COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Advocates for human trafficking victims are calling on the city of Columbus and its police officers to do more to help fight the problem.
At a human trafficking hearing inside Columbus City Hall Wednesday night, first-year Ohio State University law school student Tabitha Woodruff pushed city council members to pass a city ordinance encouraging police officers to help labor and sex trafficking victims obtain temporary visas.
Those visas, known as t-visas, allow human trafficking victims to stay in the United States and help in the prosecution of their captors rather than being deported.
"They're afraid to approach law enforcement," Woodruff said. "They don't want to be held in a deportation detention center or sent back home to the poverty they were trying to escape from originally."
Woodruff, who lobbies on behalf of the Central Ohio Rescue and Restore Coalition, said police officers do not decide whether a person receives a t-visa. That decision is up to an immigration judge, but few officers know enough about the visas to help victims navigate the process.
No officers attended the hearing Wednesday night.
By phone, FOP President Jim Gilbert said he was not aware of the t-visas and would look into them.
Councilwoman Charleta Tavares, who organized the hearing, said the crimes of forced labor or sex slavery need more attention.
"What we're trying to do is help people understand that there are other kinds of crimes that sometimes go hidden," Tavares said.
Tavares did not know of the t-visas prior to the hearing and wanted to gather more information before weighing in on whether to support Woodruff's request.
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