Human traffickers and Dreamers

Image by Getty Images via @daylifeImage via WikipediaThere is a law that has been trying to get passed for a long time.  It is called the Dream Act, and the people it will affect are called Dreamers.  The Dream Act would give a path to citizenship for young people who were brought to this country before they were 16 years old and are guilty of no crime and high school graduates.

I truly believe if the people who oppose this legislation would not if they realized how much these innocent dreamers have suffered.  They are unable to work.  They are unable to get a license to drive.  This is particularly difficult for single mothers who need to take the children here and there and cannot wait for buses because of the fast-paced life they are forced to lead to survive.

Some of these dreamers are victims of Human Trafficking.  PBS showed a documentary a couple of weeks ago showing how these young people are captured by Immigration they are imprisoned without access to lawyers.  One woman was raped by a male guard.  When she complained to a female guard, thinking she would get support from her, she was told not to say anything or it would be worse for her.  She begged to be returned to her homeland because of the inhumane treatment, leaving 4 young children in the United States.  Her family had no idea what happened to her because she had no contact with her family.  Terrorists at Guatanamo Bay were able to have access to lawyers, but these people who were looking for a better life had none.  They are invisible.  Unlike the terrorists at Guatanamo Bay, they are not given any media attention.

Related articles

• Undocumented Immigrant Released From Detention, Pushing For Reform (huffingtonpost.com)
• Deportation Threatened Against DREAMer Held in Florida (lawprofessors.typepad.com)

More on Human Trafficking

Image via WikipediaImage via WikipediaSo much more, I learned about human slavery!  Slavery is illegal in every part of the world, but there are about 27 million people still held in slavery, that is actually more than when slavery was an open acceptable form in societies.  (I should say it was acceptable as long as you were not the slave)  Today, human slavery is much more covert and it is a billion dollar business.

There is different types of slavery:  forced labor, commercial sexual exploitation of children, trafficking which involves transport and/or trade of humans, usually women or children, for economic gain.  Often migrant women and girls are tricked and forced into domestic work and prostitution.

Today people are still bought and sold as commodities.  They are often abducted from their homes, inherited or given as gifts.  This is common in West Africa, particularly Mauritania.

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• How many slaves work for you? (feministphilosophers.wordpress.com)

Please join me and the young ladies at the Benedictine Academy in Elizabeth, N.J. in trying to wipe out human slavery.  To these young women, nothing is impossible with God's help.  Their goal is zero bystanders on the issue of human trafficking.  They are raising the awareness to the problem.  They have gone to the U.N. and talked to Senators.  Knowing that the lack of education leads to the ignorance that allows young people to get caught in human slavery, they begged for donations to building a school in Sierra Leone.  When the young people in Sierra Leone could not go to the newly built school because of lack of water, the Benedictine students got more donations and had a water pump built so the they could go to school.

See what these amazing students have done on their website www.benedictineacad.org  Look under Campus ministry, then under human trafficking.