Iowa can deliver justice for human trafficking survivors

When people started learning about my trafficking situation, they judged me based on what they thought they knew. They wrote me off as a “criminal” and thought I deserved my sentence. In reality, my experience was far from what they understood. Now I'm setting the record straight, advocating for myself and others, and urging Iowa’s representatives in Congress to support the Trafficking Survivors Relief Act.

In 2018, I was arrested in connection with a sex trafficking operation and was later convicted of two felony charges. I was arrested alongside my trafficker, as if I was like him, grouped together with a predator. Instead of recognizing that I was victimized by this man, the criminal justice system decided to press charges against me too.

Like many survivors, my trafficker was my boyfriend, someone I thought loved me. He exploited my trust in him, and he blackmailed me into selling my body. Not only did he take the money I got from selling myself online, he also took the money I earned in my day job. The cost of resisting him was physical violence, so I stopped resisting to protect my own body.

My trafficker forced me to give him my car, and made me go with him across the country, where he also trafficked others. Eventually, I was arrested and charged alongside him. Following my conviction, I was incarcerated for three years before being released on probation and required to register as a sex offender. During my legal proceedings, a member of law enforcement said to me, “I know you’re a survivor, but you should have acted differently.” That is easy to say after the fact — but harder to do with a gun pointed at my head, as I had experienced many times.

I am far from the only survivor to have a criminal record because of their trafficking. Criminal records have wide-ranging effects on survivors, including tangible barriers like trouble getting a job, and emotional wounds like recovering from the trauma of surviving trafficking. For me, it has mostly been the latter. I was incarcerated during the pandemic, and due to isolation requirements I was not able to access the mental health services that might have helped me begin my recovery. Now that I am out, my criminal record, and the high profile nature of my situation in my small Iowa town, has made it impossible for me to escape the stigma associated with a criminal record.

I seek peace by spending time with my family and with my church community. But my record clouds these experiences too. At church, even though I know my probation terms allow me to be there, I am constantly in fear that something I do, any small action or glance, will be wrongly perceived as a violation of my probation.

What I want is simple: To be able to live my life without judgment or rejection by others, to not be unjustly discriminated against because of my criminal record, and to be free to pursue my dreams to advocate for people with similar experiences.

When a trafficking survivor is criminalized, and this record is not rectified, it only ensures that they remain victimized.

Our members of Congress have an opportunity to correct the injustice that thousands of trafficking survivors face. I urge them to support the Trafficking Survivors Relief Act, which would help survivors like me clear the criminal records we should have never gotten in the first place and reclaim our freedom.

Phylicia King is an Iowa native and a survivor of human trafficking.