It happens almost anywhere. At bus stops, in motels and even on school campuses. Human trafficking isn’t just an issue in major cities; it’s a growing crisis in Oregon’s communities.
Around 150 people gathered Thursday at the Hult Center Studio Room in Eugene for a sold-out panel discussion with community leaders on human trafficking awareness.
The panel, presented by the local nonprofit Junior League of Eugene and moderated by Lane Transit District spokesperson Anni Katz, offered the public insights into the current landscape of trafficking, its effects on the Lane County community, prosecution efforts, data reporting, victim advocacy, and related issues.
“Junior League of Eugene has two primary focuses within our community and right now, those are at-risk youth and human trafficking awareness prevention,” said Kate Eitenmiller, community enrichment co-chair for the Junior League of Eugene.
In 2023, the National Human Trafficking Hotline in Oregon received 461 reports, 166 of which were received from victims or survivors of human trafficking. Of those, 132 cases were identified, and 248 victims were connected to these cases.
The hotline can be reached through various channels, such as phone calls, SMS reports, online reports, emails, and web chats.
Challenges with investigating and prosecuting human trafficking cases in Lane County
The Interstate 5 corridor runs from Mexico to Canada and links several West Coast Cities, some of which are hotbeds for the recruitment, transportation and sale of people for labor.
“The amount of predatory behavior, not just here but along the I-5 corridor, is exponential,” Sarah Koski, Lane Transit District Resource Liason, said.
Local leaders came together Thursday to spread awareness about human trafficking in Oregon.
FBI special agent Hunter Fikes said the agency in Eugene sees a lot of trafficking victims in poverty-like conditions. Getting justice for trafficking victims is challenging because many of them are not willing or able to participate in investigations for fear, shame or misplaced loyalty to their abusers.
“A majority of the victims very rarely want our help in the beginning,” Fikes said, highlighting the importance of building rapport with victims early on in an investigation. “What we see a lot of is the poverty, living conditions, homelessness, people on the streets abused and afraid to make eye contact.”
Koski echoed this sentiment.
“Poverty is just as much of a disaster as a fire or earthquake” and people on the streets need help and resources, she said, adding that community leaders should invest more in shelters and safe spaces for vulnerable populations.
Lane County District Attorney Christopher Parosa said his office sees hundreds of human trafficking cases reported in Lane County each year but local law enforcement are “massively under-resourced” and therefore cannot adequately address the problem.
In the 1980s, the Lane County DA’s Office staffed 25 criminal division prosecutors with a population base near 240,000 Lane County residents. In 2025, with a population near 400,000, there are just 24 criminal division attorneys.
Land County District Attorney Christopher Parosa speaks at an August meeting in Eugene.
“We’re doing better but we’re not doing what we should,” Parosa said. He also expressed frustrations about the discovery process, stating the endless amount of evidence has become a nightmare for prosecutors and defense attorneys to navigate, which can often cause delays in prosecution and harm to victims. He described the process as “nebulous.”
Parosa said most of the trafficking-related crimes in Lane County relate to internet crimes against children when predators try to lure or encourage children to perform sexual acts.
Bull, who discussed reporting on missing and murdered Indigenous women and children in Oregon, said he’d like to see consistent databases that track trafficking cases, missing persons and similar cases. He also hopes for the alleviation of stigmas around people with mental health issues.
What is human trafficking?
According to the Oregon Department of Justice, human trafficking consists of both sex and labor trafficking. Sex trafficking is defined as the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision or obtaining of a person for a commercial sex act, which includes the production of child pornography. Labor trafficking is defined as the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage and slavery.
For more information about the National Human Trafficking Hotline, which is available 24/7, visit https://humantraffickinghotline.org. If you believe someone may be a victim of human trafficking, call the Hotline at 1-888-373-7888 or if you believe the situation is an emergency or that someone is in immediate danger, call 9-1-1.
Local support for trafficking victims can be found at Lane County Against Trafficking.
Spotting trafficking and victim advocacy work in Lane County
According to Kids FIRST, a nonprofit child advocacy center in Eugene, trafficking often targets vulnerable youth.
“The more vulnerabilities a youth has, the more they’re at risk of trafficking,” Marlene Polleri, advocacy manager at Kids FIRST and Co-Chair of Lane County’s Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children Task Force said, which is why training and education are critical to identifying and preventing human trafficking. She also emphasized the importance for parents to monitor youth activities online.
Koski said addressing human trafficking starts with community awareness and leaving direct contact up to the experts but people can get involved by elevating the cause and “supporting those in the trenches doing the work.”
Visitors walk around the new service desk at the Lane Transit District’s Eugene station on Jan. 15.
For example, the Lane Transit District signed a federal pledge in November to combat human trafficking by educating its employees on how to recognize and report signs of trafficking and raising public awareness through targeted outreach campaigns to the community. Training has also been extended to local school bus drivers.
“You know, if a firefighter or policeman dealt with or saw as many people as we do in a day as operators, then they’re having a pretty bad day,” Darryl Whitaker, training supervisor for the Lane Transit District told The Register-Guard at the event. “We are the eyes and ears of the city and metropolitan area.”
Whitaker said that LTD started its in-house training program about a year and a half ago to bring human trafficking awareness and safety training to bus operators due to the heightened amount of criminal activity that allegedly occurs on transit buses.
Kids FIRST encourages community members to educate themselves and participate in training programs to develop the knowledge and skills to recognize vulnerable populations, who the traffickers are, how traffickers lure people in, and how to respond and report trafficking situations. Parents can also start communicating with their children in an age-appropriate way about sexual health, healthy relationships, consent and boundaries.
Haleigh Kochanski is a breaking news and public safety reporter for The Register-Guard. You may reach her at HKochanski@registerguard.com.
This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: ‘Voices Against Darkness’ panel: Human trafficking a crisis in Oregon
