How law enforcement and nonprofits are trying to help victims of human trafficking

It is a sad night in too many of our communities when young people are forced to sell their bodies to survive. 

This vulnerability is disguised as a vice on the streets of San Bernardino in an area around G Street known as "The Blade."

"You're playing this person, that person, you're being played," survivor Amanda said. 

Amanda asked for anonymity as she shared her story. 

"I referred to it as the game," she said.

Though she's been out of the game for 17 years, it's still hard to shake. She described it as "a blanket of shame." 

Amanda's ordeal started at 16 years old when she ran away from home. She rode a bus to the end of its line, then rested at a bench with everything she owned. A stranger spotted her within minutes. He offered her shelter and then took her shopping. 

"About 12 hours later, I became a victim," Amanda said. 

She was brutally assaulted. On the same night, she was taken to Los Angeles County and trafficked. It's a cycle that repeats day in and day out in the Inland Empire and communities everywhere. 

"Traffickers say 'I'm going to make your life better,'" San Bernardino Deputy District Attorney Cassandra Helmuth. "They're going to provide for you."

Helmuth specializes in sex crimes. 

"When people hear of human trafficking, they think it's like an international problem, happening in other countries or victims being smuggled across the border," she said. "This is actually happening right here in our community with victims from our own community."

There is no crime that is more profitable. 

"A bag of drugs or a gun can only be sold once," SBPD Detective Kim Hernandez said. "But a human being can be sold over and over again."

Hernandez has worked the streets, in shelters and outside motels. Her mission is to arrest pimps and sex buyers  — and to rescue the victims. It required her to go undercover. 

"People from the outside don't have a way of being able to save or rescue those who are involved in the community," she said. 

Posing as a prostitute, Hernandez saw how the cycle plays out. Vulnerable youth offered gifts, clothes, and a safe place to sleep.

"The victim will then have to pay that back," Hernandez said. "That's where the trap happens."

The mental chains can be especially powerful. When she ran away, Amanda was on probation for ditching school. Though this was never the life she wanted. 

"I was facing two bad options: you can go home, you can go to jail," she said. "Or you can survive by this way and I chose to survive."

Youth in foster care are especially vulnerable to being recruited into trafficking.

"I was traveling to various group homes across Southern California and realized the pimps were coming to the homes," Ashley Hill, a former therapist with LA County's child welfare system, said. "They were scaring the staff and the girls and they were forcing girls to recruit other girls."

Life can initially appear glamorous, with some girls hiding their distress through smiles and laughter.

"But what happens to them tonight if they don't go in with the amount of money they're supposed to make," Amanda said. 

Hernandez said it sometimes doesn't end well. 

"There are some that die. There are some that are injured to the point where they can't work," Hernandez said. "There are that get free because they age out. The unfortunate reality is that sex buyers are looking for younger girls."

While it's a felony to traffic a minor, buyers get off relatively easily. Under California law, paying for sex with a minor is a misdemeanor. 

"It used to be a crime to loiter for prostitution," Helmuth said. "It no longer is."

Helmuth and Hernandez are lobbying for tougher laws that would make it easier to protect victims. Meanwhile, Hill is working on housing for girls at risk.

"The way we take care of our foster youth, I think, could be a lot better," Hill said. 

Hill's nonprofit, Magdalena's Daughters, envisions recovery villages.

"These kids have their own stuff going on," she said. "Whether it's human trafficking, trauma — they're often triggering one another, so they need their space."

Amanda said it's hard to reconnect with the person you were before your first encounter with a pimp or trafficker. 

"They demand a different style of dress," she said. "This is a new identity that they're creating so that old person that they recruited you're not them anymore."

Amanda escaped the life for good after almost six years. She now works to support fellow survivors, hoping to reach them as early in the cycle as possible.

"For those of you who are still new to it and feeling like money is everything and you're feeling good about it," she said. "The long-term effects on self-esteem and your body are not worth it ... There will be times that you will be experiencing the dark side of this lifestyle."

A proposed bill, SB 1414, would make soliciting prostitution from a minor a felony rather than a misdemeanor. Buyers who are convicted would be listed in California's sex offender database.