Women nabbed in raid to stay

None of the more than two dozen women found working as prostitutes in Las Vegas brothels during a recent bust will be deported, officials said Thursday.

"We don't deport victims," said Lauren Hermosillo, a Salvation Army social worker who is helping the women.

Las Vegas police had said that most of the 25 women found in nine neighborhood brothels during an April 21 bust were here illegally and could face deportation.

Instead, the foreign women will receive special "T visas" designed to protect women, children and men who are the victims of human trafficking. They will eventually be able to apply for green cards and may choose to make their lives in Las Vegas.

Most of the women caught up in the raid came from Asian countries and speak little or no English. Police believe they were forced into prostitution as part of a human trafficking ring with ties to Asia.

Hermosillo vividly described the conditions in which the women were found living, mostly in the area of Arville Street and Spring Mountain Road.

"There were no actual beds, just mattresses on the floor," she said. "It smelled like stale cigarette smoke, feces and urine. They aren't allowed to open up the windows. It was disgusting."

Hermosillo said the residences were mostly bare, except for a few pairs of high heels and negligees hanging in the closets. The only separation between some mattresses was a hanging sheet.

"The mattresses and sheets are used over and over again," she said.

Police said the women were taken to Las Vegas by force or were tricked into coming here with the promise of a good job, a tactic common among sex traffickers.

"Some girls are told they will make $25 an hour working in a restaurant," Hermosillo said.

The women then are subjected to physical and emotional abuse and brainwashing.

"They are being told, 'If you talk to authorities, we will beat you. They'll deport you,'" she said. "Some aren't allowed to go to the kitchen or the bathroom without permission. They are brainwashed until they turn into little robots who say, 'I'll do whatever you want.'"

Martha Newton, director of refugee settlement for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the federal human trafficking program, said victims also fear for their loved ones.

"They are told their families back home will be harmed if they talk to law enforcement," Newton said.

The women also are often drugged into compliance.

Police found 3,500 Ecstasy tablets during the raid.

The bust came after a two-year investigation dubbed Operation Doll House. It netted eight arrests. Those arrested face charges including living off the earnings of prostitutes.

None of the customers found at the brothels during the raids were arrested, though they were questioned by investigators.

The group running the brothels advertised with business cards handed out to tourists and through taxi drivers, who brought customers in exchange for kickbacks, police said.

Hermosillo said handbills passed to tourists on the Strip and advertisements for Asian massage parlors are often direct links to human trafficking victims.

The prostitutes were taken in by the Salvation Army, which recently received a $450,000 federal grant to help trafficking victims.

The women are safe and living in a shelter or shelters, Hermosillo said.

Because they are victims of human trafficking, the women are eligible for many types of federal assistance usually denied noncitizens.

"Traffic victims are eligible for food stamps, employment training, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families," Newton said.

They will "absolutely not be deported," she said.

They'll also have access to mental health counselors and may take English classes.

Some former human trafficking victims end up staying in the area and working in hotels or beauty salons, Hermosillo said. They often are afraid to go home.

"They could be grabbed back up and forced back into it (prostitution)," she said.

Those who have been trafficked face a long and difficult transition back into society.

"You have a really distrustful person who is not sure what safety feels like anymore," said Marlene Richter, director of WestCare's community involvement center.

Richter has been working with local human trafficking victims for about a decade.

"They're used to chaos, little sleep, being told what to do for 16 hours a day. You have a person who doesn't have a voice, doesn't even know they can make a choice."

Those who investigate human trafficking cases and work with victims say the recent raid spotlighted a small portion of a huge problem.

Federal officials have said that the Las Vegas Valley is one of 17 communities in the United States at high risk for trafficking of humans.

Richter has sadly watched the growth of human trafficking in the valley.

"I met my first victim in 1997," she said. "I remember looking at her and saying, 'What do you mean you were bought?' I had no concept that human beings were bought and sold and brought to this country."

Richter now works with runaway children, some of whom have been trafficked. She estimates that she has worked with 1,000 victims of human trafficking, each with a different story.

Last year, a new office, the Anti-Trafficking League Against Slavery, opened within the Metropolitan Police Department to combat human trafficking in the valley.

The last major trafficking bust in Las Vegas came in 2000, when federal authorities cracked a prostitution ring during Operation Jade Blade.

Five people were arrested on charges they forced women into prostitution after they paid to be smuggled into the United States.

"People think it doesn't happen here," Hermosillo said. "It happens here. It happens to Americans, to kids, to your teenagers."