Trafficking Women & Children

Do you know what the 3rd largest Income Earner is.......

The 3rd Largest Global Income Earner is the trafficking of Women and Children.

When I heard this today it broke my heart and made me think surely not... But it wasn't until I read a real life story and testimony of a woman who's been a victim of this that it truly hit home to my heart, and became REAL more than just another sad sad statistic. This is Maria's Story.

My name is "Maria." I am in disguise today because I am in fear that my captors would recognize me and place my life and that of my family in danger.

My story begins in May of 1997 in Veracruz, Mexico when I was approached by an acquaintance about some jobs in the United States. She told me that there were jobs available in restaurants and that I would earn enough money to support my daughter and my parents in Mexico. I accepted the offer and a "coyote" brought me to Texas.

I was transported to Florida and there, one of the bosses told me I would be working in a brothel as a prostitute. I told him he was mistaken and that I was going to be working in a restaurant, not a brothel. He said I owed him a smuggling debt and the sooner I paid it off the sooner I could leave. I was eighteen years old and had never been far from home and had no money or way to return.

I was constantly guarded and abused. If any of the girls refused to be with a customer, we were beaten. If we adamantly refused, the bosses would show us a lesson by raping us brutally. We worked six days a week, twelve hours a day. Our bodies were sore and swollen. If anyone became pregnant we were forced to have abortions. The cost of the abortion was added to the smuggling debt.

The bosses carried weapons. They scared me. I never knew where I was. We were transported every fifteen days to different cities. I knew if I tried to escape I would not get far because everything was unfamiliar. The bosses said that if we escaped they would get their money from our families.

I was enslaved for several months; other women were enslaved for up to a year. Our enslavement finally ended when the INS, FBI, and local law enforcement raided the brothels and rescued us. From the moment I arrived to the United States I have gone through so much. After I was released from my captors, I cooperated with the government to send them to jail. Some of them are serving sentences in the United States but unfortunately others are free in Mexico threatening our families.


I had no idea how huge of a business this really is. It's Heart breaking. Beautiful Women so easily deceived. So many of these women just wanted a better life for themselves or their family. Someone came along and offered them this hope and they jumped at the opportunity. Never again to be the same. One thing I have a passion for more than anything else is for women and their purity. It kills me to think how real and how huge of a problem this truly is.