Welcome to the Ending Human Trafficking Podcast here at Vanguard University’s Global Center for Women and Justice in Orange County, California. This is episode #327: Labor Trafficking and Forced Criminality. My name is Dr. Sandie Morgan, and this is the show where we empower you to study the issues, be a voice, and make a difference in ending human trafficking. I am so glad to have Anabel Martinez with us today. She currently works as a Senior Policy Counsel for the Sunita Jain Anti-Trafficking Initiative at Loyola Law School. She is a committed social justice policy advocacy professional, with over a decade of experience in advocating for marginalized communities through direct legal services and using trauma-informed and culturally responsive practices. She transitioned to public policy advocacy to seek system changes that are intersectional and inclusive. She’s highly skilled at looking at real-world issues from a nuanced, analytical lens that aids in the development of comprehensive and equitable policies. So Anabel, welcome to the Ending Human Trafficking Podcast.

Thank you so much for having me. I’m really happy to be here with you today.

Well before we dive in, I have a personal question, because your bio says that you transitioned to public policy advocacy. Can you tell me a little bit about how and why you have done that?

Sure. I feel like in some ways, as a direct client, when I was doing direct client services within the legal context, or whether that be social service, you’re always doing a little bit of policy advocacy in the sense that you’re letting your supervisors or your co-workers know, “Hey, this is a policy or an issue that doesn’t work for my clients or is causing me issues.” I noticed, as I was doing my work, that the people making policies were not folk who have experience providing direct client services, so oftentimes there’s policies are created with good intentions, but if you don’t have that understanding of how it looks on the ground or how that will be carried out, then you later on, you have to come back and fix those issues. So I was like, okay, why isn’t someone like me, who has this experience, providing this direct client service? Also, the person making the policy? Because then, I’ll be able to see those issues before they arise and be able to hopefully work around them or plan around them. It’s not possible to identify all the issues, but I do think we need more folks who have their client service experience, and be part of the people who are making the policies

I love that. It’s so important for us to begin to figure out how to get further upstream in designing solutions.

Yes. Unfortunately, sometimes we know nonprofits have limits on how much policy they can engage in, which is a lot of the folks providing those direct client services, work with the nonprofits. I’m very lucky to have found a job where I’m allowed to do that full time, which is very rare to find a job that’s full time policy.

Well, let’s dive into our topic. What is labor trafficking by forced criminality? We even have an acronym, LTFC. Can you explain what that is?

Essentially, within human trafficking we have sex trafficking, we have labor trafficking, and labor trafficking by forced criminality essentially means that the labor that is being asked of the person to do, or the person is being coerced to do, is an illegal activity. Whether that be cultivating, transporting drugs, deaths, shoplifting, sometimes even being ...