About 20 students lit candles to protest human trafficking in New Mexico during a candlelight vigil Wednesday night in front of the UNM Bookstore. The vigil was organized by Women Empowerment Developing Global Leadership, a student organization at UNM.
Natalie Peña, a member of the organization, said WEDGL started to organize the protest in mid-January. She said the event aimed to bring awareness to the University community about the severity of human trafficking in the state.
“What we’re trying to do is to just bring awareness of the issues around sex trafficking in particular because it’s happening here in our own state,” she said. “We don’t know it occurs, but it happens more often in New Mexico because we’re really close … to the borders.”
Peña said human trafficking in the state most often involves women from Mexico. Peña said that although human trafficking does not seem to be a big problem in the state, she said students still need to be aware it happens. She said the University community should care more about the problem. “It’s a big issue,” she said. “We need to be aware of it as citizens.”
