Maine
‘It absolutely happens here’: Labor trafficking in Maine
This is part one of a two-part series in honor of Human Trafficking Awareness Month.
What industries run Maine’s economy? The farmlands full of blueberries and potatoes, the seafood processing centers on our coasts, or the hospitality services that accommodate visitors all year round?
Those are only some of the many employment fields in the state, and across the country, where people are subjected to labor trafficking.
What is it?
Labor trafficking is using fraud, force, or coercion to secure involuntary labor. Many who end up in environments where their labor is being exploited can’t leave due to external factors, such as poverty, lack of housing, and unstable immigration status, among other things, according to Hailey Virusso, director of anti-trafficking services at Portland’s Preble Street.
The key distinction is the use of coercion within the job environment to keep people from leaving. According to the United Nations’ International Labour Organization, an estimated 27.6 million people were trafficked worldwide in 2021, 77% of whom were victims of forced labor.
There are no such statistics for Maine, which Virusso said is not for lack of occurrence but because most funding is used to research sex trafficking.
“One of the biggest misconceptions, specifically here in Maine, is the mentality that it doesn’t happen here. It absolutely happens here, and that is why our program is in existence,” she said.
Since 2013, Preble Street’s anti-trafficking division has been working across Maine to support all ages, genders, sexualities, races and immigration statuses, whether they are actively being trafficked or have experienced it in the past. The organization helps an average of 100-150 victims of both labor and sex trafficking every year, a third of which are under the age of 18 either then or when the trafficking occurred.
Virusso said these numbers have grown over the past year as new resources have allowed Preble Street to expand its outreach programs to rural areas where information is harder to come by, most recently Down East. This includes providing training to different sectors, placing awareness posters in public places, and going to schools to educate young people.
The realities of trafficking
There are sectors where labor trafficking is more likely to occur: Professions that see higher exploitive practices due to fewer regulations or oversights; ones that employ large migrant workforces or immigrants who may lack a lawful presence – although it’s a misconception that most forced labor victims are in the U.S. illegally, as the National Institute of Justice found that 71% of victims enter the country on lawful work visas. Meanwhile, most people Preble Street encounters are survivors of domestic servitude: forced labor within a private home.
When identifying possible victims of trafficking, the organization shies away from using physical descriptors or behaviors that may perpetuate stereotypes and instead takes a needs-based approach.
“Trafficking certainly can be folks being held against their will, but I would also argue that the conditions that perpetuate trafficking are structural. When people don’t have their needs met, they’re at higher risk of being victimized so without housing, without food, without health care, without social connection,” explained Virusso.
This also means minority groups that are statistically more likely to have unmet social needs are also at an increased risk of being trafficked, such as Indigenous men and women who experience violent crime at rates higher than the national average or LGBTQ youth who account for a disproportionate number of runaways and minors experiencing homelessness.
Preble Street endeavors to target the systematic issues that make people vulnerable to trafficking, like offering transitional and rapid rehoming services as 90% of the people they serve, both adults and youth, identify lack of stable housing as a main issue. Providing these resources allows people to remove themselves from harmful cycles where they could potentially be revictimized.
In addition to social factors, Virusso also identified forced criminality as a tactic used by traffickers to control victims: forcing them to work in illicit environments (such as unlicensed marijuana growing or harvesting sites), transport or possess drugs, write false checks or do other illegal activities.
The web can be hard to disentangle as these victims are often misidentified as criminals when there is coercion occurring. This becomes harder with juvenile offenders. In cases of sex trafficking, anyone under 18 who is induced to perform a commercial sex act is considered a victim, regardless of whether they were forced or coerced. This isn’t true for youth victims of forced criminality who need to prove external pressure, but Virusso said this requirement doesn’t take into account that children are socialized to listen to adults.
“There’s no more powerful force than to leverage a crime that somebody’s committed over them,” she said.
What can be done?
One of the main components of Preble Street’s outreach program is providing training to help different sectors identify signs of trafficking, particularly in the healthcare industry as 68% of victims are seen by a healthcare professional while being trafficked. Some indicators could include being repeatedly treated for the same injuries or frequent STIs.
Virusso also advises people to vote for policies that increase access to social services and immigration relief as ways to alleviate trafficking and labor exploitation.
Above all else: Listen to survivors. They know what they need better than anyone else.
“We want to make sure that anytime somebody is seeking to exit a situation, they have their resources to do so, but we don’t believe in a rescue mentality. Survivors are savvy, resilient, smart people who are making decisions for themselves daily about what they need, and what they don’t need, to make sure that their situation is as safe as possible,” said Virusso.
Preble Street will host an event in honor of Human Trafficking Awareness Month at the Healing Center, 55 Portland St., Portland on Jan. 22, 3-5 p.m. All are welcome.
Resources
National Human Trafficking 24/7 Hotline: 1-888-373-7888, Text: 233733
Preble Street: (207) 775-0026. Not sure if you’re experiencing exploitation or trafficking? Take the online self-identification on Preble Street’s website.
All four of Maine’s Division III men’s hockey teams will play for a championship in the first Lobster Pot Tournament after their holiday break.
“Anytime there’s a trophy at play, it makes things a lot more interesting,” Bowdoin coach Ben Guite said.
The tournament will take place Jan. 2-3 at Falmouth Ice Center in Falmouth. The first day, Colby and the University of New England will match up in the first game at 3:30 p.m., followed by a game between the University of Southern Maine and Bowdoin at 7 p.m. The winners will face off in the title game at 5:30 p.m. the following day.
UNE (8-2) is ranked seventh in the latest USCHO.com top-15 poll, while Bowdoin (6-2-1) is 13th, and Colby (5-2-1) received 12 votes. Southern Maine, meanwhile, is 5-4-1.
“I think all four teams are going to have a crack at it,” Guite said. “There’s no doubt in my mind.
We’ve played Colby already this year (a 3-2 Bowdoin win on Nov. 22). They’re obviously a handful and a very hard team to play. UNE has been a perennial power here for a while now, since (coach) Kevin (Swallow) has been there. (USM coach) Matt (Pinchevsky) has been doing a tremendous job. His team just plays with a lot of energy. They’re very hard to beat.”
There also will be a youth clinic at the neighboring Casco Bay Arena from 2-3 p.m. on Jan. 2. Ice skating will be available on the pond near Family Ice Center.
Guite said the tournament is an opportunity to showcase Division III hockey in the state. He also noted a trickle down of talent in Division III with former Canadian Hockey players now allowed to play in Division I.
The Mules, for example, have three former Division-I players, including leading scorer Colby Browne (Northern Michigan), defenseman Riley Rosenthal (Stonehill), and Auburn’s Reese Farrell (Army). Nor’easters goalie Harrison Chesney played at Northeastern.
Tickets are $8 per game and can be purchased starting Monday by visiting UNE’s website.
Contributing at the D-I level
Former Maine high school girls basketball standouts are off to strong starts to the season for their NCAA Division I programs.
Oxford Hills graduate Ella Pelletier Pelletier is averaging 9.3 points and 4.1 rebounds per game over 10 games in her first season at Stonehill College.
In her second season at Boston University after transferring from Providence College, Hampden Academy alum Bella McLaughlin is averaging 7.0 points and 3.0 rebounds per game. She also has a team-high 34 assists in 10 games.
Another Mainer contributing at the D-I level is Pelletier’s former Oxford Hills teammate Sierra Carson, who is averaging 3.0 points per game for Dartmouth.
NFHCA All-Americans
Two Mainers were named Division II All-American by the National Field Hockey Coaches Association recently.
Gracie Moore, a senior forward at Bentley who is from Pittsfield, was named first-team All-American. She finished the season with 15 goals and 12 assists in 22 games.
Meanwhile, Biddeford’s Jillian McSoreley, a senior defender at Assumption College, is a second-team All-American. McSoreley earned the honor by helping the Greyhounds hold opponents to 0.72 goals per game.
Bates College defender Haley Dwight was named to the Division III first team, while forward Brooke Moloney-Kolenberg earned third-team honors, along with Bowdoin’s Emily Ferguson.
Dressed in a fuzzy chicken costume, a then-2-year-old girl — accompanied by her parents dressed as farmers — walked around their new neighborhood ringing doorbells and asking for candy. It was July.
That is how the Westbrook community first met and fell in love with Lucy Hanson five years ago.
Everyone in Lucy’s neighborhood is close, Sue Salisbury, her neighbor, said, but it’s particularly hard not to love Lucy. She trick-or-treats year round. She jumps into her neighbors’ piles of leaves as they’re raking. She rides around the neighborhood on a seat on her dad’s bike with a speaker playing music attached in the back.
“She’s got the whole neighborhood wrapped around her finger,” Joe Salisbury, Sue’s husband, said.
So when Lucy was diagnosed with cancer at the end of October, the neighborhood decided to flood her with love as she spends the next nine months, holidays included, in the hospital for chemotherapy treatment.
Friends, neighbors, strangers and even people from other countries have sent Lucy a deluge of holiday cards, donations, gifts and meals.
Lucy’s aunt, Juna Ferguson, shared Lucy’s story on social media and asked for donations and meals to help. She also submitted Lucy’s name to The Angel Card Project, an online charity that requests greeting cards for people in need, so Lucy would feel as much love as possible during the holiday season.
In just a few weeks, Lucy has received hundreds and hundreds of cards, letters and packages, including some from as far as Germany and Australia. On Meal Train — a website that facilitates meal giving to families in hard times — people have donated almost $22,000 for the Hanson family and sent dozens of meals. Lucy’s wish list sold out within five minutes — three separate times.
The Hanson family
In many ways, Lucy is just like any other 7-year-old girl from Westbrook.
She loves Harry Potter (she’s in Gryffindor, of course). She’s reading “Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix,” but it’s a little scary for her. She just became a Brownie in the Girl Scouts. She wants to be a music teacher when she grows up. She loves to draw and sing and dance and do gymnastics and musical theatre. She has a best friend named Mallory who she has known since she was 6 months old. She’ll cry if there’s a snow day and she can’t go to school and see Mallory.
She’s witty and kind and bubbly and fun.
But in other ways, Lucy’s life doesn’t resemble that of other kids.
Last month, she spent more time in the hospital than at home. If she’s in the hospital, she has a robot she can drive around school to participate in her classes. (She dressed up the robot with a jacket, a hat and a sparkly backpack to make it look more like her).
Lucy is much smaller than most girls her age, as a genetic condition slows her growth. And she knows a lot more about cancer than most children.
She’s used to doctors and nurses and hospitals.
A few months after she was born in July 2018, she developed a rash on her face, which eventually spread to other parts of her body. After visiting three dermatologists and ruling out eczema, Lucy ultimately was diagnosed with Rothmund-Thomson syndrome type 2, a rare genetic condition that primarily affects her skin and bones and increases her chances of developing several types of cancer. Lucy is one of about 500 documented cases of RTS in the world.
For six years, Lucy was healthy. But in October, while she was attending a conference for families affected by RTS in Salt Lake City, she started to limp. She seemed to get better after a while, but a week and a half later, she couldn’t put any weight on her foot.
That’s when she was diagnosed with osteosarcoma in her right tibia. The doctors said Lucy will need nine months of chemotherapy and a below-the-knee amputation in February of 2026.
“How will we navigate the rest of Lucy’s life?” Staci Hanson, Lucy’s mom, thought.
Even though their lives had flipped upside down, Staci and her husband Jason decided to live as normally as possible.
They make sure Lucy does school work and takes walks. A school teacher checks in with her at the hospital and a child life specialist comes to play with her. Last week, they made slime together.
The nurses and doctors at MaineHealth Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital, where Lucy is receiving her chemotherapy treatments, have made magic in a very nonmagical situation, Staci said. In the hospital, Lucy got to pick out her own Christmas tree and ornaments for her room and even made a gingerbread house.
In the past month, the Hansons have spent just five days at home. Staci and Jason take shifts at the hospital. One night, mom stays with Lucy, the next it’s dad. They only live 15 minutes from the hospital, so it’s not a long drive to come home to get new things or do laundry, Jason said.
“It feels like a long time,” Lucy protested.
Her parents are honest with her about RTS, osteosarcoma and her approaching amputation in February.
“We try to lift her up and tell her, ‘Yeah, your world is going to look a little bit different, but you can still live a super normal life even with a prosthetic,’” Staci said. “So we’ve shown her lots of videos of people doing gymnastics and dance and just living fulfilling lives even though they have a prosthetic.”
Rallying around
Since Lucy met Joe and Sue Salisbury while trick-or-treating in the summer years ago, she has become part of their family.
“It’s like having a grandchild,” Joe said.
Lucy will often randomly call the Salisburys to invite them over for a movie night. No matter what they’re doing, even if they’re in the middle of dinner, they always accept.
“You don’t say no to her,” Sue said.
So they will stop what they’re doing, walk across the road in their slippers, and cuddle up with Lucy on the couch to watch whatever movie she wants.
Now, Sue and Joe hold on to those memories of her until they can resume that tradition.
In the meantime, the community is doing everything it can to help the family. The less the Hansons have to worry about, the more they can focus on Lucy and themselves.
Joe and Sue volunteered to receive the letters for Lucy, since the Hansons are rarely home to check their mail.
“This is Lucy’s fan following,” Joe said, pointing to two packages and a bag stuffed with letters.
The Salisburys collected at least 400 cards for her in three weeks. They go to the hospital about once a week to visit Lucy and give her the letters. They would like to see her more, but the visits are limited due to Lucy’s compromised immune system.
The Salisburys own the Daily Grind, a coffee shop in Westbrook. Customers come through all the time to drop off packages and cards for Lucy and ask about her.
Neighbors pick up the Hansons’ mail and plow their driveway.
Joe isn’t surprised by the response from the community. In Westbrook, people have always helped each other out.
“I think it’s just another example of how great the Westbrook community is that everybody is pulling together for Lucy,” Sue said.
The Hanson family has received so many letters and donations, it’s impossible to write enough thank you cards, Staci said. They are saving most of the cards to give to Lucy later, because she still has many more months in the hospital.
“I don’t know how we’ll ever repay our community for the love that we’ve received,” Staci said.
Lucy’s favorite card so far has a drawing of two ducks sitting in a yellow bowl of tomato soup with some crackers on the side.
“Thought some soup and quackers might make you feel better,” Lucy read from the card.
In another package, Lucy received fake snowballs. So Lucy did what any other kid would do —started a snowball fight in her hospital room with her doctors and nurses.
Those interested in sending gifts and cards or signing up to give a meal can visit mealtrain.com/trains/w4lwd0. The RTS Foundation accepts donations at rtsplace.org/. People can also join “The Lucy League” by buying merchandise at bonfire.com/store/bravelikelucy/. All profits go to the Hanson family.
Now that deer season has wrapped up, hunters across Maine are returning to their usual off-season routine: processing meat, watching football and passionately debating the “right” way to hunt and fish.
Anyone who spends time in the woods knows opinions run deep.
So, what’s your hunting hot take? Is camo really necessary, or do deer not care what you’re wearing? Can they really smell a Swisher Sweet on your clothing? Should hunting licenses be harder to get, or should crossbows be classified as firearms?
It’s not just about laws, either — it’s about ethics, tradition and your personal style.
Your hot take might spark a friendly debate — or a fiery one — but either way, we want to hear it.
Share your thoughts in the comments or email Outdoors editors Susan Bard at sbard@bangordailynews.com.
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