ABSTRACT
A marathon set of interrogations was necessary before the victims could be separated from the traffickers, accomplices and cantina operators. Then, even lead investigators from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Federal Bureau of Investigation were stunned. The federal government sets aside grant money to provide emergency help for trafficking victims through non-profits designated to help in every state. The small percentage of identified victims to receive T-visas is consistent with national trends. Even in the large and skilled immigration law community in Houston, few knew how to handle T-visas though a handful of attorneys at Houston non-profits became specialists after helping victims from the Mondragon case and other smaller busts that followed it. The T-visa program was created by the US Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, primarily to help victims who have assisted government anti-trafficking prosecutions as witnesses. The instability of victims' lives works against success in drawn-out legal cases.
