How Cartels Force Children Into Prostitution, Drug Dealing and Even Killing | Rosi Orozco

[RUSH TRANSCRIPT BELOW] Rosi Orozco is one of the world’s leading voices against human trafficking. She has been working in human rights advocacy for over three decades, and as a member of the Chamber of Deputies of Mexico, she was the driving legislative force behind Mexico’s famous anti-trafficking law.

“There are 50 million people in the world in slavery,” Orozco tells me. And that, she believes, is a low estimate.

She was recently involved in helping three rescued girls, who are now at secure shelter in Mexico. “These three girls were minors, and a cartel was training them to kill, to sell drugs, and to [engage in] prostitution.”

What happened to those three minors—only 14, 15, and 17 years old—is fairly typical, she says. They saw an ad on TikTok that promised them “work in the tourism industry, and [promised] very good payment.” When they arrived at the Mexican tourist resort, they were captured.

Over the years, Orozco has helped more than 400 rescued people, mostly minors, slowly begin to rebuild their lives. But, she says, “400 is nothing compared with the people that haven’t been rescued.” The rescue is just the beginning of a long journey: “It’s difficult work because these girls were completely broken … to see a smile on their face was really a big victory.”

Many people who rescue trafficked children or work in the security shelters where they are protected often risk their own lives. The theme of Orozco’s 5th International Summit Against Human Trafficking this year is “Heroes Wanted.”

Orozco also serves as president of the Houston-based “United Against Human Trafficking” nonprofit and created the Trafficking in Persons hotline in Mexico in 2013, giving citizens a direct channel to report trafficking.

Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

RUSH TRANSCRIPT

Jan Jekielek:
Rosi Orozco, such a pleasure to have you on American Thought Leaders.

Rosi Orozco:

The honor is mine.

Mr. Jekielek:

Rosie, briefly give me a picture of the reality of human trafficking in America today.

Ms. Orozco:

Well, this is a multimillion-dollar dirty money industry. And of course, these are mostly children who have been trafficked, for example, from my country, Mexico, to the United States. And I watched that with Senators Marsha Blackburn, Katie Britt, and Cindy Hyde-Smith, along with Sarah Carter, when they observed children crossing with coyotes without any parents present. The police, the guards, and the Border Patrol couldn’t do anything because there was no control at all at the borders.

We have helped families whose children have disappeared in Mexico. We helped two organizations whose mothers lost their children. One mother recovered her girls after 17 days, so she opened an NGO and is helping around 80 families. And another one whose daughter was burned to death started an NGO to help around 50 families now.

So when you see the pain of the families who have lost their children, and then you see the border, where children come to this country without any control, and now more than 300,000 children are lost in the system. Thank God for the FBI and DHS, and especially Tom Homan, who has been rescuing thousands of children now. They are suffering either forced labor or sexual exploitation. And that’s really a nightmare that you cannot imagine.

Mr. Jekielek:
So I understand over 100,000 children have been recovered since the beginning of the actions, I think, between DHS and the FBI.

Ms. Orozco:

Yes, there is a huge effort from the authorities in the United States to recover those children. And there is a lot of hope among the families in Mexico that some of these children could come back home. They are expecting the children to come back. And believe me, when I have talked to the mothers whose children have disappeared, they say, I sleep without wanting to sleep, I eat without being hungry, and I live without life.

Because they see the empty chair, the empty bed, every day, and they spend all the money they had trying to find the girl. There is a family in the north of Mexico whose member let someone use a phone to call me. She was telling me, I don’t even have a phone. I had only enough money to print 12 pictures of my daughter. I don’t have money to travel, I don’t have money to call anybody, and my daughter has been missing for a month. That was in San Luis Potosi.

And it was really hard for me just to imagine that you just have the picture of your daughter and you don’t have enough money not even to print those pictures and put them everywhere to find your daughter. So people who take advantage of the vulnerability of all these poor families are the most disgusting humans, I don’t know if they are humans, but they are the most disgusting creatures in the world because somebody that is watching child porn or watching the violence in the porn or having sex with children, really is not only hurting that child, but the whole family is waiting for that child to come back home.

Mr. Jekielek:

Rosi, give me a sense of the scale of this, because it’s not like you focus, of course, on Mexico. There’s, I understand there’s a lot more trafficking from further south, right, from South America and so forth, but just, and also in the United States, frankly. So give me a sense of the scale that we’re talking about here.

Ms. Orozco:

There are 50 million people in the world in slavery. But those are numbers that also have a lot of people who have never denounced, who are like, I think it’s much bigger than that. Because only in my country, every day between 20 to 30 children disappear. It’s too many.

Just recently, we received in one of the shelters, three girls that were captured by TikTok. They were offering a job so they traveled to a very nice resort that, for them, was very attractive, and these three girls were minors, and this was a cartel that was training them to kill, to sell drugs, and to be in prostitution.

Mr. Jekielek:

They were training them to kill people?

Ms. Orozco:

To kill people. They were training them to kill, to sell drugs, and to be in prostitution. So the authorities in this state, Quintana Roo, are doing a great job rescuing children that are vulnerable or captured by the mafias, by the cartels.

Mr. Jekielek:

Let’s talk about this specific case because it’s relatively new. So there are three girls all captured.

Ms. Orozco:

Let me ask you not to put the name of the state because as this is a cartel, there are few shelters in Mexico. So to receive children from a cartel, it’s very dangerous for them. The people who work in a shelter are risking their lives. They are putting their lives between the child and the cartel. So these three children were rescued by the authorities. There are few heroes in Mexico. From 32 states, there are few authorities that are doing their job. We have a very good law. We have a law that allows you to do so much work if you have the will.

But there are so many that they don’t use the law of human trafficking, the law, The human trafficking law. They don’t use the human trafficking law. They go by corruption of minors and penalties that are lower and also allow them to be outside jail. If you apply the Mexican anti-trafficking law, this is a very strong law. This is a law that does not allow the criminal to be out of jail, so they cannot threaten the victims.

A few states are doing a good job, which are the states of Mexico, Mexico City, Chiapas, Chihuahua, and Quintana Roo. Those are the states that are really applying the law. There are few victims that are being rescued from hundreds of thousands of victims that have been disappearing in the last years.

Mr. Jekielek:

And you, of course, played a role in getting that law passed. Just maybe tell me about that because that puts you in danger.

Ms. Orozco:

When I learned about human trafficking, I was trained here in Washington, D.C., in 2005. We opened the first shelter in Mexico, which is Fundación Camino a Casa. This is the logo for this. And since then, we tried to take these criminals to jail, and we couldn’t. So we were all at risk—the children and the people who work in the shelter. I was focusing on prevention, on how to protect your children from being abused or human trafficked. And that allowed me to win to become a congresswoman.

I became a congresswoman in 2009 and the president of a special commission against human trafficking. For the first time, that commission existed; it didn’t exist before. I didn’t register as a member of any party, but I’m very grateful to the PAN [Partido Accion Nacional] party because they allowed me to be a candidate as a citizen, and we had a very good conversation with all the parties, and all our friends from 500 congresspeople voted for that law unanimously.

It was such a miracle because it passed not only in the Congress with the congresspeople but also in the Senate. All 128 senators voted unanimously too. And this is a 126-article law that became a very strong law and also was an inspiration for other countries. So I’m very grateful because it was a team effort from this special commission against human trafficking, and in 2012, that law became the Mexican anti-trafficking law.

Mr. Jekielek:

Briefly tell me what makes this law different and potent and effective.

Ms. Orozco:

First of all, this law focuses on the victims. They hurt the survivors. In the Congress, we had so many times where survivors explained to the congresspeople and to the authorities. And that makes such a difference because normally in other countries, when a survivor arrives with the authorities, they have to prove the means. They have to convince the people.

In Mexico, there are around 7,000 prosecutors in the country with no money. So they will not be able to have the intelligence, the investigation to prove it. So they will always go to the survivor and say, hey, tell me how you were deceived, silly girl. It was the attitude at that time. I was there when I was looking at how they were interrogating, re-victimizing them. So in the Mexican law, if the survivor cannot prove the means, anyway, the trafficker will go to jail if we can prove that he was earning money from the exploitation of this girl. So it’s so powerful.

But then if the girl comes to a psychologist and becomes or comes to a shelter and she feels protected and she starts to prove and talk to the authorities and say how she was vulnerable, how she was subjected to violence, how they submit her to violence, how they deceive her, then the penalties will go much higher. So, anyway, in Mexico, the survivors are more protected than anywhere.

Mr. Jekielek:

Fascinating. Let’s go back to these three girls that we talked about earlier. Okay, I just want to sort of give people an idea of how this works. So the TikTok is like an ad on TikTok. They got invited to work or something like this at a specific resort. What were they promised? And then what happened?

Ms. Orozco:

Yes, they were promised to work in the tourism industry. They were promised very good payment, so they were attracted. They were minors. One of them is 14-years-old, one is 15, and the other one is 17. And they were captured because, of course, they were vulnerable. Their families experienced violence or divorce, or had been abandoned, and that’s why the authorities send them to shelters because they know that the families will not protect them and since they were captured by cartels, it is very easy for them to go against their organization in that state. So these girls are now for the first time getting some treatment to be restored, because to rescue them is just the beginning.

Mr. Jekielek:

Sure, so but let’s kind of figure out what happened to them. I want to kind of people to understand how this process works. So the girl gets invited, an ad for working at a beautiful resort, there’s an attractive payout, right? So she arrives at some office somewhere, right? And she’s being recruited, but then what happens?

Ms. Orozco:

Then they are submitted to violence, they are submitted to threats.

Mr. Jekielek:

So basically these people, they just grab them and put them in some sort of prison, or like what happens?

Ms. Orozco:

Houses become prisons, houses located in a place that is very attractive for tourism. Because there is tourism that comes to my country, sadly, to buy these girls. They are known by the cartels; they have links in other countries. These cartels have international work, so they know that they can come to countries like Mexico, to areas that are for tourism, to buy sex with minors. And that’s so sad that there are pedophiles who are doing this in my country.

Mr. Jekielek:

They go with the promise of getting a great job. Instead, they’re put into a house under which they basically can’t get out, and are compelled, forced through violence, to prostitute themselves.

Ms. Orozco:

Yes. They come to my country, and they are subjected to violence and by people who threaten them or kill somebody in front of them. So they know that if they try to escape, they will only find that they will be killed. So, little by little, they will be forced into submission. They will be forced to kill somebody. And then you are no longer feeling like a human. When they force a child to kill another human being, they lose their identity, they lose their humanity, and they are just like robots for them.

That’s how they force so many children into submission. How can you explain that a 17-year-old child killed the mayor from Michoacán? Carlos Manzo was killed by a 17-year-old boy. How can you explain that? They are captured by criminals. In Mexican law, that is considered human trafficking, because anything that resembles slavery—because they are slaves of the cartels—they are forced by the cartels to start killing others until they feel nothing from killing human beings. And, being so young, they are very vulnerable.

Mr. Jekielek:

And just to be clear, when you say submit, you’re talking about people being forced, being coerced to do things.

Ms. Orozco:

Yes, when you are forced to kill a human being, then it’s very easy that you don’t feel anything to kill another and another. That’s how you find Carlos Manzo, the mayor from Michoacán, killed by a 17-year-old boy.

Mr. Jekielek:

So basically, like, they’re pulled in, and it’s like they even become part of the cartel, but they know all the time that if they don’t comply, they’re going to get killed or worse.

Ms. Orozco:

Yes, they try to survive in the middle of this hell by doing what they ask and force them to do. That’s normal for a human being to try to survive.

Mr. Jekielek:

Of course. So these authorities, who rescued them? How does that work?

Ms. Orozco:

There is now an investigation in those states. There are agents who are investigating, and they also go to these places as clients. And then they find out that these are minors, and that they are forced or coerced to do these things, and they can then rescue them.

Mr. Jekielek:

It must be very difficult to help people who have been through this.

Ms. Orozco:

Yes, it’s very difficult for those who have been through this. I learned that since 2005 I was prepared for many things, you know, because people who have been so hurt and so broken, it’s very difficult to bring them to beauty. To rescue them is just the beginning; the restoration is a process that takes so long sometimes, depending on, you know, children who came from a family that was strong, with strong values and love, it’s easier to restore them.

But when somebody has come from a broken home with so much violence in their own home and then comes to a shelter, it’s so difficult. They don’t believe in love. They don’t believe that you have a good heart because they have never seen that in their lives.

Mr. Jekielek:

So how do you do it?

Ms. Orozco:

We call it a blank page. Let me show you. When they arrive at shelters, we give them blank pages and magazines, scissors, and colors. And they sometimes take months, years to start dreaming again, because this is the way we want them to rewrite their stories. This is the way that we want them to dream again, to have a new project of life. Their project of life was completely destroyed. All their dreams are forgotten, and they think they cannot have a good life. They feel guilty. They feel dirty. They feel broken.

So when they rewrite their stories, there are some books of dreams that are beautiful because, again, they want to get married. They want to study. They want to have a family. And they want to have an apartment. The day I saw one of the girls who said, I want an apartment. I was teaching them that anything you dream, you can get. And I was like, oh my God, how am I going to help them? Well, let me tell you.

There are two buildings in Mexico with apartments that one of the mayors of Mexico City gave them. They pay $50 a month, every month, and it’s their apartment. So now when they have a partner, when they have a spouse, and he’s violent or he’s saying, you were a bad person before. Then they can say, I have a blank page, I have a new story, and you are living in my apartment, so you better treat me well because otherwise you go out. It’s very good for their dignities that they have their own apartments.

Mr. Jekielek:

Tell me a bit about the process, right? I mean, again, I don’t know how long ago were the three girls, let’s talk about the three girls that were rescued, that are working with your organization right now.

Ms. Orozco:

They just arrived three days ago. But I can tell you about Anita. She arrived when she was 16-years-old. This was in 2007. And she was an orphan. And she was living with her mother. When she died, she was in the streets and begging for food. At that time, she was 12. Then the stepsister learned that she was by herself vulnerable and the stepsister offered her to come and live with her like a family. But she started to exploit her because the stepsister had five children and she was in a situation of prostitution.

So Anita was not studying anymore, forced to take care of these five children when she was 13, 14-years-old. And then she started to give her three different telephones and Anita had to answer the calls for the hotline about sex and she learned how to speak as an Argentinian, as a Spanish and say, well, I am Argentinian and with the accent she will tell these people, I am learning about sex and I want to do a trio with you and things that were gross for a 14-year-old girl. Then the stepsister sells her virginity for very pennies. And she started to go to the hotels with a stepsister that was in a situation of prostitution. And she was just a child and so vulnerable crying in those hotels.

One day a man came and insulted her. This man was very violent and he wanted sex without protection and she said no. He started to shout at her saying, if you are learning this work you have to be good with the clients. She came out of the room and started to cry. A man who was working in that hotel whose name is Ivan saw her crying and being a child. He came and took her into a room and said what is happening with you? She explained that she was forced to be in prostitution by the stepsister. The stepsister was in the room with that man.

And he hid her and took her out between sheets and towels in a taxi and took her to the general attorney where she arrived then to our shelters. And that’s the way she was saved. And she was with us for many years. Now she’s starting in marketing. Some of the things you see in social media are made by her. She is also one of the speakers at international venues.

For example, she was at Lambeth Palace in the UK, speaking in English. And all the people were crying because she was explaining how the shelter was like a family for her and what it did for her. So it was such an amazing, beautiful story. She’s married, she has her own apartment, she has her own car, and she is doing so well.

She was just recently in Paris at a very important event with the Coalition for the Abolition of Prostitution, and she is one of the main voices. She has been in Vienna at the UN. She has been representing all the survivors from Mexico at the UN. I’m very proud of her.

Mr. Jekielek:

That’s amazing that someone can come that far.

Ms. Orozco:

Yes. And there was another one who arrived when she was only six years old. Her father killed her mother with a machete in Guatemala and then took her to Cancun to force her into prostitution. And that girl, when she first arrived at the shelter, couldn’t even speak for two years as she was speaking an indigenous language. And then she was so traumatized. She was crying most of the time, and the work of the psychologist was so good.

Many people think that because of the trauma, especially when children are so little, their brains get very damaged, their neurological systems close, and they cannot learn. But she just finished her university. She is working in a shelter in the north of Mexico, helping so many children, and she has a passion for restoring lives, as her life was also restored.

Mr. Jekielek:

That’s absolutely incredible. Tell me a little more about what the psychologists do.

Ms. Orozco:

When you talk to a survivor, most of them say that they feel broken. So there is a very nice therapy that psychologists use. It is a Japanese therapy that involves, you know, broken dishes to which they apply gold to join these pieces. How do you explain that?

Mr. Jekielek:

Kintsugi, I think that’s what you’re talking about. I mean, it’s quite an amazing art form in Japan, right? Broken pottery is put together using molten gold pieces.

Ms. Orozco:

Yes, this Japanese technique brings the pottery pieces together that are broken, but they bring them together with gold. And that’s the way they have to feel: those broken pieces in their lives can enable them to go to the UN and be the voice for all the others, because they can now speak about it, they can feel healthy, and they can be restored from brokenness. They become beautiful.

These are the most precious pieces of pottery in Japanese culture, because gold is in the middle of those pieces, and in this case, God also becomes their strength. I think all these girls find in the faith of God this gold. When these girls find that they can restore their lives, they can have a blank page, they can have these pieces together thanks to God because, in these shelters, there is something very important: faith. And the girls become whole when they find that God created them with a purpose, that these people who tried to destroy their dignities just made these pieces come together. With gold, with God, they will become the most precious pottery. They are jewels.

I think it’s a mistake to buy jewelry. I think to invest in lives is the most precious jewelry. That’s why I always wear the same, just to remind me that precious jewels are lives. To invest in lives is the most precious investment in the whole world. There is nothing better than to invest in lives. The satisfaction that I have when I go back and see the lives that have been restored, I cannot describe it, because any ring or any jewel will never give me the satisfaction of investing in somebody who is broken and now is the most beautiful pottery with gold, and it is the most beautiful investment.

Mr. Jekielek:

The most beautiful investment in your life. Tell me a little more about the process, right, for someone who is, again, you know, kind of has suffered unimaginably, right?

Ms. Orozco:

Especially when they arrive from organized crime, we need a high-level security shelter. When they arrive at these places, nobody knows where they are. Of the people who have come, Camilla is the only one we couldn’t put the blindfold on. You see this picture, it’s this little girl who arrived when she was six. Camilla came to the shelters, and she was the only one whom we couldn’t blindfold. We couldn’t blindfold her because the people in the embassy didn’t allow us.

But most of the people who have come to a shelter don’t know where it is, so we can keep high-level security. And then we have psychologists, social workers, very, very, very intelligent lawyers. We have to have educators, social workers, lawyers, psychologists who will help them from that brokenness to become beautiful, to become this precious pottery that has gold.

And there are a lot of voluntary people whom I want to thank because right now, like two days ago, they had the Quinceañera Ball. And that was beautiful because four of the girls—three of whom were already 18 and one 15 years old—had never had a beautiful birthday party. So, people who volunteer take the time to bring not only money but also time and talent and help them to feel again with the dignity they deserve.

Mr. Jekielek:

And how does the faith aspect play into this? You say it’s an important element. Do they have to be Christian? How does that work?

Ms. Orozco:

We never force them into anything, but just be an example of love, to love God and to love their neighbor. We don’t call this a religious project, but we teach them to love God and their neighbor. We teach them with principles and values. There are Jewish people who come and teach them about Passover and about Purim. And these things are very valuable because Jewish people have the most amazing culture to help somebody prosper, to teach them to be prosperous.

And then there are Catholic people who come and teach them also about the Bible, about God, and Christian people as well. So we always nurture their faith because we really believe Jesus is the one who gave his life for them. It’s really important for the children because they understand that he gave his life for them and that they can be restored, just as he was resurrected. They can resurrect their lives for a better life, for a victorious life.

So yes, we also allow them to choose whatever path they decide, because that’s why they are free. They are free to choose, to choose what to wear, to choose where to go, to choose when they want to leave, to choose the faith they want. But yes, we keep them believing that there is a new life.

Mr. Jekielek:

Because you mentioned that when they arrive, people might not understand why they need to not know where they are.

Ms. Orozco:

Because cartels can bring violence to them and their families. So that’s how we protect not only where they are living, but also the locations of their families. And we have their information. So we have to keep that very private.

Mr. Jekielek:

Because they might reveal it inadvertently.

Ms. Orozco:

Yes, if people come and know where it is, they can reveal it to the cartels. So, to be protected, they have to have a high level of security. We have protection; we have an armored door. They are in a very private, secure place.

Mr. Jekielek:

I’m just trying to imagine, but what if they decide to leave? You must face a ton of challenges, right? Because someone could leave, someone could have a bad day, someone could, you know, they’ve been groomed by these cartels. You know, I’ve covered this, and they may want to go back even to the captor sometimes, right? All of this happens. So you guys are in a difficult situation, it’s just a very difficult place to operate.

Ms. Orozco:

Yes, and especially when they are older, when they get 18, we cannot force them at all. They have freedom. They can choose. We also have a halfway house. So when they get to age 18, they can choose to go to that house because in that house they can have more freedom. They can have a cell phone, they can go to university, but they will remain with a psychologist, with people who can ensure that they are secure, that they are safe. And of course, the traffickers are already in jail. Otherwise, they cannot be there.

Mr. Jekielek:

Wow. This is, I mean, the world you’re describing is something that’s, I think, very difficult for a lot of us to kind of grasp.

Ms. Orozco:

Yes. And in this campaign we are doing, Heroes Wanted. We want to inspire young people to do more because you have to be either crazy or called by God to do this job. It’s very difficult to do. I really believe that there are people who are watching this program, and are called by God or crazy enough to say, I want to help these children. I want to help these children. I want to do something. I want to invest in the true jewels that exist in the world: human lives that can be restored from brokenness to beauty.

I think this is very important for all the people who work against trafficking, that more people—young people—get in the fight, become heroes. We want more heroes because there are too many children who need people who care. We need more people who do not turn their faces to the side and decide to join this fight to help the children. Here in the United States, there is a need for 130,000 beds.

Mr. Jekielek:

Like to do this kind of work. Right.

Ms. Orozco:

Yes. In the United States, there is a lack of shelters. There is a lack of people who decide to help these children or young people. And there is a need for 130,000 beds. There are more than 400,000 churches. And there are fewer than 3,000 beds in the United States. It’s so sad. The selfishness is so big. And people are full of jewelry and watches and things that will not go with you when you die. And, you know, to know in eternity that you invest in what is eternal is so important. It’s so valuable.

Mr. Jekielek:

I’m very happy to partner, and we’re very happy to be partnering with you on this Heroes Wanted project, at least showcasing some of the actual heroes that you’ve kind of put together. Tell me a little bit about them. So, for the benefit of our audience, we’ve interviewed a number of people that your organization has deemed heroes. They already have the mantle, right? And so tell me a little bit about this project and how it works.

Ms. Orozco:

After 20 years of helping so many children, I learned that there are so many in the world whom they show in the media or on TV, who rescue children, who have houses, and who help thousands, but it’s not true. They come to our shelters, they take pictures of our children, of our job, and they show that as their job, and they raise millions.

They are false prophets, false people. And instead of telling you who they are, I prefer to focus on the positive. I have always been like that. I prefer the constructive part. So instead of talking about the bad guys, we have to highlight the heroes. We have to show who the real ones are who are risking their lives.

Mr. Jekielek:

You’re looking for people to support your efforts. Are these efforts also in the United States? So just maybe explain that part. But you’re also looking for people to participate, right?

Ms. Orozco:

This is going to be the fifth year that we have an international summit against human trafficking on Capitol Hill. Congressman Chris Smith always comes and speaks so that we will be able to have these international people. There are two governors from Mexico who promised they were coming because they are doing a good job in their states, and there are also people—senators, congresspeople, mayors, judges, and businesspeople—who are investing in the lives of people, and they are coming.

Last year we had 188 international heroes, and this year we will invite the heroes—the people who are doing the amazing job either in NGOs in the States because they are closing all the illicit places where there is human trafficking, or they are rescuing the victims, or they are judging correctly and using the law correctly. So we are inviting the people in the world who are doing the real job. Instead of highlighting the bad ones who lie, we are highlighting the true heroes.

Mr. Jekielek:
You told me a lot about your organization’s work in Mexico; that’s where it’s kind of based, right? What do you do here in the United States?

Ms. Orozco:

There’s an organization based in San Diego that helps at the border, an amazing organization with Alma Tucker, and we are helping there. Also, in Virginia, we participate in an organization called Unbound, which helps people in Virginia, specifically with all the illicit massage parlors that sadly exist there.

Mr. Jekielek:

You’re talking about the illicit massage parlors. So that’s something we haven’t talked about yet. Explain that to me. When you see these, are they like spa establishments?

Ms. Orozco:

With Unbound, we help people understand that there are more than 500 illicit massage establishments that exist in Virginia. Sometimes they are open at 2 in the morning, sometimes they employ people who do not speak the language, and some of them are conducting illicit business. This is not being stopped in Virginia. I don’t know why, because Alabama, for example, just closed all these places. I think one way to end human trafficking is to ensure that we don’t have illicit massages in any state in the United States, because there are Asian people who are being trafficked.

Mr. Jekielek:

So, how do you know the difference between a legitimate massage parlor and an illicit one?

Ms. Orozco:

Reset180 is an NGO in Virginia that offers tours for people to see the difference between a place that is open in the middle of the night and hidden, versus a legitimate one. They also interview men who come to these places, and they try to convince them that they are doing something wrong because they are paying for sex and receiving happy endings in those illicit massages.

Mr. Jekielek:

Since we’ve known each other, you’ve been in the United States a lot. Why did you end up coming to the United States?

Ms. Orozco:

Because doing anti-trafficking law, applying it, and helping so many cases gets you into problems when the government is not aligned in fighting the cartels and fighting trafficking. So, if I am in Mexico, I am at greater risk, and I can now do more on the international side. I can be stronger and accomplish more since I am not at risk and I am not threatened here.

Mr. Jekielek:

Were there threats against your life?

Ms. Orozco:

Yes, of course, since the beginning.

Mr. Jekielek:

Okay, so it’s of course.

Ms. Orozco:

Of course, since we opened the Special Commission Against Trafficking in Congress, the traffickers and criminals certainly didn’t like that at all. There are politicians who are involved in the trafficking, of course.

Mr. Jekielek:

So you mean you’re in Mexico, whenever you’re in Mexico, there is a threat against your life, you feel?

Ms. Orozco:

Yes, I am also registered with the Secretary of Internal Affairs as one of the activists and journalists who are protected. They have to protect me by law. And so I am in the system as one of the activists. They have to give me protection every time I go.

Mr. Jekielek:

Wow. So how does that work?

Ms. Orozco:

I have to register all the threats I have. I still have threats. So I send these threats to the Internal Affairs Secretary in Mexico every time I have them. So they have to register them. It’s an international system that protects activists. You know that there have been a lot of them killed, but also it’s not only killing that they try to do. What they can do to you is to try to destroy your reputation because that’s another way of killing activism. And they want to do both things to the people who fight against them.

So I keep myself safe here in every way and I feel so appreciated by so many authorities here. I think since the beginning when I applied for the extraordinary Italian visa, I was surprised they gave me immediately my green card. And I was like, wow, because I presented all the things that I have done in my life. And I felt so much appreciation in this administration.

Mr. Jekielek:

And I understand that you’re also helping the administration sort of tell the difference between, you know, people who are coming here with good intentions and people who are not.

Ms. Orozco:

Yes. And people like Tom Homan have always come to the international summit. Sarah Carter and CPAC people who are big allies, along with the American First Policy Institute and Family Research Council. There are so many people who care to end human trafficking in this country and especially The Epoch Times.

Mr. Jekielek:

Tell me about that work that you’re doing here with the authorities.

Ms. Orozco:

We have an office at the Family Research Council, and we have met so many of the congresspeople and the authorities who really want to end human trafficking, like Sarah Carter. Sarah Carter, who was a journalist, is now the drug czar. But she knows. She has been in Mexico. She has been in the shelter. She has talked to a lot of survivors. And she knows how cartels of drugs are very linked to human trafficking.

Because in Mexico, when you have a place that has human trafficking, sexual exploitation, criminals try to get the police to come. So they will come and say to the police, hey, you are tired. We can give you some fun. Come to this bar, and we will get you some girls who are new. They come from Europe. They are very pretty. And these people were trained. They want to be honest. They don’t want to help the cartels.

But they think, oh, this is only to have fun. And I am far from my family, so I go. Then they film them. They take pictures of them. They record what they are doing with these girls. And then they get them drunk, and they take some of the information. One day, one of the police officers, who is a friend of mine, told me, Rosi, I admire your job, and I want to be honest with you.

When I was younger in Ciudad Juarez, I took my team to be with these girls. They got us drunk, they got information, and I lost people. And now I have a daughter, and I understand what you are saying. I feel so ashamed to tell you that I lost people. I lost information because these people are linked to the criminals. And he was telling me this, just as the survivors did.

The survivors were telling me how they are forced to give them away for free to the authorities, to the congresspeople, to the police, to the prosecutors who come to these places. And they attract them and also make them addicted to this illegal sex. And they get them to be with minors and even with babies. And this is gross because they are perverse and they are controlled by the cartels.

This is the best way to contaminate all the good police and to corrupt them. It’s the best way they do it. The cartels know that if they have a Samson who wants to be a godly man and wants to do what is correct, and they bring a Delilah and keep bringing this woman to him, they will corrupt his soul like that. Even the best police can become corrupted by the trafficking.

Sarah Carter knows this and knows how linked the drug cartel is to human trafficking. When I was a congresswoman, I had some friends in the Congress who became governors. And they were very convinced of the law. And three of them closed all illicit places, such as strip clubs and brothels. And those are the states that now have less criminality.

For example, the first one who closed it all, Rubén Moreira, was my friend. In the Congress, some of the friends who helped me to succeed in the law became very convinced of what they were doing. So they became governors like Rubén Moreira, whose state was the most criminal one, with more disappeared women, more cartels, and more people being killed. And it was a disaster in Coahuila. Torreon was one of the most dangerous cities in the world. Rubén Moreira arrived as a governor and closed all the illicit places, all the brothels, all the strip clubs, and the state became one of the most secure ones. And one of the most secure cities is Torreon now.

Because when you close these places, you don’t allow more money laundering, weapons, drugs, and the places where all the more perverse people get together to do business. So it’s very important that governors here in the United States are talking against human trafficking and against illicit migration. But their states are full of strip clubs.

Even around here in Washington. I mean, there are horrible places where there are illicit businesses involving migration that are not legal, that have ladies who are here illegally, and they are dancing for the politicians, but then selling sex, and it’s gross. It’s really bad. Prostitution is not a job. It’s the most dangerous situation for a woman, where 40 percent die a very violent death. So if somebody is so crazy to think that that’s a job, it’s more dangerous than being in a mine.

Mr. Jekielek:

It must be very difficult for these girls to even try to, you know, make it out of the really difficult situations they’ve been in, I mean, very extreme, extreme situations that they’ve been in. How often does it work out for them?

Ms. Orozco:

In the shelters where we have helped, 92 percent have been successful. Either to go back to their families when there is the possibility, when we help them with their reunion. But also some of them, even if they cannot study in a university, we help them to know how to sew or to paint or to sing or to do something that will help them to earn some money. So for us, it’s a very long process. The difference is that there are shelters here in the United States, in many countries, that will just give them therapy for six months or one year. We have had to help some of the survivors for 17 years.

Like Maria who came when she was six years old and couldn’t really even talk. But now that she finished university, she was not able to find a job because every time that she was going through that process, the psychologists understood that there was something that was not normal. So she told me, when I apply for a job and go through human resources, I get a no, and I don’t know why.

She found herself very useful and prepared and trained for helping children who are in shelters in the north of Mexico. And she’s doing a fantastic job and learning how to also continue with her stories, and continue to be wise about how to invest the money. These people in this shelter are helping her to go to this other level. And you know it’s like those dishes, those pieces of pottery, and they are finding how this gold is going to be used for something they really are passionate to do. She’s passionate now to help these children because she was so thankful that people helped her.

Mr. Jekielek:

Sure. And so how many people have you managed to help over the years?

Ms. Orozco:

More than 400 people. More than 400, mostly minors.

Mr. Jekielek:

But that’s truly remarkable. It must be unbelievably rewarding to do this work.

Ms. Orozco:

It’s difficult work because these girls were completely broken. Some of them didn’t want to leave at all, and to see a smile on their face was really a big victory. Some of them now are the ones that are helping others, and that’s for me the virtual circle, because when one of them wants to be an activist and wants to become also the inspiration of the others, that helps the ones that are new.

These three girls are getting to know some of the ones that are successful so they can see, yes I feel depressed, I feel confused, but now I can see that she is doing well and she went through the same process, and now I admire that she travels, that she speaks in English, that she finished university, that she’s married, that she has her own apartment. We just got a new apartment for them recently, for the older ones. So that keeps us going in a very successful virtual circle.

Mr. Jekielek:

Well, Rosi Orozco, it’s such a pleasure to have had you on.

Ms. Orozco:

Thank you. It was such a nice interview. Thank you for caring.

 

This interview was partially edited for clarity and brevity.