David Gamboa works with Elijah Rising in Houston, Texas, fighting against human trafficking and supporting the vulnerable people victimized by it. In this powerful conversation David and our host Pastor Matt Popovits, talk about the realities of human trafficking, its link to pornography, and what each of us can do to protect those who might be victimized.
Transcript
The following program is sponsored by evangelical life ministries.
Welcome to engaging truth, the manifestation of God's word and the lives of people around us. Join us each week. As we explore the impact of his message of spiritual renewal from the lesson of forgiveness Fords in the crucible of divorce, to the message of salvation learned by an executioner from a condemned killer to the gift of freedom found in the rescue of victims of human trafficking. This is God's truth in action.
Welcome to engaging truth. I'm your host, Matt Papa ITZ. And with me on the program today is David Gabo. He's the communications director, Elijah rising here in Houston, Texas David, welcome to engaging truth.
Yeah, glad to be on the show again,
David, we we're, we're really glad to have you, um, uh, our listeners who might not be aware of the, of the work that you and Elijah rising do. Um, they, they need to be informed. So you work with, um, fighting and preventing human trafficking. Um, let's pretend people who are listening have no idea what that phrase means. Uh, yeah. What do we mean when we talk about human
Trafficking? Well, human trafficking is, is an umbrella term. So there's labor trafficking and then there's sex trafficking and we focus on sex trafficking. Um, but basically what, uh, a scenario of sex trafficking includes forced fraud or version when someone is forced to perform a commercial sex act or coerced, um, or frauded. And so it's different from smuggling. A lot of people get those two terms, confused smuggling is bringing someone across, you know, borders illegally. Um, and that, that does happen in trafficking situations. Some people can be smuggled in into trafficking situations, but typically, uh, sex trafficking looks more like prostitution, um, children, women, even men being sold, uh, for sex against their will.
And, and so it it's, it's, it's based on this, this, this idea that, that, uh, a good number of people who are involved in this, this sex work are, are there UN unwillingly unwitingly they, they, they, they, they don't want to be in it. There's another force. There's another person that's keeping them in. That is, that, is, is that the case with, with a lot of what you see in terms of, um, the sex work that goes on?
Yeah. And it, and it has to do with trauma. It has to do with they, um, actually systematized methods, uh, to coerce someone to, well, what they call break someone to, um, distance them from their own will distance them from feeling like they have a choice and forcing them into, uh, prostitution. And it's because of a vulnerability. It might be a internal vulnerability. It could be that you're just at an economic disadvantage. It could be that you're a single mom and you have to feed your kids. Um, and so traffickers prey on these vulnerabilities and use them to their advantage, to, um, turn someone into, um, the life of prostitution.
Now, this sounds like something that happens out there in, in some other country, in some other part of the world, but, but O obviously if this wasn't happening here in, in, and where we're recording, you know, this interview in Houston, Texas, and, and here in the United States as a whole, I mean, there wouldn't be a need for the work of Elijah rising. So, so how, how bad is this in the United?
Yeah, it's a major problem. I think, uh, the us is one of the top consumers of sex in the world. Um, in Houston, we are one of the most diverse cities in the state. We have, um, people from all around the world here, but what we commonly see is even domestic women, women that live here in the United States, children teams, um, being trafficked, um, either through, um, predator that they've met online, um, and also through familial trafficking, which is something that's not often talked about, but we often encounter, um, women who have been trafficked by uncles, aunts, mother, father, uh, um, so familial trafficking is also a large thing that's really happening right here in our backyards. Houston has over, um, 300 illicit massage parlors where Asian women are trafficked primarily. And then we also see the Latin American trade, which is typically in cantinas in the east side of Houston.
And we have the streets and hotels and, and occasionally some residential, um, spaces. I think there was a major kind of bust in Katy recently, um, where they discovered that a pimp was kind of using a home and running out operations out of a residence in Katy. So, um, it really spans the spectrum and we see, um, a lot of different people involved. It's not primarily one type, like there's even been a recent story about a world renowned, you know, apologist and, and Christian speaker who coed a massage parlor and coerced women to perform sex acts. And so, um, it really, the spectrum was so wide.
So, so is it safe to say that, you know, sadly kind of wherever you live in the country, this in some way shape or form is, is probably happening?
Yeah, definitely. And the, and the way that they, the way that traffickers avoid law enforcement is they moved from city to city. And so they might be in California one week and they'll come to Houston to go to Las Vegas. Uh, and so it travels, so it does touch, you know, every city I, I don't, and I've heard that Houston is, you know, it's kind of been labeled as a hub for human trafficking. Um, but it really does happen in, in every major city and even in rural communities, there's also recruiting and grooming happening in rural communities. Uh, it's a major problem that I would, that I believe the sort of source of this growing issue is can be linked to pornography.
Well, we'll, we'll touch on that connection in a moment before we go there. I want, uh, our listeners to understand how Elijah rising works to, to fight against, uh, human trafficking, a as you described it and, and protect vulnerable people.
Yeah. So we do two things. Primarily we reach out to the community and spread awareness. Uh, we engage with churches, we take people on what's called van tour. Um, of course this is, these are all pre pandemic things that we did now. We're kind of innovating new ways to do it, but, um, so just teaching the community, what trafficking looks like, um, by doing these van tour across the city, educating, and then we also do outreaches, um, where we go to places is where prostitution is common and we make a presence there. And we begin to build relationships with the hopes of, um, women. They're trusting us to help them out of that life into a new life. And so that leads typically into some sort of shelter. And then we also provide a long term care solution. So once a woman exits a, a trafficking situation, she goes to a short term shelter. Um, then she'll be eligible to come into our long term restorative care, which is one to two years. We provide housing, uh, trauma therapy, food clothing, and it's basically a, a two year intensive to, to kind of rebuild your life with the hope of, you know, independently. So,
So is, is there something that can be done, you know, by individuals and by churches to, to help vulnerable people, even, even before they, they, they become kind of prey for, uh, someone who's gonna, uh, enroll them in human human trafficking in, in some, some, uh, illicit sex work. Um, because, because vulnerable people, uh, around people who are, yeah, who are, who are susceptible to someone, leveraging their vulnerabilities and forcing them into something they don't wanna do is, is there something that, that before that happens, that people who have a heart for, uh, for, uh, eradicating this can do to, to help people before they're they even become prey?
Yeah. I think educating and, and just sharing word of mouth, what you've learned about trafficking. Um, we, we talk a lot about what's called the grooming process and, and what a grooming process is, is where an individual encounter someone with a vulnerability. So it could be a teenager that's online. Let's say they post something on Instagram. I'm saying they've had a really rough week, or they're angry with their parents. You know, predators can spot this stuff out and they see that vulnerability and they begin, what's called a grooming process where they begin to befriend the teenager. They begin to shower them with gifts. Um, they begin to desensitize them, exposing them to things like pornography is alcohol. And once this process begins to take shape, um, relationships are severed. So they distance them from friends, family. They begin to sell them this dream of, oh, you know, you're gonna live a better life.
You're gonna be a model. And, and we have all this money and just come work with us and we can build, you know, our brand. We can build our empire. So they sell 'em this dream. And, you know, uh, after they, let's say they leave home and go to a different city, they find out they're gonna be sold on the street and they may, I'd even be threatened with, Hey, you know, if, if, if you run away from us or if you, um, don't work in prostitution, we're gonna send, you know, these pornographic photos to all of your friends in your high school, or send this to your family or harm one of your family members or friend members. So that becomes threats. And, and this is sort of a process that we commonly see, and the parents that we interact with, um, on the, on the other side of, you know, their kids being groomed into trafficking, they, they begin to realize, oh, I just thought this was something that all teen did. Mm-hmm,
You know, uh, and for reps, this just reflects, you know, some of my ignorance, you, when I think of a vulnerable person, uh, I think of someone who's who's homeless or, or, or jobless or addicted, and certainly they they're vulnerable. Um, but, but you just described a, an, an, just an angst ridden teenager, you know? Um, and, and, and that wouldn't immediately, I've got one of those at home that wouldn't immediate league cross my mind as someone who's, who's vulnerable to this, but, but, but, but it makes total sense. And, and are, are you saying that, that those who are fighting this, like the folks at Eliza rising and other, or organizations you, you're seeing social media as an entree point to teenagers as, as a, as an access point into all this stuff as that that's a very common thing.
Yeah, absolutely. And even with the pandemic, I mean, more and more people are on social media. There's a, a platform called TikTok and many people are on TikTok. Um, but there's also, we've also seen young teens find ways to make money through selling, uh, nude image is of themselves online, where people can subscribe to their accounts and they're able to post, um, nude images and they receive income. And so all of these ways are basically entry points for a trafficker to come in and spot someone who's already sort of beginning to experiment and is curious. They can be begin to take that vulnerability and begin to exploit that mm-hmm
And, and I imagine it's extra confusing in a culture that, you know, as you, as you said, is, is glamorizing this kind of hypersexualization that, um, that part of the, part of the, the, the cell to someone who's vulnerable is that this is empowerment. Well, we, we are, we, we are empowering you we're, we're platforming you we're, we're gonna make you an influencer. Uh, all you have to do is send us some pictures and then, you know, if you disagree with us, we're gonna use those things against
To you, right? Yeah. And that's, that's the kind of culture that social media unfortunately, has created, where if you show risk a photo, it's probably gonna get more likes. It's probably gonna get me attention. And so for a young teen who maybe, you know, might have some image issues who might feel like they're not beautiful, or that they're not worthy, you know, that can, can feed into that vulnerability.
Now, earlier in our conversation, you, you mentioned a connection between, you know, human trafficking and, and pornography, uh, help our listener understand how those two things are connected, because my guess is gonna be that, that, um, that, that they're assuming that that pornography that's produced for, uh, for, for, for the consumption of the individual and the privacy of their own home is, is disconnected from, from this terrible stuff that you're describing now. But, but, but you, you proposed that, that those two things are connected. Uh, how so?
Yeah, so we saw a massive explosion in sex trafficking, even today, people who haven't heard about it, maybe 10 or 20 years ago, it's all over the news. We're here in and new stories about it every time. So there has to be some factor that's contributing to that. Um, and when you look at porn sites, I like to compare it to Google, Google. Um, typically, I mean, they sell a couple of products, but primarily they make most of their revenue off of ads. And those ads are funded by just people using their service, going to their site. Like it's free to search. We don't have to pay Google $2 to have a search. It's a free site. And, um, so similarly that's how these porn sites operate. Most of these sites are free. You can go on any iPhone, you can go on any WEBC or any computer go to these sites, view pornography.
And basically what these sites are, is this advertising for sex trafficking. When you go to a porn site, you're gonna be targeted to, um, hook up with local girls. You're gonna see all these types of ads driving you to local area, strip clubs, or local, um, women that wanna meet you. And that becomes a, a pathway into, for men who are, you know, maybe struggling with an addiction since they were 16 years old, they eventually get to the point where, you know, pornography is not enough. They actually want to try going to a strip club or going to a brothel purchasing women. And this is where the problem begins to perpetuate is that we have a, such a huge demand that, um, traffickers are motivated to go out and recruit more women to sort of meet this growing demand.
And I, is it true that some of the content that that's on of these, these more, more kind of popular pornography sites, that some of that content is created by traffickers? Yeah. Um, utilizing some of these vulnerable people and, and that some of the content people may be viewing is actually of these, these abused women, uh, some cases, children and men.
Yeah, absolutely. And that's scary thing is that when someone is watching a video, that's on a porn site, they're not able to know if the person consented to it. Um, they're not able to even know their age, they could be watching child pornography. And what happens is traffickers will use these images, um, not only to advertise women in and children that they're selling, but also to use it as blackmail. Um, what's called sextortion. Um, and, and it, and it creates a, a prison, an invisible prison where these images of you are online and there's nothing you can do to remove it. And that's kind of the current battle right now where, um, a lot of women have their videos, it to a popular site, and they, they had no way to remove the video even after they had been rescued out of their trafficking situation, even after they had pleaded with the company. Um, so it's creating these, these massive issues with, um, the internet and, and what is, what type of content is able to be uploaded, uh, it's user generated. So it's not typically just one company, but, um, yeah, it's a huge issue.
There, there was a story in the news, uh, a couple of weeks ago, uh, about, about a major provider of pornography, uh, having to remove, uh, a good amount of its content that was, that was user are generated. Yeah. Be, be because people, people didn't know what the source was. And, and, uh, there was, there was, there was a fear that it was, uh, utilizing, uh, vulnerable people against their will. Um, tell us about that story and why that's important.
Yeah. This is a, a major victory, I think too, over 2 million people signed this petition to bring awareness to, um, the child sexual abuse, images, and videos that were on this site, as well as videos posted without consent. And so this company had no way of verifying those videos. Um, a had consent, a, there was no sort of formal age, very verification on the people uploading the videos. And, um, so more and more women began to come forward and say, Hey, these were videos uploaded to me when I was a child, um, being sexually abused to this site. And, um, one girl even had to fake an identity as a lawyer to, to, uh, threaten the company, to get them to remove videos of her, uh, being raped as a teenager. And, um, this site was eventually put under so much pressure that, um, a New York times journal us, did a story, um, about it and interviewed one of the young girls who was trafficked on that site. And because of that, um, MasterCard visa, some major credit card companies began to pull their support for this site. And, um, that forced them to, to begin to make some choices. Uh, so they removed videos, but they're still, you know, a lot of legislation, um, that needs to move forward to be sure that restitution is provided to the victims, um, which, um, this site has, has not really admitted, uh, formally to, to any wrongdoing.
And, and it's a, it's a massive story for a number of reasons, but, but one of them being that, you know, the website makes, makes hundreds of millions of dollars a year. Um, I don't know if our listeners understand this, but, but pornography is one of America's biggest businesses. Yeah. Um, I mean, it, it makes more money, you know, I've heard, I've seen some stats that say it makes more money when you, when you combine it all together than, than all the major sports teams combined. So, you know, this is an America's, you know, not so secret pastime. Right. And, and so, and so for this major provider of content to all of a sudden, have to be accountable for, for trafficking, a, a illicit images with unknown sources, um, at the threat of their whole business model, falling apart, that, that that's really huge. That's really, really huge.
Yeah. And I think it's a sign that people are, are kind of waking up and realizing like, Hey, this is, this is not okay. What we've kind of labeled as normal. Just something that, you know, normal teens do. Um, I think society begin to realize like, this is not okay. These is, this is actually extremely abusive to the people that are on film. And it's also bringing awareness to the issue of trafficking, which is happening in our cities.
And, and what was interesting is some of the stories that, that I read connected to this was that users of this site were surprised how little content, once all of this illicit content was taken. I mean, it's all illicit, but, but this, this user generated content was taken down how little content remained by contrast. So the, the enormous amount of content that was being provided by this website, what that, that was user generated and, and, and, and, and a good amount of it is produced by V by vulnerable, by vulnerable people, or at the very least has, has unknown origins. Um, so, so it's a, it's a huge aspect of, of what's being offered in kind of the pornography marketplace.
Yeah. And, and porn even still continues to, um, be one of the, I think it's like the fourth or fifth, it ranges between, you know, a top 10 website visited in the United States. And it's up there with like Google. And that's just crazy to me to think that three, you know, porn and, and all these porn sites are managed by this main sort of, uh, it's actually a conglomerate that's, um, that multiple porn sites are kind of under this one umbrella. So the movement, we believe that if we can just target this one major company and hold them liable that, uh, we can see a massive shift in sort of the online, uh, sex trade.
Absolutely. And, and I think it's, it's an important thing that you bring to light for, for our listener that, that, uh, hopefully as they hear about human trafficking are, you know, obviously horrified by it, but for them also to understand that, that, um, you know, pornography on its own is destructive for a, for a whole bunch of different reasons, but, but that they, they could be contributing to human trafficking. I creating more demand for this, this content that comes at the expense of, of vulnerable people being abused. And so, so when you view this content, you create a demand for more of it, and you can also be making money for people who are, who are trying to, to sell ads, um, U utilizing this content. And so there's a direct connection from what happens on someone's phone. They think in secret to what's, what's happening to, to, uh, to women and girls and men around the country who are being forced to produce this content against their wills.
Yeah. It creates the economy that sex trafficking thrives under.
month, the month of January,:Trafficking. Yeah. So this month is national trafficking prevention month. And so there's a lot of organizations that are out doing great work and spreading awareness, um, educating communities on what trafficking is. And, um, actually have a webinar coming up on January 27th, that's free to the public. And we're gonna be talking specifically about human trafficking in Houston, what it looks like. Um, if you're a parent, you're gonna learn about the grooming process and how you can spot the red flags of that. And just how you can engage with your community to prevent trafficking from how
Happening, where can people go to, to sign up for that webinar?
Yeah. So you can go to Elijah rising.org, and we have a main banner right up top, and you can just go ahead and register and we'll send you a link. We're gonna host it on zoom. So, you know, be sure to download zoom and, and join us online. It's gonna be January 27th at noon.
And@elijahrising.org, there are other ways people can, uh, can discover to support the ministry, uh, that you
Do, correct. Yeah. So, uh, if you want to become a monthly donor, that's a huge, uh, support. We we're able to count on that every month. And we also have a podcast called the Elijah rising podcast, and that's just a great way to be educated about trafficking. We also have some other resources that you can download for free David Gabo of Elijah rising. Thanks so much for being with us on engaging truth. Thanks, Matt. And thank you for listening. We'll see you next time.
Thank you for listening to this broadcast of engaging truth. Be sure to join us each week at this time, to help support our ministry contact evangelical live ministries, post office Fox 5 68, Cypress, Texas 77, 410, or visit our website@elmhouston.org, or find us on book at evangelical life ministries. Thank you.