Protecting Sex Trafficking Victims: Establishing the Persecution Element

On January 14, 2004, federal immigration and customs agents raided four brothels in a predominantly Asian neighborhood in San Francisco known as the Sunset District.1 Two days later, the agents arrested Yuen Ling Poon, a licensed haircutter whom authorities believed was one of the 2 leaders in an apparent international smuggling operation. According to unsealed federal court documents, Poon smuggled undocumented women from Thailand, China, Korea, and Malaysia to be sex workers in her brothels.3 Agents also seized $31,500 in cash and 3,000 condoms from 4 Poon's house. Additionally, court papers indicated that the women were part of a trafficking circuit that rotated sex workers between Canada and major United States cities, including Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago, and New York.5 In a four-part special report beginning October 6, 2006, the San Francisco Chronicle reported sex trafficking as an $8 billion international business, with California, New York, Texas, and Las Vegas among its largest commercial centers.6 The special report centered on You Mi Kim, a sex trafficking victim from South Korea who was tricked into believing that leaving her family and working in America as a waitress would lead to