This article draws from interviews with formerly trafficked persons who have resettled in the USA. It has not been easy finding trafficked persons in the USA. The author contends that this is due, in part, to a focus of most antitrafficking activities on one industry — the sex industry — to the exclusion of investigations into exploitation of migrant workers in other labor sectors. At the same time, undocumented workers stay quiet about workplace abuses because of a fear of deportation. ICE raids on workplaces where undocumented migrants may labor and the passage of local ordinances that empower local police officers to enforce immigration laws (287g agreements), have increased distrust between law enforcement and migrant communities. Forced underground, migrants working in vulnerable situations will be harder to find and to assist. This environment of threat shapes the resettlement of formerly trafficked persons since they typically enter the same low-wage, insecure and possibly exploitative work after being trafficked. More meaningful rights-based alliances with community-based organizations that focus on migrants’ rights is a critical step to preventing forced labor and to assisting formerly trafficked persons. The fight against trafficking is a fight for migrants’ rights.
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