Catholic Charities of Arkansas faces serious challenges in helping victims of human trafficking in the state since the federal government denied funding to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to aid foreign-born trafficking victims.
“We don’t have enough money or staff time to serve all these victims without these resources. The availability of this money from USCCB, what it did was allow us to serve any type of trafficking victim. It was really important and now it’s not there. It’s a real hardship,” said Maricella Garcia, director of Catholic Charities of Arkansas immigration services in Little Rock.
Arkansas has no subcontractors now to provide services under the grant to her knowledge, she said, now that the CCA no longer has funds as one of the USCCB subcontractors.
 One victim’s story: Woman in Arkansas chose not to abort her babies Click here |
Currently, they can aid victims under the scope of their legal services. The immigration office works to help them legalize their status and works as a victim advocate to make sure they receive the help they need.
“For each person that we managed a case for, we received a set amount of money and that allowed us to provide more services to more victims,” Garcia said. “As it is now, we can only provide it through the services we provide through legal services. If we’re at capacity on the number of clients, we’re limited at what can be done — especially when you’re looking at these outside services that take a lot of time.”
They are uniquely set-up to help international victims. Every person in the immigration office is bilingual, and among them they speak six languages.
“Our office is the only nonprofit in the entire state that is accredited by the Board of Immigration Appeals to represent victims with immigration. … We have other organizations that we work with that provide social support. In the overall context of the things we do, the holistic care in trying to find all those needs together, there really isn’t anyone else in the state,” Garcia said.
Last fall the federal government discontinued a grant to the U.S. bishops’ Migration and Refugee Services under the National Human Trafficking Victim Assistance Program because MRS refused to refer clients for a “full-range of gynecological services,” including abortion. Three other agencies, including two whose original applications scored lower than the MRS proposal, were given the grants, totaling $19 million. From 2006 to 2011 MRS had aided 2,783 men and women victims of labor and sex trafficking and their family members. MRS was seeking another $2.5 million grant, which would have been distributed to various immigration and refugee resettlement programs throughout the country, including Catholic Charities of Arkansas.
If Arkansans think human trafficking doesn’t happen in the state, they are mistaken, Garcia said. CCA has worked on cases for both labor and sex trafficking victims.
The cases are complicated because they include compiling evidence, legal representation, and essentially aiding the victims in starting a new life. The CCA follows these cases for years.
“The victims face significant challenges. There’s a lot of issues there you have to deal with. That goes to the resources available. Without that money it is really difficult,” Garcia said. “Often you find those kinds of situations where they’ve already been victims of some form of abuse or other violence and they end up being trafficked. It compounds those things. They need mental health services. They need health services. They need medical access. They need access to translators and interpreters.”
One client took four years to get her visa. Last year CCA was able to bring her children to live with her in the U.S.
“It’s incredible. She was so happy when they got their permanent resident cards and the children came. They all just cried and cried. Those children are attached to us because of all we did to help get them settled,” Garcia said.
When funding is removed, Garcia said, victims suffer. It takes knowledge to help them and time to set up channels for the services they need.
By legalizing their status, Garcia said one of the barriers to reporting trafficking can be removed. The victims often believe they have no rights and law enforcement will not help them.
On the horizon for Arkansas in 2013 is proposed legislation to tighten some loopholes in the human trafficking law. Even though Arkansas has the law, there’s never been a prosecution under it.
“Law enforcement needs to know the law is there and that they can use it,” Garcia said. “We don’t want to see more victims in that we don’t want to see more people being victimized. But we want to see more people in our office because there are more victims than are being reported, and we want to do more to help them.”
The CCA immigration services does have a grant from the Office of Violence Against Women to aide sex trafficking victims as well as victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking. For the grant, they partner with the Center for Arkansas Legal Services and the Arkansas Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
CCA has reapplied for the grant, but it will limit the types of clients they can serve.
Under the new definitions for the legal grant, they are unable to help victims of labor trafficking.
Looking at the victims within the past year, it would mean 20 people would not receive help.
The number may even be higher, but it’s an issue that needs education and investigation — which takes more time and resources.
“The balance is hard to do when there is not outside funding. We need to educate people, so they are aware that human trafficking goes on in Arkansas. But we also need to be available to help victims,” she said. “Our balance right now is really a struggle. Without educating people, victims won’t come forward. When we have to weigh those things when we have less resources, we have to go to the victims side, which means there will be fewer people served in general because we won’t get as much education about the issue out.”
One victim’s story: Woman in Arkansas chose not to abort her babies
Catholic Charities of Arkansas will not stop their efforts to help victims of human trafficking, but their resources and abilities have dropped dramatically to provide for them.
“It’s a serious problem,” said Maricella Garcia, director of Catholic Charities Immigration Services in Little Rock. “Right now we have someone we’re working with who was a victim of a severe form of sex trafficking. We’re bringing her children from overseas. We were able to find a donor who’s helping pay for the cost of transportation. If we weren’t able to do that, we wouldn’t be able to get the children here. She does not have the money.”
In her home country, the woman was sexually assaulted by a prominent attorney and became pregnant. She chose to keep the baby. She was unable to prosecute him for the assault or pursue support for her child.
As a single mother, she made the decision to come to the United States illegally to work to provide for her four children.
While she was being smuggled into the country, she was trafficked across the country. She was drugged and sexually assaulted multiple times by several people, Garcia said.
They kept her until she became pregnant again. She again chose to keep her child.
This woman made her own decision to keep her baby even though she was raped. The question is what would happen to that decision under the new grant guidelines, Garcia said.
“You’re talking about a woman who twice had a child as a victim of rape. The new guidelines say that they have to provide family planning and abortion advice,” she said. “Here’s a client that could be in a situation where her decision could be questioned or her mind changed on that issue. I think she made a really courageous decision, not once, but twice.”
