SAN FRANCISCO: A recent report has revealed that young Mexican women in New Jersey were forced into sex slavery by a group of farm workers, where many of the women had been forced into having sex with as many as 25 workers daily. The revelation has led to an outcry of anger among women's rights activists in the United States, who told Bikyanews.com that the American government must do more to protect young women and immigrants in the country. "We are seeing a rise in this sort of thing and the police and authorities must do more," said gender studies senior Mary Wolfe at San Francisco State. She told Bikyanews.com that "this sort of behavior many Americans believe only goes on in developing countries, but women in the US are faced with sexual violence on a daily basis." According to an Associated Press article, which revealed details of the women's plight, many were "confined to dingy brothels in the New York City area that advertised their services with ‘chica cards,' business cards passed out on street corners to attract customers. They were paid very little, or nothing at all." A criminal complaint has been filed against 13 individuals who have been charged with "smuggling dozens [of women] into the United States and forcing them into prostitution." Most of the defendants appeared in a federal court in New York City on Wednesday and face "multiple counts, including sex trafficking and interstate transportation for prostitution." The ring "lured their unsuspecting victims to the United States and then consigned them to a living hell," US Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement. The investigation was among several aimed at "blockading the repugnant sex trafficking corridor" used to exploit victims from Tenancingo, Mexico, said James Hayes, head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in New York. Tenancingo, an impoverished town in Tlaxcala state, has long been a notorious haven for pimps who use a combination of threats, abuse and broken promises of marriage and jobs to put innocent victims, some only in their teens, on a path to sex slavery in Mexico City and in large cities in the United States. "We must be diligent and fight against sexual violence in the US and elsewhere if we are truly going to be a leader in human rights," continued Wolfe, who has protested the treatment of women in Californian. "This is unacceptable that we preach to the world, but this criminal activity happens in our own backyard." BN
