Wednesday, February 12, 2025
In observance of National Human Trafficking Prevention Month, several members of the Nassau County community came together for a symposium at the Theodore Roosevelt Executive & Legislative Building in Mineola last week to inform the public about human trafficking, and how to help prevent it.
The symposium detailed that there is a common misconception that human trafficking and human smuggling are the same thing, terms which are not interchangeable. Trafficking is the exploitation of sex or labor through force, fraud, or coercion. Smuggling is the importation of people into the country which avoids immigration laws. Over the past few months, Nassau County has seen more and more trafficking victims who are missing persons from other jurisdictions.
Christine Guida, the deputy chief of the special victims bureau with the Nassau County District Attorney’s office, has been managing these cases since 2012, and identified a common problem.
“A huge underlying theme is that victims do not identify as victims,” Guida said. “I never see someone come into my office and say, ‘I’m a victim of trafficking.’ They can admit to me every single thing the trafficker has done to them, but they will never believe that they are a victim.”
This is because they’ve been manipulated, put down and diminished, Guida said, and their sovereignty has been taken away.
“In the trafficking world there are always consequences,” Guida said. “You don’t make enough money in a night. You don’t text back the customers quick enough. You sleep too much, fall asleep with customers waiting…I’m constantly seeing victims that do not have a feeling of self-worth.”
According to Jessica Melton, the bureau chief of human trafficking at the Queens County District Attorney’s office, traffickers manipulate victims and survivors based on their vulnerabilities.
“This could be poverty, or facing discrimination, or being food insecure, or needing housing,” she said. “It could be people who have substance abuse issues, or mental health issues. Or fearing immigration consequences. Traffickers manipulate these fears.”
A misconception, Melton said, is that human trafficking always involves violence — but this is not the case.
“Some of these situations are violent,” Melton said. “But the majority of them, the trafficker uses very, very deep forms of psychological manipulation.”
A major theme of the symposium was that trafficking victims and survivors, as well as traffickers, can be anyone — and anywhere.
“I have cases in the wealthiest, most affluent, sections of Nassau County,” Guida said. “It’s everywhere. It’s at every hotel. It’s at the hotels where you’re putting your families up that are coming to visit you for Christmas — the Marriott, the Hyatt — the nicer hotels that we have.”
Dr. Pepper Martin, president of the nonprofit Women Intended For Excellence, helped organize the symposium with Nassau County Legislator Seth Koslow, who represents parts of Merrick, Bellmore, and Freeport.
At the symposium, she stressed the point that everyone can be affected.
“This is something that transcends socioeconomic status, ethnicity — it affects everyone,” Martin said. “We’re impacted emotionally, of course, but we’re also impacted morally, ethically and financially because of this issue…I don’t want to glorify it, but this is a crime that literally doesn’t discriminate.”
There is a Human Trafficking Intervention Court in Nassau County. Guida said the court has a special trauma-informed purpose — to assist victims of human trafficking, that also may have committed crimes, like prostitution.
“The purpose of this court is to ensure that persons in prostitution and people who are charged with these crimes do not end up with criminal convictions,” Guida said.
“What we want to do is flood them with services, and resources, and give them what they need to get out of the life of prostitution.”
The courts also make sure that the traffickers don’t get their convictions vacated like the victims and survivors. The district attorney’s office weeds through the cases and makes sure traffickers don’t go to that court.
“We’re not looking to send a trafficker or promoter of prostitution to this court,” Guida said. “We want the people being victimized to have their cases dismissed.”
They also want to get the maximum punishment for the traffickers.
“We try our best to get upstate jail time,” Guida said. “We always want to get sex offender registration, but it only comes with certain convictions.”
It’s difficult to both identify and investigate these cases, she added. “Our evidence gets lost quickly,” Guida said. “It’s a lot of electronic media.”
There’s plenty community members can do to prevent human trafficking from occurring. “How can you help?” Guida asked rhetorically. “Be aware of the red flags. Be aware of your surroundings…If you see a location, a massage parlor or something that doesn’t seem right, you can make a complaint…an anonymous tip. Talk to your children, your nieces, your nephews, your friends, your congregation members. Talk to them about the red flags.”
For more on the symposium and information shared, visit WomenIntendedforExcellence.org. Additional resources about human trafficking are available at the National Human Trafficking Hotline at (888) 373-7888, by texting 233733, or at HumanTraffickingHotline.org.
