Jean Bruggeman is Executive Director at Freedom Network USA, an organization with over a decade of leadership in supporting providers of direct services to survivors of human trafficking in the United States. She is a highly effective leader with 20 years of management experience in the non-profit legal and social services sector. She discusses the shortcomings of the immigration system and how it affects human trafficking, and what human trafficking looks like in the US.

In the case of domestic violence against an immigrant spouse, the traditional system is biased towards the abuser if they are a US citizen. They are essentially “handed another weapon in their arsenal to abuse and exploit their spouse,” as they can use their partner’s immigration status as a tool of power over them. There is now a law under the Violence Against Women Act that allows immigrant women to apply for their own visas, therefore taking the control away from their spouses.
Human trafficking is not about a few bad apples, Jean shares. Freedom Network is pulling out all the stops to get at the systemic issues of policy choices and immigrations systems that don’t protect or empower workers, and the racist, misogynistic history in US laws that put people at risk of being victimized.

Resources
Jean Bruggeman on LinkedIn