Alleged rapist to face human trafficking charge, police say

HARLINGEN — Last December, a 16-year-old native of Jalisco, Mexico, escaped through the window of a San Juan home, running away from the people she said beat, raped and starved her after helping smuggle her across the border.

She later told San Juan investigators that Benito Vargas, 23, raped her on multiple occasions, sometimes while another person stood nearby mocking the young girl as she pleaded for help, police said at the time.

Officers raided the home soon after the teen’s escape, searching for Vargas. But he had already fled and police suspected he had gone to Jalisco to threaten the girl’s family there. In January, San Juan police named Vargas one of their 10 most wanted fugitives, sought on a charge of aggravated sexual assault.

Mexican authorities finally caught up to Vargas earlier this month in Tequila, Mexico, and, with the help of U.S. Marshals, extradited him to Southern California on Oct. 14, San Juan Police Chief Juan Gonzalez confirmed this past week. Vargas will soon be transferred back to Hidalgo County, where Gonzalez said he expects the suspect to face charges of human trafficking.

The case, Gonzalez said, serves as a stark reminder of the untold number of immigrants cruelly exploited by human trafficking, some of whom are taken advantage of, he said, even before they cross the U.S.-Mexico border.

This past week Gonzalez met with representatives from other law enforcement agencies, legal aid organizations and social service agencies from all over the Rio Grande Valley at the U.S. Border Patrol station in Harlingen, the first major meeting of what organizers hope will become a local coalition to combat human trafficking.

Gonzalez aims to help other local police departments learn how to better spot and identify potential human trafficking victims, unknown numbers of whom slip through the cracks or go unreported, he said.

Experts estimate that nearly one out of every five victims of human trafficking in the country pass through the Texas-Mexico border.

“I think there’s a high probability that there are a lot more victims of human trafficking than we know about. A big issue is that many of them won’t come forward because they’re terrified,” Gonzalez said.

“Many of them were promised this American dream, and then somewhere along the way here, that dream turned into a nightmare.”

Gonzalez and others pointed to a report compiled by the Texas Attorney General’s Office and sent to state lawmakers before the last legislative session. That report voiced concerns that many in Texas law enforcement fail to spot potential human trafficking cases, citing “a common misconception across the state that human trafficking and smuggling are the same.”

Many potential trafficking victims were incorrectly viewed as simple smuggling cases, and thus treated as criminals slated for detention and deportation instead of being recognized as victims, the report states.

The report also cites a 2004 case in which Juan Carlos Soto was convicted in McAllen of forcing several Central American women into prostitution to pay off their debts from being smuggled over the border. That case, the report said, was almost viewed as a routine smuggling case until a prosecutor with human trafficking experience reviewed and changed it.

Veronica Casas, a sexual assault program coordinator at the Harlingen Family Crisis Center who began pushing for a local anti-trafficking coalition earlier this year, said, “I hate to say it, but I don’t think (local law enforcement) always knows the difference between trafficking and smuggling.”

That mistake can have dire consequences for victims coerced into forced labor or sex trafficking, Casas said. Under the Trafficking Victims Act passed by Congress in 2000, foreign victims of human trafficking are eligible for a variety of social services in the U.S. and often qualify for a special visa.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Senior Special Agent Moisses Gonzalez noted that this past week’s meeting in Harlingen was meant to give local law enforcement a “basic lesson” in how to identify human trafficking victims, saying, “It’s critical for them to be able to identify these cases to make sure they’re addressed properly.”

“We have to identify these victims to make sure all their needs are met, psychologically and physically,” the agent said.

Claire Antonelli, an immigration attorney with Texas Rio Grande legal Aid, said a local coalition combating human trafficking would allow organizations like hers to have “trusted points of contact” within local police and sheriffs departments, officers trusted with identifying and knowing how to handle human trafficking cases.

Antonelli recalled one of her most recent cases involving three teenage girls from Honduras who were promised highly paid restaurant work by their smugglers but then were forced to work at a Mission bar where they were had to drink and have sex with patrons.

Trafficking victims, Antonelli said, are rarely locked up or constrained but rather kept in line with constant threats from their captors, often with threats made against their families back home. Those threats take a serious psychological toll on those victims, Antonelli said, sometimes making it tough to get victims to cooperate with law enforcement.

“That level of fear that’s instilled in these victims, it’s powerful,” she remarked, adding that victims are often reluctant to even approach police or abuse shelters out of fear of retaliation from traffickers or the perceived threat of deportation.

“It’s a difficult position for law enforcement to be in,” she said.

“No one agency can work cases like these on their own, that’s basically the message we’re trying to send,” Antonelli said.

“There are a lot of interlocking pieces to this, a lot of various departments that have to work together…to make sure these victims get the help they need,” Casas at the Family Crisis Center in Harlingen said.

Casas said she first developed a passion for helping human trafficking victims when that 16-year-old girl from Jalisco came through the Family Crisis Center earlier this year, still broken from what Casas said was her ordeal in that San Juan home. She recalled trying to comfort the girl while shuttling her to and from medical examinations and counseling sessions after, Casas said, it was discovered the teenager had contracted sexually transmitted diseases while held captive.

Casas now keeps in regular contact with the girl, who she said has since been placed with a caring family in the north Texas area.

The girl is now living a life almost unrecognizable from what she went through almost a year ago, Casas said — the girl is now active in sports and is quickly picking up English.

“She’s doing so well…She’s exactly where she needs to be,” Casas said.

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Michael Barajas is a reporter for the Valley Morning Star in Harlingen.