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Through recently passed legislation, Texas seeks to combat human trafficking in the hospitality industry.
According to Texas House Bill 390, Texas will require state motels and hotels to engage in human trafficking prevention and reporting training. The law will also require these businesses to post signs with trafficking reporting information where employees can see them.
Lisa Bownds, CEO and founder of Reflection Ministries of Texas, told Houston Daily that hotel and motel settings are easy targets for human trafficking through a lack of education and accountability in all roles, from front desk to security.
"The fluidity of multiple people moving throughout lobbies, hallways and common areas is challenging for oversight," Bownds said. "Being able to ask questions, set protocols and orchestrate security plans for recognition of [human trafficking] situations is imperative to decrease the occurrence in these situations."
According to Bownds, human trafficking is the second-fastest growing criminal industry in the world, and Texas' trafficking statistics do little to refute that statement. A 2016 report from the University of Texas at Austin found that there are 78,996 minor and youth victims of human trafficking and 234,457 victims of labor trafficking in Texas at any given time, totaling 313,453 victims of human trafficking.
A person caught in the human trafficking network is subjected to horrific crimes daily, including manipulation, starvation, torture and repeated rapes.
That trauma, Bownds said, is devastating.
"If [hotel/motel employees] are educated on human trafficking it may be the potential of saving someone's life," she said.
According to the San Antonio Report, associations including the Texas Hotel and Lodging Association (THLA) have long encouraged Texas lawmakers to institute training sessions aimed at human trafficking prevention and reporting. The THLA also pushed for a state bill mandating these trainings, HB 390, which will take effect Jan. 1.
Bownds said that HB 390 will save lives.
"Any attention that will raise awareness and educate people in human trafficking will be a win," she said.
Christy Spalding, a THLA director who has assisted in human trafficking prevention training for hotel employees, recently offered encouragement for hotel employees equipped with the knowledge to fight trafficking.
“You guys on the front line can make a tremendous difference,” she said, according to the San Antonio Report.
According to trafficking awareness trainer and THLA director Carolyn McCall-Squires, hotels have been susceptible to human trafficking-related lawsuits in recent years. Three Houston based trafficking victims sued hotel chains in 2019, arguing they did not do enough to prevent trafficking. The new mandatory trainings for hotel employees will help mitigate such lawsuits.
What should hospitality industry employees look out for?
If a reservation was made all in cash by a guest who refuses to or cannot provide a credit card or identification, and is accompanied by another guest who is inappropriately dressed and avoids eye contact with the front desk while the other manipulates the conversation, human trafficking could be taking place.
Bownds also suggests watching for "scripted answers, large differences in ages, constant traffic in and out of the room, 'Do not disturb' signs on the doors for lengthy time periods, credit card machines in the room, and booking a room close to exits" to remain diligent in the oversight of trafficking operations in hotels.
What should the front desk clerk or housekeeper who sees these signs do?
"Report to the hotel security staff, call 911," Bownds suggested. "Get descriptions of vehicles, people in rooms or in the lobby, acquire copies of identification and credit cards. Take pictures, if possible."
While the new law seeks to make strides in abolishing human trafficking in the Lone Star State, Bownds urges people to remember that the rescue of a human trafficking victim doesn't stop when they are removed from their perpetrators.
"Restorative care is paramount for victims of trafficking," she said. "A chance to be in a safe and secure home, to heal, receive medical care, education opportunities and resources to aid in an opportunity for freedom and self-sufficiency. Human trafficking has so many layers, but the healing journey of trauma has even more."