In 2007, the junior U.S. senator from Illinois, Barack Obama, sponsored a Senate resolution creating the National Day of Human Trafficking Awareness, which we observed on Sunday, January 11. Human trafficking is rarely on the pundits' list of priorities for President Obama's administration, but he knows that early action in this area could have global impact. For starters, he should reconsider the current approach of raids, raids and more raids. It's not working.  

The Sex Workers Project at New York's Urban Justice Center recently interviewed law enforcement personnel, service providers who have helped hundreds of trafficking victims, and a small sample of immigrant women trafficked into sex work and other forms of labor, including domestic work. We found that while there have been some successes, raids are generally an ineffective anti-trafficking tool, and in many cases are harmful to people who have been trafficked.  

Trafficked women reported that they were repeatedly arrested, in some cases up to ten times, in police raids on brothels and other sex work venues, without ever being identified as trafficked. Yet that is the ostensible purpose of these raids - to "rescue" the 14,000 to 17,000 women, men and children the US government estimates are trafficked into the United States annually. These women's reports were consistent with those from service providers across the country: a supervisor at a national organization working with trafficking victims said very few trafficked people are referred for services after raids. 

Recent federal data supports this conclusion. In the eight years since current anti-trafficking laws went into effect, only 787 people have received the "T" immigration visa set up to give residency and job status to trafficking victims, even though 5,000 such visas are available every year.  

Clearly existing law is ineffective. Raids, for their part, are violent, chaotic events involving kicking down doors, drawn guns and much yelling and shoving, further traumatizing trafficking victims and decreasing the likelihood that they will cooperate with law enforcement in prosecuting their traffickers. Some raids were in fact accompanied by violations of the rights of the very people the raids were intended to protect.  

One woman interviewed for our report told of being pistol-whipped and publicly strip-searched by officers during a raid. Many more spoke of being interrogated following raids without being given access to an attorney. 

The Obama administration has the opportunity to reassess this failed federal approach to human trafficking. The recent passage of federal anti-trafficking legislation championed by Vice President Joe Biden offers a fresh start - and a chance to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past.  

A good first step would be to move away from high-profile, resource-intensive and largely ineffective raids and to address the economic and social circumstances that increase vulnerability to trafficking. It flourishes in labor sectors with few protections, such as domestic work, agriculture, the service industry, and informal economies such as day labor and, yes, sex work. Expansion and targeted enforcement of labor laws in these sectors would not only go a long way toward locating, identifying and assisting trafficked persons, it would also protect the rights of all workers.  

For the long term, strategies led by individuals and communities with knowledge of and access to trafficked people are far more likely than raids to meet with success. Obama's 2007 Senate resolution recognized this, noting that the people most likely to come into contact with trafficking victims are "essential for effective enforcement" - but at the moment, such people are not shielded from immigration consequences or arrest if they come forward. 

Half the trafficked women we interviewed for our report did not leave abusive situations as a result of law enforcement intervention, but rather thanks to the help of co-workers, clients and members of their communities. Others said they would have left on their own if they had known of a safe place to go or if someone had offered to help them. People who had been trafficked themselves were the most effective in locating, recognizing and assisting trafficking victims. 

Trafficking victims by definition have sought opportunity in the United States only to find themselves in coercive and abusive situations. We owe it to them to find better ways to locate, identify and assist them, and to develop anti-trafficking initiatives that prioritize their needs, choices, and self-determination as human beings. A good way to start would be to extend a helping hand that is not also holding a gun.