Some of the defendants who appear before Queens Criminal Court Judge Toko Serita (See Profile) in her weekly human trafficking intervention court are as young as 13 years old. Many have previous prostitution convictions.
But their situations are made all the worse by the fact that most are foreign-born, often living and working in the United States illegally. Typically, the women have legal representation in their criminal cases. But they usually aren’t represented on any potential immigration issues—which, if left unresolved, may leave them with nowhere to turn but to their traffickers.
