Charoni 0

Slavery in Seattle: Sex Trafficking Legislation and

Politics on the Pacific Rim
Jennifer Charoni
June 6, 2014

JSIS 385

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Research Question
Seattles leaders are aware of the prevalence of sex trafficking within the city. Papering
public domains like the King County Metro transit are posters advertising confidential reporting
of trafficking situations, and many groups in Seattle work with victims of trafficking. State
senators have championed the cause, and University of Washington professors have conducted
research on the specifically perilous nature of the sex trafficking industry in this Pacific Rim
metropolis, all in earnest efforts to prevent its continuance. Sex trafficking in the United States
and in Seattle particularly is a known, almost trendy issue among the social justice community
which has only become more present in the past ten or so years. The effect of this increase in
presence is a simultaneous increase in the passage of legislative efforts for its prevention.
Sex trafficking has been legitimized as an international concern through its solicitous
inclusion in national and international human rights legislation in recent decades, and its
terminology in this discourse as modern slavery. This includes the June 1998 International
Labor Organization adoption of the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work
which prohibits forced labor in member states and the ILOs Special Action Programme to
Combat Forced Labour in 2005 (the first attempted estimate on global trafficking numbers
worldwide) which relied on multiple sources to eventually produce 2005s Global Report, A
Global Alliance against Forced Labour. This report indicated that trafficking affected 2.4 million
worldwide (ILO, 2006). These documents and others like them favor the phrase modern
slavery, and while their data varies because of the underground nature of operations, human
trafficking for sexual purposes follows only the drug trade as the largest illegal industry
worldwide (Yen, 2008). Legal recognition and recognition of the seriousness of the problem of
human trafficking, and its designation as modern slavery, is reflected in historic legislation that

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only became prevalent in the past few decades. Prior to the US Trafficking Victims Protection
Act of 2000, penalties for large-scale drug trade meant life in prison, while the sale of women
and childrens bodies meant a maximum sentence of ten years (Yen, 2008). Especially in the
United States, condemnation of the illegal sex trade took on slavery-like terminology and was
the subject of a moralistic crusade: President George W. Bush called for an abolitionist
approach towards the sex industry, which he called inherently harmful (National Security
Presidential Directive, 2002). He also used the term modern slavery, which was begat by the
UN human trafficking protocol of 2000:
Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or
other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services or practices similar to
slavery, servitude, or the removal of organs. (United Nations, 2000)
Modern slavery as a term is echoed in official documents from the US government as a
standard way to identify sex trafficking (Shauer & Wheaton, 2006), and it emphasizes
traffickings inclusion in the category of law responsible for punishing purveyors of human
rights violations.
Seattle alone serves as a microcosm of international trends, boasting the first US state law
deeming trafficking a human rights violation in 2002. Interestingly, Washington received a top
tier rating from the Polaris Institute, which measures the amount of legislation, recognition and
commitment a state applies to the problem of human trafficking (Polaris, 2013). This is
analogous to the State Departments own Trafficking Report rating system, which ranks nations
on their commitment to legislation against sex trafficking. The larger State Department report
placed Japan in the middle Tier (2) for legislation (US Department of State, 2006). And just like
Seattle, this was based on its passage of anti-trafficking legislation, though Japan holds one of
the highest amounts of traffickers and trafficked people out of any country nationwide (Dillon,

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2008). Seattle, similarly, holds one of the highest amounts of traffickers and trafficked people of
any city in the United States (Urban Institute, 2014). The implementation of anti-trafficking
legislation is therefore often interpreted as a commitment to the elimination of trafficking within
a nation- but these organizations rarely compare implementation to actual statistical decrease in
the presence of trafficking within a state following the passage of legislation.
In Seattle, only 81 trafficked people in the state had been identified by 2009. However,
within the 2008-2009 year, estimates of trafficked people not identified by the state (based on
knowledge of operations of trafficking groups) spiked from 300 to 1,000 trafficked people (The
Genesis Project, 2008). This isnt even including data from an Urban Institute study which
showed that the sex industry in Seattle had doubled between 2003 and 2007 (moving from $50.3
million to $112 million, and growing about 123 percent) (2014). Meredith Dank, the principal
investigator on the study, noticed a unique aspect of the sex industry in Seattle not present in
other large metropolises: Seattle was the only city with a large portion of the sex industry located
in suburban, residential areas and operating out of massage parlors run by middle-aged Asian
women. Law enforcement, she stated, did not have the resources to pursue this part of sex
trafficking in Seattle (Dank et al, 2014). This lack of resources demonstrates further a pattern
that exists in Seattle: no one knows how to deal with trafficked people or their traffickers.
Washingtons early adoption of sex trafficking legislation can be seen as an indication of
the severity of the problem in the state (Teichroeb, 2008). According to an investigation by the
Seattle P-I, within its first five years no convictions of sex traffickers had been made though
victims sought legal advocacy. Police were found to be unlikely to refer trafficking cases to
prosecutors, and were also unlikely to recognize trafficked individuals as legal victims of human
trafficking versus simply of sexual assault (Teichroeb, 2008). Only fifty victims of trafficking

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during this time period, 2003-2008, were actually recognized by the FBI or Customs
Enforcement (a requirement to receive trafficking victim status and to be eligible for financial
assistance and immigration visas). Of the 20 or so cases where defendants were suspected to
have been involved in human trafficking, most were not convicted. Nationally, of 555 suspected
human traffickers identified between 2001 and 2005, only 75 were convicted of human
trafficking (Teichroeb, 2008).
Seattle is particularly vulnerable to human trafficking because of its shipping and air
ports and proximity to schemes directed towards Asian women, and the citys legislation has
failed for over one hundred years to adequately protect individuals forced into these situations. I
seek to further investigate the issues that have prevented adequate treatment and prevention of
trafficking, and to answer the question: Why, if sex trafficking is legitimized as a heinous human
rights violation in multiple legislative documents and across various scales of government in
Seattle over many years, has the illegal trade of bodies for sex increased in the city?

Hypothesis
Sex trafficking in Seattle continues to increase notwithstanding Washington State's
passage of legislation that condemns it as a violation of human rights because this legislation is
not being used. Prosecutors continue to deflect the use of human rights legislation because sex
trafficking cases are instead treated as issues of immigration. I will argue that this implicit
reluctance to apply the new law in pursuit of the perpetrators of sex trafficking reflects an
inherent contradiction between the need to contain the industry and a commitment to preserve
Seattles reputation as a progressive international agent. The deflection of the responsibility to
deal with victims of sex trafficking, who are primarily Asian, to Immigration, moreover, reflects

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on a shameful history of exclusion that counters Seattle's image as an international progressive
city.
Prosecutors that take up cases about human trafficking often turn them over to
immigration because they are unlikely to win cases based on less-used laws. The human-rightsbased sex trafficking law is unwieldy but was written by legislators meaning to make a
concrete difference (Kohl-Welles, 2010). This means that there is a gap between the creation of
the laws and their actual use, which I see as a reflection of the environment of the city and its
history. Something unique about the situation in Seattle must be causing legislation to
continually be passed (14 years worth, no less) and continually sidelined by those practicing
law.
Cases which fit the description of human trafficking abuses are sent instead to
immigration, where the ICE has set up the necessary structures for dealing with trafficking that
are still in their infantile stages in the state government. Instead of human rights law and state
resources being used to assist in this situation, a national government agency which deports
undocumented immigrants, combats terrorism and works with organizations like INTERPOL,
also treats sex trafficked people (ICE, 2014). The inclusion of trafficked individuals in the
category of these operations treats them as similarly criminal, and just like undocumented
workers, as citizens of another land who are treated with swift deportation and little regard for
circumstance.
The treatment of these individuals as unlawful immigrants follows a historically
demonstrated Seattle habit: the exclusion of Asian immigrants. Immigrants from Asia in Seattle
have been the citys only large minority with a longstanding cultural presence and relatively
large demographic (Savitch, 1991). Traditionally these people were treated immediately and

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continuously as other by exclusion from public space. Their neighborhoods are and were
separated clearly from the majority white areas, and the Chinese workers were forcibly removed
from the city in 1888 by angry mobs. Legislation prompted the ousting of Chinese immigrants,
with a law at the time banning property ownership by Chinese, but the citizens of the city
furthered its work (Chin, 1977).
Seattle ignores this history of exclusion, and tries to sweep it under the rug in what racial
sociologist Stephanie Evans calls polite racism (2012). The sentiment, which Taylor argues as
unique to the West, emphasizes a desire to be seen in a certain, positive light while ignoring racebased problems. This, I argue, stems from the uncertain past of Seattle, which began as a mining
town full of the worst elements of society: brothels and bars and not much else. City officials
fought this image when the town became a city, and wanted Seattle to rival the likes of New York
and Los Angeles- metropolises with a firm presence and thriving economy (Moody, 2003). This
desire to appear progressive and successful continues to be the identity a more modern Seattle
strives for, and explains why human rights legislation is being bypassed: a palpable fear of
failure and illegitimacy.
Another explanation for why trafficking has increased in Seattle is economically oriented,
and the inertial continuance of sex trafficking as an industry of juggernaut proportions is a
mainstay of this theory. Estimates of the total impact of trafficking in general range wildly from
700,000 trafficked people a year to 2 million people a year trafficked (Hughes, 2000), while the
UN estimated 4 million people a year were trafficked in the sex industry alone (Roland-Pierre,
1998). The worth of the industry is estimated at $7 to $12 billion, and women can be bought or
sold for anywhere between $10,000 and $40,000 (Yen, 2008). According to one pimp, the low-

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end of this expenditure on the ownership of a womans body can be repaid in one week, and an
individual woman can earn between $75,000 and $250,000 a year or more (Yen, 2008).
The demand for women and children to use for sex is worldwide. The US is shown as
having the third highest numbers of child prostitutes of any nation (Dillon, 2008). In an even
darker look at demand, women and children in this industry are often used up quickly; i. e.
they suffer physical and mental trauma, contract illnesses (sometimes HIV), and are unable to
work for long, meaning the demand for a constant stream of new girls is continuous (Hughes,
2000). Women in the sex industry are stigmatized and often have no hope of returning home
because of this, even if they manage to escape. This means they often become perpetuators of the
trade: one report found that 70 percent of Ukrainian pimps were women (Menachem, 1999). In a
study looking at Eastern European sex trafficked women, small frontier towns saw the
introduction of brothels into their cities as a tax for capitalism, further enforcing the idea that
this industry is a self-sustaining part of the globalized economy (Hughes, 2000).
Additionally, globalization in modernity has been used to explain the increase of sex
trafficking. The permeability of borders and movement of people throughout the world in the
modern tradition of globalized activities helps to bring trafficked persons to their demand
sources, which certainly contributes to increased growth of the sex industry. The internet as an
instrument of globalization has no digital borders, and often serves as the recruiting mechanism
for women seeking jobs, which they may or may not know involve sex exploitation. According
the Urban Institute, 49 percent of pimps in the United States used internet ads to attract women
and more discreetly lure johns (Urban, 2014). Evidence of the increased interconnectedness of
the world and permeability of borders is in the trade itself: trafficking across borders is estimated
in figures in the hundreds of thousands for some countries but these numbers vary largely based

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on the estimator. The fact that these numbers are so unknown makes clear the lack of border
control which allows sex trafficking to occur at levels no one is sure about (Dillon, 2008).
While economic and migration factors certainly contribute to the viability of sex
trafficking, they do not explain why the shift in legal efforts to minimize the effects of these
factors has been futile. Though the implementation of this legislation has garnered following and
increased presence at international, national and state levels, human rights law has not
adequately combatted sex trafficking, and in fact let the industry increase in its almost two
decades of gaining political presence. A discourse-based explanation for this phenomenon
uncovers an implicit pattern in the legislative tradition for human rights law which has caused
failure on the part of legislation and is missed by these other, base-level explanations.
My hypothesis provides a new vantage point for the accurate interpretation of the
phenomenon of increased trafficking in the city. In my research, I will look more deeply into the
ethos of the city, and consider the historic and political patterns which reveal a unique context for
legislation in a municipality which holds a distinctively huge sex trafficking problem. Analysis
of an issue like this is incomplete without historical context, especially in a city such as Seattle,
which was built on the backs of sex workers who were often mail order brides or trafficked
individuals from Asia (Moody, 2003). An outwardly progressive, inwardly racially exclusive
narrative has therefore characterized the city throughout its history, and the inclusion of this in
explanations provides needed contextualization.
Prosecution practices and strategic use of legislation resonate with the historical
structures that have contributed to Seattles self-identity and reputation as a global agent. Since
trafficking is built into the fabric of the city, it is necessary to consider what societal and legal

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structures have allowed it to continue. It is also important to know that Seattles leaders have a
historically tried to clean up the city through legislation, and this often meant legislation
against trafficked sex (Hartley et al, 2009). The continuance of this tradition, when enriched with
this knowledge, has a stronger basis for explanation.
Applying these ideas to a case study of Seattle will allow me to better interpret the multifaceted reasons why legislation has not assisted in combatting human trafficking. I will argue for
a more nuanced approach which takes into account the unique identity of Seattle and addresses
the actual causes for legislative stalemate in Seattles sex trafficking policy. These, I argue, are
the need to appear progressive in the citys public actions, which marches in hand with an
implicit racism the city has perpetuated since housing its first Asian immigrants.

Literature Review
In this section, I will draw from several bodies of scholarship to establish the validity of
the underlying premises of my argument, such as history, sociology, and discourse analysis, to
reveal how the image of Seattle as a progressive, cosmopolitan city was constructed. In order to
do this I first must define the personification of Seattle itself- this literature review will view
Seattle as more than just a geographical referent: it will view the city as a constructed entity with
a personality, a character, and a unique image. I will examine the self-identity of this Seattle as
a form of discourse which permeates decisions made by Seattle as an entity. Passage of sex
trafficking legislation reflects two distinct, indeed oppositional aspects of Seattle's projected selfimage: first, the passage itself conforms to historical and social trends that informed the
emergence of an identity as progressive, especially with regard to how state and city government
considers its citizens; second, the reluctance to apply the law in deference to already established

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immigration legislation reflects on the means by which Seattle's constructed image of a
progressive city itself depended on immigration law as a means to "clean itself up." My support
comes from a historical examination of the citys desire for a progressive image, and a social
critique of the separation of Asian immigrants throughout Seattles history. These aspects come
together to form a pervasive discourse which, I argue, affects the use of legislation in the city
itself. A Foucauldian understanding of discourse suggests that Seattles progressive self-image
constitutes a specific expression of power dynamics, which relies on the repetition of a message
(Seattle is progressive) to inform what can be said (Seattle is a global innovator) and what
cannot (Seattle is racist). This self-identity implicitly affects the interpretation of legislation
passed within its discursive and physical boundaries.
Sarah Dillons argument that Western heroism discourse impacts or even precludes the
implementation of human trafficking legislation is relevant to my own argument. The idea that
Western nations need to be seen as benevolent and progressive in their actions means that the
pursuit of the daunting idea of the mitigation of trafficking (which has a high chance of public
failure) will not be prioritized seriously unless it has a greater chance of success (2008).
Additionally, the consumers of the services of trafficked people are most often Western men who
ultimately finance and perpetuate the industry. These men, to Western entities, represent the
Everyman, and it is difficult to pin them as the bad guy. Because the proscribed heroic
discourse made it problematic to impugn Western men, non-Western entities were identified as
the source of the problem that needs resolution. The implicit discourse of a Western hero robs
agency from those in poor countries who represent the majority of the internationally trafficked
population. This discourse is reflected in the philanthropic work of one of Seattles hallmark
progressive organizations: The Gates Foundation. According to scholar Alice Ferguson, Gates

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promotional materials present women as benign, motherly figures in need of help from modern
Western technology (2012). The victimization of these women makes them appear helpless,
requiring the paternal entrance of a stronger Western helper. Moshoula Desyllas argues that this
reinforces racism and assumptions about the victim status of women who are trafficked (2007).
Catherine Mackinnons comparison of violence against women to terrorism describes
well the social construction of sex trafficking: both violence against women and terrorism are
stateless and seen as cultural, yet terrorism is pursued in a global war by the US government
(Mackinnon, 2006) while violence against women is more of a cultural, private problem. Rhonda
Copelons work further explores violence against women and its absence from discourse by its
comparison of domestic violence to torture: the level of seriousness with which society
comprehends torture is much higher than domestic violence, which has been trivialized and
normalized in society. When removed from such discourse the effects of these two unpleasant
issues on individuals are similar (1994). Seattles legislation, which recognized sex trafficking as
a human rights violation, betrays a similar rhetorical objective: it condemns trafficking in strong
language but doesnt take on the issue seriously enough to acknowledge implementation would
require additional legislation to redress the embedded social and political institutions that allow
trafficking to flourish.
This rhetorical position, in fact, derives from Seattles desire to be seen as progressive.
Historians such as Jan Hartley and Elinor Appel identify the Seattle metropolis as a city that has
continued to rebuild and reinvent itself throughout its history, always pushing the edge (2009 p
480). From its earliest inception in 1851, Seattle was viewed as a young, disconnected town
where terms like Hooverville and skid row originated to refer to the lack of infrastructure and the
locations general reputation as a raucous city. Seattle was primarily known to outsiders as the

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Gateway to the Goldeld, full of young miners drenched in alcohol and lust provided by the
most popular local business enterprises: bars and brothels (Hartley et al, 2009). Writes Seattle
journalist and author Fred Moody in his book Seattle and the Demons of Ambition,
Seattle was once a wide-open, nearly lawless town, inhabited and governed by the
irreverent, the rebellious, and the ribalda freewheeling realm of burlesque houses,
gambling dens, and illicit booze joints. (2003 p 15)
Once the city shifted from a temporary mining retreat to a permanent residence for a population
that now included family groups, mayors and other city leadership were elected with the express
intension of cleaning up the city, including the 1901 police chief who was fired for his
attempts (Moody, 2003), and Seattles first woman mayor, Bertha Landis (Hartley et al, 2009).
Government either rallied against or promoted the vices that ran the city, with clean and
dirty mayors elected in equal droves. An overturn in 1911, possibly due to the insurgence of
more permanent residents in the area, signaled Seattles ultimate reform and morphology into an
image-conscious city which strived to improve trade with a new, squeaky clean identity (Moody,
2003).
Still seen as emerging by the 1960s, Seattle politicians attempted to boost this image by
hosting the 1960 Worlds Fair, meant to make our town one of the great cities of the world
(Moody, 2003 p 13). Many people still saw the Seattle metropolis as a resource-bound city that
was part of the last frontier before the fair occurred (Savitch & Thomas, 1990). The fair was
legendarily created by Seattle businessmen at a 1955 luncheon in an effort to put Seattle on the
map (Hartley et al, 2009), perhaps to combat the citys reputation as a cultural dustbin, which
was bestowed upon it by its own symphony conductor (Savitch et al, 1990 p 217). Social critics
Ley and Olds see worlds fairs and public fairs as demonstrations of instruments of hegemonic
power and the expression of a mass culture- something Seattle clearly strived to be a part of (Ley

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1987). Moody ascribes the staging of world events, along with city development and
improvement, as a method oriented toward the cultivation of a more dynamic image for the city
(2003). Global industry in the form of Boeing, Microsoft and Starbucks contributed to the worldwide connectedness of Seattle and its place as the new kid on the world stage (Moody, 2003).
Geographer John Alvin pinpoints a shift in productive trade from the Atlantic to the Pacific in the
late 1980s, when trade with the so-called Pacific Rim Countries surpassed trade with Europe
(1992). Popular literature acknowledged Seattle as the center point of what some were calling the
Pacific Century at a time when trade with Asia was seen as particularly lucrative (Alvin, 1992)
and industry sought the Pacific Northwest.
By the 1990s, Seattle was considerably more visible, and the WTO riots drew attention to
the citys commitment to reformist, progressive activism. Political scientists H. V. Savich and
John Thomas observed unusual levels of citizen involvement in government in Seattle
throughout history. These citizens worked individually for progressive measures through
government, which supports the idea that progressive desires existed through scales in Seattle:
from the citizen to the city level (1990). Kevin DeLuca and Jennifer Peeples associate the
protests with contemporary public acts of global citizenry and cite the media as catalyst for the
distribution of this image of the citizens of Seattle (2002 p 126). Therefore progressive
inclinations can again be related to the type of people living in the city. Lance Bennett views the
internet as connecting networks,identity ties and tools of a collective identity through
activism like the WTO protest in Seattle (Bennett 2010). The WTO protests in Seattle were seen
as an act of collective activism. Donald Rosdil identifies a pattern where citizens who work in
health and education services, arts, architecture, research and high-tech fields, [and] have
embraced the romance of urban living (2011 p 3468) look for more progressive social

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fulfillment and improvement work from their governments. The industries define Seattle, a city
with several universities and a penchant for technology and industry. Seattle, by modern times,
has therefore firmly placed its identity on a progressive, internationally industrial pedestal, which
it seeks to maintain (however artificially).
In kind with its pursuit of a progressive reputation, the leadership of Seattle, from the
beginning of its self-improvement era, was seen and saw itself as inhabitants of a cosmopolitan
location. Policy throughout the citys history hinged on the assumption of progressive ideals
covering up less progressive realities. A dichotomy exists where not only is diversity
exaggerated, but the racism and the actual multicultural disparity of the city is overlooked. This
historically meant the exclusion of Asian populations particularly existed but was not allowed to
be considered a reality or discussed at a policy level. Issues like urban disorder, which
geographer Steve Herbert states, is often remedied with a cleaning up approach, involves an
exclusion of groups seen as undesireable (2008). For example, a study about the city of
Vancouvers professed identity as the worlds most diverse city revealed that this accepted
discourse stemmed from exaggeration by city officials, and the conflation of misinterpreted UN
documents and media hype (Doucet, 2004). In fact, the city was home to near-ghettos where
the majority of its nonwhite population lived (Doucet, 2004), and similar to Seattle, diversity was
equated with a progressive integration that didnt actually exist. Problematic (read: immigrant)
groups were used for their progressive appearance as puppets in promotional documents, but
were marginalized in their own cities. Shelly Sang-Hee Lee analyzes the production of a
cosmopolitan Seattle in a similar light by evidencing a 1936 series in the Town Crier of Seattle
called Cosmopolitan Seattle whose author attempted to combat Seattles backwater image with
one of sophistication and diversity (2011). The gateway to the Orient image was cultivated by

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such displays of worldliness in the media while the city was ground zero for anti-Asian politics
and neighborhoods remained segmented, with the worst areas reserved for Asian Seattleites
(Lee, 2011). Examples of this include the de-segregation of neighborhood-draw schools made
necessary by the racial segregation of Seattles neighborhoods between blacks and whites:
The enemy in Seattle was indifference in the white population born of its perception
that "there was no problem" in the city. Thus civil rights leaders who complained about
"ghetto schools" were often viewed as publicity-seekers intent on blaming the entire
community for the educational deficiencies of black children. (Taylor, 1995, p 8)
Douglas Judge writes that Seattleites prided themselves on their liberal values, and the fact that
the city was the largest in the nation to implement a mandatory district-wide desegregation plan
without a court order. Seattles largest racial issue, Judge argues, was the recognition that there
were racial issues in the city (2006). Against its liberal Democratic regime Seattle displaces
poor residents with rich, better residents in areas of the city with perceived successful growth
or progress, which indicates that certain parts of the population have been shuttled around the
city on the whim of the privileged (Pomeroy & Webster, 2008). Stephanie Evans writes about a
polite racism present in San Francisco because of its liberal and progressive image which
limited social, political and economic opportunities for nonwhites, similar to Seattles own
treatment of Asian immigrants (2012 p 19). Since physical deterioration [was] so common in
the racially exclusive slums of eastern cities most whites and some blacks argue[d] that, there
was no racial problem in[Seattle], while ignoring less obvious signs of decay and discontent
writes Taylor (1995, p 3). Quintard Taylor states that white Seattles racial fears were focused
almost solely on Asian Americans, Seattles historical people of color (Taylor, 1994). Post World
War II in-migration to Seattle from rural locations led to ghetto-like development and separation
of races in Seattles neighborhoods, where excluded non-white Seattleites, when left out of white

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Seattle, clung to the traditions of their original states where they represented less of a minority
(Taylor, 1994). This behavior is similar to the way Asian Americans, because of financial
oppression and exclusion from the white population, resided in specific areas of Seattle itself.
Avila sees the racial separation of cities- for example white Seattle in the North end and
nonwhite Seattle in the South end- as a white cultural retreat from the cities to more suburban
areas to avoid nonwhite inclusion in public spaces (Avila, 2004).
Many scholars writing about immigrant exclusion from society invoke the idea of
space, including the physical space of a population, and the space that a population has in
discourse (i.e. the physical exclusion of Asian Americans to certain areas of Seattle and their
exclusion from discourse legitimizing their exclusion). Particularly Seattle and cities in general
host two kinds of spatial confinement mentioned by Herbert: the containment of disorderly
areas of the city often populated by poor, nonwhite residents by government enforcers, and the
purposeful confinement of elites to separate themselves from these disorderly areas (2008).
Whites are the most likely group to seek this exclusive place in a society, and Seattle was 92
percent white in 1960 (Herbert, 2008). It is important to allow these distinctions and assumptions
in scholarship to change, however, with history. Holloway, in a study of white rural residents
feelings about Gypsies, found a wide array of opinions about different members of the minority
group, indicating a critical and ongoing mobility of racial interactions between categories
(2005). Rosdil, though critical of its insular and excessive dependence on political economy
approaches admits the increase of studies involving cultural methods in urban politics (2011)
which indicates a shift in academia towards the important detail of cultural discourse in a place
affecting its politics.

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A fear of the other and of migration has also been cited as a source for the heroic
orientation of sex trafficking discourse (Dillon, 2008). This explains particularly well the
treatment of trafficked people in Seattle as immigration cases, as it continues a history of
exclusion of migrants who, like most sex-trafficked people in Seattle, are from Asia. The referral
of trafficked individuals to the ICE in Seattle demonstrates this fear and exclusion of the other
that Seattle has continuously upheld. Desyllas demonstrates how immigration and sex trafficking
can be linked in public perception below:
Historical patterns in the levels of public concern in the
U.S. over the trafcking of women and children are linked
to periods of increased immigration. (2007 p 61)
Americans could therefore associate the presence of immigrants with trafficked people. Bandana
Pattanaik also points out that trafficking used to refer to general migration and the abuses
associated with it (2002), and this further muddled the difference between two distinctive types
of population movement. Celine Nieuwenhuys and Antoine Pecoud, who examined
informational campaigns in 1990s Europe to prevent human trafficking and undocumented
migration, observed the conflation of migration and trafficking and related this to causing
discursive ambiguities between two types of movement (2007). Mae Ngai writes that a recent
shift in studies of American culture to a transnational interpretation, which treats Americans and
America as changing and crossing borders, more accurately describes the transnational spaces
immigrants occupy and diffuses the continuation of the othering of immigrants and their
treatment as objects and not subjects, from representational construct to social actor (2005).
I argue that Seattles deferment of human trafficking law to immigration courts reveals its
carefully implicit racism, and exudes a tradition of racial exclusion. With a desire to retain a selfidentity and reputation as a progressive, globally aware city, Seattle has implemented legislation

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it never intended to enforce. Instead, the heroism of the city is meant to be appreciated, while its
attempt to combat something as large as sex trafficking in the Pacific Rim is not fervent enough
to afford the possibility of a public failure.

Methodology
I have identified three sources of data that I will analyze for my thesis: legislation that
concerns human trafficking in Washington State, ICE news reports of human trafficking in
Washington State and responses to a series of interviews conducted with important actors
involved in the application and creation of human trafficking legislature. In total, my research
will be a discourse and diction analysis detailing the language used to describe trafficked
persons, with the expectation that some of the implicit racism and exclusivism used when
transferring these people to immigration court will be evident in both law and those that practice
law.
Washington was the first of any US state to pass legislation against human trafficking and
was one of only two states to receive a perfect score on legislation against trafficking by the
Polaris Institute in 2013. Although legislation meant to restrict sex trafficking like this has been
passed in Washington since 2002, its passage has only recently received praise in the national
arena. I will look at bills, proclamations, and Washington State level legislation passed between
2013 and 2014, including several recent passages and proclamations from the past few months. I
will analyze the diction used to identify specific trafficked people as well as any references to
their citizenship, their fate after court, their immigration or movement, and their intent as well as
any mention of borders or any categorization of trafficked persons. Because it is the foundational
document of sex trafficking legislation in Washington, I will also analyze the original 2002 law

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in the same way I will look at the more recent ones. In this legislation, I expect to find an implicit
racism or categorization of these individuals as other.
To supplement this analysis, I will look at the transcripts and news reports concerning
cases of sex trafficking taken to the ICE in Washington State instead of to prosecutors. I will
similarly analyze the diction describing sex trafficked persons, their movement and their intent in
order to ascertain the presence of any implicit assumptions about these people that identify them
as not belonging to the state and undermining their experience with trafficking, an acknowledged
human rights abuse.
Finally, I plan to conduct interviews with two categories of people: State level actors and
King County Prosecuting Attorneys Office employees in order to divulge their more hidden
sensibilities and exclusion of trafficked people from the state. The Western Washington U. S.
Attorneys office has actually pursued trafficking prosecution in a more effective manner than
the Prosecuting Office in Seattle, which has taken on cases using human trafficking legislation
only a few times, to the Western Washington Offices over 14 (Kohl-Welles, 2010). The subject
of my interviews will be King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg and attorneys working for his
office. Because these are public figures who will speak only in their official capacity, I will not
need to submit my interview questions to the Review Board. In these interviews I will pursue
broadly the topic of turning human trafficking cases over to the ICE and will pay special
attention to their definitions of trafficked individuals as belonging to a particular state and
eligibility of these people to protection from State law. Since the unwieldiness of the law and
unlikeliness of it to lead to clear victory in court is often cited as the reason for the reluctance to
prosecute sex traffickers in Washington, I will also ask about the decision-making process with

Charoni 20
regard to which types of cases are considered easiest to win in court, and what is necessary to
create legal precedent for legislation.
To approach similar information from the legislation creation perspective, I also plan to
interview Washington State Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles and former Representative Velma
Veloria who have been instrumental with regard to the passage of human trafficking legislation
in Washington for around two decades. Both have had mixed results in their work in that the very
laws they have spent years passing are not used by attorneys. If I am unable to secure these
interviews, I will interview others affiliated with their work. I will also subject sound bites and
quotes that represent their longstanding presence in Washington state media to analysis to look at
how trafficked persons are identified.
Beginning this July, I will collect data at the King County Courthouse where I happen to
work for the very attorneys who turn away trafficking cases. I will conduct interviews and collect
the majority of the written law. Once my data set is complete, I will begin to code it and
determine patterns which I believe will support my argument about the insistent progressivism
and implicit racism of Seattle that underlies ineffective trafficking regulation in the city. In the
fall, I plan to engage in in-depth research to expand my Literature Review. With the multidimensional perspectives outlined above, I will gain the knowledge necessary to ultimately
address my initial research question of why, if Washington has been so proactive at passing
legislation concerning human trafficking, the illegal sex trade of human bodies has ultimately
increased in recent years.

Charoni 21
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