Matthew Soerens joins Dr. Sandie Morgan to discuss the intersection of immigration policy and human trafficking, exploring how vulnerable immigration status increases the risk of exploitation and trafficking.

Matthew Soerens

Matthew Soerens is vice President of Advocacy and Policy at World Relief. He has dedicated his career to responding to the needs of immigrants and refugees through a biblical lens of justice and compassion. He also serves as national coordinator for the Evangelical Immigration table, and he co-authored Seeking Refuge on the shores of the Global Refugee Crisis.

Key Points

• Human trafficking involves people forced to work under fraud or coercion, while smuggling refers to bringing someone across a border unlawfully – these terms are often conflated but represent different crimes that can sometimes overlap.


• Migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers are particularly vulnerable to trafficking because they’re in unfamiliar cultural settings where they don’t know the rules, their rights, or the laws, making them less likely to report exploitation.


• Current immigration enforcement approaches that create widespread fear in immigrant communities can inadvertently increase trafficking vulnerability by making people afraid to report crimes or seek help from law enforcement.


• California Republican legislators recently wrote a letter asking for more discernment in immigration enforcement, focusing on those convicted of violent crimes rather than broad sweeps that detain people who haven’t committed crimes.


• The U.S. immigration system’s complexity rivals tax law, with at least 18 different visa types, making it difficult for immigrants to understand their legal status, especially when policies change rapidly.


• Recent policy changes have left many Afghans, Haitians, and Venezuelans without legal status overnight, despite having previously worked lawfully with valid documentation.


• Employers who fail to file necessary visa extensions can create situations where workers become vulnerable to labor trafficking through coercion and threats of deportation.


• The lack of immigrant visa pathways for non-highly skilled workers forces many into temporary status or unauthorized situations, creating dependency on employers that can lead to exploitation.


• Unaccompanied children are among the most vulnerable to human trafficking, and recent legislation may undermine important protections established by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act.


• Churches and community organizations can play a vital role by building relationships with immigrants, providing practical support, and advocating for policies that recognize human dignity while affirming the rule of law.


• Biblical principles call for special concern for “the orphan, the widow, and the foreigner” – groups that remain vulnerable to trafficking today both in the U.S. and globally.


• Effective anti-trafficking work requires understanding the connection between immigration vulnerability and trafficking risk, as many trafficking victims are immigrants who lack legal protections.

Resources

• World Relief


• 294 – Combatting Exploitative Child Labor in the U.S., with Matthew Soerens


• Inalienable: How Marginalized Kingdom Voices Can Help Save the American Church by Matthew Soerens


• Welcoming the Stranger by Matthew Soerens

Transcript

[00:00:03 ] Welcome to the Ending Human Trafficking Podcast, brought to you by Vanguard University’s Global Center for Women and Justice in Orange County, California. This is episode number 350. I am Dr. Sandie Morgan, and this is a show where we help you study the issues, be a voice, and make a difference in ending human trafficking.

[00:00:29 ] Today we are joined by Matthew Sorens, vice President of Advocacy and Policy at World Relief. He has dedicated his career to responding to the needs of immigrants and refugees through a. Biblical lens of justice and compassion. He also serves as national coordinator for the Evangelical Immigration table, and he co-authored Seeking Refuge on the shores of the Global Refugee Crisis.

[00:01:06 ] Sandie Morgan: I’m really happy to Welcome back to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. Matthew Sorens, vice President of Advocacy and Policy at World Relief.

[00:01:19 ] Welcome back, Matthew. So glad

[00:01:20 ] Matthew Soerens: Yeah, so glad to be with you again, Sandie

[00:01:22 ] Sandie Morgan: we have a lot to talk about. First of all, tell us,briefly, what does world relief do,

[00:01:30 ] Matthew Soerens: World Relief is a global Christian humanitarian organization that,has existed for about 80 years. Our mission is to boldly engage the world’s greatest crises in partnership with the church. And, and right now as we look at. Crises around the world, we see displacement people being forced to flee from their homes and from their countries.

[00:01:48 ] In many cases, as really near the top of the list of global crises. It’s also a global crisis, of course, that intersects in many situations with challenges of human trafficking. So this is an issue we carry a great deal about both in the United States and around the world.

[00:02:03 ] Sandie Morgan: All right. And from the perspective of human trafficking, this is the Ending Human Trafficking Podcast. There are several elements in our discussion today that we wanna clarify. First is the difference between smuggling and trafficking. Can you do that in 25 words?

[00:02:25 ] Matthew Soerens: Sure. I think so. I mean, trafficking under US law is when people are made to work under forced fraud or coercion, whether it’s sex trafficking or labor trafficking. Smuggling is when someone is brought across the border against the law. Now those things can be related. People who are smuggled could also be being trafficked, but they’re not the same thing.

[00:02:43 ] And I think the risk of. Conflating those terms is that we think of trafficking sometimes as something that happens at the border when actually trafficking can happen anywhere in the world, and it can happen to immigrants and sometimes they’re uniquely vulnerable. But it also can happen to American citizens.

[00:02:58 ] It can happen within a country. It can happen with people who are outside of their country. And I do think that distinction sometimes gets conflated in some of the political dialogue in some unhelpful ways.

[00:03:07 ] Sandie Morgan: All right. And,that’s really helpful for our listeners who live along the borders here in the US and beyond. I was in Madrid, in May, in Greece in February, and this issue of smuggling and trafficking being conflated is a. Constant challenge to overcome. Now, you mentioned the issues of fraud and coercion, and people in migrant status often have driving forces that increase their vulnerability. So can you talk about what that looks like right now from a global crisis perspective?

[00:03:52 ] Matthew Soerens: Yeah, I think one of the reasons we see that people who are migrant or refugees or asylum seekers, these various legal, statuses for people who have fled their homes. Are vulnerable to human trafficking is precisely that they are in a different cultural setting where they don’t know the rules, they don’t know their rights under the law, or what the laws are.

[00:04:11 ] In some cases, and depending on what their legal status in terms of migration is, that can create further reasons that they’re suspicious of law enforcement. So they may feel like they can’t report if they’re being forced or coerced. Into a work situation where they’re not being paid or they’re being paid less than they should or even into situations of, sexual trafficking.

[00:04:33 ] And so we often find that,immigrants of various kinds are uniquely vulnerable to situations of human trafficking. And the less legal protections that they have, wherever they happen to be, the more vulnerable they are, the less likely they are to speak up, to know that they can go and ask for help when they’re being mistreated and, and exploited.

[00:04:52 ] Sandie Morgan: I quit counting a long time ago. How many frontline service professionals like yourself have told me? Victims didn’t even know they were victims. They often felt like they made a poor decision. but because of their desperation, the risk element, we misunderstand that I am measuring risk. By sitting in my air conditioned home with two cars in the driveway. somebody else is measuring risk by, I don’t know how I’m going to feed my children or where we are going to sleep tonight. So,

[00:05:33 ] Matthew Soerens: And if I make you know, the wrong decision, do I end up in an even more vulnerable situation back in a country where I was being persecuted or where someone was out to get me