Human trafficking task force symposium set for Wednesday in Gypsum
Missing Indigenous Awareness Day
Local attorney Claudia Hurtado-Myers started her legal practice with the expectation that she would specialize in immigration cases in Eagle County.
But she said over the last three years, she has seen so many incidents of human trafficking in Eagle County that the majority of her practice is now focused on those cases.
In reaching out to the Colorado Human Trafficking Council for assistance, she was recently made aware that there is no human trafficking task force in Eagle County. She is now in the process of starting such a task force, and on Wednesday, she is hosting a human trafficking task force symposium in Gypsum in an effort to get the task force off the ground.
“I think, because it’s so transient here, we don’t make those human connections that other communities make with your neighbors and the people around you, so we don’t notice it as much,” she said. “We see people come and go, and that’s normal for us.”
Hurtado-Myers also said many of the cases don’t make it into the criminal justice system, so there’s not as much awareness that it’s happening here.
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“What the criminal system considers to be trafficking is different than what the immigration system considers to be trafficking,” she said. “Because of that different standard of review, if I report a trafficking case to law enforcement it might not get prosecuted.”
In those cases, the civil courts system can often provide a measure of justice for victims if the criminal courts system can’t, Hurtado-Myers said.
“Most people think human trafficking is what you see in the movies, where there’s somebody chained up to a radiator in a basement, being sexually abused for money,” Hurtado-Myers said. “But a lot of human trafficking is labor trafficking, where a person is coerced into doing something that they don’t want to do, but would lose their job if they didn’t do it.”
Wednesday’s symposium is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m. at the Siena Valley Club in Gypsum. Jae Dee Wood from the Colorado Office of School Safety is scheduled to attend to talk about children and trafficking, and Jessica Rosaslanda with the Reintegra anti-human trafficking organization is also scheduled to attend and speak, as well.
The event is free to attend, but attendees are being asked to RSVP ahead of time at Reintegra.org/symposium/taskforce.
