Dear Next President,

My name is Cynthia Jimenez, and I am a senior at Pacific Coast Charter School. I believe that we should take better action at trying to decrease the percentage of Human Trafficking in the United States. As of August 2016 over 28 thousand cases of Human Trafficking have been reported. It is unfortunate for the people involved and we should do all that is possible to avoid any other cases. It is very difficult to always catch these encounters but there are many programs we can start that focus on catching these crimes.

Now that you are the new voice and choice maker for this country you can really do something about this problem. It would be a great start to your Presidency. Human trafficking is one of the most profitable crimes to commit which makes it a very popular crime of choice. Not only does the community hurt but victims become traumatized and can never forget their gruesome experience.

Investing and focusing on benefiting on programs that focus on Human Trafficking such as Polaris or STOP-IT could be a small step in putting these crimes to an end. These programs focus on rescuing traffic victims and helping them find their way back into society. The average entry age for victims is 12-14 years. Most victims are already victims of sexual abuse upon becoming a sex slave.

In my state, California, we harbor three of the thirteen highest trafficked cities. This is very concerning to me considering I do not live very far from these areas. There is an estimate of 2.4 million people around the world being trafficked. It is said to generate a $32 billion profit every year. The most common type of trafficking is sexual exploitation which makes up 79 percent of trafficking crimes. This is a really big concern to me and many others and i'm hoping you can really make a change now that you are the say in the United States.