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They Came to This Country Seeking Better Lives for Themselves and Their Families. Instead, They Found Abuse and Forced Prostitution. The Tale of Two Survivors.

The moment Rosa saw the clothes, she knew she had been deceived.

Short shorts, micro minis, crop tops. Not the kind of clothing the 17-year-old girl would need to care for the elderly or wait on tables--jobs that sounded full of promise when the smugglers described them in her impoverished village in Veracruz, Mexico.

With dread squeezing her stomach, she looked at the man who had smuggled her into the United States. "Why do I need these clothes?" she asked him, afraid of the answer.

"For prostitution," he said to her. "That's what you are now."

Prostitute. The word, uttered in Spanish, hung in the air.

She began to cry, the fears she had been fighting since the border crossing into Texas swamping her.

"I don't want to do this. I will not do this," she told him.

Roughly, he reminded her of the family she left behind, threatening to send his associates to harm her

Sometimes she sees prostitutes on the street, she says, shaking her head. She cannot understand it. "I think, how can you? You're U.S. citizens! You don't have to do this!"

"I would take careful notes of everything so that I would know when I paid off my debt," Sarah said. "After four months, by my count, the debt was paid."

Work, as waitresses or food preparers for now. Money to send back home. A solid immigration status. And school, they both agree. They want to learn English.

Peonage, the other charge available to prosecutors, is even tougher to prove, requiring that prosecutors demonstrate a debt exists and the victim is being forced to work it off.

Abuse was frequent, the women said.

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Approximate Word count = 5084
Approximate Pages = 20 (250 words per page double spaced)