Letter to Grassley, Portman, Cornyn, and Cuellar
Jody Williams,
Founder & Director ofSex Workers Anonymous
www.sexworkersanonymous.com
(702) 468-4529
Telephone
December 5, 2015
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley
Senator Rob Portman
Senator John Cornyn
Rep. Henry Cuellar
Re: The Issue of Sex Trafficking
Dear Respected Sirs:
I read about how you stepped in to help some
trafficking victims in this article -
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-immigrant-whistleblower-20151124-story.html
Since the internet was born, I get these news alerts that I use to
do our outreach for Sex Workers Anonymous. Our original name was
“Prostitutes Anonymous” and we founded this very movement. A
movement that even the author of the Trafficking Act of 2000, Michael
Horowitz, has agreed has been “hijacked”.
If you're wondering who I am – please check the clips at
www.hightechmadam.com
They confirm I'm the founder of this modern day sex trafficking
movement which was started to not just raise awareness trafficking
was real but also to CHANGE the existing system that was allowing it
to happen. I'm speaking as someone who witnessed drug/sex
trafficking (yes they're intertwined) with respect to Iran Contra –
meaning I know well that trafficking doesn't occur without corruption
as it's protector. A system for which I'm not seeing anywhere to go
with complaints about said corruption currently.
I appreciate you writing the Office of Refugee Resettlement, and your
suggestions about an Oversight Committee to address the problems
you're finally seeing, that we've been complaining about to these
sames offices for a few years now and not seeing any response. I
started complaining to the Office of Refugee Resettlement when in
each region where I've seen them grant money – I then see all
communications with victims cut off from us and further our members
who are doing outreach in those areas then start getting threatened
so that we can't establish communications. I have yet to see those
dollars actually benefits victims and I'd love to show you what I
mean by that if you're interested.
I invite you to listen to a tape I have up at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_TD_X3uOiA
I want you to hear how things were for us in Phoenix before these
grants started going out vs. now and also I'd like you to hear her
talk about the way she was threatened the minute she started trying
to reach out to others in the area. She was then further told “she
would be no good dead”. I want you to hear how she's having to
literally “hide her message” in her art because of her fear there
in Phoenix. I'd like to add that this woman was the only one brave
enough to speak on tape about these threats. I have others who are
still too scared all over the USA. So respectfully I say your
suggestions aren't going to change a thing.
The
only thing I've seen work in the past has been changed. The only
solution I see is to change things back. Because we had things
working - that's why things got hijacked to where we're right back
where we started. Right now across this country, I've got sex
trafficking victims who can't go to the authorities for help because
they're being stopped, and our members are being also stopped from
helping them. I've been so threatened myself to stop our work that
I'm having to now live in a rolling RV because I can't stay in one
place anymore. An “oversight” committee isn't going to help
when even FBI agents now are being threatened, attorney's are being
threatened, and even judges trying to alert us we have a problem
aren't being heard like Judge Thomas Goethals and the oversight
office which ordered the investigation into the Pasadena Police
aren't. I mean Merrill Ladenheim was put at the helm of the Los
Angeles Sex Trafficking Task Force after we heard him giving support
to Paul Tanaka? Who is running these things?
We
need something DIFFERENT. Look, I'm not a fake that people went to
another country to entice to speak for us as we saw with Samoly Mam.
Nor am I a shill funded by rich white corporations to TRY and put the
face on this issue of us all being minorities for some reason who
testifies at the Hill and walks the Red Carpet because she says
anything but what WE would say. If you look at my clips – you'll
see I'm the undisputed founder of not only this movement, but the
largest and oldest program of survivors in this country as far as
adults go.
So
I'm speaking not just as a survivor, but as someone who has been
involved in this issue for 30 years now, answered over 500,000 calls
on our hotline, with 1000's of stories of survivor and recovery under
my belt also so I know what the solutions look like as well as the
problem. Frankly, they don't require another grant, another
committee, etc. They require COMMUNICATION.
So
please if you're interested in doing something about the plight of
the fact these victims do not STILL have a safe place to go –
please get in touch with me to discuss solutions. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Jody Williams
cc: Health & Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement
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