CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Texas Representative Todd Hunter and representatives from several agencies like border patrol, DPS, CCPD and more were in attendance at Tuesday's Human Trafficking Summit led by the Corpus Christi Regional Transportation Authority.
Deputy CEO for CCRTA Miguel Rendon said there are 160 buses that travel throughout the city each day with a daily number of 10 to 11,000 passengers.
"This conversation started a few years ago, and then we learned that 40 percent of the victims use public transportation moving people from the border up north in the United States," Rendon said. "[Passengers] they can be our eye and ears if we inform them with the right information referencing human trafficking."
Educating Coordinator for New Life Refuges Sharon Ray if you think this sort of crime doesn't happen here in Corpus Christi you are mistaken.
"We really have to take off those blinders, realize that it really is happening and figure out a way to educate as many people as we can," she said.
According to Ray, in 2019 there were 2,900 children in our area who fell victim to trafficking. She added she's not saying that to invoke fear but rather, awareness.
"It isn't happening to every child and every situation that you find isn't trafficking, however it is happening to a lot," she said.
Rendon says working closely with law enforcement and teaching not only their bus drivers but their riders the signs can make all the difference.
"Knowing the numbers that are going through here," Rendon said. "Through Corpus and south Texas I wanted to assemble all law enforcement agencies from state, federal and local and find out what they're doing. With this information we can know who to contact if we encounter a victim of human trafficking."
According to data, Houston has the highest number of human trafficking victims in the nation-which is only 250 miles from Corpus Christi. Rendon plans to bring back all of the agencies in the next couple months to continue to work on this mission.