In the News

Sunday, July 30th is World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, and this year’s theme is to leave no one behind. As people and organizations working to end human trafficking daily, this rings true for us. You may have recently seen or heard about the new movie Sound of Freedom, and...

At a press conference last month, San Diego Police Chief David Nisleit took aim at atSB357, the Safer Streets for All Act. The law, which went into effect two months ago,SB357, repealed previous California law that criminalized loitering with the intent to engage in sex work. Nisleit claimed SB357 prevented...

It seems like whenever human trafficking is in the news, we get a sensational view and not the full picture. A celebrity has been arrested for sex trafficking, and all the victims are young women. A company has been caught paying their immigrant workers nothing. What should be making the...

The Stanton Fellowship 2023-2024 cohort: Doug Bond, Tony Brown, Kay Buck, Dr. Andrea Garcia, Joel Garcia, and EJ Hill.  The Durfee Foundation has announced that Kay Buck, CEO of the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking, is one of six recipients of the 2023-2024 Durfee Stanton Fellowship.  The Fellowship aims...

Daniela came to the US to escape police brutality in El Salvador. She never expected to face even greater hardships.  When Daniela entered Cast, she had been making good progress in her recovery from her trafficking experience and was happy to have been reunited with her family, who were escaping...

October 20, 2022 Below is a joint open letter to the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) calling on CBP to demonstrate its continued commitment to combating forced labor in global supply chains by rejecting a proposal by driven by industry groups as part of the Commercial Customs...

This Labor Day, Cast’s Managing Attorney shares an open letter about a special labor trafficking survivor, Gabriel.  Dear Friend, Since I started as an attorney at Cast in 2017, Labor Day has been a difficult holiday. I love a cookout as much as anyone, but I feel conflicted about celebrating...

(SACRAMENTO, CA) – Today, Assemblymember Tim Grayson (D-Concord) introduced AB 2553, sponsored by the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking, which would establish the California Multidisciplinary Alliance to Stop Trafficking Act (California MAST). This bill aims to examine and evaluate existing programs and outreach for survivors and victims of human...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iJV21y55bc Human trafficking awareness should happen every day of the year so we are ending Human Trafficking Prevention Month with this important PSA in partnership with California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Performer and Cast Ambassador Nicole Scherzinger. Survivors need and deserve our help, not just in January, but all...

Dear Friends, When I think about the holidays, I think about home--about that feeling of security and trust, of knowing that the people around you love you unconditionally. I think about how Cast creates a feeling of home for survivors that opens the door to their journey to freedom and...

Every year, more than a thousand domestic workers are brought to the U.S. by diplomats and other foreign officials. What happens when those workers face abuse? Sri Yatun in California. She remembers wearing the baby around her like a shield. Taking care of him was part of her job: Sri...

Aisha shares her story of resilience this Labor Day.  Dear Friend, I will never forget the moment I entered Cast’s transitional shelter, Mariposa Haven. After years of being cut off from my family, denied control over my time, deprived of privacy and rest, I knew that this new place, a...

Farm workers in a California strawberry field. (Photo: F Armstrong Photography, via Shutterstock) The California Senate will vote soon on AB 364 by Assemblyman Freddie Rodriguez. The Foreign Labor Contractor Registration bill is a quiet piece of legislation with the potential to speak loudly to our values and commitment to human...

Featured image by AP Photo/Marco Ugarte. In June 2002, Germania boarded a plane from Quito, Ecuador, to Washington, D.C. She was traveling to work for Verónica Peña, an Ecuadorian diplomat, caring for her home and her two children. Prior to her arrival in the U.S., Germania had been presented with...

The Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking (Cast) was awarded $3.54 million from the City of Los Angeles Housing and Community Investment Department (HCID) to purchase additional housing for survivors of human trafficking.   “We are fortunate to have a leader on human trafficking like CAST in our city, where we...

The California Legislature has passed Cast’s $30 million request to fund human trafficking victim service providers over the next three years. This $30 million will provide emergency funding for survivors of human trafficking amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath to ensure survivors in every part of the state have...

PRESS CONFERENCE TODAY: The Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking will Join California Attorney General Rob Bonta, Assemblymember Miguel Santiago, and UNICEF Ambassador Alyssa Milano to Discuss the Importance of Budget Funding for Human Trafficking Victim Service Providers  Los Angeles, California - Kay Buck, CEO for the Coalition to Abolish...

The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a terrible toll on all Californians. While Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recently announced California Comeback Plan allocates billions of emergency aid funding to those hurt by the pandemic, one group hit harder than most has been left out of the budget proposal: human trafficking victims. I...

Long before they were Mayor and First Lady, Eric Garcetti and Amy Elaine Wakeland were simply Amy and Eric, friends of Cast. Along with eleven other couples belonging to Liberty Hill Foundation’s Pobladores Fund, they rallied together to help create community spaces for survivors of human trafficking to develop leadership...

During the height of the pandemic, Cast received a call from a young mother, Laila, with 3 children ages 5, 3 and 2 months, who were fleeing their trafficker. Cast’s shelter was full and so were the hotel rooms we had allocated for the COVID-19 overflow of survivors needing emergency...