La Casa del Jardin: Tijuana Safehouse a Haven for Trafficked Girls Brooke Binkowski - Fronteras Desk
go to original February 3, 2014

Alma Tucker sits in her office at La Casa de Jardin. The girls in her shelter are Mexican nationals, rescued by authorities in both the United States and Mexico. It is one of only two such group homes in Mexico. (Brooke Binkowski/Fronteras)

LISTEN: Alma Tucker started La Casa del Jardin, or The Garden House, after a career with the Mexican Consulate.

The 19-year-old girl has a baby face covered in pancake makeup, and her bracelets jangle when she gestures. She tells her story tonelessly and hesitantly, but she wants people to know what she went through.

The border between San Diego and Tijuana remains one of the most heavily trafficked international crossings in the world. And that traffic has a dark side: people, especially girls, are being bought, sold and forced into labor or sex.

An early January bust in San Diego netted dozens of arrests for sex trafficking. But there are few resources for victims on the Mexican side of the border.

Now, a San Diego resident has opened a shelter in Tijuana for victimized girls, one of only two of its kind in all of Mexico.

Read the article at Fronteras Desk

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