As we’ve shared before in the past year, inaccurately calling things human trafficking in order to advance unrelated agendas is becoming more and more common, and there is no excuse for this trend to continue. In recent months, the Texas Governor, Greg Abbott, has been transporting migrants to sanctuary cities. Aiming to follow this model, Florida Governor, Ron DeSantis, transported migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard. Immediately following, critics of this effort began to characterize it as human trafficking. However, based on all of the information currently available, calling this trafficking is both misleading and irresponsible.
Human trafficking is the use of force, fraud or coercion to get another person to provide labor or sex in exchange for something of value.
To be clear: Trafficking requires labor or commercial sexual exploitation, and it does not specifically require being moved or transported. Some may question or criticize the motivations behind the transportation of these migrants, but there is no evidence that the migrants who were relocated were compelled into labor or sex through force, fruad, or coercion.
Human trafficking is real; it’s an incredibly heavy issue; and it’s universally abhorrent. Many people, like you, want to see people protected. Politicians, media, and commentators are mislabeling this as trafficking and using this issue to try to manipulate the public for their own gain or agendas.
Over the past year, we’ve seen an increasing number of situations in which the issue of human trafficking is being co-opted to push profits and political agendas. Read more about this trend at https://love146.org/manipulating-concern. Learn more about the reality of trafficking and common myths at www.love146.org/learn – and use tools to spread truth about the issue with our toolkit at www.love146.org/share.
