San Francisco, CA, United States

United States · San Francisco, CA · 2008 (location generalized to protect survivors)

See "Intervention" for details. June 30, 2005 raid involved a force of 400 federal & local law officers. Joint nine-month investigation by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California, the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, FBI, ICE, SFPD, IRS, and the State Department's Diplomatic Security Service. Raided suspected brothels spread out around SF, including North Beach, Tenderloin, & Excelsior districts. One parlor in Emeryville. Execution of search warrants at 29 massage parlors & residential brothels. Ultimately about 50 brothels, residences, & businesses were searched. Arrested 27 suspects & found over 100 women working as prostitutes. Seized approximately $2 million in cash. SF raid coincided with similar operation in Southern CA where agents arrested 18 people and took 46 women into custody. Women were working in suspected brothels in Santa Monica, LA Koreatown, and Redondo Beach. In July of 2005, law enforcement agents raided ten brothels in San Francisco they had identified as suspected trafficking sites and "rescued" over 120 women. Authorities then detained the women at a military base in California; federal officials questioned the women to determine their status as possible victims of trafficking before calling in trained service providers twenty-four hours later. By the time advocates arrived, federal officials had already decided that the majority of the women were not legal victims of trafficking, and placed them in immigration detention. Advocates struggled to convince officials to interpret the law more broadly in screenings of the remaining women, in direct conflict with the narrow federal framework. In this case and others, advocates report that when clients identify themselves as voluntary or consenting participants in their migration or employment at any point, authorities deem them ineligible for benefits under T-visas as legal victims of trafficking. If clients do not fit traditional conceptions of involuntary or non-consenting victims, they may instead face deportation, like many of the women "rescued" in the Operation Gilded Cage case. Advocates also comment that often they can only secure certifications from law enforcement agents enabling their clients to apply for T-visas if their clients cooperate exactly with law enforcement during the investigation and prosecution process. Authorities deprived one woman "rescued" in Operation Gilded Cage of trafficking victim status, citing that she was "uncooperative," after she decided that she did not wish to cooperate with law enforcement and instead, return to Korea. Authorities also denied her the ability to return to Korea and held her in jail as a material witness for the case. SAGE