One-hun­dred-and-fifty years after the abo­li­tion of slav­ery, the State Depart­ment has acknowl­edged that peo­ple in the Unit­ed States con­tin­ue to be bought and sold as property.

The media often focus on stories of young girls lured into prostitution rings. But government data suggest that “more foreign victims are found in labor trafficking than sex trafficking,” particularly in “above ground” sectors like hotel work and home healthcare.

The department’s 2010 ​“Traf­fick­ing in Per­sons” (TIP) report, a glob­al review of human traf­fick­ing and civic and legal respons­es to it, lists the Unit­ed States for the first time among the nations that har­bor mod­ern-day slavery.

The report was a long time in com­ing. In 2001, when Wash­ing­ton was rolling out land­mark anti-traf­fick­ing leg­is­la­tion, Maria, a Mex­i­can woman, tes­ti­fied before the House Com­mit­tee on Inter­na­tion­al Rela­tions on her expe­ri­ence with sex slav­ery in Flori­da. ​“If any of the girls refused to be with a cus­tomer, we were beat­en. If we adamant­ly refused, the boss­es would show us a les­son by rap­ing us bru­tal­ly. We worked six days a week, twelve hours a day. Our bod­ies were sore and swollen. If any­one became preg­nant we were forced to have abor­tions. The cost of the abor­tion was added to the smug­gling debt,” she said.

The report gives the Unit­ed States high marks for its efforts to com­bat traf­fick­ing, but vic­tims remain scat­tered through­out the work­force, hid­den from view: the cap­tive migrant toma­to pick­er, the pros­ti­tute bond­ed by a smug­gling debt, the domes­tic ser­vant work­ing with­out pay.

The media often focus on sto­ries of young girls lured into pros­ti­tu­tion rings. But gov­ern­ment data sug­gest that ​“more for­eign vic­tims are found in labor traf­fick­ing than sex traf­fick­ing,” par­tic­u­lar­ly in ​“above ground” sec­tors like hotel work and home health­care. Esti­mates vary, but the num­ber of vic­tims world­wide could be more than 12 mil­lion chil­dren and adults.

Today’s slave trade cap­i­tal­izes on vast inequal­i­ties, sharp­ened by eco­nom­ic glob­al­iza­tion, that spur migra­tion across nation­al bor­ders. Many gov­ern­ments have insti­tut­ed anti-traf­fick­ing poli­cies, but with uneven suc­cess. The TIP report states that 23 coun­tries got an ​“upgrade” in the rank­ing of their anti-traf­fick­ing pro­grams. But 19 coun­tries were ​“down­grad­ed” due to ​“sparse vic­tim pro­tec­tions, desul­to­ry imple­men­ta­tion, or inad­e­quate legal structures.”

Despite the country’s rel­a­tive wealth and sophis­ti­cat­ed legal sys­tem, slav­ery trick­les into the Unit­ed States through deep cracks in labor and immi­gra­tion laws.

Vic­tims often remain hid­den because they depend on their boss­es not only for their liveli­hoods but for pro­tec­tion from immi­gra­tion author­i­ties. Even for doc­u­ment­ed work­ers, legal sta­tus is not a safe­guard, and pre­car­i­ous tem­po­rary work­er visas may even facil­i­tate trafficking.

Stephanie Richard, direc­tor of pol­i­cy with the Los Ange­les-based Coali­tion to Abol­ish Slav­ery and Traf­fick­ing (CAST), told In These Times: ​“We’re actu­al­ly see­ing an increase in the num­ber of cas­es of peo­ple com­ing in on law­ful visas, and then end­ing up in human traf­fick­ing … because peo­ple are using those visas as one of the forms of coer­cion for keep­ing peo­ple work­ing for them against their will.”

To its cred­it, the State Department’s report stress­es that anti-traf­fick­ing mea­sures should not just empha­size crack­ing down on traf­fick­ing crimes, and that a com­pre­hen­sive ​“vic­tim-cen­tered” approach should ​“focus on all vic­tims, offer­ing them the oppor­tu­ni­ty to access shel­ter, com­pre­hen­sive ser­vices, and in cer­tain cas­es, immi­gra­tion relief.”

To qual­i­fy for spe­cial immi­gra­tion relief­-the T visa­-traf­fick­ing sur­vivors must coop­er­ate with law enforce­ment inves­ti­ga­tions – a process advo­cates say can be humil­i­at­ing and trau­mat­ic. That may be why the num­ber of T visas grant­ed each year is far small­er than the esti­mat­ed num­ber of sur­vivors. And despite pres­sure to bring sur­vivors into the crim­i­nal process, the Depart­ment of Justice’s Human Traf­fick­ing Pros­e­cu­tion Unit report­ed only 47 con­vic­tions in 43 human traf­fick­ing pros­e­cu­tions in fis­cal year 2009.

This year’s report gloss­es over the sys­temic fail­ures that fuel the thirst for cheap labor – or even free labor. Sien­na Baskin, an attor­ney with the Sex Work­ers Project – which cam­paigns for leg­is­la­tion to pro­tect the rights of traf­ficked sex work­ers in New York – sees a cor­re­la­tion between the traf­fick­ing epi­dem­ic and immi­gra­tion and law enforce­ment poli­cies that crim­i­nal­ize vic­tims. Baskin told In These Times, ​“The grow­ing prob­lem of labor exploita­tion could be less­ened by com­pre­hen­sive immi­gra­tion reform that pro­vides visas and fair wages to all workers.”

The Flori­da-based Coali­tion of Immokalee Work­ers merges anti-traf­fick­ing, immi­gra­tion reform and labor activism in its cam­paigns for farm work­ers’ rights. The group was recent­ly hon­ored by the White House for its Cam­paign for Fair Food, which has suc­cess­ful­ly pres­sured cor­po­ra­tions to adjust their labor poli­cies across the sup­ply chain, from the toma­to farms all the way up to restau­rants like Taco Bell.

At the D.C. event announc­ing the new TIP report, Lau­ra Ger­mi­no, coor­di­na­tor of the Coalition’s Anti-Slav­ery Cam­paign, said that 20 years ago the Unit­ed States refused to acknowl­edge ​“that the unbro­ken threat of slav­ery that has so trag­i­cal­ly woven through our his­to­ry … was a con­stant.” She added, ​“But here’s the good part. There was nowhere to go but up.”

This arti­cle orig­i­nal­ly appeared in dif­fer­ent form on In These Times’ work­ers’ rights blog, Work­ing In These Times.