Human Trafficking: It Happens Here, It's Happening Now

Human Trafficking, it happens here, it’s happening now. Imagine a young girl whose family is struggling and unable to provide her with a good education and a woman arrives and offers this young girl a job and a chance to attend school. Since this opportunity is unlikely to be offered at another time, the girl accepts the offer. When this young girl arrives in this supposed “opportunity of a lifetime” it is a living nightmare. The story you’ve just pictured is true in the case of 12 year old Maria from Vera Cruz, Mexico. When woman named Sandra Bearden from Laredo, Texas wanted a maid, someone to do the house work and help with her four year old son. She drove across the border to the small town where Maria and her family lived. Sandra offered Maria education and work the same kind of chores she did at home with her family but this work came with the benefit of education and learning English. Marias parents allowed her to go; they trusted Sandra because she herself was Mexican born.
When Maria arrived she entered this horrendous nightmare. Sandra used violence to squeeze every ounce of work Maria “needed” to finish. If Sandra felt that Maria wasn’t working fast or hard enough she would blast pepper spray into her eyes. When Maria wasn’t working Sandra chained her to a pole in the backyard without food or water. An eight foot concrete fence kept Maria from being seen by neighbors. Once Maria was chained the torture continued. Sandra would often choose to for Maria to eat dog feces. During the time Maria was chained she would fade in and out of consciousness because she was dehydrated and starving practically to death. Luckily one of Sandra’s neighbors needed to do some work on the roof that probably saved Maria’s life. When glancing down over Sandra’s concrete fence the neighbor saw Maria chained up and whimpering, he called 911. The police found Maria chained hand and foot, covered in cuts and bruises. Marias enslavement lasted seven months. Sandra was