We are grateful for Kirsten Scharnberg and Hugh Dellios’ two-part series on the attempts to identify both the victims and the perpetrators of the horrifying deaths of 11 migrants in a rail car this fall. The article was a poignant reminder of the desperation that moves people to take such risks to enter the U.S. and of the human tragedy that all too often ensues.
But the article erroneously interchanged the terms “human trafficking” and “human smuggling.” Simply put, smuggling is a violation of a border, and trafficking is a violation of a human being. Human smuggling is the crime of aiding or abetting an alien to enter the United States in violation of immigration laws, and human trafficking is the crime of transporting or holding a person in conditions of slavery, for labor or for sexual exploitation. Although smuggling may produce victims, as in the tragic case of the immigrants who died in Iowa, human trafficking always produces victims.
Because human trafficking presents an immediate and egregious violation of human dignity and human rights, Congress has enacted legislation that allows certain victims access to services and to immigration relief in the U.S. The Midwest Immigrant & Human Rights Center, a program of Heartland Alliance for Human Needs and Human Rights, assists victims of human trafficking in obtaining freedom from their captors and durable solutions to their long-term needs.
