By David J. Bier

America traditionally had few immigration restrictions, but since the 1920s, the law has banned most aspiring immigrants. Today, fewer than 1 percent of people who want to move permanently to the United States can do so legally. Immigrants cannot simply get an exception to immigrate any more than restaurateurs in the 1920s could simply get an exception to sell alcohol. Instead, just as Prohibition granted only a few exemptions for religious, industrial, or medical uses of alcohol, people seeking an exception to immigration prohibition must also fit into preexisting carve-outs for a select few. Many Americans have the false impression that these carve-outs are realistic options for potential immigrants to join American society, but the government’s restrictive criteria render the legal paths available only in the most extreme cases. Even when someone qualifies, annual immigration caps greatly delay and, more frequently, eliminate the immigrant’s only

chance to come to the United States. Legal immigration is less like waiting in line and more like winning the lottery: it happens, but it is so rare that it is irrational to expect it in any individual case. This study provides a uniquely comprehensive, jargon-free explanation of U.S. rules for legal permanent immigration. Some steps are simple and reasonable, but most steps serve only as unjustified obstacles to immigrating legally. For some immigrants, this restrictive system sends them into the black market of illegal immigration. For others, it sends them to other countries, where they contribute to the quality of life in their new homes. And for still others, it requires them to remain in their homeland, often underemployed and sometimes in danger. Whatever the outcome, the system punishes both the prospective immigrants and Americans who would associate, contract, and trade with them. Congress and the administration can do better, and this paper explains how.

Washington, DC: Cato Institute, 2023. 88p.

By Eric P. Baumer, Min Xie

Research Summary

Our understanding of how immigration enforcement impacts crime has been informed exclusively by data from police crime statistics. This study complements existing research by using longitudinal multilevel data from the National Crime Victimization Survey for 2005–2014 to simultaneously assess the impact of the three predominant immigration policies that have been implemented in local communities. The results indicate that the activation of Secure Communities and 287(g) task force agreements significantly increased violent victimization risk among Latinos, whereas they showed no evident impact on victimization risk among non-Latino Whites and Blacks. The activation of 287(g) jail enforcement agreements and anti-detainer policies had no significant impact on violent victimization risk during the period.

Policy Implications

Contrary to their stated purpose of enhancing public safety, our results show that the Secure Communities program and 287(g) task force agreements did not reduce crime, but instead eroded security in U.S. communities by increasing the likelihood that Latinos experienced violent victimization. These results support the Federal government's ending of 287(g) task force agreements and its more recent move to end the Secure Communities program. Additionally, the results of our study add to the evidence challenging claims that anti-detainer policies pose a threat to violence risk.

Criminology & Public Policy, 22, 417–455. 2023, 39p.

By Christian Ambrosius and David A. Leblang

The forced return of migrants is an important part of migration policy toolkits. An increased risk of deportation, politicians argue, will deter subsequent irregular migration. We explore this argument for the case of forced removals from the United States and find that rather than operating as a deterrent for future migrants, this policy had a boomerang effect. The forced return of migrants with a track record of crime generated negative externalities in the form of higher violence in their countries of origin, counteracting the deterrence effect of higher deportation risk. We apply mediation analysis to a panel of Latin American and Caribbean countries and decompose the effect of deportations on emigration into three coef­fi­cients of interest: a total effect of deportations on later emigration, an effect of deportations on the mediator variable of violence, and an effect of violence on emigration. We address the endogeneity of our key explanatory variables—deportations and violence—using migrants’ exposure to the unequal and staggered implementation of policies intended to facilitate deportations at the level of U.S. states as a source of exogenous variation. We show that migration intentions and asylum requests increase in response to deportation threats. This effect is mediated through increased violence and is strongly driven by dynamics in Central America. Although the total number of apprehensions at the U.S. southern border in response to deportation threats does not show a clear pattern, we observe an increase in the share of unaccompanied minors and the share of entire family units among those apprehended, suggesting a shift in migration strategies and composition.

Demography (2025) 62(2):419–439 DOI 10.1215/00703370-11863789 © 2025

By Silvia Carta

In 2024, PICUM’s media monitoring confirmed a growing trend: at least 142 individuals faced criminal or administrative proceedings for acting in solidarity with migrants in the EU. Additionally, our media monitoring found that at least 91 migrants were subjected to criminalisation, mostly under counter-smuggling legislation. But we know that this number is an undercount, as other organisations recorded many more cases1 in their own work. Furthermore, news articles highlighted several forms of non-judicial harassment directed at human rights defenders and civil society organisations within the EU. Due to the significant gap in statistical and official public data2 regarding individuals accused, charged, or convicted for smuggling and related offenses, this briefing relies on a media alert system and desk research, which may not comprehensively capture all relevant incidents reported across EU countries. Consequently, the figures presented likely underestimate the true extent of such occurrences. In addition, it is likely that many cases, particularly regarding people who are migrants, go unreported by the media.3 Beyond the continuously high number of people who have been criminalised in 2024, this report highlights different trends. Under the current legal system, charges of facilitation and smuggling can be used to criminalise migrants or people without regular residence and those acting in solidarity with them. Despite numerous and protracted judicial proceedings, actual convictions remain low. This report also looks at the several cases of people and organisations across Europe that have experienced non-judicial harassment. Moreover, the findings of our media monitoring in 2024 seek to shed light on the criminalisation of people crossing borders irregularly, which has grown of at least 20% in comparison to monitoring in 2023,4 but remains a relatively hidden phenomenon. A comparison between PICUM’s findings and existing research reveals a tendency for the media to underreport the criminalisation of migrants.5 Yet, the majority of cases analysed by PICUM align with research indicating that migrants, including children, often face unfounded accusations, endure harsh legal processes and face years of pre-trial detention for the sole fact of migrating   

Brussels: PICUM, 2025. 29p.

By Maricela Sanchez

In 2023, we worked with local partners and a brave set of detained leaders to create the California Immigration Detention Database (“Database”). The purpose of the Database was to expose and document the daily conditions of life in California immigration detention by tracking formal grievances sent to us by those inside. “When people try to be heard by staff through their grievances, [they] are ignored. These facilities are not safe, and staff are not held responsible for misconduct.” – Jose Ruben Hernandez Gomez Since the inception of this project, detained immigrants in California have launched widespread labor strikes and hunger strikes and have filed multiple lawsuits and administrative complaints to put a spotlight on the abuse and neglect they suffer. As part of this effort, people in custody have continued to send us copies of the grievances they file through Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (“ICE’s”) internal system. As of July 2024, we have received 485 grievances across six immigration detention facilities in California. Together, these grievances reveal a persistent and disturbing pattern of abuse that pervades ICE’s detention regime in California. • Hazardous Facilities and Inhumane Treatment: Inadequate facility management was the most common reason for a grievance, making clear that ICE’s immigration detention facilities in California are consistently unfit for human habitation. ICE also fails to meet the minimum standards of its own policies, like ensuring people have edible food, clean water, and the opportunity to go outside for fresh air and sunshine • Medical neglect: We have received 94 grievances related to inadequate medical care, lack of COVID-19 protections, and denial of medication. Many people in the detention facilities suffer from chronic conditions. Some develop new health problems, sometimes because of hazardous materials or abusive treatment they experience while detained. But requests to see a doctor are left languishing, and ICE and facility staff regularly leave medication unfilled, or otherwise disregard the prescribed treatment. Likewise, during the pandemic, ICE showed a remarkable indifference to the safety of the people it incarcerates. More recently, ICE has withheld potentially life saving treatments, like Paxlovid, from people who contract COVID. • Retaliation: The most common outcome of filing a grievance isn’t change. It’s retaliation. The grievances we’ve received include 56 complaints of bullying and harassment by detention facility staff, 13 complaints related to sexual assault, 15 complaints related to sleep deprivation, and 59 complaints related to other forms of retaliation, such as punitive and extended use of solitary confinement. As part of its regular practice, ICE does not proactively release information about the grievances it receives from people in detention. Based on our conversations with detained people and with local partners who regularly engage in detention-related work, we believe that our records represent the most consistent issues in the detention facilities. This report is intended to support the advocacy and resistance of the people trapped inside ICE’s detention facilities. It includes data, stories, and background that document the ongoing harms of immigration detention. Taken together, it is unequivocally clear that ICE and the private companies it contracts with cannot be trusted to care for the people they detain. The grievance system, which is supposed to offer an avenue for redress, ends up making things worse for those it’s intended to help. Existing oversight mechanisms are inadequate, and human rights violations are rampant. It is our conclusion that the immigration detention system is irredeemable and infected by greed, racism, and impunity

San Francisco: UCLA of Northern California, 2024. 34p.

By Sana Singh

For years, countless immigrant Californians have been calling attention to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s (CDCR) discriminatory practices that assist in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) deportation efforts. CDCR staff identify individuals in their custody, whom CDCR assumes to be born outside of the U.S., report them to ICE, and deny them valuable rehabilitation, education, and credit-earning opportunities. In 2022, the ACLU of Northern California filed a major public records request seeking communications between CDCR and ICE. Over the past several months, the ACLU of Northern California, Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Asian Law Caucus, Asian Prisoner Support Committee, and Root & Rebound have analyzed over 2,500 CDCR records and emails between August and September 2022. Step by step, the team pieced together a more detailed view than ever before into how CDCR voluntarily goes to horrifying lengths to illegally discriminate against Californians born outside the U.S. and against anyone CDCR officers unilaterally perceive or assume to be born outside the U.S. Dozens of previously unseen emails show how California’s largest public agency is using public resources to operate a system of double punishment that rips apart immigrant and refugee families and communities, in direct conflict with California’s values of equality, fairness, and justice. In their zeal to collude with ICE, CDCR is not only targeting people who have served their time and are set to return home for detention and deportation but is also sweeping up U.S. citizens and Green Card holders, relying on racist assumptions and ignoring their own records. CDCR’s practices are also increasingly out of step with the rest of California and statewide officials’ own commitments to their constituents. Many counties across California, including Los Angeles, San Joaquin, Santa Cruz, Humboldt, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara, have already stopped facilitating transfers of people to ICE after they have served their time in jail or prison. Governor Newsom has recently called on California to “be in the homecoming business,” and CDCR Secretary Macomber has stated his intentions to “create a space focused on preparing individuals for successful returns to the community.” CDCR’s practices raise urgent legal and policy questions and implicate the fundamental rights of numerous Californians in CDCR custody, adding further to the agency’s deeply troubling record of medical abuse and neglect, warehousing of people in long-term solitary confinement, racist and antisemitic social media comments, and forced sterilizations, among other concerning practices. The human costs of CDCR’s collusion with ICE are severe, as revealed in disturbing email records in the report that follows. By proactively offering people up to ICE, CDCR has engineered a two-tiered system of justice that brings trauma to those in their custody The emails reviewed by the investigative team and described below are communications from August and September 2022. Despite the narrow timeframe of these records, the records we have received paint a disturbing picture. In just the two months the below communications span, CDCR transferred over 200 people from CDCR facilities to ICE custody. What follows is a description of the practices that CDCR uses to collude with ICE, and examples of discrimination, indiscretion, resource mismanagement, and anti-immigrant behavior by department staff, as revealed in disturbing email records. We conclude with a summary of the harms caused and the need for legislative action. and to their loved ones. The impact of such discriminatory practices is felt widely in California, which is home to the largest immigrant population in the country. In 2021, over a quarter of Californians were foreign-born and almost half of the children in the state had at least one immigrant parent. In 2023, California lawmakers can take immediate action to hold CDCR accountable to the state’s values and laws. AB 1306 authored by Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo, otherwise known as the HOME Act, harmonizes state immigration policy with existing, broadly-supported criminal justice reforms, ensuring immigrant Californians who earn their release from state prison through these measures are not transferred to ICE. The legislation offers a simple fix to one form of CDCR’s discrimination against immigrants and refugees and takes important strides toward enacting equal treatment for all who call California home

San Francisco: ACLU of Northern California, 2023. 22p.

By Emmanuel Arthur - Ewusie

Ghana's child street crime is a complicated issue that calls for striking a careful balance between protecting national security, respecting human rights, and applying the law. The term "streetism" describes the situation where children live and labor on the streets, frequently without access to basic supplies and at risk from different sources. To address the underlying causes of streetism, safeguard vulnerable children, and maintain social well-being, it is imperative to strike a balance between these objectives. The basic idea of human rights is at the center of the problem. Every child is entitled to education, a secure and supportive home, and defense against abuse and exploitation. But these rights are frequently violated by child streetism in Ghana, where children are put at risk of exploitation, abuse, and neglect. As a result, the protection and realization of children's rights must be given top priority in any strategy to combat streetism, and this strategy should be informed by both Ghanaian law and international human rights norms. Regarding child streetism, criminal law is also very important. It's important to distinguish between criminal behavior and the circumstances that lead to streetism, even though some youngsters may participate in criminal activity while living on the streets. Penalties by themselves may worsen the cycle of poverty and vulnerability and are insufficient to address the root causes of streetism. Instead, social initiatives that deal with family dissolution, poverty, and limited access to healthcare and education should be used in conjunction with criminal law enforcement. In addition, when tackling child streetism, national security implications are considered. Streetism has the potential to worsen social unrest and jeopardize public safety, especially in cities where a high proportion of youngsters live on the streets. Thus, combating streetism involves preserving community stability and security in addition to upholding individual rights. But rather than using punitive tactics, security measures must be put into place in a way that upholds human rights and encourages long-term solutions. This essay aims to present a thorough examination of youth street crime in Ghana, looking at its effects on national security, criminal law enforcement, and human rights. It attempts to contribute to a fuller knowledge of the complex issues faced by child streetism and to inform evidence-based methods for addressing this important issue in Ghana by examining legal frameworks, policy responses, and grassroot activities. In Ghana, the issue of children living and working on the streets creates difficult problems where criminal law, national security, and human rights intersect. This study looks at the causes, prevalence, and effects of child street behavior, considering how it affects children's rights and welfare, the application of the law, and maintaining national security. The research investigates legislative frameworks, policy responses, and grassroots activities targeted at resolving child streetism in Ghana using a multidisciplinary analysis. Additionally, it assesses the efficacy of the current strategies and makes recommendations for a fair and rights-based strategy that puts the child's best interests first while maintaining public safety and security.

Unpublished Paper 2024. 19p.

 By Goroga Oabile  and · France Maphosa 

For a long time, universities applied the principle of in loco parentis, when dealing with issues relating to students’ welfare on campus, including the provision of security. Standing in the place of parents, universities could decide on issues that affected students without consulting them. However, students are increasingly demanding their rights as adults, including the right to be consulted in decisions that affect them. The students’ demand for their rights has, however, often militated against universities’ efforts to provide security on campus which they are mandated to do. Using a sample of 60 students from the University of Botswana, selected through the purposive cluster sampling method, this study found that the most important demand for students is to be consulted when decisions that afect them are being made including decisions on. Students are prepared to relinquish some of their rights in exchange for their security if consulted. However, the primary responsibility for providing security on campus is for university authorities. 

Security Journal, 2025, 20p.

By Elina Treyger, Maya Buenaventura, Ian Mitch, Laura Bellows, John S. Hollywood

Between 2020 and 2024, increasing volumes of aliens sought entry at the southwest U.S. border without valid entry documents. Several policies adopted since 2020 have sought to incentivize aliens — particularly those who have intentions of seeking asylum — to present themselves at ports of entry (POEs) and disincentivize crossing unlawfully between POEs. These trends and policies raise a question of the capacity of U.S. Customs and Border Protection's (CBP's) Office of Field Operations (OFO) to process such aliens and unaccompanied alien children (UACs) through POEs. A congressional request sought an analysis that could shed light on whether and how well OFO would be able to process increased volumes and the resources it would need to do so. This report is the result of that analysis.

Key Findings

There are multiple pathways for processing likely asylum seekers and UACs through POEs. This is a function of several factors, such as whether the alien arrives with a CBP One appointment; whether they are a member of a family unit, a UAC, or a single adult; whether derogatory information is discovered about the alien; and detention facility capacity.

OFO's capacity to process this population varies across time and POEs and is constrained by a mix of individual case characteristics; staffing; infrastructure and equipment; capacity; the capacity of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services; and operational demands.

The authors infer that OFO's effective monthly capacity to process likely asylum seekers and UACs in a safe, humane, and orderly manner at the level of resources present as of May 2023 is around 47,000–48,000 aliens.

Substantially increasing OFO processing capacity such that all or most likely asylum seekers and UACs (based on levels observed between October 2022 and February 2024) are processed at POEs would be extremely challenging at best.

Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2025, 109p.

By Michael E. Clements and Gretta L. Goodwin

This Study Drug and human trafficking are longstanding and pervasive problems. Federal law enforcement agencies have noted the use of online marketplaces, such as social media sites and messaging platforms, in drug and human trafficking. Further, agencies have expressed concern about traffickers’ increased use of virtual currencies—that is, digital representations of value that are usually not government-issued legal tender. The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 includes a provision for GAO to review how a range of methods and payment systems, including online marketplaces and virtual currencies, are used to facilitate drug and human trafficking. This report examines what is known about drug and human traffickers’ use of online marketplaces and virtual currencies, efforts by federal and state agencies to counter such trafficking, and benefits and challenges virtual currencies pose for detecting and prosecuting drug and human trafficking, among other objectives. GAO reviewed federal agency and industry documentation and GAO’s relevant body of past work; interviewed officials at federal and state agencies and industry and nonprofit stakeholders; and reviewed recently adjudicated cases involving the use of virtual currencies in drug or human trafficking.

  GAO-22-105101., Washington DC: U.S. Government Accountability Office, 2022. 57p.

Dany Bahar, Rebecca J. Brough, and Giovanni Peri

The inflow of refugees and their subsequent integration can be an important challenge for both the refugees themselves and the host society. Policy interventions can improve the lives and economic success of refugees and of their communities. In this paper, we review the socioeconomic integration policy interventions focused on refugees and the evidence surrounding them. We also highlight some interesting topics for future research and stress the need to rigorously evaluate their effectiveness and implications for the successful integration of refugees.

WORKING PAPER 687 · MARCH 2024

Washington DC: Center for Global Development, 2024. 55p.

By Asad L. Asad

Drawing on in-depth interviews with 50 Latin American immigrants in Dallas, Texas, this article uncovers systematic distinctions in how immigrants holding different legal statuses perceive the threat of deportation. Undocumented immigrants recognize the precarity of their legal status, but they sometimes feel that their existence off the radar of the US immigration regime promotes their long-term presence in the country. Meanwhile, documented immigrants perceive stability in their legal status, but they sometimes view their existence on the radar of the US immigration regime as disadvantageous to their long-term presence in the country. The article offers the concept of system embeddedness—individuals' perceived legibility to institutions that maintain formal records—as a mechanism through which perceived visibility to the US immigration regime entails feelings of risk, and perceived invisibility feelings of safety. In this way, the punitive character of the US immigration regime can overwhelm its integrative functions, chilling immigrants out of opportunities for material and social well-being through legalization and legal status. More broadly, system embeddedness illuminates how perceived visibility to a record-keeping body that combines punitive and integrative goals represents a mechanism of legal stratification for subordinated populations—even absent prior punitive experiences with other social control institutions that might otherwise be thought to trigger their system avoidance.

Law & Society Review, Volume 54, Number 1 (2020): 133–167

By Global Detention Project

  Immigration detention is an important tool of immigration control in Taiwan (also “Taiwan Province of China”), where detainee numbers have steadily risen in recent years. Although conditions in Taiwan’s detention centres have frequently been criticised, they have received little international scrutiny because of China’s opposition to Taiwan’s UN membership. Taiwan also lacks an asylum system, though the need to establish asylum procedures has grown increasingly urgent as the numbers of Hong Kong residents seeking protection have grown.

Geneva, SWIT: Global Detention Project, 2024. 30p.  

By Polly Mackenzie

The current asylum system is built on a culture of disbelief that inherently lacks compassion, is not competent and therefore does not control immigration in the way the government aspires to. We have, as a nation, lost confidence in it. Recent experiments in different systems responding to the geopolitical events in Ukraine, Afghanistan and Hong Kong have started to develop new models we can all be more proud of. This paper argues that the Home Office should lose its responsibility for immigration, with a new arm’s-length body named Sanctuary UK set up to overhaul the system and create a new more humane system, learning from the best of the recent innovations.

London: Demos, 2022. 25p.

By Nieves Fernández-Rodríguez & Luisa Feline Freier

Against the background of remarkable policy liberalization and the subsequent steep increase of forced displacement in Latin America, the literature on immigration and refugee policy in the region has gained momentum. Although largely overlooked, this literature has the potential to provide a corrective to political migration theory from the Global South. In this article we carry out a systematic, critical review of the regional literature along three thematic axes: legal analyses, normative and explanatory studies. Based on the review of 108 journal articles, we describe the characteristics, main contributions and research gaps of each thematic area. By analyzing legal norms and policy implementation gaps, existing studies on Latin America provide an understanding of migration policy over time and offer important empirical evidence for the advancement of political migration theory, challenging some of the main assumptions attributed to policies in the Global South. However, the lack of engagement with the broader literature and the absence of systematic analyses of its determinants and effects significantly limit the potential of this body of work. We close by making concrete suggestions of how future studies could fill existing gaps both in theoretical and empirical terms, and which methodological approach should be employed.

Comparative Migration Studies volume 12, Article number: 15 (2024)

By Peter William Walsh and Mihnea Cuibus

This briefing examines the deportation, removal, and voluntary departure of people without the right to be in the UK. It presents statistics on the numbers and characteristics of people who are removed from the UK or who leave voluntarily.

Key Points Returns from the UK remained low compared to historical levels but returned to pre-pandemic levels in 2023 Enforced returns have declined sharply over the long run Voluntary returns increased significantly after the pandemic, following several years of decline Around 41% of those who submitted an asylum application between 2010 and 2020, and were refused, had been returned from the UK by June 2022 Around 1.3% of people who arrived by small boat from 2018 to June 2023 were returned from the UK during that period In the year ending 30 September 2023, the top nationalities among returnees were Albanian (20%), Indian (15%), and Brazilian (12%) In the year ending 30 September 2023, 16% of all people removed from the UK were foreign national offenders, and 53% of returned FNOs were EU citizens EU citizens made up a majority of people refused entry at the UK border after 2021 \

Oxford, UK: The Migration Observatory

COMPAS (Centre on Migration, Policy and Society)

University of Oxford2024. 15p.

By Melanie Griffiths and

Peter William Walsh

This briefing examines immigration detention in the UK. It discusses who is detained, for how long, with what effects, and the financial costs of operating the system.

Key Points Immigration detention is used worldwide by governments to facilitate immigration enforcement, but has negative impacts on detainees’ mental health. The use of immigration detention in the UK hit a high of around 32,000 in 2015. Numbers have been falling since then, with around 16,000 people entering detention in 2023. Around 1,800 people were in immigration detention on 30 June 2024. In mid-2024, the UK had an estimated detention capacity of around 2,200 beds, of which around 77% were occupied. In 2023, the Home Office detained 18 children for immigration-related purposes, down from around 1,100 in 2009. In 2023, 39% of immigration detainees were held for more than 28 days. Release on immigration bail – an alternative to detention where detainees are released into the community – increased from 2010 to 2021 but fell by 2023. In Q2 2024, the average daily cost to hold an individual in immigration detention was £122. In the financial year 2023-24, the Home Office issued 838 compensation payments for unlawful detention, totalling around £12 million.

Oxford, UK: Migration Observatory, University of Oxford, 2024. 18p.

By Amber Horning, Loretta Stalans,

In 2019, the National Institute of Justice funded the University of Massachusetts Lowell and Loyola University Chicago to understand how sex traffickers learn how to facilitate sex work. This study sought to address Priority Area 3 of the NIJ solicitation: Building Knowledge of the "Grooming" Process of Traffickers (i.e., how does one become a sex or labor trafficker?). Previous studies funded by NIJ examined "traffickers' decision-making and organizational processes"; however, much of how one becomes a sex trafficker and its processes remain unexplored. This study provides empirical data to address this critical gap in the knowledge. We use the broader term of sex market facilitator (SMF) rather than sex trafficker as persons involved in facilitation change roles and jobs. Because of their varying roles and tasks, legally qualifying as a sex trafficker can change by day, week, month, or year and often change across the life course. Typically, individuals are involved in multiple roles in the sex trade; these roles can include sex work, recruitment, assisting sex workers or facilitators, and primary facilitation. Sex market facilitation can involve recruiting and scheduling clients for sex workers, protecting workers during interactions with clients, managing operations, and profiting from the sex workers' earnings. In this study, we use the broader term SMF because it includes those who legally qualify for pandering or sex trafficking. As previously mentioned, their legal designation can change quickly or over time. We use the term sex worker as a neutral and inclusive term and are not implying the voluntary or involuntary nature of selling sex. Individuals who sell sex can drift between voluntarily selling sex and being coercive or physically forced to sell sex. The goals of this study were to 1) provide an understanding of the social learning process involved in sex market facilitation, such as who passed down those skills, what is passed down, and how this impacts their recruitment and management strategies 2) evaluate how these social learning processes vary based on participants' prior traumatic experiences and master status designations.1 and 3) establish how participants are socially and criminally networked and how this impacts facilitation. There have been many studies about how sex traffickers recruit sex workers. However, very few studies evaluated how sex traffickers are recruited and learn to recruit sex workers or sex trafficking victims or facilitate sex work, along with facilitation strategies, including interpersonal and economic coercion. This study aimed to close the gap in the literature by investigating the etiology of becoming a sex trafficker or a sex market facilitator and how this knowledge is transmitted across the generations. Research Questions This study aimed to answer three research questions. 1) Are there patterned processes or mechanisms from which older/experienced traffickers teach or model these skills to the pimps2 , main sex workers3 , sex workers, or sex trafficking victims who, over time, recruit other trafficking victims? a) How do the early experiences of SMFs, particularly trauma, contribute to their social learning and recruitment into facilitation? b) Using an intersectional4 lens, how does social learning explain the social processes of sex market facilitation, passing those skills to family, boyfriends/girlfriends, friends, sex workers, sex trafficking victims, or even other SMFs? 2) How do traffickers detect potential recruits' vulnerabilities, and what are the key individual and structural vulnerabilities they target? How is grooming similar and different in New York City and Chicago? 3) How are traffickers socially networked to other traffickers, pimps, and main sex workers, and how is grooming similar and different across social networks in New York City and Chicago?

Lowell, MA: University of Masachusetts Lowell, 2024. 219p.

By  Kelle Barrick, Rebecca Pfeffer, Stephen Tueller, Michael Bradshaw, Natasha Aranguren, Kyle Vincent

To advance knowledge about promising methods for estimating the prevalence of human trafficking in the United States, the Administration for Children and Families’ Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) and the Office on Trafficking in Persons (OTIP) funded a study, conducted by RTI International, to field test two methods of prevalence estimation within one industry in one geographic location in the United States.  

This study, conducted between 2020 and 2024, measured the prevalence of labor trafficking within the construction industry in Houston, Texas, using both time-location sampling (TLS) and link-tracing sampling (LTS). TLS involves developing a sampling frame of venues, days, and times where the population of focus congregates and using a random selection procedure (e.g., every fifth person) to select a representative sample of the population. LTS is a network sampling approach that relies on study participants to recruit their peers to participate in the study. 

  Central to decisions among policymakers, funders, and researchers concerned with addressing human trafficking is the question of the size of the problem. Understandably, these groups seek evidence about the prevalence of human trafficking to guide choices around policies and interventions to prevent and address human trafficking in communities. Several empirical efforts have been established in recent years in response to this quandary, including a series of seven studies included in the Prevalence Reduction Innovation Forum (PRIF) initiative (Center on Human Trafficking Research & Outreach, n.d.), which aims to build evidence about methodologies to estimate the prevalence of human trafficking by testing various estimation methods in various industries in six other countries. In each of these seven studies, two estimation strategies are used to estimate the prevalence of human trafficking among a certain population in a certain area. This dual estimation approach offers insight about both (1) the logistics and feasibility of carrying out each estimation strategy and (2) how the prevalence estimates that they generate compare to one another. The current study was designed as a domestic counterpart to the seven international PRIF studies. Following a comprehensive review of prior human trafficking prevalence studies (see Barrick & Pfeffer, 2021) and a consideration of factors such as industries of identified interest and feasibility of estimation strategies, we chose to focus this study on the prevalence of labor trafficking within the construction industry in Houston, Texas, using both time-location sampling (TLS) and link-tracing sampling (LTS). TLS involves developing a sampling frame of venues, days, and times where the population of focus congregates and using a random selection procedure (e.g., every fifth person) to select a representative sample of the population. LTS is a network sampling approach that relies on study participants to recruit their peers to participate in the study. The objectives of the study were to advance knowledge of promising methods for estimating human trafficking prevalence and to better understand substantive issues around the experiences of construction workers with labor trafficking and other labor exploitation.

Study Findings The LTS sample did not yield a high response rate, and we only include high-level findings from this sample in this report . Even with financial incentive, workers were hesitant to refer their peers to participate in this study, and relatively few referral chains developed. Given the limited number of chains available for analysis and the potential for misleading findings, LTS sample findings are only presented to highlight differences in prevalence estimation strategies. More than one in five construction workers had experienced labor trafficking victimization in their lifetime . Among the TLS sample (n = 903), 22.3% had experienced labor trafficking in construction in their lifetime, 13.2% had experienced labor trafficking within the past 2 years, and 4.2% had experienced or were experiencing labor trafficking in their current job. An additional 42% of construction workers reported experiencing other labor abuses that did not meet the threshold of labor trafficking . Just over one third (35%) of workers had never experienced any labor trafficking or exploitation in the construction industry. Although individual characteristics were assessed as potential risk and protective factors, no significant differences emerged . Given the limited extant research focusing on risk and protective factors for experiencing labor trafficking or other labor abuse in construction, additional work is needed to substantiate the lack of significant findings regarding individual characteristics. Construction work related to natural disaster recovery and reconstruction is associated with a higher prevalence of labor trafficking and other forms of labor abuse . Construction workers who had worked in natural disaster recovery and reconstruction settings were significantly more likely than those who had not to have experienced labor trafficking or other labor abuse. Conclusions and Implications Labor trafficking and other labor abuse in the construction industry are common. About two-thirds of Houston construction workers experienced at least one form of exploitative or abusive labor practice. The types of abuse most frequently experienced by construction workers include working without a contract, deception about working and living conditions, working long and unusual hours without adequate compensation, and paying recruitment fees to get a job. However, nontrivial percentages of construction workers were subjected to more serious forms of abuse, including having their pay withheld, deception about the work they would be doing, and being subjected to emotional or psychological abuse. These findings have implications for policymakers, law enforcement, Departments of Labor and other regulatory agencies, construction unions, workers’ advocacy groups, and anyone concerned about workplace exploitation in the construction industry. Related to prevalence estimation methodologies, we confirmed that data collection and prevalence estimation strategies matter. Although both TLS and LTS are promising approaches for identifying and recruiting construction workers, only TLS proved to be effective in reaching the population. All prevalence estimation research should clearly highlight challenges that occurred during data collection that may impact the validity of the findings and exercise caution in reporting potentially misleading estimates.    

Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 2024. 51p.

By Ada Pecos Melton, Rita Martinez | American Indian Development Associates Christina Melander, Elizabeth Tibaduiza, Rebecca Pfeffer | RTI International

The Administration for Children and Families’ (ACF’s) Office on Trafficking in Persons (OTIP) established the Demonstration Grants to Strengthen the Response to Victims of Human Trafficking in Native Communities (VHTNC) Program to address the significant need for supports to respond to human trafficking in Native communities. In September 2020, six projects received 3-year awards to build, expand, and sustain organizational and community capacity to deliver services to Native Americans (i.e., American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and/or Pacific Islanders) who have experienced human trafficking. RTI International and American Indian Development Associates conducted a formative evaluation of the VHT-NC Program, overseen by ACF’s Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE), in collaboration with OTIP.

This brief describes how the six VHT-NC projects used culture as a resource, which we define as using or integrating cultural values, beliefs, traditions, and activities into various project strategies and services offered.

We explore how the projects incorporated culture within four programming areas: (1) project staffing, (2), education and training, (3) outreach, and (4) case management and supportive services (see Exhibit 1). This brief is informed by self-reported data from award recipients’ performance progress reports submitted quarterly to ACF and by virtual and in-person interviews conducted between March 2022 and August 2023 with VHT-NC project leadership, advocates,1 partners, and participants.

, Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 2024. 14p.