When undocumented clients come into Mayra Rodriguez-Alvarez’s office, they discover quickly
why she calls herself “the nosy lawyer.”
After becoming interested in human trafficking in 2022, the Hammond immigration attorney
made it a mission of hers to determine whether her clients are also being trafficked, she told a
room of more than 200 during the SAFE Coalition for Human Rights’s NWI United Nations
World Day Against Trafficking in Persons event at the Indian American Cultural Center in
Merrillville July 26. She has so far netted 25 cases since, two of which involve sex trafficking.
The rest, she said, are labor trafficking, where employers hire undocumented workers and then
pay them less than minimum wage and make them work longer hours with no days off, among
other things. If the worker tries to voice their rights, the bosses hang their “illegal” status over
their head like the Sword of Damocles, she said.
“Most people don’t even know they’re being trafficked,” she said. “I either hear, ‘Nah, I’m just
trying to work,” or when it clicks, they have a very emotional reaction.”
People would be stunned to know how many employers in Northwest Indiana engage in labor
trafficking, too, she said.
“There are a lot of affluent people who do it,” she said. “There’s farming, of course, but grocery
store butchers are a big one, too. And restaurateurs — it really makes me want to cook at home.
It’s that prevalent.”
Worldwide, human trafficking is a $351 billion business, said Indiana State Rep. John Bartlett,
D-Indianapolis, during the state legislator panel, but the ratio of labor trafficking to strictly sex
trafficking is hard to determine at any given time. What makes it more lucrative than even the
drug trade, however, is a “limitless supply.”
“If something happens to a drug shipment, that can take time to replenish, but if you sell people,
vou have the sex trade, slave trade, selling organs and selling babies. With that kind of money,
people will take that chance,” Bartlett said. “And let me be clear: Everyone is suspect. You’ll find
traffickers in all walks of life — including foster parents.”
Bartlett, along with State Senator Rodney Pol, D-Portage; State Rep. Earl Harris Jr., D-East
Chicago; and State Rep. Julie Olthoff, R-Crown Point, have attempted to get human trafficking
legislation heard in the General Assembly. During his second session in office, Pol introduced
S.B. 481, which would’ve required hospitality and sex-oriented businesses to first provide
training on identifying human trafficking, then would “put teeth” to penalties leveled on
businesses breaking the law, he said.
“Sex businesses profit in ways others don’t,” he said. “And inspections could be conducted by
commonly used organizations.”
Sentencing for traffickers would also have to be strengthened, Bartlett said.
“Right now, if you’re getting a year or two in prison, that’s just the cost
of business and they’ll go
right back. But if they face 25 years, that’s 25 years out of their life,” he said.
Victims would receive funds for transitional services under his bill, and hospital workers would
be trained to detect trafficking, Pol said.
Pol’s bill, nor other bills concerning trafficking, received hearings this past session, but the
legislators haven’t lost heart. It often takes seven years for a bill to get passed, plus there’s a 20%
attrition rate each election. so legislators need to talk to new colleagues and make them more
ar wr
aware of what exists and what could be done, Harris said.
There’s also a matter of getting the General Assembly’s Republican supermajority to reconcile
expunging trafficking charges with the fact that many people who’re trafficked are
undocumented, as well as the GOP’s propensity for deregulation. To that end, tugging at
heartstrings may be the order of the day.
“We have to appeal to them that this could be their daughters or their sons,” Harris said. “And
constituents, reach out to your reps!”
“When a candidate knocks on your door, ask where they stand on it,” Bartlett said.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
Human trafficking signs
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Thursday released a web page
detailing the signs voung workers should look for in identifying human trafficking.
https://www.eeoc.gov/youth/human-trafficking?
utm_ content=&utm_ medium=email&utm_name=8&utm_source=govdelivery&utm_term=
Among them are the following:
“The employer refuses to pay you or pays vou less than other workers; charges you unreasonable
amounts of money for food, transportation, housing, or supplies; restricts your movement —
refuses to let you leave where you work or live; or makes you work instead of going to school.
“Human traffickers may also break employment laws enforced by the EEOC. For example, it may
be illegal for your employer to treat you differently because of your sex, race, or national origin
by harassing you; refusing to pay you or paying you less than workers of other genders, races, or
national origins; punishing or threatening to punish you unless you date or sleep with your boss;
charging you unreasonable amounts of money for food, transportation, housing, or supplies;
limiting cipf-es.org the types of work you can do; applying different rules to you; or restricting your
movement — refusing to let you leave where you work or live. It is illegal for your employer to
punish or threaten to punish you for complaining about job discrimination.”