As new home opens, victim advocates report increase in young victims, labor trafficking

Twenty-plus years ago, when Mary fled her sex trafficker and with federal assistance secured the release of her 2-year-old son, her family welcomed her back to Sioux Falls.

No one else really talked about her experience or understood how a trusting teenager who had left South Dakota to work as a nanny on the East Coast could have been entrapped. With no one to talk with, it was a lonely time.

That changed in Sioux Falls in 2016 when Becky Rasmussen founded the nonprofit Call to Freedom, which helps victims of human trafficking navigate a healthy path though supportive services. Basic needs and safety are provided, and housing was available through a seven-unit apartment complex named Marissa’s House.

In the years since then, Call to Freedom has helped 668 victims of sex and labor trafficking. But while it provided a haven, the efficiency apartments did not allow survivors with children to reunite with their families. That changed last Friday when the new Marissa’s House opened its door. Marissa’s House now is a secure 12-unit apartment complex that offers six one-bedroom units, three with two bedrooms and three with three bedrooms for women and their children, housing up to 35 residents.

In addition, the staff at Marissa’s House connects the women with the services they need such as an employment specialist to work with job placement, mental health and chemical dependency assessors, and an occupational therapist to teach coping skills. It offers a community room where residents can gather with the occupational therapist or take part in large-group activities with others.

The larger living quarters mean women with children can learn parenting skills in a supportive environment, Rasmussen said.

“The survivors who came into (the first) Marissa’s House had a desire to be unified with their children, a strong desire because most of them had been lost during their victimization,” she said. “But they would have to leave housing to do that, and sometimes they were unsuccessful because there was so much for a parent to deal with: the trauma, their children and being involved with life itself.”

Reuniting with their children will be healing for the survivors, said Kristen Thorkelson, chair of the Call to Freedom board and, with her husband, Chris, co-chair of the campaign to raise money to expand Marissa’s House.

“This is a 12-unit apartment complex, and unfortunately the need for this is not going to go away,” she said. “I can see us expanding housing in the future to accommodate more. If we can get this model down, I think you’re going to see more model housing and opportunities for survivors.”

Since Friday, 12 people have moved into Marissa’s House, Rasmussen said. Since it started, 68 percent of the survivors have come from Minnehaha and Lincoln counties. Most of the others come from the eastern side of South Dakota.

Happy tears have been shed by the new residents, Thorkelson has been told. She said she herself choked up when she entered the completed building. “It’s just so beautiful, and it feels homey,” she said.

Call to Freedom serves victims of both sex trafficking and labor trafficking, Rasmussen said. Trafficking is the use of force, fraud or coercion to exploit another person.

“What we’re seeing today is more of a coercion technique,” she said. “It’s building relationships, not always kidnapping or holding someone and chaining them to the walls. It’s building relationships with the victims and getting them to believe they’re making a choice or making a decision. It’s grooming and recruiting until they cannot leave that trafficking situation.”

Labor trafficking is seen most often among women who come to the United States from countries such as Mexico or Guatemala, looking for better employment opportunities. They come over on a temporary visa. Upon arrival, they learn conditions are not as promised, and the trafficker controls their visas, keeps the money they earn and abuses them.

“We see massage parlors, restaurants and construction sites where they are living in very crowded and awful conditions, saying you owe me for your living arrangement, so now I’m withdrawing it from your paycheck,” Rasmussen said. “These individuals have to prove they can’t come and go at will. Deportation is a big threat as well. We work with the Hispanic population, and there’s a language barrier for them as well.”

Sex trafficking in South Dakota may receive the most attention during the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in August and the fall hunting season. In reality, it takes place every day, Rasmussen said. Some sex trafficking involves gangs, others come through social media, and it also occurs in families when adults exploit the most vulnerable.

“You can sell a human being over and over again,” Rasmussen said. “There’s a low overhead, so you can make a lot of money. Human trafficking is the second-fastest-growing criminal activity in the world.”

A recent study indicated that human trafficking has occurred in every county in the United States. Rasmussen said she sees an escalation in the grooming of 12- to 14-year-old girls. A child may go online and complain their parents don’t love them. Boom, that’s an opportunity for a sex trafficker to offer an elusive affection.

Mary, who asked that her last name not be used, became involved in a cartel out of Colombia. She was the girl next door, she said, sheltered and vulnerable to those who preyed on her. When she did want to leave, her 2-month-old son was kidnapped and taken to Colombia, and she married her trafficker. Two years later, back in South Dakota, with the help of the Drug Enforcement Administration and the State Department, her son was returned from Colombia.

Rasmussen calls Mary “a living miracle.” She left her situation and made her way back at a time when no services were available. She survived and then thrived despite the mental, physical and spiritual abuse trafficking victims endure.

“People are being prostituted,” Mary said. “We don’t choose it. I know young women who have been born in it. I know people who have a lot of horrific experiences as a child. This community in Sioux Falls, oh my gosh, are they amazing. It takes a community to come together and say, ‘No more, we’re not going to let this happen in our city and our state, and we are going to support the victims of sex trafficking.’”

Even the smallest donations can help a survivor thrive in her new situation, Mary said. Housing is a basic need but so are items such as shampoo. Without a place like Marissa’s House, victims can end up in homeless shelters, in domestic violence shelters, on the street, couch surfing or — in worse cases — dead, she said.

Mary describes her role as being a mentor. The women have someone to talk with who understands what they’ve been through, and they live in safe housing where they can learn new things.

That’s why an occupational therapist is provided, Rasmussen said.

“They learn coping skills, life skills, things they haven’t learned like how to budget, wash dishes and do laundry. We teach life skills but also help to heal from trauma,” she said.

Trafficking affects men also, but currently there is no place for a male victim to turn to for similar help. Turning the former Marissa’s House into such a haven was considered, but it was too much to tackle at this time, Rasmussen said.