Heidi Cerneka speaking with migrants at a migrant shelter in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.
Mariana came from Mexico with a border-crossing visa to accept an offer to care for an elderly woman in El Paso. She had worked and served her country in the military, and was now raising her granddaughter. She found she could no longer make ends meet in Mexico. Before boarding the airplane to the border, she verified multiple times that the job would be legal and the person hiring her would get her lawful permission to work in the United States.
Months later, she was paid almost nothing, charged for everything she used, and working 24 hours a day to care for her charge. When she asked for more pay, the employer threatened to call the police or immigration on her. Mariana realized that it was all a lie. She could not go anywhere by herself, so she grabbed her granddaughter and fled, afraid of retaliation. Mariana is a survivor of human trafficking.
Human trafficking
Often the image that comes to mind when you hear of human trafficking is “runaway teens,” farmworkers, and maybe even manicurists. The reality is much more complicated, and with the migrant population, much more nuanced. On July 30th, World Day against Trafficking in Persons, we strengthen our commitment to working with migrant survivors of human trafficking and to combatting human trafficking.
Human trafficking is characterized by an act (such as recruitment, transportation, or harboring of people), a specific means (threats or use of force, deception, fraud, abuse of power, or abusing someone’s vulnerable condition) for the purpose of exploitation (for example, sexual exploitation or forced labor).
There is no defining characteristic that all human trafficking victims share; anyone could be a target. However, traffickers prey on migrants, vulnerable due to cultural and language differences, challenges from the country they left behind, and the destination country with empty promises like jobs and false romantic relationships.
Nearly 75 percent of traffickers operate within organized crime groups, which traffic more victims, for more time, across longer distances, with greater violence, and for greater profit. (United Nations Office on Drug and Crime 2025 Campaign Against Human Trafficking ). Trafficking increases as vulnerable migrants are pushed by restrictive policies and closed borders to more dangerous routes and exploitation. The United Nations advocates for regular pathways for migrants that foster safe and dignified journeys.
Enrique chose to leave his county, hoping to find work to support himself and his family back home in rural Guatemala. But he did not choose what happened to him on the way, including kidnapping and violence. When he was eventually forced to work cleaning the kidnappers’ residence in order to preserve his life, he also suffered human trafficking through forced labor.
Like Enrique, many migrants set off on the difficult migration journey freely, which makes it hard to recognize when the situation changes and they have lost their freedom to make decisions or to even physically circulate freely, when they are then forced to work, to provide sex, or even to carry drugs across the border.
The UN Palermo Protocol states clearly that whether a victim of trafficking initially consented to the intended exploitation is irrelevant. It is easy for a migrant who set off on the journey to safety and asylum, however, to blame themselves because they said ‘yes’ to a risky situation.
As a Maryknoll lay missioner, I work with Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center in El Paso, Texas, to represent migrants who have suffered human trafficking and seek protection and immigration relief. They can qualify for what is called a “T visa,” which will allow them to remain safely in the United States if they agree to collaborate with law enforcement’s efforts to stop human trafficking. We also work with local agencies in both Ciudad Juárez and El Paso to identify survivors and assist them in accessing their rights.
Human trafficking for forced criminality
Human trafficking takes many forms, and in São Paulo, Brazil, I advocate for migrant women who have been forced into transporting drugs.
For over 25 years, the Instituto Terra, Trabalho e Cidadania – ITTC (The Institute for Land, Work, and Citizenship) has accompanied women from over 60 countries who are tricked by job offers and false romances into coming to São Paulo only to find themselves trapped and forced to attempt to carry drugs out of the country. A very credible death threat to their children or their family leaves them with no option. One woman told us that when she said that she would not transport the drugs, the man grabbed his cell phone, made a call, and she could hear her children playing in the background in Venezuela. Someone was outside her home.
The UN 2024 Global Report on Trafficking in Persons now identifies trafficking for forced criminality as third in terms of the number of victims detected. It can be understood as “trafficking in persons for the purpose of exploitation of victims through forcing or otherwise compelling them to commit criminal acts for economic or other gains of traffickers or exploiters.”
Cheryl responded to a job ad in her native South Africa. After two interviews, and filling out all of the paperwork with her personal information, she was offered a job buying and selling shoes and was thrilled when it included international travel to purchase shoes. She flew to Brazil on her first assignment. Upon arrival, she discovered that it was all a lie, and that she would have to carry a suitcase of drugs to South Africa. When she refused, her family was threatened and she realized that the job application had all of her personal information, including the name of her children’s school. Fearing for her family, Cheryl took the bag and went to the airport where she arrested and later sentenced to 4 years in prison for drug trafficking.
Our work is to challenge the judges, prosecutors and general public to recognize that Cheryl is a victim of human trafficking and not a drug trafficker. According to Brazilian law and the UN Palermo Protocol, which Brazil signed, she should be protected, not convicted.
Migrants are not commodities for smugglers and traffickers to use and discard. As people of faith, and as human beings, we know that every one of us is blessed, loved, and equally deserving of protection and rights. Maryknoll Lay Missioners fights for all migrants who leave their homes in search of safety or survival and are exploited for the purposes of forced labor, commercial sex, forced illicit activities, and other coerced activities for the end profit of the trafficker.
Learn more:
- Instituto Terra, Trabalho e Cidadania – ITTC (about trafficking of migrants in Portuguese)
- Trafficking of Migrants – ITTC english
- ITTC website in English
- Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center
Heidi Cerneka, a Maryknoll lay missioner since 1996, is an immigration attorney. She currently works on migration, women and human trafficking both at Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center in El Paso, Texas; and at the Instituto Terra, Trabalho e Cidadania (ITTC) in São Paulo, Brazil.
