the nature of the film that you're
Speaker 3: going to show, and that's the changing attitude towards migrants
Speaker 3: in this country who had a play and still play
Speaker 3: a vital role in our economy on virtually every level.
Speaker 3: How does the whole idea of deportation, the policies involved
Speaker 3: with the administration and ice you mentioned it somewhat, but
Speaker 3: get into it a little bit more detail. How difficult
Speaker 3: it can be for these people than to even for
Speaker 3: their own health, safety and well being, which is then
Speaker 3: if you extrapolate us for everybody's health and safe well being.
Speaker 3: I don't understand how they don't get the connection. When
Speaker 3: everyone is safe and healthy, then every.
Speaker 4: Safe from the first Yeah, exactly, Yeah.
Speaker 3: You know, it shouldn't be that hard. But how this
Speaker 3: is creating a whole new world of fear and I
Speaker 3: always call it, I steal it from hundred Times and
Speaker 3: fear and loanly.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So, I mean, I think it's important to note that
Speaker 4: by all accounts, undocumented migrants and immigrants have been uh,
Speaker 4: sort of the most some of the most exploited people
Speaker 4: in our labor and in workforce for all of time.
Speaker 4: Right because of that continuous vulnerability of the threat of deportation. Unfortunately,
Speaker 4: what this current administration has done is really stoke fear
Speaker 4: through large ice raids, enforcement, et cetera. And so people
Speaker 4: that thought that they may have been safe because you know,
Speaker 4: there are otherwise upstanding citizens. They're a single mom with
Speaker 4: three US citizen kids. They're this, They're that are finding
Speaker 4: themselves in a situation where you know, other people who
Speaker 4: know their situation can more easily manipulate and exploit and
Speaker 4: use that threat of deportation against them. There's also something
Speaker 4: to be said about people who are losing their temporary
Speaker 4: protected status. And so while this is you know, it's
Speaker 4: not just an attack on what's illegal immigration. And I'm
Speaker 4: saying that in quotes for the viewers because by all accounts,
Speaker 4: you know, it's a civil offense, it's not a criminal offense.
Speaker 4: But that's neither here nor there. I won't get too
Speaker 4: much into that. But for people that have temporary protected
Speaker 4: status like Venezuelans and everything that's going on with Venezuela
Speaker 4: Aezuela currently, obviously you know, will shift that conversation moving forward.
Speaker 4: But they lost their temporary protected status back, you know,
Speaker 4: last year, and so what that meant for people was
Speaker 4: that people who previously had employment authorization documents or were
Speaker 4: parolled into the country were finding themselves in situations where
Speaker 4: now employers didn't want to hire them because they were
Speaker 4: afraid of again the ice rays enforcement, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 4: And so we even had a recent case coming out
Speaker 4: of Rockham County where you know, people were that was
Speaker 4: used against someone to sexually exploit them.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 4: And so people who were previously protected, who were previously
Speaker 4: perfectly fine, you know, now found themselves in this situation
Speaker 4: where the threat of deportation, the threat of our current
Speaker 4: charged political climate could absolutely be used against them. And
Speaker 4: we see that most often in the agricultural sector, for
Speaker 4: labor trafficking in particular, and that's what this film in
Speaker 4: particular highlights because it is an Ohio egg farm. And
Speaker 4: I think that the other important things I think in
Speaker 4: the world of human trafficking, sex trafficking is what gets
Speaker 4: a lot more attention, and it gets a lot more
Speaker 4: sensationalized than labor trafficking does. And I also wanted to
Speaker 4: highlight the fact that it's young men that are victimized
Speaker 4: in this scheme because the focus is so often young
Speaker 4: women and girls and sex traffic men, sometimes young young
Speaker 4: boys don't get the help and the attention that they
Speaker 4: need in this realm.
Speaker 3: That's this Sunday, the eleventh of January at the Nayak Center.
Speaker 3: Contact the Center for more information. Four PM. Traffic in
Speaker 3: America is the film with a panel discussion afterwards. Sounds
Speaker 3: outstanding and very important, and I think people should know
Speaker 3: that they have a resource and recourse in the Center
Speaker 3: for Safety and Change. Give us a little bit more
Speaker 3: information about how people can contact you and how they
Speaker 3: can get in touch with the Center and also the
Speaker 3: national hotline as well. If you give us that information, please.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And I'm going to expand on that a little
Speaker 4: bit to also highlight the fact that we do offer well,
Speaker 4: we've always done anti human trafficking work at the Center.
Speaker 4: We were recently received a grant that has been in
Speaker 4: effect for a year, and so not only are we
Speaker 4: able to offer uh, you know, therapy services, legal intervention,
Speaker 4: which we were always doing, now we're doing it with
Speaker 4: a very specific lens to human trafficking. And in addition
Speaker 4: to that, we have case management that is specific to
Speaker 4: human trafficking as well. And so if someone is a
Speaker 4: victim or a survivor. If other service providers identify victims
Speaker 4: and survivors, they can always refer to the Center for
Speaker 4: Safety and Change. The hotline for the Center for Safety
Speaker 4: and Change is twenty four hours and the number to
Speaker 4: call is A four five six three four three three
Speaker 4: four four. Once again, the number is eight four five
Speaker 4: six three four three three four four, and I will
Speaker 4: emphasize again that it is a twenty four hour hotline.
Speaker 4: In the event that you don't feel like it is
Speaker 4: safe to call and instead it's much safer two texts
Speaker 4: or if that's what you're able to do, then you
Speaker 4: can call that hotline and have or go on our
Speaker 4: website and click a chat now button to be able
Speaker 4: to talk to an advocate. If you find yourself listening
Speaker 4: to this podcast North Dakota, like you know.
Speaker 3: You believe it or not.
Speaker 4: I'm sure you have yours from all over the place.
Speaker 4: But if you find yourself in a situation where you
Speaker 4: are a victim a survivor, if you know someone who
Speaker 4: is a victim or a survivor and you want to
Speaker 4: contact the National Human Trafficking Hotline, that number is eight
Speaker 4: eight eight three seven three seven eight eight eight. I'm
Speaker 4: going to repeat that one more time eight three seven
Speaker 4: three seven eight eight eight. And they are great because
Speaker 4: they will connect you to whatever local service provider is
Speaker 4: nearest to you to be able to get services.
Speaker 3: Final thoughts, Stephanie.
Speaker 4: I think you know I want to. It's always my
Speaker 4: mission every single January to like talk to as many
Speaker 4: people as possible about Human Trafficking Awareness Month in particular,
Speaker 4: not only because it's a cause near and dear to
Speaker 4: me in particular, but because it's such a lucrative, perminal
Speaker 4: activity that happens worldwide, and it doesn't matter who you are,
Speaker 4: where you come from, what state you live in, it
Speaker 4: happens everywhere. And while there is estimated that most of
Speaker 4: the victims are young women and girls, you know, when
Speaker 4: we talk about what that looks like, the average age
Speaker 4: of a child exploited in the US is like twelve
Speaker 4: to fourteen years old. And so we want people to
Speaker 4: know that there is help in that there are people
Speaker 4: who are fighting the good fights and want to help them.
Speaker 4: And so, you know, we talk about the exploitation of
Speaker 4: children in the age, you know, children still represent like
Speaker 4: one in five people enforced labor all over the world,
Speaker 4: which is three point three million people estimated, and that's
Speaker 4: just from what's reported. The reason why I, you know,
Speaker 4: I will talk about this topic till I run out
Speaker 4: of breath is because there are for every victim that
Speaker 4: we help and that we serve, there are so many
Speaker 4: victims and survivors that have not come forward, and so
Speaker 4: we want to make sure all platforms, all sort of
Speaker 4: social media that they know that there is help available
Speaker 4: to them.
Speaker 3: Stephanielle Valleys from the Center of Safety and Change, thank
Speaker 3: you so much for being Frank and your intelligent conversation.
Speaker 4: Thank you for having me again. I want my merch
Speaker 4: next time.
Speaker 3: You got two more to Please also thank Elizabeth Rosa Santiago,
Speaker 3: the executive director who facilitates these conversations for us. Please
Speaker 3: do so. She's great and it's such a wonderful organization.
Speaker 3: Keep up the good work.
Speaker 4: Thank you so much, Frank. Nice seeing you again.
Speaker 3: And of course we offer special thanks to our listeners
Speaker 3: who take time to give us a voice in their lives.
Speaker 3: We offer fresh topic every week. Catch us wherever and
Speaker 3: whenever you get your favorite podcasts, and that includes Apple, Spotify,
Speaker 3: iHeart Radio and all the rest. Check us out on
Speaker 3: the Hudson River Radio Facebook page. Leave us a comment
Speaker 3: and share the program if you like us, you know,
Speaker 3: always leave here with two little things to kind of
Speaker 3: wrap us up. When a slogan and then some original music.
Speaker 3: And I always try to pick something that I think
Speaker 3: is appropriate to our conversation, and I usually get pretty lucky,
Speaker 3: especially if you can't get one from Oscar Wilde, because
Speaker 3: he's just got so many. And I think this is
Speaker 3: very appropriate for our discussion today. I think you'll appreciate this, Stephanie.
Speaker 3: He said, everyone may not be good, but there's always
Speaker 3: something good in everyone. Never judge anyone shortly, because every
Speaker 3: saint has a past and every sinner has a future. Yes,
Speaker 3: it's my good stuff. I wish I made that up,
Speaker 3: but I can't steal his. Sorry way, all right, guys,
Speaker 3: don't believe You's some great music from our good friend
Speaker 3: always rocking mister Bobby Deblasio with God Don't get no rest.
Speaker 3: There's your title, okay For our engineer Neil Richter the Mailman,
Speaker 3: I'm your host, Frank Lebono. We hope to have you
Speaker 3: join us. And next being Frank, We're the only way
Speaker 3: to be is Frank, stay safe everyone.
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Speaker 1: Hudson River radio dot com