The Half-Built Road: Exploring the Impediments to Justice for Victims of Labor Trafficking

Figures & data

Table 1. Brief Details on Each Case.

	Case #1	Case #2	Case #3	Case #4	Case #5
Victim(s)	Haitian and Mexican workers	East Asian and North African workers	Haitian and Mexican workers, mainly minors	South American workers	African workers
Number Trafficker(s)	3	4	3	1	1
Industry	Agriculture	Agriculture, domestic service	Food vending	Performance	Agriculture, domestic service
Criminal Case Outcome	A federal indictment was issued against two of the traffickers; one pleaded guilty to illegal harboring and was sentenced to a term of imprisonment	Prosecutors issued a criminal indictment charging 3 traffickers with visa fraud; one defendant was arrested	The federal prosecutor did file charges but quickly dismissed them	The criminal case was dropped due to prosecutorial discretion	There was never an arrest or any formal filing of charges; authorities viewed the case as a domestic violence issue
Victim Outcome	Some victims returned to trafficker locations, several were re-trafficked by the same network, some received continued presence and T-visas	Victims received housing through a personal connection of a lawyer with the legal advocacy organization, and one victim received law enforcement parole	Some victims received T-visas; most victims returned to their home countries	Some victims received continued presence and got work authorization through the FBI Victim Support Specialist	The trafficker was forced to pay all the victim’s legal fees
Civil Charges	The legal advocacy organization also won a civil judgment on behalf of the victims; however, to date, no money has been collected		A class action lawsuit was filed against Trafficker 1’s company; this lawsuit was settled out of court for an undisclosed amount	Civil and administrative complaints were also filed and remain pending

Table 2. Sources of Information for Each Studied Case.

	Interviews	News Articles	Legal Files	Total
Case #1	4	4	8	16
Case #2	3	7	2	12
Case #3	2	3	9	14
Case #4	2	0	5	7
Case #5	3	5	3	11
Total	14	19	27	60

Table 3. Barriers across cases.

Barriers	Case 1	Case 2	Case 3	Case 4	Case 5	Total
Legal/conceptual
Complicated legal structures	2	3	0	11	14	30
Lack of clarity about standards to bring case	3	0	0	0	0	3
Victim intimidation by trafficker or fear of trafficker	19	4	2	42	10	77
Institutional
Victims not seeking help from law enforcement	2	1	0	3	8	14
Victims not wanting to participate in investigations	8	4	0	6	3	21
Disruption of influential people, economic interests	12	5	3	6	2	28
Lack of legal advocates or public defenders	1	0	2	0	4	7
Lack of trained law enforcement	10	1	0	4	8	23
Lack of specialized trained prosecutors	1	2	3	4	0	10
Cultural
Myths or biases about labor trafficking	4	4	0	3	7	18
Cultural norms and perceptions of victim credibility	8	10	2	12	9	41
Role conflict, lack of cohesion and clarity	14	7	4	1	4	30
Choosing easiest or most certain strategy	9	9	2	1	1	22
Difficulty finding or securing a person to arrest	3	5	2	0	1	11
Total	96	55	20	93	71	335

Figure 1. Case 1 Criminal Justice Process Map.