Meet Shyima Hall

Rhonda:
When I think of families crossing the border into the US illegally, I think of the adults who say that they're traveling with their own children, when in truth, they're bringing children into the United States to sell them for sex.

Of course, many people immigrate legally into the United States, but I can't help but be skeptical of those who choose to come in illegally. Why not go to a legal immigration checkpoint? Do you have something to hide?

I recognize that my perspective is controversial, still, it's my perspective. I explained in last month's column the origin of my concern.

When I mentioned my concern about adults saying that they are family members of the children they're with, and bringing in children to sell without any scrutiny at all, Dr. Sandie Morgan said, you need to speak to my friend, Shyima Hall. Shyima was smuggled into the United States by an Egyptian man who said he was her uncle. In reality, he had purchased her from her parents and used her as a slave right under the noses of immigration and the neighbors in the California community where they lived.

Here's Shyima's story in her words.

"When I was eight years old my Egyptian parents, overwhelmed with close to a dozen children, sold me into slavery. The price? Less than thirty dollars a month. The wealthy Cairo couple who bought Me moved to California two years later, and smuggled the me into the United States.

As a child slave I had no friends or family, no emotional support whatsoever. I did not speak a word of English and, after moving to the United States, was thousands of miles and an ocean away from everything that was familiar to me. On top of that, I was forced to work sixteen or more hours a day seven days a week for my captor’s family, which included five children––some of whom were near my age. At night I would sleep on a squalid mattress in a windowless garage. A bucket and some water was all I had in which to wash my clothes; and I was forbidden from going to school. I never visited a doctor or dentist, even when I was very sick with the flu. Additionally, my captors continuously emotionally abused me frequently physically mistreated me.

While I  was rarely allowed outside the house, neighbors began to suspect something was not quite right. Rumors abounded, and they had glimpses of a small dark-haired girl during times children my age should have been in school. In 2002, acting on a tip from one of those neighbors, child welfare authorities rescued me. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) investigated my case, and my captors were eventually prosecuted, imprisoned, and deported.

I was thirteen at the time of my rescue, I wanted to stay in the United States. I have not returned to Egypt or seen my family since my release. While I could have chosen to fade into obscurity, I decided on a much different path. Now twenty-five, I speak to groups across the country about human trafficking, and about the emotional and physical trauma that victims endure.

My dream is to become a federal agent for ICE to help crack down on human trafficking and free the enslaved. I took a major step toward that goal in December 2011 when I became a citizen of the United States.

My name is Shyima Hall and I wrote The Hidden Girl: The True Story of a Modern-Day Child Slave, with Lisa Wysocky, because I want to speak for those who can't."

The Hidden Girl was published by Simon & Schuster Young Readers and is available everywhere books are sold.

Shyima Hall lives in Banning, California, and works as a retail sales person.