Through the Static

By Hannah Saunders

The Skokomish Tribal Nation’s Lucky Dog Casino has grabbed the attention of locals after it put up a new poster outside that encourages victims of human trafficking to call the DHS tip line. Below is another phone number to the National Human Trafficking Hotline, and then lists a Blue Campaign logo.

“So if you’re being sex trafficked you’re supposed to call ICE?! And they’re gonna help you? Yeah right!!!,” a source wrote. 

Located in Mason County, Skokomish has a population of about 500, and the rates of human trafficking are unknown. Blue Campaign operates under DHS’s Center for Countering Human Trafficking and works to raise awareness about human trafficking, with a focus on prevention and protection of victims. 

Shamere McKenzie, hotline training manager at the anti-human trafficking organization, Polaris Project, stated that Black people make up 40% of all survivors and victims of sex trafficking alone. 

“Traffickers prey on those most vulnerable in our communities…risk factors like poverty or being in the foster care system make people more vulnerable to human trafficking. Black people are still disproportionately impoverished and disproportionately represented in the foster care system,” McKenzie wrote. 

Immigrants, Latino, and Indigenous communities are also vulnerable to trafficking, with immigrants making up about 76% of labor trafficking victims, according to Polaris Project. 

“A significant percentage of people who migrate to the United States, legally and otherwise, do so because they are facing danger or economic desperation in their home countries,” Polaris Project stated. “Those vulnerabilities come with them across the border, making the threat of being deported an extremely powerful weapon for traffickers.” 

Stephen Miller, Homeland Security advisor, helped the Trump regime set a goal for ICE to arrest 3,000 immigrants per day for mass incarceration and deportation efforts, and federal officials have been arresting and executing U.S. citizens.

The Northwest Detention Center (NWDC), which was renamed the Northwest ICE Processing Center in 2019 to mislead the public, is an immigrant prison located in Tacoma. Its current capacity is 1,575 beds, according to the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, which makes it one of the largest detention facilities in the country. 

More recently, Hunts Point Mayor Joe Sabey is profiting off ICE operations through the Sabey Corporation, where he acts as president, and which recently signed a lease with DHS for office space in Tukwila at the Riverfront Technical Park property— about a 30-minute drive south from the NWDC on I-5. 

This all begs the source’s question: “If you’re being sex trafficked you’re supposed to call ICE?”

Keep uncensored, antifascist news alive. Become a monthly donor now.