I started my career in 2011 working with trafficking victims. Most days were mundane, cutting rent checks, helping people apply for benefits, going with them to the consulate to get necessary paperwork.
I built relationships with survivors in those long lines. Every now and then I would get a call that would send my mind and heart racing. It was a federal law enforcement official stating that an operation was under way and they wanted to know if my organization was available to provide victim services.
Elisabet Avalos
The call would initiate a flurry of activity, lining up attorneys, shelter placements, hygiene kits, translators, all on hand to help identify and support victims who would emerge from these law enforcement operations.
But these trafficking response operations have shifted in intent, process and outcomes.
More than a decade after I first began my career supporting survivors, the needs are the same, challenges remain, but barriers are exacerbated.
Funding never has been enough to cover the full scope of survivor needs from shelter, food, medical care, child care, education and more. But now nonprofits serving trafficking survivors are having to do even more with even less.
“Nonprofits serving trafficking survivors are having to do even more with even less.”
Recently the U.S. Justice Department cut 365 grants worth $71 million from the Office of Victims of Crime.
Adding to the crisis today is that federal law enforcement operations are changing approaches. Department of Homeland Security’s Blue Campaign was a commitment to place equal weight on identifying and stabilizing victims and on investigating and prosecuting traffickers.
Now the political climate is presenting competing priorities for Homeland Security Investigations, between deporting as many people as possible as opposed to conducting investigations into human trafficking and recovering victims.
This summer, the Department of Homeland Security set goals of arresting 3,000 people per day. The result is agents reportedly reassigned from trafficking and organized crime cases to civil immigration enforcement such as workplace audits and raids — diluting focus on victim-centered investigations.
The tactics the Department of Homeland Security is using, such as detaining people at immigration courts and other sensitive locations, are also a deterrent for trafficking survivors who already are fearful of deportation.
Traffickers often threaten their victims with deportation as a means of manipulating and controlling them. And the majority of people, 71% as of July 2025, that are being detained and deported have no criminal background.
By comparison to years before 2015, I saw firsthand that federal law enforcement would engage earlier with victim service providers to coordinate on operations with the end goal of victim recovery. It was not a perfect union by any means, but there were a handful of agents that I, as a service provider, trusted with the survivor clients I served.
In my experience, sometimes these operations occurred at restaurants, massage parlors, residential brothels, in broad daylight or extended to early morning. This shocking chapter of my life felt like a movie; but not like the movie Taken.
Often the public’s imagination was filled with images of young girls, kidnapped from their homes, traded like commodities on the dark web. But the reality was that most of the survivors I worked with did not fit this image; some were parents, undocumented male immigrants, or youth forgotten by the foster care system.
My role was — and is — to support the survivors and help meet their needs. Sometimes I help them reconnect with loved ones, get new clothes, access medical care or their first meal after a trafficking situation. The operations back then were different, but the needs were the same.
“The tragic impact of these federal budget cuts is felt by nonprofits and the survivors they serve.”
The tragic impact of these federal budget cuts is felt by nonprofits and the survivors they serve. It means longer wait times for legal help, less access to language translation services and fewer staff members to cover 24/7 crisis lines.
Additionally, there is a lack of shelters specifically for trafficking survivors. When I was providing direct services, shelter beds were obtained by leveraging existing beds for domestic violence survivors or booking hotel rooms using donated funds.
Research from 2019 indicates there were fewer than 2,000 beds for trafficking survivors nationwide. Of these there were fewer than 28 beds for male victims of trafficking.
To give an example of the scope, 2023 research shows that Homeland Security Investigations identified and/or assisted 1,806 victims of child exploitation and assisted 731 victims of human trafficking.
Public discourse also is changing. A decade ago, the public was seemingly obsessed with human trafficking. There was a keen interest in helping survivors whether they were U.S. citizens or not. As ICE activity continues in cities across the country — in major cities like Chicago as well as in sleepy suburbs — communities are on high alert.
Now is the time to rekindle public awareness and education around human trafficking in a compassionate manner. It is urgent that funding for victim services be protected and expanded.
It is essential that trafficking victims caught in the deportation dragnet be treated as victims and survivors in need of help and not as criminals. It is urgent to make victims the focus of investigations again and reintroduce humanity.
Elisabet Avalos is a leader in housing justice, developing programs for survivors of violence experiencing homelessness and is a Public Voices Fellow of The OpEd Project on domestic violence and economic security.