Alicia Peters, Ph.D., is an associate professor of anthropology at the University of New England. The views expressed in this op-ed are her own. 

Most people don’t think about human trafficking happening in Maine. However, estimates suggest that hundreds of cases, in which people are coerced into performing commercial sex work and other types of labor against their will, occur in our state each year.

Yet on Sept. 30, the Department of Justice’s Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) ended funding to over 100 victim service providers serving at least 3,000 survivors across the country by letting trafficking victim services grants expire.

Despite Congress appropriating $88 million for victim services for fiscal year 2025, DOJ has not released the funds. Preble Street’s Anti-Trafficking Services Program, a federal grantee since 2013, was one of the organizations that lost funding.

Over the past three years, Preble Street received 350 referrals to its Anti-Trafficking Services program. Over the past year, 157 survivors, 45% of the program’s caseload, were funded by the OVC grant. Those survivors hailed from seven counties across Maine and included teens and adults of all genders, foreign nationals and U.S. citizens, and individuals trafficked for commercial sex work, drug selling, domestic work, hotel work, landscaping and agricultural labor.

Despite these significant numbers, the important services that Preble Street provides do not reach all survivors. There are likely many more affected individuals who are less visible due to the industry in which they work, their immigration status or their status as criminalized survivors — those whose work makes them more likely to be arrested for the activities they are forced to engage in than to be identified as crime victims. 

Trafficking survivors are real people facing terrible circumstances — not just at the hands of individual traffickers but also as a result of structural violence and the way society fails to meet the needs of the most vulnerable and marginalized members of our communities.

While conducting fieldwork on trafficking for my recent book, it became clear that the survivors I was learning about and interviewing were not just nameless strangers. They were members of my community.

I spoke to law enforcement investigators who had assisted high school classmates. I myself connected the dots and realized that one survivor was the aunt of one of my daughter’s best friends from preschool. 

My investigation of government responses to trafficking and the impact on survivors over the last two decades has revealed the role of vulnerability and failed systems. Especially significant are the lack of safe and affordable housing; inequitable access to education; and inadequate health care. That includes dental and mental health care and treatment for substance use disorder— all of which play out in the lives of trafficking survivors every day.

I’ve advocated for shoring up systems, as opposed to intervening after the fact, to address the root causes of trafficking and prevent it from happening. Intervention is essential to interrupting human trafficking when it occurs, but it should be the last line of defense and prevention the first.

In a devastating turn, the second Trump administration has been dismantling, rather than bolstering, the very systems needed to prevent trafficking. Recent cuts to the federal job force and funding to programs that support the most vulnerable members of our communities — including proposed cuts to Medicaid and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) voucher program — mean that more Mainers will fall through the cracks.

We will see more trafficking, and because of the failure to release OVC funding for survivors of trafficking, there will be fewer services to help those who need it, with undoubtedly dire consequences. 

The Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000 was a bipartisan effort, establishing funding for survivors of trafficking — funds appropriated and repeatedly reauthorized by Congress over the last 25 years.

This is the first time since the TVPA’s passage that funding has been interrupted. Now is the time to speak up on behalf of our neighbors and communities to ensure all survivors of trafficking have access to food, housing, medical care, legal assistance and other lifesaving services through programs like Preble Street’s Anti-Trafficking Services. 

Support survivors and the organizations that serve them. Reach out to your state representatives and ask them to prioritize trafficking services at the state level. Contact your members of Congress and request that they ensure continued access to congressionally authorized funding for survivors. Advocate to ensure access to housing, health care and economic opportunity for all Mainers and to strengthen related systems to prevent trafficking. Perhaps even talk with friends and family about the need to address human trafficking in Maine.  

Survivors of trafficking already face too many barriers to achieving stability. Let’s ensure they have access to the protections and supports promised to them under the law.