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‘Males are Undeserving; Females are Ideal Victims’: Gender Bias Hides Demand in Human-Smuggling Networks

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2022

Simón Pedro Izcara Palacios Open the ORCID record for Simón Pedro Izcara Palacios [Opens in a new window]
Simón Pedro Izcara Palacios*
Affiliation:
Professor of Sociology, Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas
*
*Corresponding author. Email: sizcara@uat.edu.mx
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Abstract

The objective of this paper, based on interviews with 95 human smugglers (coyotes) involved in agriculture and 51 in prostitution, is to provide a comparative analysis of the networks transporting (mostly) male migrants intending to work in US agriculture and those recruiting women/girls for the US sex industry. Networks carrying females for sex work are bigger and use more fraudulent recruitment strategies. However, migrant smuggling for agriculture is not totally different from sex trafficking; similarities between the types of networks analysed dwarf their differences. Smugglers frequently use some form of deception to convince their would-be clients/victims to undertake risky journeys. I conclude that both networks are demand-driven. Smugglers serve the interests of US agribusinesses and sex business owners rather than those of the males and females they recruit.

Spanish abstract

Spanish abstract

El objetivo de este artículo, basado en entrevistas con 95 traficantes de personas conducidas para el trabajo agrario y 51 para la prostitución, es analizar comparativamente las redes que transportan migrantes varones para trabajar en la agricultura estadounidense y las redes que reclutan mujeres/muchachas para la industria estadounidense del sexo. Las redes que transportan mujeres/muchachas para el trabajo sexual son mayores y utilizan estrategias de reclutamiento más fraudulentas. Sin embargo, el tráfico de migrantes no es totalmente diferente de la trata sexual. Las similitudes entre los tipos de redes analizadas eclipsan sus diferencias. Los traficantes con frecuencia utilizan alguna forma de engaño para convencer a sus posibles clientes/víctimas de que inicien un viaje riesgoso. Concluyo que ambos tipos de redes están impulsados por la demanda. Los traficantes sirven los intereses de los empresarios agrarios y de los propietarios de negocios sexuales de los Estados Unidos por encima de las necesidades de los varones y mujeres/muchachas que reclutan.

Portuguese abstract

Portuguese abstract

O objetivo deste artigo, baseado em entrevistas com 95 contrabandistas de pessoas envolvidos em agricultura e 51 em prostituição, é analisar comparativamente as redes de transporte de migrantes masculinos que pretendem trabalhar em fazendas dos EUA e aquelas que recrutam mulheres/crianças para a indústria do sexo norte-americana. As redes que transportam mulheres/crianças para o trabalho sexual são maiores e usam estratégias de recrutamento mais fraudulentas. No entanto, o contrabando de migrantes não é totalmente diferente do tráfico sexual. As semelhanças entre os tipos de redes analisadas ofuscam suas diferenças. Os contrabandistas costumam usar alguma forma de engano para convencer seus possíveis clientes/vítimas a se arriscarem na viagem. Concluímos que ambas as redes são orientadas pela demanda. Os contrabandistas atendem aos interesses de empresários do agronegócio e do sexo dos EUA, e não dos homens, mulheres e crianças que eles recrutam.

Keywords

agricultureprostitutionmigrant smugglingtraffickingMexicoCentral AmericaUnited Statesagriculturaprostitucióntráfico de migrantestrata de personasMéxicoCentroaméricaEstados Unidosagriculturaprostituiçãocontrabando de migrantestráficoMéxicoAmérica CentralEstados Unidos
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 54 , Issue 3 , August 2022 , pp. 509 - 536
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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References

1 United States Department of State, Trafficking in Persons Report (hereafter TIP), June 2021, p. 60, ‘Global Law Enforcement Data’ table: https://www.state.gov/reports/2021-trafficking-in-persons-report/ (all TIP reports cited in this article were last accessed 7 March 2022). Hannah Hobbs Horowitz explains how the data in the TIP table relates to the number of visas granted to victims of sex trafficking: see ‘Protecting Victims of Human Trafficking: Understanding the Variation in T Visa Approvals’, Doctoral dissertation, Duke University, 2019, pp. 22, 29, 30, 35, 36 and 37. In this article I use the terms ‘females’ and ‘males’ rather than ‘women’ and ‘men’ to avoid any suggestion that all those who are smuggled are adults (adults are considered to be capable of consent; minors are not).

2 For example in Arizona State Legislature, Senate Bill 1070, ‘Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act’, 23 April 2010, hereafter ‘SB 1070’. See note 6.

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6 SB 1070. See Bravo, Karen E., ‘On Making Persons: Legal Construction of Personhood and their Nexus with Human Trafficking’, Northern Illinois University Law Review, 31 (2010), p. 495Google Scholar. In this paper the terms ‘(human) smuggler’ and ‘coyote’ are used interchangeably.

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16 Chapkis, ‘Trafficking, Migration, and the Law’, p. 924.

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31 Simón Pedro Izcara Palacios, ‘Corruption at the Border: Intersections between US Labour Demands, Border Control, and Human Smuggling Economies’, Antipode, 51: 4 (2019), pp. 1210–30.

32 Although I concentrate on the ‘males smuggled for agriculture and females trafficked for sex work’ model, I have come across cases of females smuggled for agriculture. None of the interviewees, except for Zeferino, trafficked boys for prostitution.

33 Karla Lorena Andrade Rubio, ‘Protocolo del Comité de ética de la investigación del CAC UAT-CA-73’, Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas, 2009, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316554261_Protocolo_del_Comite_de_etica_de_la_investigacion_del_CAC_UAT-CA-73 (last accessed 8 Feb. 2022).

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38 Izcara, ‘Corruption at the Border’, p. 1220.

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44 Hughes, ‘The “Natasha” Trade’; Jeffreys, The Industrial Vagina; Raymond, Hughes and Gomez, ‘Sex Trafficking’. Neo-abolitionists regard human trafficking as the forcing of ‘women and girls … into “sexual slavery” by social deviants’; their campaigns have led to ‘criminal justice responses that target prostitution and leave unquestioned the exploitative labor practices and migrant abuse that characterize the majority of trafficking cases’: Janie A. Chuang, ‘Rescuing Trafficking from Ideological Capture: Prostitution Reform and Anti-Trafficking Law and Policy’, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 158: 6 (2010), pp. 1658–9.

45 Gabriella E. Sanchez, Human Smuggling and Border Crossings (New York: Routledge, 2015), p. 4.

46 Spener, Clandestine Crossings, p. 204.

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48 Rosalba Jasso Vargas, ‘Espacios de estancia prolongada para la población migrante centroamericana en tránsito por México’, Frontera Norte, 33 (2021), p. 12.

49 Ibid., p. 4.

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54 The age at which a person may legally consent to engage in sexual activity in the United States is between 16 and 18. In the principal destinations of females transported by the human smugglers whom I interviewed (Texas, Florida and California) the age of consent is 18. Under the TVPA (see note 5) ‘the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person’ who has not attained 18 years of age for labour or for the purpose of a commercial sex act is considered a severe form of sex trafficking. Consequently, my definition of a minor is a person who has not attained 18 years of age.

55 Greg Schell, ‘Farmworker Exceptionalism under the Law: How the Legal System Contributes to Farmworker Poverty and Powerlessness’, in Charles D. Thompson Jr and Melinda F. Wiggins (eds.), The Human Cost of Food: Farmworkers’ Lives, Labor, and Advocacy (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2002), p. 151.

56 Ibid., p. 148; Walk Free Foundation, ‘The Global Slavery Index, 2016’, p. 127.

57 Methods used by smugglers to recruit workers include frequenting known places where migrants can make contact with them; seeking females in nightspots; and paying recruiters.

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