{"id":4758,"date":"2016-01-29T19:32:22","date_gmt":"2016-01-29T19:32:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=4758"},"modified":"2016-01-29T19:32:22","modified_gmt":"2016-01-29T19:32:22","slug":"texas-names-special-unit-to-combat-human-trafficking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=4758","title":{"rendered":"Texas Names Special Unit to Combat Human Trafficking"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong>by Mark Richardson<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>AUSTIN, Texas<\/strong> \u2013 Texas is putting some legal muscle behind current efforts to combat human trafficking in the state. The Texas Attorney General\u2019s office has formed a new unit tasked with reducing both labor and sex trafficking and prosecuting the perpetrators.<\/p>\n<p>Attorney General Ken Paxton says the crime is happening in all corners of the state.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTexas, unfortunately, is at the heart of trafficking in the United States,\u201d says Paxton. \u201cWe\u2019re responsible for the nation\u2019s second-highest number of calls to the National Human Trafficking Resources Center, and Houston has the highest number of trafficking victims in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_4759\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/gr-49935-1-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4759\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4759\" src=\"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/gr-49935-1-1.jpg\" alt=\"The Texas Attorney General has formed a new unit to assist law-enforcement agencies with human-trafficking crimes. Photo: southernfried\/morguefile\" width=\"600\" height=\"362\" srcset=\"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/gr-49935-1-1.jpg 600w, https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/gr-49935-1-1-300x181.jpg 300w, https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/gr-49935-1-1-405x244.jpg 405w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-4759\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Texas Attorney General has formed a new unit to assist law-enforcement agencies with human-trafficking crimes. Photo: southernfried\/morguefile<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Paxton says his office will use its existing budget to operate the unit. It will be staffed with five investigators, three lawyers, a forensic accountant and a victims\u2019 advocate, and will work directly to support the efforts of state and local law enforcement.<\/p>\n<p>Heading the unit will be Kirsta Leeburg Melton, a 14-year veteran prosecutor from San Antonio who has worked extensively on human-trafficking cases. Melton says those who seek to enslave others into prostitution or forced labor come from all walks of life.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFamily members, cartels, gangs \u2013 they look and they see an endless supply of vulnerable humanity,\u201d says Melton. \u201cBut most of all, they see dollar signs. They see an opportunity to profit from the misery of others.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Melton has trained more than 5,000 people across the state on fighting human trafficking and has testified before the Texas Legislature on trafficking issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Mark Richardson AUSTIN, Texas \u2013 Texas is putting some legal muscle behind current efforts to combat human trafficking in the state. The Texas Attorney General\u2019s office has formed a new unit tasked with reducing both labor and sex trafficking and prosecuting the perpetrators. Attorney General Ken Paxton says the crime is happening in all [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4759,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4758"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4760,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4758\/revisions\/4760"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}