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Indigenous and Latina Women & Children's Human
Rights News from the Americas |
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Latina Women & Children at Risk |
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The True Story of the
Sexual Exploitation
with Impunity of Latina Immigrant
Women and Children in Washington, DC and
its
Maryland and Virginia
Suburbs
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This
Section Last Updated: Nov. 14, 2010 |
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A Focus on Washington, DC and
Montgomery County, Maryland
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A crisis of rape with impunity and sexual slavery
severely impacts the lives of Latin American
immigrant women and girls in Greater Washington, DC |
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 This
section of
LibertadLatina.org
contains information regarding the exploitation
and abuse of Latina immigrant women and children
in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC and
within the greater Washington, DC region.
These factual materials document
a human rights crisis that has
in the past been hidden from
public view by a combination of
anti-immigrant apathy and
hostility and by a code of
silence within the affected
Latino communities. The
most dire result of this
disturbing pattern of reactions
has been that Latin women,
children and men victims of
criminal abuse and civil law
violations have often been
ignored, underserved and
at-times they have been openly
intimidated by government
institutions that their taxes
pay for, institutions that
should defend them!
From the author's experiences in participating
in and hearing first, second and third person
case histories in this region for 24 years,
including over 65 case stories and taking 6
Latina cases before the local U.S. Equal
Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC)
processor (now called the Montgomery County
Human Rights Office) and one Latina case
intervention before criminal court as a lay
advocate, it is clear that a problem exists.
Latina immigrant women and girls continue to be
sexually exploited largely because local
government agencies do not respond to this
crisis, and the perpetrators of criminal abuses
and civil sexual harassment law violations see
this and know that they can continue with
impunity. Other advocates (see social
worker's letter below) have come to the same
conclusion.
The children, women and men
victims of this illegal
exploitation deserve equal
protection under the law!
Let us all work together to make
that dream a reality soon!
Chuck Goolsby, September, 2003
- LibertadLatina
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The
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Slavery
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Maryland
Commission
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Federal
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Latina
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Links:
U.S.
Community Exploitation
for coverage
of community exploitation issues within the U.S.
U.S.
Workplace Exploitation
for
coverage
of
workplace exploitation issues
across the
United States
All of our reports and
commentaries:
1994 to
present
More
about
/ Mas
sobre
Chuck Goolsby
and
LibertadLatina.org
"I stand with other men who have
made a decision that enough is enough, and have
decided that the brutal men who act with impunity,
subjecting women and children to kidnapping, rape, torture,
domestic violence, murder and sex trafficking with impunity
will not continue to get away with it. We will stand
up and take these guys on and defend the
innocent. Our grandmothers, living and gone,
our mothers, our sisters and daughters deserve more than the
sexist apathy that currently plagues many male attitudes
about these severe forms of gender oppression..."
- Chuck Goolsby
LibertadLatina
Dec. 10,
2005
See also:
A
snapshot of the Latin music history of Washington, DC, by
Chuck Goolsby |
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Maryland, USA
Vice and Intelligence Detectives Develop Initiatives
Against Human Trafficking
Press Release
The detectives in the Vice and Intelligence Section of the Special Investigations Division of the Montgomery County Police Department want to advise the public of initiatives they have enacted to address the growing concern of human trafficking.
The crime of human trafficking / prostitution may be thought to be a victimless and voluntary crime. That notion is frequently portrayed in films and television shows but those story lines have very little to do with reality. Although it is true that the demand side of the crime is voluntary, the provider side is often not voluntary. The provider may not be a lone entity. The provider can be exploited for money and often coerced through violent means by individuals, and that may go unnoticed by the public and law enforcement. Frequently faceless corporations and persons that utilize the unregulated internet to openly promote illegal activities for a price benefit financially from this crime and fail to take any responsibility for it...
The Montgomery County Police Department is committed to addressing the true benefactors of human trafficking and making them accountable for their illegal activities. The following initiatives have been developed over the past year to address the use of the internet by individuals to promote and financially benefit from human trafficking:
1. The Vice Section has effectively shut down escort websites that blatantly advertise activities that are illegal in Maryland. No other crime is so openly confessed to in any forum as the crime of human trafficking. The Vice Section is using a variety of investigative techniques to make web hosts accountable for their complicity in the advertising of human trafficking. Consequently, Web Hosts are eliminating the internet site from their servers. This tactic has eliminated the internet sites for TGND Talent, Diamond Escorts, and Desirable Companions. Sadly, these sites are now moving to servers outside the USA to continue their illegal activities.
2. The Vice Section has effectively infiltrated the Erotic Review website and identified key members of the group. The Erotic Review is a website where members openly confess to illegal activities. The website’s members rate women’s appearance, sexual performance, etc. while providing information on contact numbers, organized crime outfits, and local police activities.
3. The Vice Section through plea agreements is now operating established and once legitimate escort internet sites where “johns” are currently providing names, places of employment, and contact numbers as if they are communicating with the now defunct service. These contacts are being utilized to arrange “john stings” and identify individuals on the demand side of human trafficking...
The trafficked individuals are the face of the business and consequently the most exposed and accountable to law enforcement and the judiciary. The true profiteers of human trafficking have learned to make large profits while allowing others to take all the risk. These legal investigative tactics are bringing vice investigations into the 21st century and making everyone involved in the organized crime of human trafficking accountable for their actions.
[Read the complete press release for additional
details]
Montgomery County Police Department
Nov. 08, 2010
See also:
LibertadLatina Commentary
Latina victims of sexual
exploitation continue to
be underserved in
Montgomery County,
Maryland
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Chuck Goolsby |
As a former civilian
computer programmer for
at Montgomery County
Police headquarters
during the 1990s, I
applaud the innovative
techniques that the
department is developing
to fight human
trafficking.
Keep up the
great work!
During the 1990s I made
a number of efforts to
raise awareness within
the department about the
extensive problem of
sexual exploitation
faced by Latina
immigrant girls and
women in the county.
Some officials at that
time expressed
disinterest in the
issue, while others
supported my efforts.
Today, tensions between
the regions vast
immigrant community and
police forces continue
to exist, unfortunately.
We support full law
enforcement in El
Barrio. At the same
time, we continue to
demand that Latin
American
immigrants, be they
legal or not, be
provided with equal
protection under the
law. That goal has
not-yet been achieved.
During March of 2010, I
attended an
anti-trafficking
training session for a
Parent Teacher
Association meeting at a
local high school.
Gaithersburg City Police
Officer Jesse Argueta, a
local anti-trafficking
task force member and an
excellent presenter on
human trafficking issues
was the keynote speaker.
I spoke up and mentioned
the fact that Latina
immigrant women and
girls, and particularly
those who are
undocumented in the city
of Gaithersburg and
across Montgomery and
neighboring Prince
Georges counties in
Maryland faced severe
sexual exploitation in
communities, at work and
in schools. I asked
Officer Argueta what
efforts were being made
to serve this
population. He responded
that local police
agencies planned to
focus on U.S. domestic
minor victims of
trafficking. He went on
to say that focusing on
those victims will lead
us to the immigrant
victims. Discussion of
the Latin immigrant
aspects of human
trafficking appeared to
make
Officer Argueta nervous,
a response that I have
seen in several public
settings when I ask
officials 'what is being
done for the Latina
victims?'
As an advocate for the
human rights of Latin
American immigrants in
Montgomery County for
the past 30 years, I
have to say that local
police forces and their
federal partners need to
provide equal protection
under the law to
undocumented immigrant
victims.
The problem of human
trafficking in the
region does not exist
only at the level of
Internet-based,
Craigslist-like
operations. It is
important to identify
those criminal
operations and shut them
down (I brought the
problem of local
trafficking on the Eros
web site mentioned in
the above MCPD press
release to
anti-trafficking NGO Polaris
Project’s attention in
2001). Beyond the
Internet, and beyond the
Korean and other Asian
massage parlors - exists a
vast underground network
of sexual slavery
operations that provide
unwilling Latina women and
underage girls to the
largely male
communities of
immigrants throughout the cities
and farm communities of
Maryland and neighboring
jurisdictions.
Criminal sex trafficking
operations in Maryland
and elsewhere hide
behind a very effective
smokescreen (a barrier
of non-communication and
distrust), that exists
due to: 1) the tense
relationship between
local police and law
enforcement; 2)
disinterest on the part
of police, at times, in
regard to protecting
women and girls from
exploitation because
they are immigrants; the
language barrier and
Latin American cultural
traditions of the ‘code
of silence,’ that
prevent intelligence
from reaching police (an
issue that exists
equally in Tijuana,
Mexico and across the
Americas); resistance to
addressing the issue
from within the
leadership of some
Latino community
organizations – often
because the topic
detracts from the
‘higher goal’ of
achieving immigrant
reform; and an unspoken,
yet existent reality
that especially some
male law enforcement
officers feel, that the
sexual exploitation of
immigrant women and
underage girls is
simply an unimportant
issue. I have run into
all of these attitudes
when advocating for the
human rights of victims
in Maryland.
I wrote words that are
effectively the same as
what I state in the
above paragraph in my
1994 report – The Sexual
Exploitation of Latin
American Immigrant Women
in Montgomery County,
Maryland. Unfortunately,
not much has changed
during the past 16
years.
Only continued
efforts to allow the
interests ‘Little Brown
Maria’ (our metaphor for
the voiceless victims) to be represented
at the ‘table’ of
jurisprudence and policy
discussion will achieve
real change. In the
meantime, a growing
legion of ‘Little Brown Marias’ is being bought
and sold right under our
noses – feeding a
voracious market as
authorities do… too
little to rescue her and
end this madness.
That is an unacceptable
and unsustainable
situation.
End impunity now.
Chuck Goolsby
LibertadLatina
Nov. 14, 2010
See also:
More about government
and NGO responses to the
mass sexual exploitation
of Latina girls and
women in the greater
Washington, DC region
In October of 2009 I
attended a presentation
at the University of
Baltimore Law School on
human trafficking. The
keynote speaker at the
event was Assistant U.S.
Attorney Solette
Magnelli, a leading
pioneer among federal
prosecutors in
developing effective
anti-trafficking
strategies and the
founder of the Maryland
Human Trafficking Task
Force. During her hour
long discourse on human
trafficking in Maryland,
Ms. Magnelli went into
detail about
anti-trafficking law,
and discussed cases of
domestic minor victims,
European immigrant teens
who are contracted to
work in restaurants in
the resort city of Ocean
City, only to be nudged
into prostitution, and
about cases of African
immigrant youth forced
to do hair braiding in
salons for free. During
the presentation, not
one word was said about
Latina immigrant women
and girl victims, who, I
believe, make up the
vast majority of victims
of sexual slavery in the
state of Maryland.
I asked Ms. Magnelli
about the response to
Latina victims. She did
not have anything to say
on the topic, except to
state that police
officers are now being
trained to be more
sensitive to victims,
such as the one young
teen victim in a case
that I mentioned at the
event, who was
completely ignored by
police when their help
was sought. I also
mentioned the case of a
federal agent who called
me and asked where to
find services for
victims they were
finding during the
investigation into a
$60,000 a week Latin
prostitution ring in the
city of Langley Park,
Maryland’s largest Latin
American immigrant
community. At the going
rate of $30 per 15
minute ‘session,’ that
one operation
represented an average
of 2,000 prostitution
events per week. That
one criminal enterprise
likely surpasses every
other sex trafficking
crime in Maryland, yet I
have never seen any
press reports of any
prosecutions coming out
of that case. Although
that agent’s phone call
too place perhaps 5
years before the 2009
forum, Ms. Magnelli
added nothing to my
comments about that
case.
Although certain members
of the Maryland Human
Trafficking Task Force
were perturbed that I
raised these issues in a
public forum (a reaction
that certainly shocked
me), two of Ms.
Magnelli’s fellow
assistant U.S.
attorney’s in Baltimore,
present at the event,
walked up to me, smiled,
shook my hand and
thanked me for directly
raising the issue of
Latina victims. Several
law students did the
same.
It is completely
disingenuous to discuss
human trafficking in any
setting without
acknowledging the
tragedy that Latina
women and girls
(including indigenous
and Afro-Latinas) are
facing at the hands of
sex traffickers and an
uncaring bureaucracy,
both in the United
States and across Latin
America.
In late 2009 Ambassador
Luis C. deBaca, the U.S.
State Department’s
director of its Office
to Monitor and Combat
Trafficking in Persons,
declared that 60% of
human trafficking
victims in the U.S. were
of Latin American
origin. It is now
impossible to leave
Latina women and girls
out of the discussion.
Their interests deserve
a ‘place at the table’
of enforcement
priorities and policy
initiatives.
On October 23, 2010, the
first Stop Human Slavery
rally on the National
Mall in Washington, DC,
was held. It was the
largest anti-trafficking
rally to date in the
nation’s capitol, and
was a great success.
About 35 organizations
set up tables to dialog
with the 2,000 or more
people who showed up to
march and express
support. Our
LibertadLatina
table was
the only representation
specifically focused on
Latina and indigenous
victims of human
trafficking.
The
director of one of the
region’s largest sexual
slavery victim rescue
and rehabilitation
operations told me at
the event that all
of the victims that they
are rescuing from the
populous Virginia suburbs of
Washington, DC had been
trafficked by major
Latin gangs.
It is time for rhetoric
of the region’s
anti-trafficking task
forces, in which they
state that they are
focusing on domestic
U.S. born and "legal
resident" minors, expand
to protect undocumented
Latina and other
immigrant girls and
women also. That community
represents the largest
group of victims, yet
their ‘invisibility’
allows local law
enforcement and
legislators to minimize
the services to the most vulnerable
among us.
There just is no excuse
for this. The general
public must hold elected
officials, police and
prosecutors accountable
for protecting ALL women
and children who face
exploitation in the
Washington, DC region
and throughout the U.S.
and the Americas.
Therefore, we speak.
End impunity now.
Chuck Goolsby
LibertadLatina
Nov. 14, 2010
See also:
The criminal
networks
that traffic
young Latina
women to the
Washington,
DC suburbs
in Maryland
and Virginia
described in
the below
Washington
Post story
continue to
exist in
identical
form in the
year 2004.
Enslaved
Latin women
and girls
are moved in
and out of
Latino
neighborhood-based
brothels in
Gaithersburg,
Maryland,
Washington,
DC,
Arlington,
Virginia and
within the
other Latin
communities
of the
region. Little
has changed
since 1994
for women
and girls
exploited in
prostitution.
- Chuck
Goolsby
2004
See also:
String of Latino
Brothels Found in
Va., Md. Suburbs:
Police Say Women
Come from New York
A growing number of
brothels catering to Latino men are opening in
the Washington suburbs, and police say a New
York prostitution ring may be responsible.
The brothels
mostly employ Latino
women from the New
York area, according
to investigators.
Court records
indicate that
virtually all charge
the same rates -- $
30 for 15 minutes of
sexual intercourse
-- and advertise
using the same kind
of business cards in
Spanish. They also
have the same
operating
procedures:
Prostitutes punch
playing cards or
score sheets to
tally each day's
customers. "Every
jurisdiction from
Arlington to
Montgomery County is
seeing the same
thing," said
Alexandria police
detective Harold
Duquette, a member
of the city's vice
squad, which is
investigating two of
the alleged
brothels.
-
The
Washington
Post
Sep. 21, 1994
See also:
LibertadLatina
Special Section
About the crisis of
sexual exploitation
facing Latin American
women and children in
Washington, DC and
Montgomery County,
Maryland
See also:
The Sexual
Exploitation of Latina
immigrant Women and
Girls in Montgomery
County, Maryland - a
Report
Chuck Goolsby
Feb. 1994
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During 1999 and 2000, previous to starting the
LibertadLatina.org
project,
Chuck Goolsby provided an e-mail based
newsletter of important community issues related
to the right of Latina women and children to
live free from sexual harassment, rape and
enslavement.
Here is text from one
example...
Detailed information on Latin Women Worker/Harassment & Other
Exploitation Issues
(A copy of this e-mail was sent to the U.S.
Justice Department, Civil Rights Division on
12/02/1999.)
Excerpt...
E-Mail Date: 12/02/99 10:04:28
Hello friends of human rights,
I wanted to present some background on the issue of sexual harassment
and the particular dynamics involved when the victims are Latin-American
Women and Girls.
At the local level, especially in Montgomery County, anti-immigrant and
anti-Latino sentiment blocks police, human relations commission and
social services staff from doing anything about these abuses.
I have documented over 50 cases since 1986, just from my
exposure to Latino workers in corporate and government office buildings
as I move around doing computer work.
This problem exists at severe levels in virtually every office
building, restaurant and hotel in the Washington, DC area.
The victim and potential victim community
represent a form of 'underclass' who literally
may be harassed, coerced, touched and raped,
while the perpetrators, be they Latino, White or
Black, or foreign born business owners and
managers of other ethnicity's... can operate
with confidence that the victim community is too
scared, and too pressured socially (to keep
quiet) to cause any trouble for these criminal perpetrators.
As you likely know, Latino immigrants are afraid of government in
general, afraid of the police, and are afraid of bosses on the job.
They are forced to work harder than "Americans" who know their
rights, and they are used to the exploitation.
I hear this from Central American immigrants almost every time I meet
someone.
In fact I heard it yesterday in a building I just started working
in.
In addition to sexual harassment and assault, illegal retaliatory
reprimands and firings occur, wages are withheld (CASA of Maryland, in
Takoma Park [Maryland], has a list of over 400 Washington, DC area cases
documented where Latino workers have not been paid by employers),
workers are sometimes actually physically beaten by managers, and other
such outrages occur.
These events are normal in much of Latin America.
And government agencies, employers, human rights activists and
community leaders have done virtually NOTHING to prevent or respond to
these issues.
Getting victims to come forward is going to require some intervention
from advocates like us.
In the past, very few victims have been willing to go through the
tedious, long duration hassle that bringing a case involves.
And those who have gone through the process have been virtually
spit upon time and again by the legal system.
I know this first hand because I've been there as de-facto legal
assistant and interpreter and negotiator many, many times.
The system will not listen to these victims...
- Chuck Goolsby
Dec. 02,
1999
|
|
|
During 1999 and 2000, previous to starting the
LibertadLatina.org
project,
Chuck Goolsby provided an e-mail based
newsletter of important community issues related
to the right of Latina women and children to
live free from sexual harassment, rape and
enslavement.
Here is text from one
example...
Detailed information on Latin Women Worker/Harassment & Other
Exploitation Issues
(A copy of this e-mail was sent to the U.S.
Justice Department, Civil Rights Division on
12/02/1999.)
Excerpt...
E-Mail Date: 12/02/99 10:04:28
Hello friends of human rights,
I wanted to present some background on the issue of sexual harassment
and the particular dynamics involved when the victims are Latin-American
Women and Girls.
At the local level, especially in Montgomery County, anti-immigrant and
anti-Latino sentiment blocks police, human relations commission and
social services staff from doing anything about these abuses.
I have documented over 50 cases since 1986, just from my
exposure to Latino workers in corporate and government office buildings
as I move around doing computer work.
This problem exists at severe levels in virtually every office
building, restaurant and hotel in the Washington, DC area.
The victim and potential victim community
represent a form of 'underclass' who literally
may be harassed, coerced, touched and raped,
while the perpetrators, be they Latino, White or
Black, or foreign born business owners and
managers of other ethnicity's... can operate
with confidence that the victim community is too
scared, and too pressured socially (to keep
quiet) to cause any trouble for these criminal perpetrators.
As you likely know, Latino immigrants are afraid of government in
general, afraid of the police, and are afraid of bosses on the job.
They are forced to work harder than "Americans" who know their
rights, and they are used to the exploitation.
I hear this from Central American immigrants almost every time I meet
someone.
In fact I heard it yesterday in a building I just started working
in.
In addition to sexual harassment and assault, illegal retaliatory
reprimands and firings occur, wages are withheld (CASA of Maryland, in
Takoma Park [Maryland], has a list of over 400 Washington, DC area cases
documented where Latino workers have not been paid by employers),
workers are sometimes actually physically beaten by managers, and other
such outrages occur.
These events are normal in much of Latin America.
And government agencies, employers, human rights activists and
community leaders have done virtually NOTHING to prevent or respond to
these issues.
Getting victims to come forward is going to require some intervention
from advocates like us.
In the past, very few victims have been willing to go through the
tedious, long duration hassle that bringing a case involves.
And those who have gone through the process have been virtually
spit upon time and again by the legal system.
I know this first hand because I've been there as de-facto legal
assistant and interpreter and negotiator many, many times.
The system will not listen to these victims...
- Chuck Goolsby
Dec. 02,
1999
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An Overview
Latina prostitution slavery exists in
almost every neighborhood in greater Washington.
It is well-known
that many of
the women and girls involved are forced
to work against their will, and that the
traffickers transport in new groups of them to
each apartment-based brothel every two weeks
from New York City, New
Jersey, Atlanta, and other major prostitution
markets.
Another source of women in
prostitution involves local Latina women and
girls who are subjected to severe sexual
harassment and rape by gang members and other
men. Some of these victims are pressured
into participating in prostitution, and others
actively choose what local Central American
Latinas call: "La vide facil" (the easy life).
Additional
Analysis
LibertadLatina's
Analysis of
the
Impunity and
Prostitution
in Langley
Park, MD,
Where
Brothels
Earn Many
Tens of
Thousands of
Dollars
Weekly.
Shut Down
Langley
Park's
Mega-Brothels!
Prostitution dynamics in the Langley Park Latin American immigrant
community
Excerpt
#1...
In working class barrios around Washington,
DC such as Langley Park, prostitution operations
are commonplace. It is 'traditional' for
many men to ‘use’ adult and underage prostitutes
in Latin America, and especially in Mexico and
Central America where most Langley Park
immigrants came from. As an example, one
Salvadoran friend, now an evangelical lay
pastor, told me that his father took him to a
brothel to be with three prostitutes, when he
was 12 years old.
The fact that these communities are also gender imbalanced, with many
more men than women being present, creates a large-scale demand for
prostitution.
The exploding criminal industry of sex trafficking provides the
'supply' - women and underage girls, that the market demands. In
this case, criminal sex trafficking networks from Mexico, Los Angeles
and New York City have for years saturated the Washington, DC region
with adult and underage prostitutes working against their will. A
1994 Washington Post story describes how such networks rotate
prostitutes in and out of the Washington, DC region from New York City.
That pattern continues to exist 11 years later in 2005.
In 2003 I had a conversation with a local Latino personality who
frequented Latin American immigrant brothels in both Washington, DC and
in the suburban city of Gaithersburg, Maryland. He described the
fact that young women from Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and
Central America were sent to Gaithersburg from New York City. The
trafficking networks involved ‘rotated’ these women out every two weeks.
The source noted that these women had told him that they were being
‘exploited’ [forced into prostitution].
During a Spring, 2005 trip to New York City to speak to the group
Latinas United for Justice at the John Jay College of Criminal
Justice, a Latina student who formerly worked as a cabbie related to me
how cab customers all over New York constantly asked to be taken to the
Latin American immigrant brothels that she noted are “everywhere” in New
York. The student stated that all of the cabbies know about these
brothels, and she knew that the women ‘working’ in them were working
against their will. This New York source of women in prostitution
slavery supplies at least part of the demand for prostitutes in the
greater Washington, DC region.
In addition to forced prostitution, thousands of women and girls in
the Latin American immigrant communities of the greater Washington, DC
region engage in prostitution of their ‘own free will’ (arguably).
It is perhaps more accurate to state that women and teenage girls are
forced to engage in prostitution because:
·
They have grown up in sexist cultures where intimacy was
forced upon them as children, youth or young adults.
(An estimated 80% of child prostitutes in
many Latin American nations were sexually abused
at home before fleeing into a life of street
prostitution.)
·
A
'machismo' based environment instilled in them
the concept that their intimacy is a commodity, that is meant to be
sold;
·
They live in immigrant communities where they are
constantly barraged with unwanted, severe sexual harassment, and are
propositioned on a daily basis; something that some women and underage
girls 'give in to.'
·
The expansion of extremely violent Latin American
immigrant gangs into Langley Park and other communities in the region
are creating environments where women and underage girls are being
subjected: to rape with impunity; severe sexual harassment; pressure to
join gangs, leading to a gang-rape initiation; forced prostitution and
coercive pressure on women and girls to work in prostitution.
·
Immigrant women and girls who complain to the police, and
want to press charges for various levels of sexual assault and other
forms of physical aggression are often turned away by the indifference,
anti-immigrant hostility or bureaucratic rules of the law enforcement
community.
·
Strictly enforced rules bar undocumented women and teens
(and especially mothers) from receiving public assistance, forcing them
into prostitution as their only means of
survival.
This
factor is a critical point to understand during times of recession in
the United States. Thousands of Latina women literally face a
life without income due to a poor economy and increased
immigration enforcement! How can they and their children survive?
- Chuck Goolsby
LibertadLatina
Aug. 16, 2005
LibertadLatina
Commentary
Undocumented Women and Girls Who Are Caught
Between Increasing Immigration Law Enforcement
And Recession Face Sexual Exploitation
Prostitution, quid-pro-quo work arrangements and
non-reporting of rape result from a bad economy
and tougher federal, state and local immigration
enforcement.
...Ms.
undocumented Latina finds herself with no
relief from
comprehensive immigration reform,
no green card, no work
permit, no job (especially in this recession),
little understanding of the details of federal,
state and local laws, no protection from crime,
protection that should be provided by police
forces that today may arrest and deport her, no
way to feed herself and her children, and no
access to the social services that could help to
alleviate those desperate circumstances.
In that situation, Ms. Latina will not
report rape to police. She will not say "no!" to a potential or
current employer who says (in violation of the law) that sex is the
price she must pay for employment, and she may not say
"no!" to a pimp or sex
trafficker who offers her 'la vida facil' (the easy life) as a
prostitute.
If she goes home to Bolivia, Peru,
Nicaragua, Colombia, Mexico or the Dominican Republic, she will face
exactly the same conditions of life, except for the fact that she will
not be able to support her family...
- Chuck Goolsby
LibertadLatina
Mar 29, 2008
Shut Down
Langley Park's Mega-Brothels!
Prostitution dynamics in the Langley Park Latin American immigrant
community
Excerpt
#2...
Mega-Brothels in Langley Park, Maryland
In 2004 a U.S.
federal law enforcement official informed me that, much to his surprise,
a Latin American immigrant brothel operation existed in Langley Park
that was raking in $60,000 per week. The agent stated that such
sums of money are usually earned only through large-scale illegal drug
operations.
At perhaps $30.00
per act of prostitution, the above figure breaks down to an estimated
2,000 acts of prostitution per week. That is the volume that just
one of perhaps several Latin American immigrant prostitution operations
is earning.
The agent had
called seeking resources for women victims of these brothel operations
who wanted to leave prostitution. I referred the caller to
Washington, DC's principal non-profit working in direct intervention for
the rescued victims of trafficking.
Given that Latino
prostitution operations are typically run by gangs, it would not be
surprising to find additional prostitution networks operating in Langley
Park on a large scale.
Do they transport
Puerto Rican, Dominican and Salvadoran women en-mass to and from New
York City, as brothel operations in nearby Gaithersburg, Maryland do?
Do they transport Mexican and Central American women en-mass to Langley
Park from Los Angeles, California, by way of gang connections there?
These are
questions that only U.S. law enforcement authorities are capable of
answering for the public.
Regardless of the
origins of the women and girls trapped in prostitution in Langley Park,
federal, state and local law enforcement have an obligation under both
criminal and moral law, to act to shut down these criminal enterprises
and rescue this large community of victims from prostitution.
A year after
being told of this giant Latina 'rape-factory' in Langley Park by
a federal agent, I have yet to see a news report or a prosecutor's
announcement stating that this major criminal enterprise has been shut
down, the victims have been rescued and the perpetrators have been given
a date to see a judge.
Federal
government officials in the current administration often talk about the
need to rescue and restore trafficking victims. Well, here, just
10 miles directly north of the U.S. Capitol
Rotunda, is a good place to start...
- Chuck Goolsby
LibertadLatina
Aug. 16, 2005
Additional
Sex
Trafficking
News and
Analysis
from the
Washington,
DC Region
Added April 30, 2008
Washington, DC
USA
Ricky Martin at the
April 29th Inter-
American Develop-
ment Bank (IADB)
event kicking-off the
"CALL AND LIVE"
campaign in
Washington, DC
El cantante Ricky Martin ha
decidido extender su lucha contra el tráfico de
personas a Estados Unidos, donde se calcula que hay
unas 20 mil personas [nuevas cada año] que son
retenidas o han sido desplazadas contra su voluntad.
El artista, que
desarrolla esta labor a través de la Ricky Martin
Foundation (RMF) , presentó hoy en Washington la
campaña "Llama y Vive"...
La campaña consta de
anuncios de radio, televisión y prensa escrita, en
los que el cantante promociona una línea telefónica
de información y asistencia contra el tráfico de
personas en la capital estado-unidense...
"Si estás lejos de casa
y te están explotando sexual o laboralmente, eres
víctima de trata" rezan los tres comerciales
dirigidos a la población latina...
"No están solos" dijo
Martin dirigiéndose a los latinos de Washington.
"Vamos a llamar a sus puertas si es necesario, para
preguntarles si necesitan nuestra ayuda"...
- EFE / El Universal
April 29, 2008
Ricky Martin campaigns against human trafficking [in
Washington, DC]
Latin heartthrob Ricky
Martin is using his star power to launch "Llama y Vive" or "Call and Live", a
campaign to prevent human trafficking from Latin America and also provide
services for victims.
"Call and Live" has
already been implemented in Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Peru, and Nicaragua.
Now, it's expanding to five more Latin American countries.
Martin has partnered
with the Inter-American Develop-ment Bank and Ayuda [a local Latino legal
services agency] to launch "Call and Live".
Ricky Martin on human
trafficking says: "My dream right now is all about seeing abolition, abolition
of a new era, abolition of what we call a modern day form of slavery which is
human trafficking and I'm not going to give up."
The campaign works to
prevent human trafficking from Latin America and provide protection services to
Latino victims in Washington, D.C. including offering a confidential victims'
hotline...
- TimesNow.tv - with material from
Reuters
India
April 30, 2008
LibertadLatina
commentary:
The Llama y Vive / Call and Live kick-off
event in Washington, DC on April 29, 2008 was an historic occasion
and was well-attended. Human trafficking, in its many forms, has
long-existed in the Washington, DC region. Ten and twenty years ago when I
began seeking help from Latino agencies and the local press for exploited
Latinas, few people and organizations in a position to help answered the call.
The
LibertadLatina
project and this web site came into existence as a result of
those efforts, dating back to 1986, to bring assistance to the victim community.
I salute Ricky Martin, his foundation, the Ayuda legal services agency, the
Washing-ton DC Office of Latino Affairs, other collaborating agencies and local
Latino media outlets for working to address the issues of human trafficking and
exploitation head on.
¡Mil gracias!
A thousand thanks!
The victim community awaits our serious and substantial efforts to help them!
- Chuck Goolsby
LibertadLatina
April 30, 2008
Added March 14, 2008
Virginia, USA
Immigration-Linked Prostitution Cases Pose Challenge
[Woodbridge - South of Washington, DC
-] The business cards handed to men at a North Woodbridge grocery store
didn't say much. Just a first name, a cell
phone number and the phrase Casa de Carne, or House of Meat.
But
their simplicity made clear the illicit purpose: sex.
Authorities say the cards solicit customers for highly organized prostitution
rings that cater to Hispanic immigrants and chauffeur women from out of state.
Although prostitution crosses ethnic and racial lines, these immigration-related
cases raise complex questions about the interplay of local and federal law and
are likely to pose special challenges for Prince William County police in the
push against illegal immigration that began this week...
"A lot
of girls we've interviewed don't even know what city they are in or what state
they're in," said 1st Sgt. Daniel Hess, commander of a street crime unit that
has handled several of the prostitution cases...
"These
detectives who have this training now understand the nuances of immigration law
and how we can protect victims of human smuggling," Deane said. "The goal of
these cases really should be the people who are running these operations, the
people who are making the money."
In the
prostitution cases uncovered locally, law enforcement officials say women get
about $30 for 15 minutes and are allowed to keep half of that.
"They
are called las treinteras," after treinta, the Spanish word for 30, said Dilcia
Molina, a human rights advocate. "In the world of sex work, they are usually the
cheapest and the poorest. They are the ones who are usually on the periphery."
-
Theresa Vargas
The
Washington Post
March 06, 2008
U.S. Department of Justice
Announces Human Trafficking Task Force in the
District of Columbia and Grants for Law
Enforcement to Fight Human Trafficking and
Assist Victims
Excerpt...
The D.C. Task Force on Trafficking in Persons,
part of a broader push by the Department of
Justice and other federal agencies, concentrates
the resources of the Criminal and Civil Rights
Divisions of the Department of Justice, the U.S.
Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia,
the FBI and the Metropolitan Police Department
on the problem of human trafficking in the
District of Columbia.
The Task Force will
work closely with community organizations and
support groups committed to helping the victims
of this crime. The Task Force effort is in
conjunction with Operation Innocence Lost, a
program sponsored by the FBI Crimes Against
Children Division, the Child Exploitation and
Obscenity Section (CEOS) of the Criminal
Division and the National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children. Innocence Lost,
announced in early 2003, is a nationwide
initiative to focus on child victims of
interstate sex trafficking in the United States.
- The Washington Post
Nov. 23,
2004
About the
important work of
the Polaris Project
See:
www.PolarisProject.org
Derek Ellerman,
Co-Executive
Director of Polaris
Project in
Washington, DC
Presents Testimony
to Congress on
Anti-Trafficking
Work and Polaris
Project's
Identification of
Numerous Latin and
Asian Network Run
Brothels Within
Blocks of the White
House in Washington,
DC.
(Link
to a U.S. Congress
web site is now
broken)
U.S.
House of
Representatives
July 8, 2004
From Derek
Ellerman's ground-
breaking interview
with National Public
Radio News
Excerpt...
Mr.
Derek Ellerman
(Co-Executive Director, Polaris Project):
This is what we call our war room. This is the main room where
our task force is based.
NPR's Libbie
Lewis: Derek Ellerman is co-director of Polaris.
Mr. Ellerman: What we have on
the walls are maps of the greater DC area, and we have pins that
mark the locations of what we consider high-risk brothel locations,
where trafficking either does take place or where we believe it may
take place...
Mr. Ellerman: If you look just
in the area around the White House, we have probably 20 different
locations in this radius stretching up to about Dupont Circle and
over just about to the Capitol. Most of the customers of those
brothels are people who work in the area. They're professionals.
NPR's Libbie
Lewis: They work in government?
Mr. Ellerman: Lots of
government officials. All the time we see men walking into the
brothels, sometimes even wearing their government tags. They'll walk
straight out of their offices, around the corner and in wearing
their government tags. We see people with diplomatic plates all the
time go in. And then people just from around will come into the
downtown area.
NPR's Libbie
Lewis: In the 18 months it has been in existence, Polaris
says it's helped identify victims in some state criminal cases, but
no federal trafficking cases yet. The DC police work with Polaris on
a local task force on human trafficking.
- National Public
Radio
All Things
Considered
June 13, 2004
LibertadLatina
commentary
Around 1982, when I was working as the conga drummer for one
of Washington, DC’s oldest Salsa bands, La
Orquesta de Tulio Arias, I ran into one of
these brothel operations in the Connecticut Ave
and ‘K’ Street area, the center of DC’s legal
and association industries.
Our band had been called to perform during a weekday happy
hour, at a small restaurant owned by a Colombian
man.
I arrived at the gig and observed
at least 20 women,
all white Americans,
all scantily clad or
naked. The place was filled with
businessmen with drinks in their hands.
They seemed quite happy.
I concluded that the women were prostitutes. I
immediately picked up my drums, walked out, and
went home. My fellow band members
stayed to perform. They
later
told me that the police had raided the place
that night.
Apparently, what was happening in the
early 1980's continues today, on a larger
scale. Now it is Latina and Asian women
who predominate as the prostitutes.
- Chuck Goolsby
LibertadLatina
May 3, 2008
Note:
The criminal
networks
that traffic
young Latina
women to the
Washington,
DC suburbs
in Maryland
and Virginia
described in
the below
Washington
Post story
continue to
exist in
identical
form in the
year 2004.
Enslaved
Latin women
and girls
are moved in
and out of
Latino
neighborhood-based
brothels in
Gaithersburg,
Maryland,
Washington,
DC,
Arlington,
Virginia and
within the
other Latin
communities
of the
region. Little
has changed
since 1994
for women
and girls
exploited in
prostitution.
- Chuck
Goolsby
2004
String of Latino
Brothels Found in
Va., Md. Suburbs:
Police Say Women
Come from New York
A growing number of
brothels catering to Latino men are opening in
the Washington suburbs, and police say a New
York prostitution ring may be responsible.
The brothels
mostly employ Latino
women from the New
York area, according
to investigators.
Court records
indicate that
virtually all charge
the same rates -- $
30 for 15 minutes of
sexual intercourse
-- and advertise
using the same kind
of business cards in
Spanish. They also
have the same
operating
procedures:
Prostitutes punch
playing cards or
score sheets to
tally each day's
customers. "Every
jurisdiction from
Arlington to
Montgomery County is
seeing the same
thing," said
Alexandria police
detective Harold
Duquette, a member
of the city's vice
squad, which is
investigating two of
the alleged
brothels.
-
Washington
Post - 09-21-1994
Slavery
Happens Here
Back on June
11 Colbert
I. King used
his op-ed
column to
discuss
violence
against
women, but
he
highlighted
only the tip
of a jagged
iceberg.
Violence
against
women in
Washington
takes many
ugly forms,
including
slavery and
forced
labor.
- Michelle
Clark
Opionion/Editorial
The
Washington
Post
October 13,
2002
-- Michele
Clark is
[a former]
co-director
of the
Protection Project
at the Johns
Hopkins
University
School of
Advanced
International
Studies
(SAIS).
|
|
|
|
LibertadLatina.org
founder
Chuck Goolsby conducted the rescue of two
Colombian women
domestic workers in Montgomery County, Maryland.
These women were subjected to virtual
slavery and the terrorized labor conditions
described here below in this accurate Washington
Post article. Both women successfully
started new lives in the Washington, DC area and
legalized their immigration status.
Among the experiences of the principal victim were: working from 6 AM
until Midnight every single day; cutting the grass of a huge yard (and
shoveling the huge driveway in Winter alone, by hand) while
simultaneously caring for three children, washing, cleaning and cooking
for a family of five; putting up with the all-day screams and verbal
insults of the wife in the diplomatic family; not being permitted to
ever leave the house alone; not being permitted to go anywhere on her
weekend time off unless she was accompanied...
- Chuck Goolsby
LibertadLatina
Around 2000
'Modern-Day Slavery'
Prompts Rescue Efforts
...For nearly two
years, she had worked 80-hour weeks cooking, cleaning and baby-sitting
for an Ecuadoran official of the Organization of American States. For
that, her attorneys said, she was paid little more than $2 an hour. She
had worked for the same family in Ecuador, but since arriving, she said,
her employer had taken her passport, she had no money and she was afraid
that if she left, she would lose her visa and police would come for her.
Stories like hers are increasing among the thousands of women who are
recruited every year from impoverished countries as live-in domestic
help, according to law enforcement officials and advocacy groups. Now, a
growing number of organizations are reaching out to mistreated domestic
workers, helping them leave their employers and providing emergency
housing and legal advice...
-
Lena H. Sun
The Washington Post
2004-05-03 |
|
|
|
|
Working To Make
a Difference for Working Latina Women and
Girls
The work of
LibertadLatina.org
grew out of 2 decades of effort focused on
providing Latina and Latina Indigenous women and girls in
Montgomery County, Maryland (a suburb just north of
Washington, DC)... with advocacy against rape and
retaliatory firings (for not giving in to rape) that were
and are the daily reality in the low-wage workplace.
The abuses commonly encountered include those described
outrages in the Laurel, MD EEOC case (see below), and
included actual cases of rape and coerced sexual
exploitation. Latina and Indigenous women and girls in
the U.S. face an epidemic of rape in their workplaces and
communities.
The
legal
system
does not
now
effectively
protect
these
women
and
children
from
criminal
sexual
assault.
LibertadLatina.org's
work within the Washington, DC region has
documented the fact that the dynamics of historic patterns of
anti-female exploitation with impunity that target Latina and
Indigenous women and girls are merging with other, existing
forms of local criminal sexual predation in the U.S.,
subjecting immigrant women and children to open sexual assault
with impunity in low-wage workplaces and on the streets of their
communities.
The below employment abuse
cases document the sexual assault, coercion and severe
sexual harassment events that the I
have witnessed first-hand,
second-hand and through third-hand stories from dozens of
immigrant women and girls since the 1980's.
Convincing abused
victims to come forward and pursue long-term
legal actions (cases typically take two years to
resolve) is difficult. Case duration
combines with justified immigrant women's
fear of the judicial system's possible
prejudices and fear of the known terror tactics
of their supervisors to often convince victims
to either keep quiet and submit to rape in the
workplace, or to face retaliatory reprimands,
demotions, shift changes and firings for not
submitting to the sexual demands of their
supervisors and managers. These events
occur every day in the U.S.
Latina immigrant women and
girl workers are typically unaware of the laws against
sexual harassment and sexual coercion on the books.
When I
distributed
the
translated
version
of the
Montgomery
County
Women's
Commission's
Sexual
Harassment
brochure
to
Latina
women
workers
in the
mid
1990's,
for
example,
it was
read
with
astonished
surprise
that
such
laws
existed
in the
United
States.
When I
noted to
the
Montgomery
County
Women's
Commission
during a
May,
1994
presentation
to them
on these
issues
that...
more
brochures
needed
to be
printed,
and that
I could
effectively
distribute
them (I
did
Latin
event
promotions
at the
time),
several
commission
members
shook
their
heads in
disbelief
and my
request
was
denied.
That
simple
action
still,
nine
years
later in
2003,
needs to
be taken
in
Montgomery
County,
MD and
across
the U.S.
The effective communication
by advocates to Latina victims of their rights and abilities
to pursue criminal, civil and EEOC legal cases will be a
critical part of the education process needed to break the
code of silence surrounding these acts of blatant impunity
in the U.S. workplace.
Our first report on these issues - from 1994
In response to repeated failures to get the legal
and press establishment of Montgomery County and the
greater Washington, DC area to respond positively to
the urgent needs of Latina victims of workplace and
community sexual assault, I
wrote the below report and have
distributed it to many local police, press and
advocacy organizations during the past 9 years. -
Chuck
Goolsby
Montgomery County, MD
-- 1994
Charles M. Goolsby,
Jr.'s
1994 Report on the
Sexual Exploitation of
Latina immigrant Women
and Girls in Montgomery
County, Maryland
Excerpt...
...All
of
my
work
in
Latin-American
immigrant
victim-advocacy
has
resulted
from
victims
having
approached
me
seeking
help.
Repeatedly,
the
official
reaction
of
cleaning
contract
companies
working
within
Montgomery
County
to
my
polite
raising
of
these
issues
has
been
to
do
the
following:
1)
silence
any
discussion
of
these
issues
by
the
use
of
gross
intimidation
against
the
victims
and
myself,
2)
fire
or
force
the
victims
out,
and
3)
back-up
the
actions
of
the
perpetrators,
protecting
them
from
legal
trouble.
Latin-American
immigrant
women
have
thus
gotten
the
message
loud
and
clear
on
many
occasions
that
they
have
become
a
cheap,
disposable
resource
in
the
American
work-place,
underpaid,
overworked,
and
often
forced
into
sexual
submission
while
government
and
commerce
knowingly
turn
their
backs.
At
this
time
I
have
found
it
necessary
to
write
this
report.
Since
1988
I
have
formally
presented
this
information
to
many
persons-in-authority.
Time
after
time,
these
well-educated,
well-paid
officials
of
public
and
commercial
organizations
have
said
"SO
WHAT!"
This
report
is a
substitute
for
the
muffled
CRY
OF
RAPE
from
victims
who
are
tired
of
having
become
the
sexual
'cannon-fodder'
of
America...
-
Charles
M.
Goolsby,
Jr.
February,
1994
Added 02/19/
2005
Latina
Immigrant
Women
Domestic
Workers in
Montgomery
County,
Maryland
Plea to
Montgomery
County
Council for
an End to
Workplace
Exploitation.
Added
May
17,
2004
Latin
American
Immigrant
Women
Cleaning
Workers
Face
Sexual
Harassment,
Sexual
Coercion
and
Retaliatory
Firing
in
Arlington,
Virginia
Federal
Office
Building
(U.S.
National
Science
Foundation).
-
LibertadLatina.org
Gaithersburg,
Maryland
Latina_Assaulted
by
Manager
At
Major
Gaithersburg
Restaurant
08-31-2004
Rockville,
Maryland - September, 2002
Latina
Female
Workers,
including
several
pregnant
women
and one
elderly
woman,
faced
repeated
violent
acts of
physical
intimidation
and
illegal
firings
at the
Derwood
area
Wendy's
Restaurant
in
Rockville,
Maryland
Laurel, Maryland
-- June, 2002
The below case from Laurel, Maryland, a city on
the Route !-95 corridor in Prince Georges
County, just East of Montgomery County, has
defined in a formal legal setting exactly the
types of sexual coercion and severe sexual
harassment that the
I have
fought against in neighboring Montgomery County,
Maryland since the 1980s. Even pregnant
Latina women and girls are routinely pressured
for sexual favors by their managers and
supervisors in the low-wage workplace.
|
Workplace Rape:
Rockville, Maryland - Case
# 3:
"One of the complainants, having been fired
after putting up with daily unwanted
fondling, was, at the time, pregnant. She
was told to come back after the pregnancy
(when she could be exploited sexually)."
|
The U.S. Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission (EEOC) today
announced a $1 million settlement of a class
action lawsuit against Grace Culinary Systems,
Inc. and Townsend Culinary, Inc. alleging
egregious sexual harassment of 22 Hispanic women
at a food processing plant in Laurel, Maryland.
The suit charged the companies with routinely
subjecting the female workers, all recent
immigrants from Central America who spoke
limited English, to unwanted groping and
explicit requests for sexual favors by male
managers and co-workers over several years.
...The
sexual harassment was widespread with managers routinely subjecting
women to groping and crude and explicit requests for sexual favors
over a period of years. The harassers were managers and male
co-workers...
|
One
woman was locked in a freezer by her
supervisor after she turned down his sexual
request. Two other women who were pregnant
at the time were pressured for sex and
subsequently demoted and fired following
their refusal to comply with the advances.
Other women at the plant were given
menial or difficult work assignments for
rejecting requests for sexual favors by
plant managers.
|
- U.S. Equal
Employment Oportunities Commission
, Laurel
Maryland Case
Washington,
DC
--
1997-1998
Julia Chávez, a Bolivian
domestic worker employed
by an
Organiz-ation of
American States (OAS)
official from July 1997
through October 1998,
alleged in a civil
complaint that her
employer and his wife
required her to work
when she was sick and,
despite her repeated
requests for medical
treatment, refused to
take her to see a
doctor, telling her that
doctors were expensive
and the family could not
afford to pay her
medical bills.
Chávez also alleged in
her complaint that after she told her employer and
his wife that she was sexually abused and raped by
an acquaintance of the family in August 1998, they
denied her medical treatment and a forensic exam,
though Chávez allegedly "exhibited . . . signs of
physical and emotional trauma" and "repeatedly
explained to them that she was very sick and
preferred to die." Responding to her complaint,
Chávez' employer and his wife denied these
allegations and asserted "no knowledge" of Chávez'
claim that she was raped.
Human
Rights Watch
|
True
Cases from the Frontlines of Impunity
The below three
workplace sexual and physical abuse cases are
all 100% factual. The case narratives
speak for the victims, and they document the
voiceless cries of tens if not hundreds of
thousands of working women and girls across the
United States who face rape and coercion with
impunity largely because anti-immigrant
hostility and apathy from government
agencies allows it to happen,
That must change!
Only public awareness and public expressions of
outrage to elected officials, police
administrators and local prosecutors will lead
to improvement. Nothing else seems to
motivate change.
Deliberate Inaction was the official government
and corporate response in all of
these cases... |
|
 |
Workplace Rape with
Impunity
Rockville, Maryland
-
Case 1
A major
corporation working on defense and civilian
U.S. government contracts permits
quid-pro-quo sexual demands, sexual coercion
and retaliatory firings targeted at Latina
adult and underage
cleaning workers. |
|
Workplace Assault and Battery
with Impunity
Rockville, Maryland -
Case 2
A Nicaraguan
indigenous
woman
cleaning
worker was
slapped across the chest
and knocked to the floor by
her manager in
the Rockville offices
of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA).
The local Maryland
State's Attorney's Office repeatedly
pressured the victim to drop her insistence
on having her assailant prosecuted. |
|
Workplace Rape with
Impunity
Rockville, Maryland
- Case 3
About One
Central Plaza
Over a dozen
women were illegally fired for not giving in
to the sexual demands of three Latino
cleaning crew managers who forced women and
underage girls into quid-pro-quo sexual
relationships as a condition of retaining
their jobs.
Some women were forced to
commit acts of prostitution in this office
building housing Maryland state government &
other offices.
A medical
doctor who rented office space there filed a
formal complaint with the building owners
and stated that
he
was finding his
patient examining
tables
dirtied by sexual activity after-hours
(cleaning managers has keys to access the
offices they clean).
A pregnant woman was
severely sexually harassed, and was fired
and told to come back after her child was
born, when she could be sexually exploited.
The Montgomery County,
Maryland County Human Relations commission
in 1995 literally buried the officially
filed casework of this pregnant woman and
another victim.
A (now
former) Latina Washington Post reporter
refused to do a story. After
requesting first a copy and then the
original of a tape recoding of one of the
complainants defending herself from a 20
minute attempted sexual assault by one of
these assailants, the reporter intentionally
'lost' these tapes, which were investigatory
materials in the Human Relations Commission
case.
During one
phone conversations with this reporter, she
stated to me: "After all, you are
accusing these guys of felonies" - as if
there was something wrong with me exposing
this criminal sexual assault of Latina
women and underage youth. It was
obvious that her loyalties were with the
rapists.
This
reporter also told me that "The Washington
Post does not send reporters into dangerous
situations." I said then, as I say
now: If it is dangerous, then, is it not
news!!
I met with
a total of four Washington Post reporters
about this case. No story was ever
written.
I
mentioned this case a senior female
detective and sex crime investigators at the
Montgomery County Police Department, where I
worked part-time as a civilian computer
programmer.
Nothing
was ever done.
When I
called the cleaning company, they refused to
answer questions, and later apparently moved
and shut their phone off.
The dam
finally broke when a brave Mexican cleaning
woman rebelled against these three rapists,
yelled and screamed at them on the job, and
got enough people in positions of power to
be aware of these crimes to get the head
manager fired. The two assistant
managers, also perpe-trators, kept their
jobs. |
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Using the Pen to Fight Back Against
Impunity
In response to repeated failures to get
the legal and press establishment of
Montgomery County and the greater
Washington, DC area to respond
positively to the urgent needs of Latina
victims of workplace and community
sexual assault, I
wrote the below report and distributed
it to many local police, press and
advocacy organizations during the past 9
years.
The organizations that have received
this report in-person from
me have
included:
-
Montgomery County Police Department
-
The
U.S. Department of Labor, Women's
Bureau staff and attendees at their
1995 Low Wage Workers Conference
-
he
Montgomery County Commission for
Women (1994).
-
The
report was sent by mail to the U.S.
Department of Justice, Worker
Exploitation Task Force in 1999.
LibertadLatina.org
is the evolution of that
1994 report over time. The issues
remain the same, and the severity of
this crisis is now worse than it was in
1994. Public pressure is still
needed to change the environment of
sexual exploitation with impunity facing
U.S. immigrant women and girls every
day.
-
Chuck Goolsby
September, 2003
|
Montgomery County, MD
-- 1994
Charles M.
Goolsby, Jr.'s
1994 Report on the Sexual Exploitation
of Latina immigrant Women and Girls in
Montgomery County, Maryland
Excerpt...
...All of
my work in Latin-American immigrant
victim-advocacy has resulted from
victims having approached me seeking
help. Repeatedly, the official reaction
of cleaning contract companies working
within Montgomery County to my polite
raising of these issues has been to do
the following: 1) silence any discussion
of these issues by the use of gross
intimidation against the victims and
myself, 2) fire or force the victims
out, and 3) back-up the actions of the
perpetrators, protecting them from legal
trouble.
Latin-American immigrant women have thus
gotten the message loud and clear on
many occasions that they have become a
cheap, disposable resource in the
American work-place, underpaid,
overworked, and often forced into sexual
submission while government and commerce
knowingly turn their backs.
At this
time I have found it necessary to write
this report. Since 1988 I have formally
presented this information to many
persons-in-authority. Time after time,
these well-educated, well-paid officials
of public and commercial organizations
have said "SO WHAT!" This report is a
substitute for the muffled CRY OF
RAPE from victims who are tired of
having become the sexual 'cannon-fodder'
of America...
- Charles M. Goolsby, Jr.
February, 1994
|
|
Presentation to the Commission for Women
A Letter from the Montgomery County, MD Women's
Commission
responds positively to Charles Goolsby, Jr.'s May
27, 1994 presentation before the Commission that
detailed many of of the
workplace abuse cases listed on the
LibertadLatina.org
web
site and specifically on this page).
My 1994 report on conditions
facing Latina immigrant women was well received.
Despite
over a decade of effort, both the abuse with
impunity faced by working Latina women and girls and
the apathy and inaction of police and judicial
authorities continue to be an ongoing horror in this
county.
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Underage Latina girls face rape, coercion and severe
sexual harassment with impunity in the greater
Washington, DC area
See Also:
A
Police
Officer's
View of
Violence in
Langley
Park.
A Latina
Teen: "I
Can't
Go
Out...
Because
there are
Young People
Who Like to
Bother a
Young Girl.
Protection;
We Need
that."
Added Dec. 03, 2007
Virginia, USA
Centreville -
Mynor Andres Gonzalez Estrada, 23... was accused
of sexually assaulting four children at the
Centreville Regional Library.
In one incident, July 31, a
10-year-old Centreville girl told police she was
looking at books when a man squeezed her
buttocks.
Police said the child walked
away to another book aisle and saw the same man
exposing himself. She told her mother who called
the police. After investigation, police charged
Estrada with this incident and two others.
- Bonnie Hobbs
The Connection Newspaper
Nov. 27,
2007
Montgomery
County: Rapist
Stalks
Young
Teen
Girls
After
School
-
The
Washington Post
Nov. 24,
2004
Peruvian
Dentist Dr David Fuster Rapes a 15-Year-Old Patient
-
May 21, 2003
Officials, Activists Deplore Remark by
Montgomery [County] Judge: 'Takes Two to Tango' Called Ill-Advised
Maryland lawmakers and children's advocates joined
yesterday in criticizing a Montgomery County judge who said an 11-year-old girl
was partly to blame for a 23-year-old man sexually molesting her because the
girl invited him into her bedroom and "it takes two to tango."
Durke Thompson, a Circuit Court judge for six
years... ordered Vladimir Chacon-Bonilla, of Alexandria, [Virginia] to serve 18
months in the county jail for a second-degree sex offense. The judge suspended
the rest of a five-year state prison sentence and ordered Chacon-Bonilla to
serve three years of probation and get alcohol abuse treatment.
- The
Washington Post
January 6, 2000
Female Legislators Seek Probe of Md. Judge
- The Washington Post
February 3, 2000
Md. Judge Ready to 'Fight Back'
- The Washington Post
March 27, 2002
A
Washington, DC- Latina Social Worker and Community
Center Director's Letter - 1999
EXCERPT
"Over the past two
years, I have been
observing a systemic
pattern of violence
committed against
girls and young
women in our
community. This
violence involves
the sexual
abuse/assault
against girls as
young as 10 years
old...
...There
have been incidents
of date rape, gang
rape, abductions,
drugging, threats
with firearms, etc.
The incidents are
just as you
described in
your
[Mr. Goolsby's below
NCMEC]
letter
and have been met
with the same level
of indifference and
dismissal of legal
(never mind moral)
responsibility on
the part of civil
institutions --
the police
department, public
schools, etc."
...While
some do say
this is
culturally
accepted
behavior,
the reality
is that many
families --
mothers and
fathers
alike -- are
enraged and
wanting to
pursue
prosecution
of the
perpetrators,
but they
find
themselves
without
recourse
when the
police won't
respond to
them, when
they fear
risking
their
personal
safety,
and/or when
their legal
status
(undocumented)
prevents
them from
believing
they have
rights or
legal
protection
in this
country.
Many girls
and young
women's
families are
threatened
and harassed
by the
perpetrators
when it
becomes
apparent
that the
family is
willing to
press
charges for
statutory
rape/child
sexual
abuse.
...The use
of
intimidation
and violence
to control
girls and
their
families
results in
the
following:
1)
parents/guardians
back off
from
pressing
charges, 2)
relatives do
not inform
the police
or others of
sightings of
girls and
young women
who have
been
officially
reported as
"missing
juveniles,"
and 3) the
victims of
sexual
violence
refuse to
participate
as "willing
witnesses"
in the
prosecution/trial
process.
- From a
letter by a
Latina
Social
Worker
and girl's
community
center
director
working with
young Latina
girls in
Washington,
DC's largest
Latino
neighborhood.
Gaithersburg,
Maryland
Our letter to The National
Center for Missing and Exploited Children
(NCMEC) about child abuse and exploitation in
Gaithersburg, MD, and past official inaction in
response. (The above social
worker's letter responds to this letter). The
NCMEC did refer this letter to the Gaithersburg city
government.
EXCERPT
In 1997 I reported the ongoing, daily sexual
harassment of an 11 year old Latin immigrant girl
from El Salvador by an adult man, to the
Gaithersburg City Police Department. The first
visits by a patrol officers on two occasions
involved (first visit) a [Gaithersburg City Police]
officer who didn't care at all and took no action;
and (second visit) [by one Gaithersburg, and one
Montgomery County officer] a lack of willingness to
follow up on the case when the harasser was found
not to be home (I served as translator for these two
officers). During the second incident, the officers
had me translate for a ROOMMATE of the harasser, and
never came back to talk to the harasser at all.
These two officers told me in a matter of fact way
that they could not respond to what the county
Police Academy had taught them (in cultural
sensitivity classes there) was just a part of Latino
culture.
The next year, 1998, I again approached the
Gaithersburg City Police Force to report that the
same adult man was now sexually involved with this
now 12 year old girl. The officer whom I spoke with
at the city's police station stated to me that "We
can't just pick him up, he might sue the city."
I demanded to know from this officer whether there
were laws against pedophilia and statutory rape in
Maryland or were there not? I had to assert myself
in the face of this apathy and disinterest, to the
apparent approval of the female clerk working at the
city's police station, where this conversation took
place.
- Chuck Goolsby
LibertadLatina
Dec. 05, 1999
Greater Washington,
DC
-- 2002
Report on the
recently formed
Child Sexual Abuse
Task Force in
Washington, DC.
The report addresses
the rampant sexual
abuse of children by
adults in
Washington, DC, the
daily sexual
exploitation of 12
year old Latina
girls by adult men,
cultural issues and
parental fear of the
law. (This
Task Force responds
in part to the
important efforts of
the Latina social
worker who authored
the above letter
about girl rape with
impunity in DC.)
From: WAMU-FM,
88.5 FM - American
University Radio (a
National Public
Radio station) -
Show: Metro
Connection
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Added April 12, 2008
Maryland, USA
A Montgomery County man,
sentenced to two life sentences for rape Thursday,
posed as a police officer and preyed on the fears of
illegal immigrants, revealing what State’s Attorney
John McCarthy called a growing trend among
criminals.
John Robert Lay, 51, whose criminal history
stretches back more than 30 years, is already
serving time in a Virginia prison for sexually
assaulting an [undocumented] Hispanic woman in
Fairfax County in 2001. He was convicted of that
crime in 2006.
In both cases, prosecutors said, Lay played on the
fear of deportation held by many illegal immigrants
by flashing a fake police badge at his victims and
demanding identification.
When the women said they had none, he put them in
his car, brought them to secluded areas and forced
them to perform sexual acts...
“This is a pattern we’re seeing too often in our
community. … On a regular basis criminals are
targeting Hispanics, believing they can act with
impunity,” McCarthy said, encouraging witnesses and
crime victims, regardless of immigration status, to
step forward...
“Preying on vulnerable victims; targeting Latino
women is an aggravating factor, and so is
impersonating police,” [Judge David] Boynton said.
“You’re a lifelong criminal with offenses in every
walk of life and in every location you’ve been in …
this is to protect the community from you.”
- Freeman Klopott
The DC Examiner
April 11, 2008
Added March 14, 2008
Maryland, USA
Police are searching for a suspect who raped a woman
Monday morning near a stairwell in an apartment building.
The
44-year-old woman was taking a walk around 11:30 p.m. Sunday when she was
approached by the male suspect who had a knife. The suspect led the woman to a
lower stairwell landing in an apartment building... and forcibly raped her...
The
suspect is described as a Hispanic male, 39 or 40 years old, 5’11” to 6’0” tall,
weighing approximately 220 pounds. He was wearing his black hair pulled back in
a pony tail...
-
WLJA TV
March 12, 2008
Arlington,
Virginia
Pleas in Sex-Crimes Case
A widely known Latino activist
will spend a year in jail for the sexual battery of
four women under a plea agreement worked out last
week in Arlington County Circuit Court.
Marcos A. Capriles, 37,
entered an Alford plea on five sex-related
misdemeanor charges in exchange for prosecutors'
dropping rape, sodomy and other sexual assault
charges against him. Circuit Court Judge Benjamin
Kendrick handed him a one-year prison term for each
charge, to be served concurrently. Capriles, a
Bolivian living in Arlington, will be deported after
he serves his sentence.
Capriles, a former
Spanish-language reporter and newspaper owner, was
arrested in April for the alleged rape of a
32-year-old Latino woman from Falls Church who
agreed to pose for photographs after seeking his
help in preparing tax returns...
-
The
Washington Post
March 12, 2008
Added
Aug.
16 2005
Langley Park
- The
State's
Largest
Latin
Community is
Besieged by
Violent
Crime
and
Severe
Sexual
Harassment.
Four Throats
Slashed and
One Hand
Nearly
Severed in 5
Day Period.
Women say
they won't
walk to the
store alone,
and some
won't leave
their homes
at night.
They won't
wear short
skirts, they
say, because
the
men
will
ask
them,
"How
much?"
June
23, 2004
Rapes in
Montgomery
County,
Maryland
jumped
nearly 40
percent in
the first
three months
of this
year, but
the county
police
department
withheld
this
information
from the
public of
all but one
rape.
(Plus
-
LibertadLatina
Commentary
on Rape
with
impunity
in
Montgomery
County,
Maryland)
Gaithersburg,
Maryland -
August,
September
2003
Direct advocacy
assists Latina woman
victim of attempted
street sexual
assault in
Gaithersburg,
Maryland. One
of three assailants
was convicted.
- LibertadLatina |
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Extensive work needs to be done to educate local
officials, and to monitor police and judicial
actions to assure that Latinas receive equal
protection under the law.
Immigrant women and girls do not usually
receive such equal protections now. |
The crisis
described
here below
is what is
really
happening to
Latina women
and girls in
greater
Washington,
DC, the
capitol of
the United
States.
How do we,
as concerned
communities,
individuals,
immigrant
and victims
advocacy
organizations
and
government
agencies
effectively
address
these
blatant
violations
of the law?
Our work in
Montgomery
County,
Maryland and
the work of
the Latina
social
worker in
Washington,
DC, quoted
below,
identify the
fact that
Latina adult
and girl
victims of
sexual
assault and
abuse are
usually
underserved
by local law
enforcement.
The below
1999
statement by
the U.S.
Justice
Department
on
underserved
victims of
crime also
recognizes
this fact.
Extensive
education of
first
responders
and judicial
officers is
needed to
raise
awareness of
the "facts
on the
ground"
regarding
the impunity
with which
Latina
immigrant
girls and
women face
sexual
assault,
coercion and
harassment
from
perpetrators
who know
that the
criminal
justice
system will
often ignore
the pleas of
"Ms. Latina"
for equal
enforcement
of her legal
rights to
the simple
ownership
and sanctity
of her own
human
body.
We encourage
the public
to raise
these issues
with your
local
elected
officials,
police
departments
and
prosecutors.
When I began
direct, lay
victim
advocacy
before the
local
criminal
justice
system in
1988, no
victim
services
existed for
Latina
victims of
criminal
abuse.
In that
first case
(Workplace
Rape:
Rockville,
Maryland -
Case 2),
the
following
happened:
-
The
court
commissioner
who
received
the
criminal
complaint
from the
victim
(that I
had
translated)...
laughed
out loud
in front
of the
victim
when he
read the
complaint.
He said
"gee,
this guy
[the
perpetrator]
must
have had
a bad
day."
-
An
investigator
for the
Maryland
State's
Attorney's
office
for
Montgomery
County
repeatedly
called
me and
virtually
begged
me to
convince
the
Nicaraguan
victim
of a
physical
beating
by her
cleaning
company
supervisor
at a
local
federal
office
building
to...
not
press
charges
against
the
assailant.
-
No
victim
services
were
offered
whatsoever.
-
The
victim
felt
intimidated
by the
perpetrator
and
unsupported by
the
Maryland
State's
Attorney's
Office'
actions
in
trying
to get
her to
back out
of
insisting
upon the
prosecution
of her
physical
assailant.
-
As a
result
of these
actions
by the
Maryland
State's
Attorney's
Office,
the
victim
backed
down and
did not
appear
at the
trial.
-
In a
Montgomery
County,
Maryland
Human
Relations
Commission
hearing
(they
are the
local
processor
of U.S.
EEOC
cases),
during
which I
represented
the
interests
of the
victim
for 9
hours,
the
victim
and her
co-worker
eyewitness
could
not
convince
the
commissioners
that a
violation
of
worker
discrimination
law had
taken
place.
|
The above
case
occurred in
1988.
The below
case
intervention
occurred in
late 2003.
Not much has
changed for
the better
in terms of
police
responses,
although the
Maryland
State's
Attorney's
Office did
process the
case
professionally,
while
continuing
to omit any
victim
services
whatsoever
for the
Latinas
involved in
these two
cases.
Why?
In my most
recent
intervention,
on August 4,
2003,
(Direct
advocacy
assists
Latina woman
victim of
attempted
street
sexual
assault),
the
following
happened:
-
Police
at the
scene of
an
attempted
sexual
assault
were not
at-first
interested
in
making
any
arrests
of the
three
perpetrators
of an
attempted
sexual
assault.
-
When the
victim
heard
this
from one
of the
responding
officers,
she
began
crying.
-
I later
presented
my
LibertadLatina
business
card to
several
officers.
At that
point,
and
after
bringing
the
shift
sergeant
to the
scene to
translate
for the
victim
(being
fluent
in
Spanish
I
translated
initially),
charges
were
filed,
but only
against
one of
the
three
assailants.
-
The one
charged
perpetrator
was
convicted
in
September,
2003 and
was
sentenced
to 15
days in
jail.
-
The
judge
asked
with
curiosity
during
the
trial
why only
one
suspect
was
arrested?
-
No
victim
services
were
ever
offered
to the
victim
whatsoever.
|
These two
cases typify
the
experiences
of immigrant
women in
similar
cases that
I have
been
involved
with in
Montgomery
County,
Maryland.
These
responses
from police
and
prosecutors
are also the
daily
experience
of most
Latin
American
immigrants
in the
Washington,
DC region.
The stories
told here
are just a
small
fraction of
the events
that I have
seen & heard
about over
the years.
My hat is
off to the
responding
officers for
their swift
response in
this case
and their
final
decision to
arrest at
least the
one most
aggressive
perpetrator,
who was
convicted of
second
degree
assault.
These
officers
have a
dangerous
job to do.
The
responsibility
for changing
how local
police
officers
respond to
Latina adult
and child
victims of
sexual
assault and
related
crimes lies
directly
with local
government
and police
department
executives.
They have a
moral and a
legal
responsibility
to address
these
issues. Officers
on the
street
cannot act
without the
local police
department
leadership
(in any
jurisdiction)
approving
the needed
changes in
provision of
policing
services to
women,
children and
also men in
the Latin
immigrant
community.
The
motivation
for doing
that should
go without
saying.
The judicial
system,
local school
systems,
social
services and
other
agencies who
interact
with Latina
immigrant
victims all
have the
same
responsibility
to treat
these women
and girls
with
equality and
fairness.
Certainly,
expressions
of concern
from the
public (we
the people)
are critical
to making
real change
happen.
It is up to
the general
public to
insist that
local
governments
and criminal
justice
systems
across the
U.S. address
these
issues.
Help us make
that change
happen!
Many Latina
immigrant
women in the
Washington,
DC region
face
attempted
kidnappings,
rapes and
worse at the
hands of
sexual
predators of
all
ethnicities
who know
that petite
Ms.
Latina
typically
feels
powerless to
respond by
seeking
legal
redress
against
criminal
impunity.
I still
remember a
20 year old
Salvadoran
woman
telling of
how she and
her husband
witnessed
the
kidnapping
from a bus
stop of a
Latina
immigrant
woman in
Prince
Georges
County,
Maryland, by
three
non-Latino
men.
This
kidnapped
Latina woman
was later
raped and
murdered by
her captors.
These
witnesses
refused to
testify for
fear of
retribution
and the
suspects
were not
convicted,
according to
the
Salvadoran
female
witness.
Let's all
work to
change this
tragic and
barbaric
reality in
the daily
lives of
immigrant
and all
other women
and children
now!
- Chuck
Goolsby
September,
2003
Former
Civilian
Office
Systems
Programmer
for the
Montgomery
County
Police
Department
from 1992 to
1995.
What does
the U.S.
Department
of Justice
Say?
The below
statement
directly
addresses
several
important
components
of the
above-defined
problem in
victim
services:
...COMPASSION
AND
SINCERITY
..."There is
no
substitute
for
compassion
as the
foundation,
and
sincerity as
its
expression,
for carrying
out victim
services
equally and
fairly.
Although it
is not
possible to
feel the
same
compassion
for all
victims,
providers
have the
responsibility
to provide
the same
compassionate
service to
every
victim.
Compassionate
and sincere
advocacy
knows no
borders.
The plight
of
undocumented
residents or
illegal
aliens, for
example,
involves
complex
issues of
personal
prejudices
and
international
politics.
Sentiments
among
Americans
regarding
the
clandestine
migration of
those who
seek a
better life
here, mostly
from Mexico
and Central
America,
range from
compassion
for the
safety and
dignity of
those
fleeing
poverty and
war to
border
vigilante
hunts and
savage
beatings.
Once in the
United
States,
undocumented
aliens
become easy
prey for
employment
exploitation,
consumer
fraud,
housing
discrimination,
and criminal
victimization
because
assistance
from
government
authorities
is attached
to the fear
of
deportation.
There is an
epidemic of
sexual
assaults,
for example
committed
upon
undocumented
Latinas.
Their
immigration
status,
however,
does not
mean that
they should
receive less
protection
under
America's
criminal
laws or less
right to
victim
services"...
From:
The United
States
Department
of Justice -
1999
The 1999
National
Victim
Assistance
Academy
Chapter 7 -
Responding
to
Underserved
Crime
Victims -
Respecting
Diversity
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Before
LibertadLatina.org:
Chuck Goolsby's
Email Dialog on the
Human Rights Issues
Facing Latinas in
the Washington, DC
Region
Using
e-mail to
begin a
local
community
dialog
about
the sexual
exploitation
of Latina
immigrant
women &
girls
in
greater
Washington,
DC
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Previous to the
LibertadLatina
project
I provided an e-mail based newsletter of
important community issues related to the right of
Latina women and children to live free from sexual
harassment, rape and enslavement.
The below list contains some of the more important
of these e-mail conversations to people of
consciousness in the greater Washington, DC region
and elsewhere. |
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Rockville,
Maryland
From Charles
Goolsby's E-mail Advocacy Newsletters
09/29/1999 -
Discrimination
against
Latin Women
in Health
Care
An
Ecuadorian
indigenous
woman,
who was
about
40
years old,
was told by
two Latino
doctors in
Montgomery
County that
the lumps in
her breasts
were not
cancer, she
should not
worry about
it, and that
the lumps
were just
concentrations
of calcium.
This friend
was told the
same thing
in Ecuador
by another
doctor.
After being,
finally,
correctly
diagnosed as
indeed
having
Breast
Cancer,
Matilde died
about a year
and a half
ago.
Nobody ever
had to
answer for
the
injustice
that this
friend
faced.
Another
friend, from
Guatemala,
told me of
how a
sister-in-law
went to our
local
hospital,
Shady Grove
Adventist
Hospital...
She
was also an
Indigenous
woman. She
was having
sever
abdominal
pains.
She
was examined
and was told
to go home
and take
aspirin.
After being
taken by
ambulance to
another
local
hospital,
Holy
Cross
Hospital,
this woman
was told
that she had
a tubal
pregnancy,
and was
properly
treated.
(A male
relative of
this
Guatemalan
indigenous
woman also
went to
Shady Grove
Hospital
with stomach
pains, and
was
misdiagnosed
and sent
home.
I turned out
after
returning to
the hospital
later with
severe pain
that he had
appendicitis)
An
Ecuadorian
woman
took her
baby to
Shady Grove
Hospital and
the doctor
prescribed
the wrong
diaper rash
cream, which
another
pediatrician
recognized
as being
something
that
would actually
inflame the
baby's
diaper rash
condition.
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The Montgomery County Commission for Women must
play a strong advocacy role in ending immigrant
women and girl's exposure to impunity and, most
importantly, in ending the local criminal
justice system's apathy & hostility toward
Latinas.
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In
May of
1994
I
made a 45
minute
presentation
to the
Montgomery
County
Women's
Commission
covering the
issues of
immigrant
women and
girl's
exploitation
in
Montgomery
County
communities
and
workplaces
that are
detailed on
LibertadLatina.org.
The author's
1994 Report
(35 pages)
was
distributed
to the 15 or
so assembled
commissioners
and was well
received.
In 2001 I
again
contacted
the
Commission
and
encouraged
them to act
to resolve
these
issues.
The
Montgomery
County
government
web site
currently
highlights a
seminar
series that
the
Montgomery
County
Women's
Commission
has created
to increase
their
visibility
in response
to the
crisis
facing
immigrants
in this
county.
The below
statement is
from the
commission's
new, 2003
seminar
series for
immigrant
women.
LibertadLatina
commends the
Montgomery
County
Women's
Commission
for taking
this
important
step.
Much more
work needs
to be done,
because a
climate of
official
apathy and
hostility
continues to
affect how
immigrant
women are
served when
faced with
impunity.
During
recessions,
acts of
impunity
become
blatant as
jobless
women and
girls are
subjected to
sexual
quid-pro-quo
work
arrangements
with bosses,
and other
stressors
aggravate
community
based sexual
exploitation.
- Chuck Goolsby, September, 2003
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Montgomery County Women's Commission
401 N. Washington Street, Suite 100
Rockville, MD 20850
For information and to contribute your
comments, please call 240-777-8330.
"U.S. Census 2000 indicates that
Montgomery County has by far the largest
population, and percent, of foreign born
residents of any jurisdiction in
Maryland. The Maryland Department of
Planning reports that Montgomery
County's foreign born population
approaches 233,000 residents (26.7% of
the county's total population).
...It is often the immigrant woman who
faces the most serious challenges. All
too often, she is employed in low wage
jobs, with no benefits, little knowledge
of the laws protecting her rights as an
employee, and no access to that
information or to agencies that could
help.
...She may be afraid to seek help from
the police, health, or social services
agencies, should that become necessary,
and if she does seek help, language may
present still another barrier. Women in
these situations are far more vulnerable
to abuse, harassment, discrimination and
worse.
...The Commission for Women will host a
series of four seminars, offering the
experience, insights and recommendations
of experts on these issues."
2003 MCCW Latina Issues Seminar Series
Flyer
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A Letter from the Montgomery County, MD Women's
Commission
responds positively to Charles Goolsby, Jr.'s May
27, 1994 presentation before the Commission that
detailed many of of the cases listed on this page as
well as cases detailed on our
Workplace Exploitation Page. |
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To
achieve
real
change,
your
voice
(no
matter
where
you
live)
needs to
be heard
by
government
officials.
Make
your
voice
heard.
Contact:
The
Montgomery
County
Executive
and the
County
Council
have
recently
signed a
resolution
rejecting
Maryland
Governor
Ehrlich's
recent
public
remarks
that
were
construed
as
hostile
to Latin
American
immigrant's
and
their
supposed
lack of
English
language
skills.
Maybe
they are
in a
mood
to
reform
anti-immigrant
abuses
here.
- Chuck
Goolsby
|
Excerpt...
Past
political
hostility
towards,
and
support
for
Latino
immigrants
in
Maryland
by
politicians...
On a
Baltimore
talk
radio
show,
[Maryland
Governor
Robert]
Ehrlich
voiced
his
opinion
that
immigrants
should
learn
English
and
adopt
American
culture.
“I
reject
the
idea
of
multicultural-ism.
Once
you
get
into
this
multiculturalism
crap,
this
bunk,
you
run
into
a
problem...."
According
to a
Takoma
Park
Gazette
article
on
May
12,
Ehrlich
refused
to
answer
calls
for
him
to
apologize
for
his
comments
and
continued
to
defend
his
position.
Meanwhile,
on
May
11,
the
Montgomery
County
Council
unanimously
voted
for
a
resolution
that
expressed
concern
about
Ehrlich’s
“ill-chosen
remarks"
and
suggested
that
he
apologize. |
Silver
Chips
May 13,
2004
County
Executive
Isiah
Leggett
Elected
2006... and
a
good guy!
Executive
Office
Building
101
Monroe
Street
Rockville,
MD 20850
Phone:
240-777-2500
Fax:
240-777-2517
Montgomery
County
Council
- 2008
Phil
Andrews
(District 3
| Democrat)
Roger
Berliner
(District 1
| Democrat)
Marc Elrich
(At Large |
Democrat)
Valerie
Ervin
(District 5
| Democrat)
Nancy
Floreen
(At Large |
Democrat)
Mike Knapp
(District 2
| Democrat)
George
Leventhal
(At Large |
Democrat)
Marilyn J.
Praisner
(District 4
| Democrat)
Duchy
Trachtenberg
(At Large |
Democrat)
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January
7,
2003
President
Bush
Proposes
Immigration
Reform
While
the
true
fairness
of
his
plan
has
yet
to
be
seen...
Thank
you
President
Bush
for
giving
global
coverage
and
mainstream
respect
to
the
plight
of
Latin@s
and
other
immigrants
who
face
the
severe
crime
&
workplace
exploitation
issues
that
we
struggle
daily
to
document,
organize
against
and
overcome.
We
encourage
law
enforcement
and
the
judiciary
across
the
U.S.
to
follow
the
President's
leadership
and
provide
real
and
equal
assistance
to
victims,
ending
the
crisis
in
immigrant
victimization
with
impunity
and
tepid
local
government
response
to
that
ongoing
emergency.
That tepid local government response to
the sexual, community and workplace
exploitation of immigrant women,
children and men is thoroughly described
on this page and in our
U.S. Latin
immigrant crisis and
Workplace Latin
Immigrant Crisis
sections.
We strongly encourage local governments
in the Washington, DC region and across
the United States to actively remove the
restrictions to access to the law
enforcement, judicial and civil legal
institutions that immigrant workers
desperately need access to (as president
Bush noted clearly in his January 7,
2004 address).
Local Washington, DC regional
communities such as Mount Pleasant in
DC, Gaithersburg, Maryland and others
have faced racially motivated terror and
institutional hostility long enough.
That hostility is described here below.
-
LibertadLatina.org
(See
our
additional
commentary
and
links
to
press
articles
in
regard
to
this
issue.)
Return
to
Index |
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LibertadLatina
News /
Noticias
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Updated: Nov. 15, 2011
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Added: Nov. 15, 2011
|
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Greater Washington, DC USA
|
|
Gangs
Enter New Territory With Sex
Trafficking
|
|
Though most are known to deal with
drugs and weapons, a new FBI threat
assessment says street gangs have
been moving into some different
territory lately: human trafficking.
The FBI says gang members
increasingly are pushing women and
children into prostitution.
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The MS-13 gang got its start among
immigrants from El Salvador in the
1980s. Since then, the gang has
built operations in 42 states,
mostly out West and in the
Northeastern United States, where
members typically deal in drugs and
weapons.
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But in Fairfax County, Virginia, one
of the wealthiest places in the
country, authorities have brought
five cases in the past year that
focus on gang members who have
pushed women, sometimes very young
women, into prostitution.
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"We all know that human trafficking
is an issue around the world," says
Neil MacBride, the top federal
prosecutor in the area. "We hear
about child brothels in Thailand and
brick kilns in India, but it's
something that's in our own
backyard, and in the last year we've
seen street gangs starting to move
into sex trafficking."
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In Virginia, at least, the
consequences can be severe. Over the
past few weeks, one member of MS-13
nicknamed "Sniper" got sent to
prison for the rest of his life.
Another will spend 24 years behind
bars for compelling two teenage
girls to sell themselves for money.
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Usually, investigators say, gang
members charge between $30 and $50 a
visit, and the girls are forced into
prostitution 10 to 15 times a day.
|
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It's easy money for MS-13 —
thousands of dollars in a weekend,
with virtually no costs. Except for
alcohol and drugs to try to keep the
girls off-kilter.
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Often, the activity takes place at
construction sites, in the parking
lots of convenience stores and gas
stations.
|
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"Yeah, this last case we worked, the
victim was 12 years old," says John
Torres, who leads the Homeland
Security Investigations unit at the
Immigration and Customs Enforcement
office in Washington.
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He says the girl, a runaway,
approached MS-13 gang members at a
Halloween party. She was looking for
a place to stay. Within hours, she
was forced to work as a prostitute.
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"You have a gang that's taking
advantage of people that are in a
desperate situation, usually
runaways or someone that's looking
for help from the gang," Torres
says.
|
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Joshua Skule, who oversees the
violent crime branch of the criminal
division at the FBI's field office
in Washington, lists some reasons
for street gangs' move into sex
trafficking.
|
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"It is not like moving, or as risky
as moving narcotics. It is not as
risky as extorting business owners,"
he says. "And these victims really
have no way out."
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Skule says they're like modern
indentured servants. The 12-year-old
girl involved in one of the recent
sex trafficking cases is safe now,
authorities say. But she'll be
dealing with the physical and
emotional scars for many years.
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"When someone leaves, there's a lot
of shame and guilt associated with
the time they were there," says
Victoria Hougham, a social worker
who helps victims and survivors of
sex trafficking.
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"They may have physical injuries
which can impact, especially for
young women, their sexual and
reproductive health."
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Hougham works with
Polaris
Project,
a nonprofit that runs a 24-hour hot
line that helps connect victims of
human trafficking with police or
social services. She says survivors
of that kind of abuse do best when
they reconnect with their families
and get support from law
enforcement.
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Prosecutors in Virginia say they
expect to bring more sex trafficking
cases against gang members over the
next several months.
|
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Carrie Johnson
|
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All Things Considered
|
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National Public Radio
|
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Nov. 14, 2011
|
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Added: Nov. 14, 2011
|
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Congressional anti trafficking leader Rosi
Orozco eulogizes Interior Department leaders in the war against modern
slavery
|
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Mexico
|
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Mexico’s Secretary of the Interior José
Francisco Blake Mora and other officials recently died in a
tragic helicopter accident. | | | | |
/ Welcome
