Human trafficking is the recruitment, harboring, transporting, or procurement of a person for labor or services for the purpose of involuntary servitude, slavery, or forced commercial sex acts. Put simply, human trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery. Human trafficking includes all aspects of forcing an individual to perform labor or other services, including domestic, agricultural, factory and restaurant work, as well as commercial sex acts.

The U.S. Department of State has estimated that 14,500 to 17,500 persons are brought into the United States each year for labor or sexual exploitation. Due to its economic stability, cultural diversity, major interstates and airports, large number of sexually oriented businesses, and international border, Texas has become a hub for human trafficking. NTCAHT partners have worked with hundreds of trafficked persons in recent years.

Human smuggling is a crime that involves the violation of a country's border. Human trafficking is a crime that involves the violation of a person's fundamental right to freedom. Human smugglers bring people across the country's border illegally. Human traffickers threaten, trick, cheat, beat, terrify and coerce people for economic gain. Human trafficking may, but does not always, involve movement.

Traffickers control people in many ways. They sometimes create physical barriers to escape, such as locked doors, barbed wire, and physical violence. However, they also use debt bondage, psychological manipulation and threats. Human traffickers often threaten family members and take away immigration documents, so that to the trafficked person, it feels as if leaving is not an option. Trafficked people are also often culturally and socially isolated, may not speak English, and do not typically see themselves as victims or know that there is help available to them.