Slavery is right here; if you
see it, call cops: Editorial

The News-Press Editorial • news-press.com •
March 5, 2010

The ghastly story of a 15-year-old Guatemalan girl
authorities say was enslaved for sex, pornography
and field labor is a reminder that alert citizens can
rescue the victims of these crimes and help bring
the perpetrators to justice.

A woman in Immokalee who befriended the girl more
than a year after she had been smuggled into this
country learned after gaining her confidence that
she was in trouble. She called authorities, bringing
an end to a nightmare of rape, pornography,
beatings and labor exploitation.

Douglas Molloy, chief assistant U.S. attorney in Fort
Myers and a member of the Lee County Human
Trafficking Task Force, says the investigation is
continuing and other arrests may be made. "It
always comes down to people in the community,"
says Molloy. "If you've got a family where you think
something strange is going on, you've got to call.

"Unfortunately, sexual slavery and indentured
servitude are right in our neighborhoods and the
fields adjacent to our neighborhoods."

Slavery-related charges have been filed against U.S.
resident Francisco Francisco Domingo, 46, who in
effect bought the girl from her mother in Guatemala,
brought her to this country as a sex slave, c
onfiscated the wages she earned on farms in
Florida, South Carolina and Georgia and filmed her
having sex with men in houses in Lehigh Acres and
Immokalee, according to a Collier County sheriff's
report.

Molloy has prosecuted 20 slavery and trafficking
cases over the past decade throughout Southwest
Florida and freed 50 victims, so while this case may
be especially brutal, slavery in one form or another
is not rare here.

This case is also another reminder that our
unreformed and uncontrolled immigration mess
makes human trafficking much easier. A third issue
is cultural traditions in Guatemala and other
countries of arranging marriages of young girls to
men in exchange for payment.

In an effort to fight these practices and alert families
to the dangers from human traffickers, activists have
distributed a documentary, "Lucia's Letter," in 62
Guatemalan villages telling the composite
experiences of several victims.

Good for them, and good luck, but in the meantime
people here can be on the alert for the "Lucias"
suffering right under our noses.