San Jose Massage Parlors: Building Bridge to Freedom
Johnson got her start in advocating for an end to human trafficking in a somewhat serendipitous way. She was between jobs but always had an interest this kind of work. She decided it was time to get up and do something, and it just so happened there was a high profile meeting the next day, at which Ambassador Mark Lagon and Polaris Project director Brad Myles were speaking on the very subject. She attended the conference and was struck with a new dedication to this kind of activism.
So often, people assume women and children are sold into to the sex trade overseas, or are brought to the U.S. for that purpose. But, both Clifford and Johnson said, this kind of slavery is happening frequently right here, and in different forms: massage parlors, domestic service, a form of indentured servitude in which a person is brought into the U.S. legally but is told that if he or she tries to leave the family for which they work, they will be deported.