‘Out of the Shadows’: El Paso woman’s story of surviving human trafficking

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- El Paso resident Chong Kim is speaking out about her experience surviving sex trafficking.

The FBI says every 40 seconds, a child goes missing in the U.S., and many become victims of sex trafficking like Kim.

The movie "Eden" from 2013, was written by Kim to tell her own story.

Kim was born in Korea in 1975. Her uncle, an American marine, brought her family to Dallas and they became U.S. citizens in 1984.

But 10 years later, she says a man she was dating trafficked her — she was 19.

"I fell in love with him, I didn't know anything about red flags," said Kim. "I did grow up in a violent home, so I didn't know what healthy relationship looked like."

She said he invited her on a trip to Florida, but Kim says he burned all her documents, including her citizenship papers. 

On that trip, they stopped in Enid, Oklahoma, where things took a turn.

"I was being beaten, I was being raped," said Kim.

She says she was handcuffed to an apartment door for over a month until she escaped and ran into a woman.

"She said, 'I will help you,'" Kim explained. "And I'm like, 'okay, yay, she's going to help me get out of this abusive relationship,' not realizing she was a madam, and madam means female trafficker."

Kim says she was taken to an Native American reservation in Nevada, but she thought she was taken to a foreign country.

"Even though I'm Korean American, I was sold as a Japanese 13-year-old girl, 14 year old Chinese girl...," said Kim. "They would make us watch these girls be beaten, raped and sodomized. After a while, I couldn't take it anymore."

Kim said she experienced anger and hopelessness watching what was happening.

"I got angry, and I remember I said, 'God, I hate you. Where are you?"

It all changed when she experienced this:

"I saw this blue butterfly, and it landed on my finger," said Kim. "And I remember I would hear the whisper saying, 'Everything's going to be okay.'"

Kim then moved up to become a madam, thinking she could outsmart her traffickers to escape.

"I felt like God was giving me a direction, and that meant I had to be like the traffickers, so that way I could find a way to escape," she said.

She said men would call and ask for a "companion" or request a child — never discussing sex over the phone.

"We're talking about the age of 12... I started seeing a lot of Hollywood elites, men like Epstein, celebrities, you know, elites, politicians," Kim explained.

She says she was also force-fed with cocaine, meth, and heroin.

Kim says she was raped and impregnated and says her child would've been sold into trafficking. So in 1996, she decided to escape — which was a challenge without legal documents.

She was 22 years old when gave birth to a girl in Texas and immediately gave her up to adoption. Kim ran away to New York, looking for help to become documented again at Family Sanctuary.

"They helped write a letter saying 'Chong is not undocumented, we're working on her papers right now, she is a U.S. citizen,'" continued Kim. "So I had that piece of paper to carry around."

A man Kim dated in New York encouraged her to speak out, and they had a son.

"He said, let me tell you, 'When you speak out, you bring awareness and then you will also build allies,'" said Kim.

Kim says the man died in 1998 after being found shot.

Becoming a mother and protecting her son became her fuel to advocate for human trafficking awareness starting in 2005.

That's when Hollywood started to share her story — She went on to talk shows and made several media appearances.

Now, her campaign "Every 40 Seconds" is being spread by celebrities.

Kim wants to remind everyone that grooming still exists and in a more modern way — social media. 

"Our devices have become our predators," she says.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, every 19 seconds, a child is groomed online.

"I can't allow my fear to stop me from being silent because that's what they want," said Kim.

From producing a new film "Every 40 seconds," to hoping to launch The Law Clinic in El Paso — an organization to help victims and survivors — she'll never stop sharing her story, in order to save others' lives.