and allows us to look at the world to see and with the ivory tower known as sports. . >> human trafficking is the topic of the last half hour of her program joining us is the executive director in ceo of a group known as polaris. good morning a little bit of the work of polaris coming to human trafficking? mimic an organization dedicated to this issue and then rewrite the national human trafficking hotline for the country.

>> area supported? mimic some government grant grants, hhs, institutional foundations and fountains of individual donors. >> government has declared the highlight, of causes. >> there is a lot of bipartisan political will and we all agree that people should not be forced to work against their will. and this is the way to highlight it. and for society at large to get behind this issue and to build political will against the issu issue. >> it's more common than people realize. anytime they are forced to workso against their will if there is coercion or a minor

there are hundreds of thousands in the united states 25 million actively in the world in anywe given year it is a 150 billion-dollar criminal enterprise. >> how do you define that? mimic a federal law was passed that was just reauthorized a few weeks ago actually and that is the federal definition children involved in the commercial sex trade adults in the commercial sex trade by violence or coercion or anyone adult or child that works in any sort of labor industry. >> if you see the word force how do they end up in this practice? how does thatt happen? . >> first you have to realize immigrants and us citizens not just immigrants. that is the biggest misconception.

and then to be friended by a pimp and then turns violent at first as a boyfriend than there is coercion to keep somebody in the commercial sex trade.om and then ask one - - and then domestic worker violence. and then with the guest worker visa but then all types of trafficking but the common thread the abuser is using force to keep somebody working against their will. >>host: so we will talk about this topic for the remainder of the program if you have questions you can post on twitter on the facebook page

the executive director of the polaris project. the business of stealing freedomre for profit and in some cases to force victims into commercial sex and then to be manipulated. what makes it difficult for these industries to leave? . >> one is the sheer control they face of the trafficker. they built a web of lies around them. they may not trust the authorities, they don't know where to seek help that's why there is a national hotline. 888 - - 377-8888. we try to get that out there. but also there is a belief it is your fault that they try to manipulate you that nobody

will believe you are care about you. so we as a society to stand up to those who are vulnerable to take the power away from traffickerss to pay that two people to be a more caring society for sure. >>host: what is the penalty? . >> 20 years or more. these are serious federal crimes these are major crimes prosecuted by the fbi and hsi with federal penalties and those laws passed over the last decade those are quite strong penalties so we take this incredibly serious when you take away their freedom intentionally force them against their will into the commercial sex trade. >>host: is there a certain type that is targeted? . >> we are trying to remake

remind the country labor trafficking is bigger than we think. we gravitate to the sex trafficking there is more law enforcement attention and public attention. but bad ignores and gives underreporting to labor trafficking farmworkers or domestic or carnival or janitors and so many different types that we hear about at the national hotline. bullets have some parity between the two that both are issues and not just the sexual side. >>host: for those in the industry, how do they usually get out? what usually happens? is there an advocate? dohe they escape? . >> we have gone over 10000 calls directly from survivors calling the hotline or texting where they actually reach out forr help to take agency out of

their own extrication other times community advocates and the victim could be arrested as a criminal than through the course of the investigation then they say we are realizing you are a victim. there are multiple pathways truckers, hotel worker, hospital worker, flight attendant, a professional may see it or law enforcement arrest or calling the hotline to get themselves out were a network of survivors to figure out a way to get somebodyrv out in the first place. with those modern underground railroad efforts. but far too few are getting out. . >>ho the first call comes on the

independent line. >>caller: i really want to thank you for talking about this because every day i get so many calls somebody from breast cancer or right to life which of course, i support but never have i gotten a call asking for support for human trafficking in the us. it is such a problem i tried to be an advocate but the schools don't want to hear about this. the churches don't want to hear about it. is such an undercover subject. and then the whole nation paid attention when this floss was held for three mount mann - - months and it is wonderful but all ofs found

those cartels that are raped so often. often we don't even get the name of the child. i just want to thank you so much for bringing this to light. i wish it was on the news every day. >> thank you. >>host: is that your experience? . >>d yes. things are getting better. wahools want to hear about it but actually now they are creating curriculum to train kids on human trafficking on prevention but for victim identification lens and now california is training all schoolteachers. more teachers are one - - board.s are on and that deserves major not.nal attention are .

>> for example, the victoria brown case a child in tennessee forced into the sex trade and she eventually killed one of the buyers and sentenced to life in prison at 16. now the governor of tennessee if you weeks ago just granted her clemency. after she served 16 years in prison but there are other cases like that that don't get that same national attention like those in ohio. when a child has been forced into sex trade like that and how do we draw that circle wider? and by far is not getting enough media attention and

when people really learn about these cases to say how is that happening a few miles from my house. >> so thank you for caring about this issue go to polaris if you're looking for more. >> >>caller: i look at real issues so if you legalize it you create the black market that is not regulated so to regulate prostitution i don't like to use that word because it is the oldest industry in the world at least 2000 years and then vegas it is legal you don't have too many issues. so once you put laws on the books andd regulations and

things like that, you take away the power from they pimps and people to take advantage because the you have a market to do things a legitimate. >> that is a big debate what to do about the sex trade whether or not to legalize that and would it help? rethink the people that are trying to legalize that are doing so for the intention to try to make sure that people in the sex trade are notse criminalizedim necessarily in coming out of a good place. but we are worried that it actually makes things worse. amsterdam try to legalize it. talking to the new mayor of amsterdamt. and she basically says it was a debacle it was overrun with organized crime

if you look at a number of countries that the number of guys looking to buy sex that were held back by the fact that it was illegal the moment it was legalhe millions of new buyers going into the market and nowhere near enough voluntary men sellers so there s market imbalance so somebody has to fill the void it is filled by organized crime and kids are forced which is why if you look at legalize settings where the victim is from more vulnerable countries from eastern europe or places brought into .msterdam it is an important debate certainly didn't want to criminalize the person prostituted. that's the person who should get the most sympathy and respected agency. but we want to focus more on the traffickers but legalization may backfire and make it worse. that is why a the field is still debating and the data is starting to show it probably

does make it worse but there is an interesting model in sweden and norway called the nordic approach which actually is bifurcated legalization where the person selling sex is decriminalized but the person buying it is criminalized so you split the triangle and there are is - - there is promising results halfway legal halfway criminal. >> thank you for taking my call. when i was listening to the description of the demographic of the victims, it seems to me that it could point to the drug cartel of the idea of illegal immigration, people coming in and herded. so how does sanctuary cities and that whole issue hinder

your efforts to try to grasp this situation to help the victims? because it seems to me this is another argument for a boundary or the wall or whatever you call it and an increased vigilance on increased immigration. >> yes. thanks for the question. there's a lot of peoplenkou debating how to deal with this one of the things i don't think is in the debate enough is how e often victims of other countries come to the us on a legitimate visa. if we have a guest worker visa for the farmworkers or unskilled labor and somebody has been here legitimately they fly into the us land at a major airport they start working but then they are held

in debt bondage the person takes advantage of them there is some structural challenging things if you are not a lawyer so if you focus exclusively on the foot traffic across the southern border so the wall blocks the foot traffic, you are not really addressing the majority of the way the victims get into the united states which is flying in on the legitimate visa. so the conversation is a little more complex than just looking at the southernth border and what is coming over on foot and that doesn't take into account those that are victims already in the country and notng immigrants like those that grow up in abusive homes or foster care and they are abused so we have to broaden the conversation and then we

really focus on immigrants to make sure we think about the foot traffic and flying in. and the wall would not address the majority of the trafficking that comes in on themi airplanes. but i think people are really trying to figure out how to deal with this because it is a complex issue. >> what about the states? . >> they aregu laboratories. there are some governors that take this issue very seriously. texas governor for example,, the attorney general , we have seen innovative legislation. so the states are a patchwork of laboratory and then to get out the high school curriculum. so trafficking is a complex dynamic thing they are

visiting every single day to figure out differently so the field has to be nimble we have to be dynamic and figure out a way that this is a very elusive crime in the old ways we use to fight it will not cut it in the way that the traffickers are figuring out. >> independent line. >>caller: good morning. this is a fascinating subject and one that really needs attention. maybe he wants the wall to prevent this may be more than drugs coming across the borders it is children and the people that are kidnapped and brought here under force with the expression of sex trafficking drives me crazy it is another way that washington finds words to soften what is goinghi on. why don't they call that thing

or kidnapping? why do they find polite names for him moving themul along? there was a movie made about this one was called trade. pretty specific where they take them how they get them. >> thank you caller. >>er i do think the crime is called a lot of different things and in many ways it is pimping on the sex side sometimes on forced labor. i think one of the most extreme in your face is rape for profit when you talk about the sexx side. but i do t think that what is striking to me after working on this issue 15 years how much the country cares about this. high school

kids, churches, champions in congressch president bush and obama and trump care about this that's why you see january's human trafficking slavery prevention month. with the speaker on college campuses or community meetings there is a passion on thisn issue in the united states. i think we have a huge potential to leverage that excitement and passion to channel that into community awareness and on a volunteer basis to support the nonprofits that could donate and call their members of congress that we need to do something more to champion that. even talk to corporations and say where does this come from and this shirt where is this formed? because i don't want to eat slavery the with blood on the shrimp. so that supply chain and consumer action businesses are

stepping up to engage more than we have ever seen. there is a lot of potential in the field right now and people are captivated with the issue. >> there is a map on the polaris website. >> this is all the cases we have learned about through the national hotline last year about 30 caseski a day. 11000 cases we worked on to identify last year. that is a heat map. that is not to say this is the total prevalence but only where we learned about it through the hotline calls. montana or colorado it could be underreporting the problem but it does show look how huge that is that is 11000 cases in one year just the tip of the iceberg this is a major issue. not a single community that isn't affected. >> i'm curious what that

concentration of the northeast. >> i do think that is a reflection of prevalence and where the publicity is most drawn as we learn about the most cases but this is every community much more common than we think we have toh shift ouran mindset with this novelty that oh my god it is happening. of course, it is of poverty and homelessness and when we see that you begin to see that and say wow i just got my nails done what was that. i got my hair braided. what was that? there is an awareness as a daily citizen then you call the hotline and help to uncover a case. >> arizona democratic line. >>caller: thank you for

taking my call. i want to tell the young man i live in a small community that segues on the point that has happened all over. recently lady that had seven businesses in this city and they put her in jail but then the judge letter out to take her kids in california the segues on the judicial system we cannot catch these people them let them go back and forth. this doesn't work or show the americanng to the public. >> one thing i appreciate that you highlighted is the rural communities aspect in this. we miss a big part of the issue if we only focus on the

big cities. certainly it happens in new york and l.a. and chicago but there is traffic it - - trafficking happening in rural countries across the country whether a very localized sect trade on - - sex trade where a parent is recruiting and say get out of this area and then uses that luer as a recruitment pitch in any here victims say i want to get out of the small town and we will go the not realize they are going with a trafficker. so we see this in rural america much more that now there are thousands of survivors speaking out who are now advocates and leaders. you talk to survivors they will say do know don't overlook the rule communities that is a big mistake you do not realize how much this is happening in the rural community as well.

>> how did you get involved? . >> fresh out of college 16 years ago i justt graduated from stanford passionate violence against women if officially drawn on the sexual side of trafficking then realizing it is truly violence against women and how scary that is and working on and researching the issue for a couple years later and flair started 2002 i joined a couple yearshe later it's amazing it has grown and how much momentum. >> the republican line hello. >>caller: what will the man do as the casualty of the people who had businesses stolen from themf because they employed was an illegal using fraudulent documents and then they were employed.

so why all this nurturing of someone who comes to this country and spit on - - praise tear gas at border patrol? but the homeland security kirsten is making that situation set up if people paid attention like the lady from pennsylvania she is making a way for them to seek asylum. others are sending their children on birth control pills just because they don'tl get pregnant doesn't mean there's not a sexually transmitted disease. >> one thing i highlight that you said is there are parts of department of homeland security that prioritizes the federal government is cominge up with a government wide national strategy to combat

trafficking each department works on this you have the inter- agency process so now the state department is coming up with a strategy homeland securityho and others. so you will see a strategy come out of the federal government that we haven't had before that is comprehensive and is very victim centered and through that complexity that that approach needs to evolve or to really cracked out will not completely solve the problem so to broaden our

thinking on how to do this but of the department of homeland security is especially out of the hsi division with these agents dedicated to investigating these cases and on the national hotline, we have seen lots of cases handed over to law enforcement that have really come to amazing results there is some good work being done but also some misconceptions that are impeding us from getting to the next level. >> 888 - - 373-7888. 233733 send a silent text we take phone calls and e-mails even the online chat function but text and calls of the most ways they reach out it takes

calls and 200 languages they are confidential and anonymous all different types of trafficking we encourage people to call to get information to find more victims that way. >> with polaris executive director and ceo. thank you for your time . >> and the house has rejected that. so i say once again to the right honorable gentlemen it is very simple you cannot wish away no deal. you either save the european union or you have a deal. so now that is what people voted for is to leave. so if you don't want no deal. what has to be willing to agree to the deal.

and to talk with the people of those issues of which it is possible around this house