Human Trafficking in North Dakota
Today we have a guest contributor, Mr. Lowell Hochhalter, Co-Founder/CEO of The LifeGuard Group, an anti-trafficking organization. He has worked first-hand with victims of human trafficking for years, so I asked him to provide some thoughts about human trafficking in our region. NOTE THAT SOME OF THE FOLLOWING MATERIAL MAY NOT BE APPROPRIATE FOR CHILDREN.
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Let me introduce you to human trafficking. Not what you may have seen on TV or read in an article, but from our first-hand experience with the issue. More specifically, our first-hand experience in North Dakota.
One of the first comments we hear is, “Why don’t the trafficked victims just leave?” There are several reasons why victims do not “self-identify,” or report their exploitation. Roughly 85% of victims want to leave their present life but do not feel like there is any other option for them. Quite often reporting their human trafficking experience can be complicated and the judicial process can be lengthy and oftentimes retraumatizing. Traffickers threaten physical harm and abuse to families and loved ones if the victims report their exploitation.
The majority of victims report being in an intimate relationship with their exploiter, or the trafficker is a guardian or relative, which can evoke confusing emotions of loyalty and a perverted sense of love and belonging. The bond between the trafficker and their victim makes it very difficult to press charges even after they have left the exploitative relationship.
Victims and survivors of trafficking often experience stigma and shame as a result of their experiences. Additionally, in some cultures, gender roles and stigma can add pressure, and reporting trafficking may carry a significantly higher personal risk when compared to trying to bury that experience and trauma. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the average age of an individual recruited into sex trafficking is between 12 and 14 years old. In the United States, 45% of victims are trafficked by a family member, while 40% are trafficked by someone with whom the victim has a close relationship.
Victims are taught by their traffickers to distrust outsiders, especially law enforcement. They have a sense of fear and/or distrust toward the government and police because they are afraid they will be deported/or punished themselves. Traffickers prey on the most vulnerable, such as:
Runaway and homeless youth
56 percent of prostituted women were initially runaway youth
Within the first 48 hours, 75% of runaways or homeless youth will be approached by a pimp and/or trafficker.
Victims of prior abuse or domestic violence
Oppressed or marginalized groups
Foreign nationals lacking documentation
Impoverished or indebted
Displaced people (e.g., civil unrest, natural disasters, political instability)
Disrupted family situation
Tumultuous social situation
Mental illness (Depression, Suicidal)
Children in Foster Care
History of abuse, neglect, and trauma
Low self-esteem and minimal social support
Kids are vulnerable simply because they are kids
During their time of exploitation, victims have stated;
95% interacted with Law Enforcement
70% used the hospitality industry
88% sought healthcare
70% came in contact with an educator
Out of these listed industries, only ONE gives direct access to potential victims in a preventative manner: education.
The Bakken Tour: In 2013, 2014, and again in 2015, our team visited schools across North Dakota. In April 2014, we embarked on what we called "The Bakken Tour." Thomasine Heitkamp, Professor at the University of North Dakota, Grand Forks did a study to determine the impact of the Bakken oil fields in North Dakota and Montana. The findings described the oil patch as a “fertile ground” for sex trafficking women. Our organization was made aware of situations where pimps/sex traffickers actually moved up to the Bakken from Las Vegas because they could make more money up north.
We started our tour in the Capital city of Bismarck, at Century High School. We spent the next week traveling across the state to Minot, Williston, and Dickinson, finishing in Mandan. We spoke in public and private schools, rural and urban schools. One feature they all had in common was that in each location, at least one child came up to us after our presentation to tell us about a human trafficking experience they or someone they knew had faced.
Williston: Our visit to Williston was particularly impactful. After our school assembly program, we waited, as is our common practice, until every student exited the gymnasium. It was not uncommon for students to come up to our presenters, especially the woman who spoke as a survivor. There was a girl who stood away from everyone else; she looked to be about 11 years old. She didn’t approach us until everyone had left. She said, “Thank you for being here today, it means a lot.” We invited her to come back to the evening community rally, but she said she would not be able to. We urged her to really try and come. Her head dropped and her voice broke as she told us that her dad demanded that she get home right after school.
Here’s why. For the majority of the time, this little girl lived in their trailer house all alone. Meanwhile, her father who lived in one of the man camps would schedule times for his “co-workers” to visit his daughter so that they could have sex with her. Let that sink in.
Thankfully she was at the presentation that day, came up to us, and the door of opportunity was opened to identify what was happening to her and to ask for help. But there are many others who have not had this opportunity or have been too afraid to take those critical steps to the front of the auditorium.
This is why we must fight the battle against human trafficking in North Dakota. This is why human trafficking education can and should be presented in an informative and age-appropriate manner.
North Dakota is at a critical crossroads in their fight against human trafficking. Expanded energy policies are being proposed by the new federal administration, which will greatly help North Dakota. We applaud this. However, at the same time, we are very afraid that we will experience BAKKEN 2.0, and possibly an even much greater incidence of human trafficking than before.
It is imperative to take an aggressive mindset of prevention and education. It is not enough to simply be aware of human trafficking, we must educate our most vulnerable, our children, on how to protect themselves with the tools to recognize and respond and to create a web of protection around them.
Imagine if that frightened young girl came up and told you her story. How important would it be to you that no daughter would ever have to repeat a similar story?
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During this current legislative session, there are a number of anti-trafficking bills still alive, some dealing specifically with educating students about trafficking. The key bills are listed below.
HB 1569 – Sex trafficking awareness and prevention curriculum for students.
HB 1361 – Mandatory minimum sentences for human trafficking offenders.
HB 1308 – Established a human trafficking commission which will collect and evaluate state. data and promote awareness training.
SB 2330 – Human trafficking awareness and exploitation prevention education for students.
HCR 3028- Study our existing human trafficking victim reentry services.
We will keep you updated in our weekly summary emails about what is happening with each bill and also issue Call-to-Action alerts when these bills come up for critical votes. Stay tuned and thank you for your commitment to protecting victims of human trafficking in North Dakota!
Weekly Legislative Update #6
We want to provide you with our most recent update on what happened at the Capitol this past week, each bill’s current status, and what to expect next week. As mentioned before, if you ever have questions about a particular bill, feel free to email us at mark@ndfamilyalliance.org or call 701-355-6425.
Last Week
As anticipated, submitting testimony is phasing out for us and we are spending more time these days focusing on floor votes and letting you know when your voice needs to be heard on critical bills. We testified in favor of two military-related bills last week. One would designate an official Prisoner of War and Missing in Action Day (HB 1403), and the other would officially establish Military Appreciation Month (HB 1148). A couple of other testimonies we submitted were on resolutions. One was to conduct a human trafficking study (HCR 3028) and the other was to tell Washington DC that they need to overturn the Obergefell v. Hodges SCOTUS ruling which legalized same-sex marriage (HCR 3013).
As already noted, we also spent more time focusing on floor votes and asking for your help in contacting legislators to influence their voting. Bills that passed in their respective chambers once again included many focused on education, such as human trafficking education for students (SB 2330), further preventing child access to obscene books in libraries, including school libraries (SB 2307), school compliance with the Century Code (SB 2104), and saying the Pledge of Allegiance in school (HB 1222). Also, HB 1181, which would define gender as a person’s biological sex, passed overwhelmingly in the House.
Next Week
Hundreds of remaining bills will come up for floor votes next week since crossover begins at the end of next week. These include all of the bills that don't have floor votes shown in our table, below. We will monitor these bills carefully and if we see one in danger of being voted on in the wrong direction, we will send out one of our Call-to-Action Alerts (CTAs) which allows you to contact as many legislators as necessary with a click of the button, as appropriate. As we’ve stated before, there are sometimes just a few hours between when we find out about a floor vote and it actually happens, so please respond to these CTAs as soon as you can. If good bills don’t make it out of their initial chamber, they are dead for the 2025 legislative session and no other action will be taken on them, so there is a lot riding on these votes that will happen next week.
Current Status
In the table below for this week, we wanted to provide you with the status of all of the bills we have worked on so far. Each bill’s most recent status is shown in the following table.
To double-check the most current status of any bill, you can go to this page, type the bill number into the upper right box (just need the number, not the HB or SB), and click the search button. Once you are on the bill’s page, click on the tab entitled “Actions”. This will indicate where the bill is in the process.
How to Take Action
1.) If a bill hearing has been scheduled, but not yet held, the table shows the date, time, and location of the hearing. If you want to testify, you need to write your comments about the bill into a PDF or txt file. This can be a paragraph or longer, but keep to the point. Once that is written, you can go to this page, type the bill number into the upper right box (just need the number, not the HB or SB), and click the search button. Once you are on the bill’s page, click on the tab entitled “Hearings”, identify the hearing, and click the link on the right where it says, “Submit Testimony”. Just follow the instructions after that. Note that there will be a deadline to submit testimony for bills, often early in the morning on the hearing day (this will show once you click on the “Submit Testimony” link). If you have questions about any of this, prepare your testimony document and then call us at 701-355-6425 and we can walk you through it.
2.) If the bill hearing is over, but it still needs to be voted on in a chamber, you can contact your appropriate legislator(s) and give them feedback. If you do not know who your legislators are or how to contact them, click here and then go to the top right corner and click on “Find my legislator.” Type your house number and zip code into the boxes and click the search button. From there, you should be able to find your Senator and Representatives and all their contact information such as phone numbers and email addresses.
3.) If the bill has passed both chambers and has been sent to Gov. Armstrong, you can contact the Governor via this link and provide input on the bill. Contact Governor Armstrong
Please remember to be respectful in all communications to our legislators and the Governor, and feel free to contact us with any legislative questions.
Here is a map of the Capitol, so you can find the indicated rooms. Please let us know if you have any questions.
Weekly Legislative Update #5
We want to provide you with our most recent update on what happened at the Capitol this past week, each bill’s current status, and what to expect next week. As mentioned before, if you ever have questions about a particular bill, feel free to email us at mark@ndfamilyalliance.org or call 701-355-6425.
Last Week
As I mentioned in our last update, we tackled 9 bills this past week. Most of the proposed legislation just happened to be either focused on pornography or education. Two of the pornography bills concerned age verification for internet pornography access (SB 2380 and HB 1593), another bill would restrict pornographic books in public and school libraries and also included a penalty for enforcement purposes (SB 2307), and finally, a resolution stating that pornography was a public health hazard (SCR 4017).
On the education side of things, there was a bill requiring that history of the Holocaust be taught in schools (HB 1527), another that required intelligent design be taught in schools (SB 2355), and a third that human trafficking education be provided to students (HB 1569). The final education bill would allow chaplains to provide counseling at schools (HB 1456). The remaining bill concerned approval processes for ballot measures (SB 2230).
Aside from this testimony, a number of bills hit the chamber floors for votes, including two very high-profile bills. HB 1373, which would have criminalized mothers who had abortions, was defeated by a wide margin of 16-77, after coming out of committee with an 11-1 DO NOT PASS recommendation. HB 1488, a loosening of abortion restrictions was also soundly defeated with a 6-87 vote on the House floor. Finally, the chaplaincy bill noted in the previous paragraph was heard on the House floor Friday and unfortunately failed by a 35-46 margin.
Next Week
We are now at a point in the session where we are approaching “crossover” when bills passing votes in their initial chamber are now sent to the other chamber for consideration. This means that testimony will probably be ending next week, until after crossover at the beginning of March, when it all begins again for bills that are still alive. In the meantime, all these bills that we’ve already testified on will be coming up for floor votes, so please watch for our alerts. There are sometimes just a few hours between when we find out about a floor vote and it actually happens, so please respond as soon as you can. We know you all have busy lives, but reaching out to legislators as a citizen is something only you can do to defend your values. It only takes a few minutes, definitely makes a difference, and we deeply appreciate it.
Current Status
Each bill’s most recent status and future actions are shown in the following table. We only show “alive” bills in this table (i.e., those that have not been defeated in a chamber, not combined with another bill, etc.), since those are the ones on which you can still take some action. NOTE THAT THE STATUS OF EACH BILL CAN CHANGE MULTIPLE TIMES, IN EVEN A SINGLE DAY.
To double-check the most current status of any bill, you can go to this page, type the bill number into the upper right box (just need the number, not the HB or SB), and click the search button. Once you are on the bill’s page, click on the tab entitled “Actions”. This will indicate where the bill is in the process.
How to Take Action
1.) If a bill hearing has been scheduled, but not yet held, the table shows the date, time, and location of the hearing. If you want to testify, you need to write your comments about the bill into a PDF or txt file. This can be a paragraph or longer, but keep to the point. Once that is written, you can go to this page, type the bill number into the upper right box (just need the number, not the HB or SB), and click the search button. Once you are on the bill’s page, click on the tab entitled “Hearings”, identify the hearing, and click the link on the right where it says, “Submit Testimony”. Just follow the instructions after that. Note that there will be a deadline to submit testimony for bills, often early in the morning on the hearing day (this will show once you click on the “Submit Testimony” link). If you have questions about any of this, prepare your testimony document and then call us at 701-355-6425 and we can walk you through it.
2.) If the bill hearing is over, but it still needs to be voted on in a chamber, you can contact your appropriate legislator(s) and give them feedback. If you do not know who your legislators are or how to contact them, click here and then go to the top right corner and click on “Find my legislator.” Type your house number and zip code into the boxes and click the search button. From there, you should be able to find your Senator and Representatives and all their contact information such as phone numbers and email addresses.
3.) If the bill has passed both chambers and has been sent to Gov. Armstrong, you can contact the Governor via this link and provide input on the bill. Contact Governor Armstrong
Please remember to be respectful in all communications to our legislators and the Governor, and feel free to contact us with any legislative questions.
Here is a map of the Capitol, so you can find the indicated rooms. Please let us know if you have any questions.
Weekly Legislative Update #4
We want to provide you with our most recent update on what happened at the Capitol this past week, each bill’s current status, and what to expect next week. As mentioned before, if you ever have questions about a particular bill, feel free to email us at mark@ndfamilyalliance.org or call 701-355-6425.
Last Week
Remember when I said this week would be the busiest of the session? Well, I was right, but thanks to your support and prayers, we made it through. We testified on a total of 18 bills Mon-Wed of this past week, which was even higher than my initial estimate of 15, and meant that sometimes we were running to our next hearing. In spite of this schedule, we made it everywhere we needed to be and testified on your behalf when and where it needed to happen!
This past week was filled with a lot of time working on a couple of high-profile life bills. We also had a chance to have our trafficking education bill heard in the Senate Education Committee. We had a gentleman testify who has worked with trafficked women and girls for years. His stories were tragic and underscored the need for student education about this horrific crime.
The balance of this week’s bills focused on pornography, gambling, and a number of educational choice bills. In the process, a couple of us managed to get sick and I lost my voice. While Ruth wasn’t terribly sad that she didn’t have to listen to me talk politics all the time, I thankfully had enough voice left to testify on the bills assigned to me.
Next Week
Thankfully, next week should be a bit slower, with probably 9 bills requiring our testimony. These range from subjects such as explicit materials/pornography to requiring intelligent design and the history of the holocaust being taught in schools. Additionally, bills that we’ve already testified on will be coming up for floor votes, so please watch for our alerts. There are sometimes just a few hours between when we find out about a floor vote and it actually happens, so please respond as soon as you can. We know you all have busy lives, but reaching out to legislators as a citizen is something only you can do to defend your values. It only takes a few minutes, definitely makes a difference, and we deeply appreciate it.
Current Status
Each bill’s most recent status and future actions are shown in the following table. We only show “alive” bills in this table (i.e., those that have not been defeated in a chamber, not combined with another bill, etc.), since those are the ones on which you can still take some action. NOTE THAT THE STATUS OF EACH BILL CAN CHANGE MULTIPLE TIMES, IN EVEN A SINGLE DAY.
To double-check the most current status of any bill, you can go to this page, type the bill number into the upper right box (just need the number, not the HB or SB), and click the search button. Once you are on the bill’s page, click on the tab entitled “Actions”. This will indicate where the bill is in the process.
How to Take Action
1.) If a bill hearing has been scheduled, but not yet held, the table shows the date, time, and location of the hearing. If you want to testify, you need to write your comments about the bill into a PDF or txt file. This can be a paragraph or longer, but keep to the point. Once that is written, you can go to this page, type the bill number into the upper right box (just need the number, not the HB or SB), and click the search button. Once you are on the bill’s page, click on the tab entitled “Hearings”, identify the hearing, and click the link on the right where it says, “Submit Testimony”. Just follow the instructions after that. Note that there will be a deadline to submit testimony for bills, often early in the morning on the hearing day (this will show once you click on the “Submit Testimony” link). If you have questions about any of this, prepare your testimony document and then call us at 701-355-6425 and we can walk you through it.
2.) If the bill hearing is over, but it still needs to be voted on in a chamber, you can contact your appropriate legislator(s) and give them feedback. If you do not know who your legislators are or how to contact them, click here and then go to the top right corner and click on “Find my legislator.” Type your house number and zip code into the boxes and click the search button. From there, you should be able to find your Senator and Representatives and all their contact information such as phone numbers and email addresses.
3.) If the bill has passed both chambers and has been sent to Gov. Armstrong, you can contact the Governor via this link and provide input on the bill. Contact Governor Armstrong
Please remember to be respectful in all communications to our legislators and the Governor, and feel free to contact us with any legislative questions.
Here is a map of the Capitol, so you can find the indicated rooms. Please let us know if you have any questions.
Weekly Legislative Update #3
We want to provide you with our most recent update on what happened at the Capitol this past week, each bill’s current status, and what to expect next week. As mentioned before, if you ever have questions about a particular bill, feel free to email us at mark@ndfamilyalliance.org or call 701-355-6425.
Last Week
Last week was another busy time for us, testifying on a total of 9 bills. One of them was SB 2220, our bill related to additional training for law enforcement to deal with cases of human trafficking. Unfortunately, it came out of the Senate Judiciary Committee with a 6-1 “DO NOT PASS” recommendation, and the Senate floor voted along the same lines, defeating the bill with a 10-36 vote. We were obviously disappointed with the results, but other human trafficking bills are still in play and doing better. On that side of things, HB 1361, the bill to establish mandatory minimum sentences for human traffickers, passed the House by a wide margin of 70-23, so we were very pleased with that result.
Last week we also testified on bills concerning transgender restrooms, the relinquishment of adoptive parents’ rights, free speech, parental rights in education, oversight of charitable gaming, and more. We are starting to see more education-related bills, and there are also quite a few gaming bills that will have hearings in the near future.
Next Week
Next week promises to possibly be the busiest of the session, certainly when it comes to hearings. On top of that, some key bills of the session will be heard. Over the course of Monday-Wednesday, we will be testifying on bills related to criminalizing mothers for abortions, human trafficking education for students, education savings accounts, and the Pledge of Allegiance. In all, we will be testifying on 13 bills in less than three days. Even with three lobbyists at the Capitol, this will be a stretch, so we appreciate your prayers. You will also very likely be getting more Call-to-Action emails. We really appreciate your engagement on these – the emails sent through our system definitely make a difference.
Current Status
Each bill’s most recent status and future actions are shown in the following table. We only show “alive” bills in this table (i.e., those that have not been defeated in a chamber, not combined with another bill, etc.), since those are the ones on which you can still take some action. NOTE THAT THE STATUS OF EACH BILL CAN CHANGE MULTIPLE TIMES, IN EVEN A SINGLE DAY.
To double-check the most current status of any bill, you can go to this page, type the bill number into the upper right box (just need the number, not the HB or SB), and click the search button. Once you are on the bill’s page, click on the tab entitled “Actions”. This will indicate where the bill is in the process.
How to Take Action
1.) If a bill hearing has been scheduled, but not yet held, the table shows the date, time, and location of the hearing. If you want to testify, you need to write your comments about the bill into a PDF or txt file. This can be a paragraph or longer, but keep to the point. Once that is written, you can go to this page, type the bill number into the upper right box (just need the number, not the HB or SB), and click the search button. Once you are on the bill’s page, click on the tab entitled “Hearings”, identify the hearing, and click the link on the right where it says, “Submit Testimony”. Just follow the instructions after that. Note that there will be a deadline to submit testimony for bills, often early in the morning on the hearing day (this will show once you click on the “Submit Testimony” link). If you have questions about any of this, prepare your testimony document and then call us at 701-355-6425 and we can walk you through it.
2.) If the bill hearing is over, but it still needs to be voted on in a chamber, you can contact your appropriate legislator(s) and give them feedback. If you do not know who your legislators are or how to contact them, click here and then go to the top right corner and click on “Find my legislator.” Type your house number and zip code into the boxes and click the search button. From there, you should be able to find your Senator and Representatives and all their contact information such as phone numbers and email addresses.
3.) If the bill has passed both chambers and has been sent to Gov. Armstrong, you can contact the Governor via this link and provide input on the bill. Contact Governor Armstrong
Please remember to be respectful in all communications to our legislators and the Governor, and feel free to contact us with any legislative questions.
Here is a map of the Capitol, so you can find the indicated rooms. Please let us know if you have any questions.