Speakers against human trafficking gathered on the Montana State University Billings campus Thursday. Community leaders in Billings see a step toward a solution through legislation and education.
A woman shook red sand from a plastic pouch into a crack on a campus path. It’s part of the Red Sand Project, an international movement to raise awareness about sex trafficking. Women’s empowerment group, the Zonta Club of Billings, hosted it for the second time in Billings.
FBI investigator Brandon Walter told the crowd of about 50 people about three types of human trafficking. There’s forced prostitution, where pimps bring women and girls through Montana to sell them. There’s massage parlor employees, who are sometimes manipulated into performing sex acts on clients.
Walter says there’s also trafficking for survival, for instance in exchange for drugs or shelter, which young people may experience.
“Those are some of the most difficult cases that I work on and that is because these victims grew up in this community and they’re very reluctant to share their story with me. They don’t want that story out. They don’t want their family and their friends to know that,” said Walter.
He said the internet has become the tool of the trade for traffickers.
While there isn’t much concrete data on number of people trafficked, in 2017 there were almost 67,000 ads posted for commercial sex in Montana. That’s according to attorney Stephanie Baucus, co-chair of the Yellowstone County Area Human Trafficking Task Force.
On Thursday, she spoke about two pieces of legislation that will fight trafficking. HB 749 passed this month and directs about $500,000 toward the hiring of two agents with the Division of Criminal Investigation to focus on human trafficking in the state. The bill also requires massage businesses to more prominently display their employees’ licenses.
The other bill, SB 147, establishes pimping and sex trafficking as violent crimes. It also changes the definition of consent to qualify that it’s not valid if consent is forced or manipulated. Baucus explained to those present that, among other things, the bill corrects a loophole in Montana law by making so-called “happy endings” at massage parlors illegal.
“So, once this is signed by the governor, it’ll go into effect immediately and we are beyond thrilled to have been able to work with our legislators over the past couple of years to make these bills a reality,” said Baucus.
Another defense against trafficking is education, as one activist at Thursday’s event said. Savannah Sanders experienced trafficking, and believes the discussion about consent and boundaries should begin when a child is as young as 2 or 3-years-old.
Sanders also stressed the value of community support.
“We need to help kids feel safe. That’s our first and foremost job, is help them feel safe, loved, accepted,” said sanders. “That will help traffickers from becoming traffickers, buyers from becoming buyers, and trafficking victims from becoming trafficking victims.”
Other speakers included the director of the Native American Achievement Center
talking about missing and murdered indigenous women and girls and Republican Sen. Steve Daines, who mentioned how the federal government shutdown backpage.com due to sex ads.
Democratic Sen. Jon Tester through a statement highlighted his work on budget items to fight trafficking across state boundaries. Republican Rep. Greg Gianforte also sent a message to be read on his behalf that referenced his vote to shut down backpage.com and websites like it.
