Utah apparently has become a leader in the hidden, illegal business of producing false documents that among other purposes, can be used to facilitate human trafficking.

So reports Salt Lake City’s Deseret News, which quotes law enforcement officials as describing Utah as the home for “widespread and sophisticated” document mills.

Virtually in any city of size in Utah, you can obtain a fake Social Security card, a driver’s license and a permanent resident alien card in a day — and often a Mexican voter registration card that helps with border crossings — with quality so good it can fool almost anyone, said Ken Wallentine, chief of law enforcement for the Utah Attorney General’s Office.

While Wallentine notes that most of the false papers are used to facilitate the movement of illegal immigrants into the U.S., other criminal activities, including drug and human trafficking, also rely upon high quality fake documents.  In one case, illegal aliens were coerced into producing false papers and held against their will in a house.

A new Utah state task force, was created last year to target serious crimes committed by illegal immigrants. Wallenstine says once it started pursuing criminal illegal aliens, the task force soon discovered how widespread document mills are.

“The FBI had done a couple of those cases in the past few years,” he said. “But we’ve done a couple dozen cases in just the past year.”

Last week, this space wrote about the fate of 72 migrant workers from Central and South America whose bodies were found in a remote farmhouse in northeastern Mexico, not far from the U.S. border.  The victims were apparently attempting to cross into the U.S. for work when they ran afoul of a drug gang that attempted to extort money from the group, and then murdered them in cold blood.

We asked the questions: who were these people, and how did they end up dead on the floor of a farmhouse far from their homes and families?

The New York Times has now provided at least some of the answers, in an admirable and detailed account that draws heavily upon the comments of the victims’ loved ones.  It is heart-wrenching reading, but a necessary reminder that there is in this world, amid splendor and plenty, a vast underclass of people who are desperately seeking out a better life, and because of their desperation, they are vulnerable to cruel exploitation — and worse.

Mexico’s National Commission for Human Rights said in a report last year that 9,758 migrants were abducted from September 2008 to February 2009. Guatemala said that last year 27,222 of its citizens were deported from the United States and 28,800 from Mexico; Honduras estimates more than 500 of its people leave for the north every day. That’s a snapshot in one corner of the world, of the flow of men, women and children along a lengthy and largely invisible network that seems to exist outside the law, outside society, and outside human compassion.

The story of these migrants is now at the stage when the appropriate government agencies are vowing to address the situation, order up more law enforcement, and renew their commitment to honoring the human rights of even those who are not citizens of their countries. The Mexican government, in light of the massacre, has promised a new strategy to protect migrants, including better coordination among state and federal agencies to dismantle kidnapping gangs and disrupt their finances.

But, paraphrasing actor George Clooney at this week’s Emmy Awards, the proof of progress will be whether — or at all — in three, four or five years time, people on the move in the hopes of a better life actually can reach their destination, alive.

It’s safe to say most people think that prostitution is a woman-only activity.  But news from Spain shows that perversity — and profits to be made from trafficking — can also involve men in prostitution.

According to news accounts, 14 Brazilian men were trafficked into Spain over the past several months to work as prostitutes.  Most were located in the vacation island of Majorca, but the trafficking ring placed the men in apartments all over Spain, moving them repeatedly to stay one step ahead of the police.

The accounts of these male prostitutes contain all the elements of modern-day slavery: the use of force, violence, drugs, impossible debts and no ready means of escape.  Drugs, in fact, play an essential role in sex trafficking, both as a means of control and as a “reward” for service.

How were these men treated? Spanish police offered this vivid and repulsive description:

The sex workers were allegedly provided with Viagra, cocaine and other stimulants to help keep them available for sex 24 hours a day. Most of their customers are suspected to have been men.

Human trafficking is reaching epidemic proportions in Florida, a retired DEA agent claims. But is it?

“I can’t tell you what a major problem it is in this state,” said Tony Attanasio, a retired U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent who created a human trafficking course for law enforcement. “It’s just an unbelievable problem.”

Attanasio, like many others in the human trafficking field, can’t cite actual numbers to prove his assertion.  Still, a spate of trafficking related cases in recent months throughout Florida certainly leaves the impression that the Sunshine State is seeing more than its share of this global crime.

And no wonder.  Geographically, Florida has long been an entry point to the United States for thousands of immigrants — most of them legal, some not — from Central and South America.  For the same reason, police say Florida is a major distribution hub in the worldwide illicit drug trade.  Smuggled aliens also have been found working the fields of the state’s huge agricultural industry.

But whether trafficking is an epidemic in Florida may be stretching things a bit — at least or until more precise data on trafficking crimes is available.  For now, observers and counter-trafficking advocates use a U.S. State Department statistic that 14,500 to 17,500 people are trafficked into the U.S. annually.  In a state with 16 million people, such a number — even if every individual were trafficked into Florida (an absurd calculation),  would constitute no more than a trickle.

All of which reinforces the argument that before progress can be made in attacking human trafficking, law enforcement first needs to have a clear idea about the nature and extent of this very real — but difficult to identify — crime.

Solomon Northup, Twelve Years a Slave

Tanner was in the habit of reading the Bible to his slaves on the Sabbath, but in a somewhat different spirit. He was an impressive commentator on the New Testament. The first Sunday after my coming to the plantation, he called them together, and began to read the twelfth chapter of Luke. When he came to the 47th verse, he looked deliberately around him, and continued— “And that servant which knew his lord’s will,”—here he paused, looking around more deliberately than before, and again proceeded—”which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself”—here was another pause—”prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.” “D’ye hear that?” demanded Peter, emphatically. “Stripes,” he repeated, slowly and distinctly.        “That nigger that don’t take care—that don’t obey his lord—that’s his master—d’ye see?—that ‘ere nigger shall be beaten with many stripes. Now, ‘many’ signifies a great many—forty, a hundred, a hundred and fifty lashes. That’s Scripter!” and so Peter continued to elucidate the subject for a great length of time, much to the edification of his sable audience. At the conclusion of the exercises, calling up three of his slaves, Warner, Will and Major or, he cried out to me—”Here, Platt, you held Tibeats by the legs; now I’ll see if you can hold these rascals in the same way, till I get back from meetin’.” Thereupon he ordered them to the stocks—a common thing on plantations in the Red River country.

Lunsford Lane, The Narrative of Lunsford Lane;

I had never been permitted to learn to read; but I used to attend church, and there I received instruction which I trust was of some benefit to me. In religious matters, I had been indulged in the exercise of my own conscience–a favor not always granted to slaves. To me, God also granted temporal freedom, which man without God’s consent, had stolen away.  On the Sabbath there was one sermon preached expressly for the colored people which it was generally my privilege to hear. I became quite familiar with the texts, “Servants be obedient to your masters”–”He that knoweth his master’s will and doeth it not, shall be beaten with many stripes,” and others of this class: for they formed the basis of most of these public instructions to us. The first commandment was to obey our masters, and the second was to do as much work when they or the overseers were not watching us as when they were. There was one very kind hearted Episcopal minister who was very popular with the colored people. But after he had preached a sermon to us in which he argued from the Bible that it was the will of heaven from all eternity we should be slaves, and our masters be our owners, most of us left him; for like some of the faint hearted disciples in early times we said,–”This is a hard saying, who can bear it?”

Francis Fedric,  Slave Life in Virginia and Kentucky:

A badge of aristocracy among slaveholders is the number of slaves they hold, and white people of equal fortune are not generally allowed to visit slaveholders, who look down upon them with a species of contempt. One remarkable fact which I wish to impress upon my readers is this, that the white men born in those districts in America where slaves are held, are just as capable of bearing the heat as the black men. And the proof is this, that in the harvest-time, when the two are working together in the fields, the white men can actually beat the negroes at the work, and very often the black man has to give up, and is laughed at by the white labourer. They say, “Only give us sufficient wages, and we will work by the side of any nigger alive.” It is quite shocking to hear slaveholders distorting even the Bible itself to prove that a negro alone was made for hard work. On the cunning of slaves he says; I remember a slave, who was not treated very well with respect to food and other things, when he had done his work being lectured by his mistress on the duties of a slave, she telling him that in proportion to his obedience and servility as a slave he would be loved by God. Slaves are all of them full of this sly, artful, indirect way of conveying what they dare not speak out, and their humour is very often the medium of hinting wholesome truths. Is not cunning always the natural consequence of tyranny?

THE ENEMY WITHIN: TERROR IN AMERICA – 1776 TO TODAY OPENS AT THE FREEDOM CENTER SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11TH

New Exhibition Provides Insight into Terror on American Soil from the Revolutionary War to the War on Terror

CINCINNATI, Ohio, August 30, 2010 — The Enemy Within: Terror in America – 1776 to Today, the only museum exhibition to provide historical perspective on acts of terror that have taken place on American soil, opens Saturday, September 11, 2010 at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.

The Enemy Within, an International Spy Museum exhibition, reveals nine major events and periods in U.S. History when Americans were threatened by enemies within its borders: depicting how the government and public responded, illustrating the corresponding evolution of the U.S. counterintelligence and homeland security efforts, and examining the challenge of securing the nation without compromising the civil liberties upon which it was founded.

“Most American remember exactly where and where they learned about terrorist attacks in American on September 11, 2001 – and regard these events as a turning point that forever changed their sense of security in the United States,” states International Spy Museum Chairman of the Board and Founder, Milton Maltz.  “The fact is however, that Americans have endured thousands of incidents of terror, violence, or subversion right here at home by domestic terrorists and foreign agents, militant radicals and saboteurs, traitors and spies.”

The exhibition features dramatic moments in U.S. History – all frightening, and destabilizing events – represent times when Americans have felt threatened within their own borders.  Each precipitated legislation and/or new counterintelligence measures and provoked debate about protecting both citizens and civil liberties.

“Terrorism in whatever form is an assault on freedom,” said Freedom Center President and CEO, Donald Murphy.  “As this exhibition dramatically demonstrates, our freedoms have been challenged internally by terrorists since our founding, and it is a reflection of the strength of our democracy that we have not succumbed to the terrorist’s agenda.”

 The Enemy Within will be open to the public until February 6, 2011.

About the Freedom Center

The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center uses exhibits, programs and activities to educate and inspire contemporary audiences about the legacy of courage and multicultural cooperation as embodied in the story of the Underground Railroad, and to make that history relevant to issues confronting society today. Additional information is available at www.freedomcenter.org. 

About the International Spy Museum

The International Spy Museum, the only public institution in the world dedicated to presenting the world history of espionage, features the largest permanent collection of international spy-related artifacts on public display.  Through interactive exhibits with state-of-the-art audiovisual effects, film, and hands-on components, the Museum traces the evolution of espionage through the people who practiced the profession and it provides a context for guests to better interpret the role intelligence places in current events.  Additional information is available at www.spymuseum.org.

James Williams, Narrative of James Williams

Out of the two hundred and fourteen slaves who were brought out from Virginia, at least one-third of them were members of the Methodist and Baptist churches in that State. Of this number five or six could read. They had been torn away from the care and discipline of their respective churches, and from the means of instruction, but they retained their love for the exercises of religion, and felt a mournful pleasure in speaking of the privileges and spiritual blessings which they enjoyed in Old Virginia. Three of them had been preachers, or exhorters, viz. Solomon, usually called uncle Solomon, Richard, and David. Uncle Solomon was a grave, elderly man, mild and forgiving in his temper, and greatly esteemed among the more serious portion of our hands. He used to snatch and advise them to fix their minds upon the Savior, as their only helper. Some I have heard curse and swear in answer, and others would say that they could not keep their minds upon God and the devil (meaning Huckstep) at the same time: that it was of no use to try to be religious – they had no time – that the overseer wouldn’t let them meet to pray – and that even uncle Solomon, when he prayed, had to keep one eye open all the time, to see if Huckstep was coming. Uncle Solomon could both read and write, and had brought out with him from Virginia a Bible, a hymn-book, and some other religious books, which he carefully concealed from the overseer.

Peter Randolph’s Sketches of Slave Life:

Now, instead of looking with my real eyes to see my Savior, I felt him in me, and I was happy. The eyes of my mind were open, and I saw things as I never did before. I wanted all the other slaves to see him thus, and feel as happy as I did. I used to talk to others, and tell them of the friend they would have in Jesus, and show them by my experience how I was brought to Christ, and felt his love within my heart,–and love it was, in God’s adapting himself to my capacity. After receiving this revelation from the Lord, I became impressed that I was called of God to preach to the other slaves. I labored under this impression for seven years, but then I could not read the Bible, and I thought I could never preach unless I learned to read the Bible. I thought it was written by the Almighty himself. I loved this book, and prayed over it and labored until I could read it. I used to go to the church to hear the white preacher. When I heard him read his text, I would read mine when I got borne. This is the way, my readers, I learned to read the Word of God when I was a slave. Thus did I labor eleven years under the impression that I was called to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, the ever-blessed God.

Louis Hughes, Thirty Years a Slave from Bondage to Freedom

While this preparation for the Sabbath was in progress in most of the cabins, the old men would gather in one for a prayer-meeting. It was not long before the cabin was filled with both old and young, who came in their simple yet sincere way to give praise to God. It was common to have one or two exhorters on the plantation who claimed to be called to do service for God, by teaching their fellow men the principles of religion. God certainly must have revealed himself to these poor souls, for they were very ignorant – they did not know a letter of the Bible. But when they opened their mouths they were filled, and the plan of Salvation was explained in a way that all could receive it. It was always a mystery to the white brethren how the slaves could line out hymns, preach Christ and redemption, yet have no knowledge even of how the name of Christ was spelled. They were illiterate to the last degree, so there is but one theory, they were inspired. I remember very well that there was always a solemnity about the services – a certain harmony, which had a peculiar effect – a certain pathetic tone which quickened the emotions as they sang those old plantation hymns. It mattered not what their troubles had been during the week – how much they had been lashed, the prayer-meeting on Saturday evening never failed to be held. Their faith was tried and true.

Noah Davis, A Narrative of the Life of Rev. Noah Davis

I went to my mother, and asked her the question– “How do people feel, when they get converted?” She replied, “Do you think you are converted?” Now, this was a severe trial; for, although I felt that I was really changed, yet I wanted to hear from her, before I could decide whether I was actually converted, or not. I replied, “No.” Then she said, “My son, the devil makes people think themselves converted, sometimes.” I arose, and left immediately, believing that the devil had made a fool of me. I returned to my shop, more determined to pray than ever before and tried to get under that same weight, that I had felt pressing me down, but a short while before. But I could not; and, instead of feeling sad, I felt joyful in my heart; and while trying to pray, I thought the Saviour appeared to me. I thought I saw God smiling upon me, through Christ, His Son. My soul was filled with love to God and Jesus Christ. I felt, that if I was only converted, I would tell all sinners how precious the Saviour was. But I could not think myself converted yet, because I could not see what I had done, for God to pardon my sins. Still I felt a love to Him for what He had done for my soul. It was several months after that, before I was made to realize this to be the work of God; and when it was made plain, O what joy it did bring to my poor soul!