[froglipz]

According to Florida States Attorney Pam Bondi Florida has a major Human Trafficking problem that she is making her priority as States Attorney. Exactly where in Florida is all this Human Trafficking going on? I would think there would be more local news addressing this major problem!

[kyle19125]

Originally Posted by edwardvanderbosch

According to Florida States Attorney Pam Bondi Florida has a major Human Trafficking problem that she is making her priority as States Attorney. Exactly where in Florida is all this Human Trafficking going on? I would think there would be more local news addressing this major problem!

Not really since it doesn't address American women and children... Local news is largely very caught up on reporting how to keep your children safe and to sensationalize how they're not.

Florida ranks third in human trafficking nationally...

Florida Ranks Third In Human Trafficking But Can't Prosecute Many Cases | WLRN

[StarfishKey]

I'm not happy with her in general, but this is a good thing to be focused on. It is certainly a big problem, and needs a highly skilled team to be able to successfully crack down on it.

[froglipz]

What makes Florida such a good place for these "human traffickers". There must be something that is making this practice more effective in Florida? Somehow Florida government / law enforcement must have laws or practices that seem to not discourage the persons committing these crimes. In other words whats different with Florida?

[beachmouse]

It's a big problem any place where they have seasonal foreign workers- labor broker in Eastern Europe or Brazil makes all kinds of promises to college kids about how much money you can make during the summer or by taking a semester off to come work here. Which can be quite lucrative if the labor broker is honest- I've known Romanian college kids who spent their summers in Destin, lived frugally while in the States, and stashed away enough to pay cash for an apartment in Bucharest upon graduation.

The problem comes with the dishonest ones- they'll promise a girl a job as a restaurant waitress and then she gets here and her job is in a strip club, and she needs to turn over 80% of her tips to cover her employer-provided housing, and her employer also claims that they need to hold her passport while she is here. Or they'll be promised housing in general, but once they get here, they're told that they need to pay $1200/month to hot bunk in a two bedroom townhouse with seven other people, said townhouse rented by the employment broker for $2000/month total from a third party.

The federal government has been useless, regardless of which party hold the White House. It's hard to convince girls to stick around testify against former employers because most of them just want to go back home at that point, and unless things have changed recently, most of them didn't come in on visas that would allow them to legally keep working in the USA until a case comes to trial which can be a year or two out for complicated cases with good defense lawyers.

The sheriff's office tries, and some of the churches are actually quite good about outreach-no preaching other than a weekly dinner for foreign guest workers and talks about your legal rights as an employee in America. But the trafficers still have a lot more resources than the locals do, so it keeps happening.

[Enigma777]

Originally Posted by edwardvanderbosch

According to Florida States Attorney Pam Bondi Florida has a major Human Trafficking problem that she is making her priority as States Attorney. Exactly where in Florida is all this Human Trafficking going on? I would think there would be more local news addressing this major problem!

I'm surprised she can take time off from lobbying against legal medical marijuana and pushing her anti-gay agenda to deal with this.

[StarfishKey]

Originally Posted by edwardvanderbosch

What makes Florida such a good place for these "human traffickers". There must be something that is making this practice more effective in Florida? Somehow Florida government / law enforcement must have laws or practices that seem to not discourage the persons committing these crimes. In other words whats different with Florida?

I'm not sure why you're asking, because you don't seem knowledgeable at all about the subject of human trafficking. But have you ever been to Miami? There's a good reason there.

Also, Florida is surrounded on 3 sides by water, is at the bottom of the country, and is near a great many countries with trafficking issues. Florida has an enormous population, a huge percentage of which are transient, tourist, living here from other countries, and/or illegal. There are people with big money and criminal intent in Florida. There is also corruption - many local officials are willing to be bought off to look the other way. Tons of people - especially young people - want to come here and have no plan or money, and its so easy to get tricked into that world when you are vulnerable and don't have a lot of street smarts. All the more so kids who run away or don't have parents doing an adequate job of looking after them for other reasons. The same goes for immigrants desperate for money or a place to live who don't know the language or local laws, ESPECIALLY if they female and also got here illegally for whatever reason.

If you're interested in the topic, you should do some reading up on it, and a lot of your questions would be answered. If you understand the nature of how trafficking works, and why people do it to others as well as how victims end up in it, then you'll understand exactly why Florida is a prime place for such a thing to occur.

It's a dangerous world out there for the most vulnerable.

[FlyMIA]

Originally Posted by edwardvanderbosch

What makes Florida such a good place for these "human traffickers". In other words whats different with Florida?

Miami International Airport.

I used to work for DHS, human trafficking is a serious issue. Mainly for immigrants. Many who are forced to come into the U.S.

[kyle19125]

Originally Posted by Enigma777

I'm surprised she can take time off from lobbying against legal medical marijuana and pushing her anti-gay agenda to deal with this.

I know, is she hypocritical much? She's against granting a divorce to two legally wed women from another state, but hasn't had much issue going through the process twice on her own. Hardly surprising though given her political party affiliation since hypocrisy runs to the core there.

[tallrick]

Originally Posted by Enigma777

I'm surprised she can take time off from lobbying against legal medical marijuana and pushing her anti-gay agenda to deal with this.

She disgusts me. What kind of voter elects people like her?