Statement from the Sex Worker Outreach Project Los Angeles (SWOPLA) Regarding Recent Sex Trafficking Operation Arrests by the U.S. Department of Justice on the Figueroa Corridor
August 15th, 2025
The Sex Worker Outreach Project Los Angeles (SWOPLA) is a sex worker–led harm reduction and advocacy organization. For over seven years, we have conducted twice-monthly street-based outreach on the Figueroa Corridor, delivering condoms, lube, snacks, cash, hand warmers, and other essentials to sex workers, reaching more than 5,000 workers. We also provide peer-led drop-in spaces, online and in-person support, and harm reduction services that are not contingent on law enforcement involvement.
The allegations in this case describe serious harm, including the trafficking of a child, physical and sexual violence, and the exploitation of minors and vulnerable youth. We condemn such abuse. Survivors deserve immediate safety, long-term stability, and access to care on their own terms. As an anti-carceral organization, we recognize that these needs are rarely met through high-profile arrests or lengthy prosecutions. While this is being hailed as the “first major takedown of a sex trafficking operation” in the area, decades of law enforcement–centered anti-trafficking strategies have shown us that these costly operations do not work. The 2021 review by USC’s Gould International Human Rights Clinic confirmed that such operations routinely fail to protect victims, prevent trafficking, or connect survivors to the services that could prevent re-exploitation. Instead, they often result in the arrest of sex workers, failed prosecutions, and secondary victimization through the criminal justice system. Real safety requires stable housing, comprehensive healthcare, economic opportunity, and unconditional community-based support.
We assert that sexual labor exists on a spectrum, from fully consensual labor to experiences of force, fraud, or coercion. Sex workers are often survivors of trafficking themselves. Understanding this spectrum requires looking closely at the realities of informal economies, where relationships between workers, clients, and third parties are complex. Many street-based workers have shared mixed reactions to the Hoover gang’s arrests. Some hope conditions on the stroll might improve; others fear increased violence from clients now that certain known figures are gone. These complexities cannot be solved by arrests. Exploitation is rooted in systemic failures that include the foster care system, deep poverty, and decades of policing and disinvestment in South Central L.A.
We recognize that those being charged with trafficking are all under the age of 31 and born and raised in Los Angeles, they are part of our community. We must demand accountability for the conditions that push young people into informal economies. What resources is the City of Los Angeles offering beyond incarcerating them? For decades, policing on the Figueroa Corridor has disproportionately targeted Black and Brown sex workers under the guise of anti-trafficking, while failing to address the economic inequality, housing instability, and systemic racism that create the conditions for exploitation.
Applauding high-risk federal prosecutions framed as “tough on crime” is dangerous, especially in the current political climate. We are living under an openly authoritarian administration where similar “cleanup” rhetoric has been used in Washington, D.C., and other cities to justify sweeping arrests of street-based communities, displacing and criminalizing people rather than meeting people’s human needs such as housing. Such operations serve to expand carceral systems that create harm in BIPOC communities.
Labeling the entire Figueroa Corridor a “prostitution haven” ignores the militant persecution faced by the all sex workers who work there and invites intensified policing that puts them and others in danger. Public rhetoric that conflates all sex work with trafficking fuels stigma, drives sex work further underground, and makes it harder for survivors to access support.
If we want a safer Figueroa Corridor, we must invest in the supportive programs that are actually accessible by, and respectful towards, the community, including peer-led programs that help with housing, income, healthcare, and network and community-building. With all of these potentially helpful solutions, for the City to see Figueroa Corridor as a place to only “support” through arrests and police violence has led to a feeling of neglect. Until we address the root causes of exploitation, including poverty, racism, housing insecurity, and the criminalization of survival, the cycle will continue regardless of how many arrests make the headlines.