Monthly Speaker - Ira Liston, Esq.

Human Trafficking in Southern California

With its unsurpassed natural beauty, perfectly manicured communities, and tremendous wealth, Orange County seems to be the perfect place to live... unless you're an eleven year old sex slave being raped 50 times a week in homes and hotels throughout the OC. 

The majority of human trafficking victims in OC are female sex slaves, and nearly half of them are minors. It has become such a problem in Orange County that the District Attorney's Office formed the Human Exploitation and Trafficking - or HEAT - unit in 2013 to combat it.  Read more here.

Citizens and immigrants alike are being sold like commodities into this destructive and predatory criminal underworld.

Thankfully, some folks are doing something about it, like Attorney Ira Liston, from the Public Law Center.

Attorney Ira Liston

Ira Liston works in PLC’s Immigration Unit, where he represents survivors of human trafficking. Ira’s work focuses on providing direct representation, advocacy, and educating the public about human trafficking in and outside of Orange County. Ira represents PLC in Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force—a collaborative, inter-agency coalition designed to combat modern day slavery and provide survivors of human trafficking with wrap-around services. Ira also specializes in providing assistance to Dreamers—undocumented youth seeking relief under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)—and survivors of crimes and domestic abuse who are eligible for immigration relief. Prior to joining PLC, Ira was a law clerk at Bet Tzedek Legal Services in Los Angeles. During law school as part of the USC Immigration Clinic, Ira represented asylum seekers before the immigration court in Los Angeles, and won asylum for individuals fleeing persecution. Ira received his juris doctor from USC’s Gould School of Law in 2012 and his bachelor’s of art from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota.

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