* W9 d6 N3 f6 @" n 2000年，美国国会通过了《人口贩卖受害者保护法》，支持政府起诉贩卖人口者和保护受害者。但执法机构对贩卖人口问题缺乏认识，往往不能辨别出受害者。执法机构的错误判案令苏亚雷斯付出了更惨重的代价。科瓦卢比亚斯将车库的一个房间租给了一对年轻夫妇。不久，他开始骚扰那名年轻女子。一天夜里，苏亚雷斯听到科瓦卢比亚斯在外面惨叫。当她冲出去时，发现年轻男子在用木棒猛击科瓦卢比亚斯，并把他打死了。那名男子要苏亚雷斯把带血的木棒洗干净，再放到屋子里，她照做了。很快，他们3人都被捕。 # A) D) G/ j* E, |$ F + T8 L$ `& ^8 ?* u 苏亚雷斯被控一级谋杀，被判25年徒刑。在狱中度过22年之后，苏亚雷斯于2003年被释放。但她的磨难还没有终结，她出狱之后立即被关入联邦看守所。按照美国移民法的规定，任何被判有罪的非美国公民，不论他们是否遭错判，都必须被驱逐出境。但美国有关人口贩卖受害者的签证规定，令她得以暂时喘口气。按照这项规定，人口贩卖受害者能获得一种特殊的签证，可以在美国居留3年，之后可以申请绿卡。但这项规定本身并未完善。苏亚雷斯的特殊签证快到期了，除非她能得到洛杉矶市市长的特赦，否则她将被遣返。“困在笼子里的感受非常痛苦……许多人仍在忍受跟我一样的磨难。”她说。 5 X% x3 H8 T# l# i 9 s8 d, @$ b% {( m, _, n' \2 ^! }1 b6 I1 X$ o$ G1 G
Once a slave in the US, still fighting for her freedom. }; H( r% a* u3 c
María Suárez survived life as a sex slave for five years in Los Angeles. There are thousands more like her.- K$ Q& y9 v0 z- e7 p! g N
( H8 R) j; i: n , T, [3 c. [8 n1 ]3 L/ _For María Suárez, a young Mexican, America turned out to be anything but the land of opportunity. When the 15-year-old came to the United States legally in 1976 to stay with her sister in Los Angeles, she was full of dreams. But those dreams turned into a nightmare within two weeks, when the teen was sold into slavery. 0 _1 Z. G: R5 H) B) v+ Q# f$ f * k0 X, `. n3 x6 JThirty years later, the courageous woman is still confronting the consequences of that domestic servitude and is fighting for the freedom and opportunity to remain in America, where all her family resides. 6 j9 G' j6 R0 I
+ F, a7 w2 d) [- k" T( H6 f' ~Ms. Suárez became the sex slave of an older man who had bought other young girls before her. Thousands of women are living in similar circumstances in the US today, often invisible though sometimes in plain view. Yet Suárez's story is unique in that her five years of violation and beatings led to a longer incarceration. " W# y, ~. F% |1 Z6 u" Y& E" q
7 l( K8 Q) {; N! r/ e8 M+ \The young girl arrived from her village in Michoacán a bit overwhelmed by the new country. Her sister, Rita, had lived in Los Angeles for years, but María knew no English and admits she was naive "and ignorant." ( z' l& \; }. |3 u2 G. P+ O' m+ Y5 l" A: h. A
"A [Spanish-speaking] woman approached me on the street – she was very friendly – and offered me a job cleaning house and answering phones," Suárez says in a telephone interview. "It sounded like a good idea, and I was very happy." 3 ?) _0 g; F1 ]% H& O0 U9 ?$ p. V
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Since her sister wasn't home at the time, she agreed to the woman's urging that she just come see the house where she would work. But the drive took more than an hour, and María never went home again. % s0 d* y# g& ]3 _+ i/ w 2 B9 k4 D; c; ^At the house of Anselmo Covarrubias, a man in his late 60s, she was allowed to call her sister to say she had a job and would be back later. But a lock was then put on the phone, and she learned otherwise. 6 R, L5 G" a0 T D* Z$ `( z \) D( F- b6 _0 E# w+ l% D1 ~1 a"He told me he had paid $200 for me and that I was his slave," Suárez says. She was shown a tiny room with a bed and an altar with a picture of Jesus Christ above it but many other strange items on it. He then raped her. # K, v. r- [0 q& J% R* a7 n9 \% h# C1 i M' i
"He told me he was a witch, that he knew where my family lived, and I'd better not tell anyone or he would kill my family, burn down their house," she adds. "From then on, my hell started. He abused me mentally, emotionally, physically, and sexually."
