FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Sept. 24, 2024
CONTACT: SF Public Defender Public Defender’s Office | PubDef-MediaRelations@sfgov.org
**PRESS RELEASE**
SF Public Defender’s Office Celebrates Acquittal for Labor Trafficking Survivor
The Public Defender’s Office and Community Leaders Demand that the District Attorney’s Office Stop Colluding With Feds and Provide Support to Labor Trafficking Survivors
SAN FRANCISCO — Today, the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office announced an unprecedented trial victory—a complete acquittal last month—for a young man who was labor trafficked and coerced to sell drugs in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood. This is the first time in the Bay Area and possibly the state where a jury has fully acquitted someone of drug-related charges because the person was labor trafficked and their life and loved ones were threatened with harm. The Public Defenders’ Office unveiled the news at a press conference held jointly with the FREE SF Coalition, which has worked to uphold San Francisco’s sanctuary laws for the last 16 years.
“Law enforcement has scapegoated immigrants for the tragic overdose crisis in our city, which is a public health crisis. This has resulted in the double victimization of many of our clients who are charged with drug-related offenses,” said elected San Francisco Public Defender Mano Raju. “These are individuals whom a jury of impartial San Franciscans has now found to be not guilty of offenses they committed, and who deserve support and compassion, not cages.”
Demands
Speakers at today’s press conference affirmed the need for evidence-based, public health solutions to the substance use and overdose crisis in San Francisco—proven solutions such as overdose prevention centers, mental health and substance use treatment, stable housing, and job training and opportunities. Speakers also demanded that the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office change the way it treats survivors of labor trafficking. Their demands are:
- That the DA’s office sign a T-Visa or U-visa crime victim certification for the acquitted client. (A T-Visa allows a person to stay in the U.S. if they were the victim of human trafficking; A U-Visa allows a person to stay if they have been the victim of certain crimes.)
- That the DA’s office treat labor trafficking survivors the same way it treats sex trafficking survivors.
- That the DA’s office stop colluding with federal prosecutors to keep state court juries from hearing our clients’ stories and to evade Sanctuary Law.
- That DA Brooke Jenkins follow her oath to protect victims of crime and stop offering coercive plea deals that leave our clients open to ICE detention and deportation.
“With this verdict of not guilty, the jury sent a resounding message to the DA that they will not allow the criminalization of labor trafficking victims,” said Deputy Public Defender Elizabeth Camacho. “They are demanding that the DA do her job and protect the people, including these people who are victims.”
“Unfortunately we live in a reality where labor trafficking is still not well known or recognized,” said Lindsey Marum, a senior staff attorney at Justice at Last, a Bay Area law firm that serves people who have survived trafficking. “We are heartened by the jury’s validation of the survivor’s experience as a victim of labor trafficking through their verdict of ‘not guilty.’ We are encouraged and applaud the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office for helping survivors of sex and labor trafficking break free of a vicious cycle of injustice where they are criminalized for the actions they were forced to take.”
Background on the acquitted client
The San Francisco Public Defender’s Office client, 27, was acquitted of drug sales charges last month, and his name is not being revealed for his protection. When he was 8, he was forced to leave school and work to support his family, who live in poverty. (Photos of their home are here.) He cannot read or write. At 17, he was approached by a man promising well-paying construction jobs in the United States. The client went with him, with no family or friends, and then owed a coyote around $10,000.
“Our client is a real human being who is vulnerable,” said Deputy Public Defender Kathleen Natividad, the lead defense attorney on the case. “He has been taken advantage of. Several of the jurors in this case were so moved by his testimony that they came here today to support him and to help people understand that human trafficking is real.”
The Public Defender client survived a harrowing journey on foot and catching moving freight trains from Honduras, through Guatemala and Mexico, to the United States and tried to work off the debt. He was moved to different cities by the cartel, and frequently threatened, often via text, that the cartel knew exactly who his family members were and where they lived. When he took legitimate jobs, members of the cartel would threaten him and tell him he was not paying down his debt fast enough. In San Francisco, he was arrested several times. He did not tell police he had been trafficked because in Honduras, police are often corrupt and in the pocket of cartels. In the months leading up to his trial, he realized he could potentially get out of his subjugation by testifying about what he had been through. The man’s defense team used what’s known as an “affirmative defense” under California Penal Code §236.23, which holds that a person charged with a criminal offense is not guilty if they were coerced into committing the offense as a result of being a victim of human trafficking.
The Affirmative Defense
In the last two years, the San Francisco Public Defender’s office has used this affirmative defense in seven trials on behalf of clients who have been labor trafficked and threatened with harm from cartels if they do not sell drugs. Two juries have found our clients guilty, four juries have deadlocked and hung, and now, a jury has fully acquitted a client.
“My Not Guilty vote was based on a feeling developed through the course of the trial … that ‘a job’ at which your bosses carry guns and have threatened to kill your family is not one you can easily quit,” said Al McKee, one of the jurors in the client’s trial. “I am comfortable that our verdict achieves justice for [the client], who I firmly believe was a victim.”
“Study after study has shown that cities with larger immigration populations are safer, and that local collusion with ICE undercuts public safety,” said Deputy Public Defender Francisco Ugarte, who heads the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office Immigration Unit. “And yet law enforcement has doubled down on targeting and scapegoating immigrants. The DA’s office even has a designated attorney who refers local cases to federal court. Federal agents have several times seized young mothers in the hallways of our local court as part of this scheme. San Franciscans value our Sanctuary Ordinance, which protects due process for everyone, including our immigrant neighbors. The actions of prosecutors fly in the face of these values.”
“We at Legal Services for Children have been and are working with youth who have survived perilous journeys to the U.S. to try and help their families,” said Fernando Antunez, a social worker and a member of the FREESF Coalition. “And if they make it to the Bay Area they are targeted by law enforcement for profiling, surveillance and victimization. Singling out immigrants is racist and provides a very inaccurate picture of the drug trade. In fact, nearly 9 in 10 of those convicted of trafficking fentanyl are U.S. citizens driving cars and commercial vehicles through legal ports of entry, not undocumented immigrants or asylum seekers.”
“Like all of us, migrant community members want safety, stability, and an opportunity for a better life,” said Lariza Dugan Cuadra, executive director of Central American Resource Center — CARECEN of Northern California. “Here’s how we get there: We welcome and connect people seeking refuge, we fund proven, public health solutions that break the cycle of addiction. We uphold our Sanctuary Ordinance. And as a city we uphold our commitment to protect survivors of trafficking, rather than prosecute them.”
Message from the client: Audio file can be found here.
Transcript in Spanish:
Hola, mi nombre es [redactado] y le quiero dar las gracias a todos los que están presentes y por enseñarme, darme su apoyo. Pero primero quiero darle las gracias a la jueza por haber escuchado mi historia y verme dejado testificar.
También quiero agradecerle de todo corazón a los miembros de jurado quienes escucharon lo que yo tenía que decir
y escucharon cuando les pedí que me ayudaran y me ayudaron. Gracias. Espero que después de hoy la fiscal de San Francisco escuche mi súplica y firme los papeles para yo obtener una visa y así puedo estar libre finalmente y obtener una manera de trabajar, de vivir libre y de cumplir el sueño de ayudar a mi familia. Gracias.
Transcript in English:
Hello, my name is [redacted] and I want to thank everyone who is present and for showing me your support.
But first, I want to thank the judge for listening to my story and allowing me to testify.
I also want to sincerely thank the jury members who listened to what I had to say and listened when I asked them to help me and they helped me.
Thanks. I hope that after today the San Francisco prosecutor listens to my plea and signs the paper so I can get a visa and finally be free and find a way to work, to live freely and to fulfill the dream of helping my family.
Thank you.
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Watch the press conference on YouTube: SF Public Defender’s Office Celebrates Acquittal for Labor Trafficking Survivor | San Francisco Public Defender’s Office
