Adrian Daily Telegram: Walberg, law enforcement officials discuss human trafficking

Raising awareness and enacting new protections for human trafficking victims were discussed by U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Tipton, and local law enforcement officials Monday.

"It's right here in rural Michigan," said Walberg. Any bully pulpit available must be used to make people aware of it and to recognize it, he said, offering to participate in school and community programs.

"We've got to get the parents to understand it," Walberg said.

Several cases have been taken to court locally in the past year, said Lenawee County Prosecutor Burke Castleberry. They include prosecutions of two workers at Spa Misty in Adrian and of a Texas man who admitted Internet coercion of a teenage girl in Lenawee County.

"We're proud that we're identifying it. We're not proud that we have it," Castleberry said.

Human trafficking is an issue involving local youths and adults as well as people from foreign countries, said Michigan State Police Trooper Tressa Duffin of the Monroe post. She has been doing programs in schools and churches in Monroe County to raise awareness. Support is growing to counter human trafficking, she said.

"The kids are trying to figure out ways they can help too," Duffin said.

Monroe post commander 1st Lt. Tony Cuevas said the growing use of heroin adds to the problem by creating addicts vulnerable to abuse by traffickers.

Dealing with victims of human trafficking is difficult, said Kelli Castleberry, head of the county prosecutor's victims rights unit and of a four-county regional task force.

Victims who are addicted to drugs or brainwashed into fearing law enforcement will often run back to traffickers if not confined, she said.

"We're treating them like a criminal when they're not, they're a victim," Kelli Castleberry said.

Walberg said a task force he belongs to in Washington is to kick off a campaign against human trafficking in May. Bills have already been introduced to deal with issues that include Internet sites that advertise sex with minors, he said.

The concept of abusing and trafficking victims who are often young teens is difficult to grasp, Walberg said.

"You think about the humanity. Why do we do this?" he said. A return to teaching morality in schools may be one way to fight the problem, he said.

"What's wrong with getting a strong, moral thrust into the schools?" Walberg asked. "It doesn't have to be denominational."

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