The video is chilling to see and hear. At about 12:30 a.m. Dec. 16, a home security camera caught the moment when a man went door to door banging loudly on each one and yelling in Spanish, “Auxilio!” or “Help!”
“There was a man running around the whole neighborhood desperately knocking on doors, and you could also hear children screaming for someone to help them,” neighborhood resident Isabel Ceja said during an interview with my colleague, Karen Marroquin of Telemundo.
Deputies with the Kern County Sheriff’s Office responded to the 8300 block of Cha Cha Court in east Bakersfield after several reports of suspicious circumstances. That’s when the unidentified man told them he had just escaped from a nearby residence where he, his wife and child, along with others, were being held against their will. According to sheriff's investigators, the man told them he had been smuggled into the U.S. from Mexico.
Most alarming for Ceja was those cries for help from a child. “You could hear terrifying screams from the child, shouting, ‘Help us! Help us!’ It’s what hurts me the most for the child, and we didn’t know how many victims there were,” Ceja said.
Investigators confirmed there were a total of 16 human trafficking victims, of ages ranging from 8 to 66, and all were from different states in Mexico. Turns out the house where the unidentified man was allegedly being held was just four houses down, in the 700 block of Salsa Street. By the time sheriff's deputies obtained a search warrant and entered the house, it was empty.
"Further investigation revealed the victims were removed from the residence immediately after the initial male victim fled," a statement released by the KCSO read.
This case has more questions than answers right now. I asked KCSO Public Information Officer Lori Meza if it was true the victims had boarded a boat in Ensenada, Baja California South, and then been brought by sea to disembark in San Diego?
"The victims were transported by boat and vehicle, however, we will not be discussing additional details due to an ongoing investigation," Meza wrote in an email. She noted the victims were being held temporarily in Bakersfield and all were destined for other cities.
Thanks to diligent police work, investigators were able to track down two residences where the rest of the victims were being held. One location was in the 600 block of South Haley Street and the other in the 500 block of Sloan Lane. That's where seven females and nine males were rescued from their captors.
“(When found), all victims appeared extremely nervous," Meza wrote. All victims were released to the Kern County District Attorney's Office Victims Services Unit.
So, for what purpose were they brought into the country?
“Each case is different," said Enly Solis with The Open Door Network, which provides supportive services for the most vulnerable populations, including human trafficking in Kern County. "Human trafficking for labor purposes is happening, and it's common here.”
Labor trafficking is defined by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services as occurring when someone recruits, harbors, transports, provides or obtains a person for labor or services through the use of force, fraud or coercion for the purpose of involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage or slavery.
"Many of them come here seeking asylum, and we can help them,” Solis said. Immigrants who are victims of sex or labor trafficking may qualify for what's called a "T-Visa,” which allows them to stay in the country.
Nine suspects were arrested in the Dec. 16 human trafficking case, including at least two women and two 16-year-old males. They face numerous charges, including kidnapping, false imprisonment, human trafficking for labor purposes and criminal conspiracy, among others. All have been handed over to federal authorities for possible prosecution. U.S. Department of Justice officials were unavailable to confirm whether the suspects are being held without bail.
The neighbors on Cha Cha Street admit they were shaken by the experience. Though they say they noticed the house on Salsa Street often had "a lot vehicles coming and going," in Ceja’s words, they never thought it involved anything such as human trafficking.
"We have to be more united as neighbors," she said. "We have to be more vigilant and see what's going on around us." That sounds like some good advice.
Contributing columnist Jose Gaspar is a news anchor/reporter for Telemundo Bakersfield and KGET. Email him at elcompa29@gmail.com. The views expressed here are his own.
