By Paige Thomas, SAJE NOlympics Intern
June 28, 2026
In April, LA28, the private nonprofit Los Angeles Summer Olympics organizing committee, published their Human Rights Strategy. The report, required by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for every Olympics host city since 2024, was originally set to be published in December 2025 and appeared in the LA City Clerk File back dated to December 19, 2025. Putting aside the optics of fudging the publication date of a document meant to bring more transparency to the Games, many have also pointed out the inherent contradiction of publishing a human rights strategy for a mega event that has infamously displaced and disadvantaged the residents of its host cities.
Concerns about human rights are particularly relevant to the 2028 Olympics because it will be held in Los Angeles, where we’ve witnessed our neighbors being racially profiled, harassed, and kidnapped by federal agents. The rise of federal immigration raids has many critics fearing that the event will bring thousands of ICE and other federal agents to the city. Even the IOC is bending to the Trump administration’s authoritarian whims by implementing a renewed ban on transgender athletes in March. So it seems only logical to ask: What is LA28’s Human Rights Strategy really for?
The Myth of Sex Trafficking and Mega Events
One of the report’s stated objectives is to protect victims of sex trafficking, one of eight priority human rights initiatives. Its particular focus on sex trafficking invites interrogation, especially when considering LA28 chairperson Casey Wasserman’s connections to Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. While it has long been claimed that sex trafficking increases during mega events, there is little evidence it does. In fact, the evidence shows labor trafficking is much more prevalent during mega events, as even LA28 admits: “Stakeholder organizations have indicated to LA28 that trafficking for forced labor is more likely than trafficking for sex workers in the context of mega events.” (LA28, 7).
A primary flaw in the LA28 Human Rights Strategy is that is does not differentiate between sex work and sex trafficking. Because some types of sex work, such as prostitution, are illegal, there often are not clear distinctions made between autonomous and forced sex work. Furthermore, conflating sex work and sex trafficking can yield deadly results, according to LGBTQ+ rights advocate Fatima Shabazz and researcher and scholar Kimberly Soriano, who point to ways the definition of human trafficking is fluid, often employed for political gain rather than concern for victims. For example, Trump’s border wall, violence against migrants, and surveillance along the US southern border have all been invoked as justified to prevent human trafficking. In particular, Soriano has written how the term “trafficking” itself “avoids holding the state responsible for how it makes migrant women vulnerable to exploitation through precarious migratory status and the criminalization of sexual labor.”
Unsurprisingly, nearly all of LA28’s proposed solutions to so-called sex trafficking are carceral, despite the overwhelming evidence that shows criminalizing sex work does not prevent it, and only pushes sex workers into less safe conditions. Specifically, “LA28 will build on strong existing U.S. and local frameworks for countering human trafficking and on best practices from other international sporting events to address these concerns at these Games” (LA28, 7). Unfortunately for Los Angeles, that international playbook is increased policing. This is already evidenced by the 18 new security cameras along Western Avenue between Olympic and Santa Monica boulevards, which the LAPD has said they intend to watch 24/7. And in March, City Council authorized a motion to redirect $452,135 of Los Angeles Police Department funds to build a “Real-Time Crime Center” after LA28 leaders visited Beverly Hills’ Real Time Watch Center, which compiles live feed of surveilled public spaces. According to the LA Public Press, the system will combine “live camera feeds, license plate readers and advanced analytics into a single command hub where officers can monitor the city around the clock.
As LA28 continues to push the narrative of increased sex trafficking as justification for more policing, sex workers and their allies have been advocating against these kinds of measures, which they say harm their communities. Earlier this summer, a coalition of drag queens, organizers, queer and trans community members, and sex workers assembled in the courtyard of the Los Angeles LGBT Center for their first annual celebration of International Whores’ Day (IWD), a commemoration of the June 2, 1975, protest against police violence staged by more than 100 sex workers in Lyons, France. Presented by the LGBT Center in collaboration with One Institute, the City of West Hollywood, and the Stripper Worker Center, and sponsored by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, the Trans Latin@ Coalition, and the Stripper Co-op, IWD took place within a larger context of Pride Month celebrations, highlighting the interconnected struggle and liberation of queer people and sex workers. These connections are also present in the context of the Olympic Games: Olympic athletes are subjected to invasive genetic testing by the IOC in order to exclude trans athletes, and sex workers are narrowly labeled as victims of trafficking by LA28, and both groups are rendered dangerously disposable.
At the IWD event, Soriano spoke about the risks of relying on law enforcement as the sole line of defense against sex trafficking. Discussing the specific vulnerabilities of street-based sex workers, she said, “The police don’t do anything except punish survivors.” She spoke about her friend, Linda Becerra Moran, a trans Ecuadorian woman experiencing homelessness. On February 7, 2025, Linda called 911 in tears, saying she was being held captive and forced against her will into performing sex acts on her captor and other men. Police were dispatched to her motel, and within seven minutes of arriving, they had shot Linda and handcuffed her limp body. She passed away as a result of her injuries three weeks later, on February 27; she was 30 years old. As Soriano wrote, “Linda Becerra Moran needed housing and support. When she called the police, they shot her” “[is] not an exception. It’s the rule.” Linda’s story is a clear and horrific example of why police cannot be trusted in helping our cities’ most vulnerable residents, made even more at risk by Olympic security measures. In their final report on Moran’s death, the LAPD noted, “No officers or community members were injured as a result of this incident.”
Moran’s story is more than just an individual circumstance, or a random instance of unjust police brutality; it is the cumulative result of a system designed to target, criminalize, and exact violence against trafficking survivors, sex workers, migrants, trans people, and other vulnerable communities. LA28’s Human Rights Strategy vaguely claims, “The City promotes community-led safety initiatives like policing in partnership with key communities, including African Americans, Latinos, and other Angelenos, to increase cooperation and reduce violence” (LA28, 22). But community partner Saving Innocence already has been criticized by advocates for criminalizing sex workers; as Soriano wrote, “Saving Innocence further entrenches police as first responders to those experiencing crisis while engaging in sexual labor,” and they “opposed Senate Bill 357, which repealed a ‘walking while trans’ law that targeted trans Black women.”
Federal Policing Won’t Protect Vulnerable Communities
LA28’s reliance on federal policing as a core component of its Human Rights Strategy is also concerning. Federal law enforcement is necessarily involved in the Olympics because the Games are classified as a National Special Security Event (NSSE). According to the LA28 report, this will mean “local, state, national, and international law enforcement agencies will ramp up information sharing and coordination” (LA28, 9). The federal government has already allocated $1 billion towards Olympic security.
The NSSE designates the Secret Service, part of the Department of Homeland Security, as “the lead federal agency responsible for coordinating, planning, exercising, and implementing security.” LA28 considers the Department of Homeland Security crucial to the prevention and redress of human trafficking. The report omits the fact that DHS is the same government agency responsible for the ongoing assault on immigrant communities across the US. Even more ironic, in their 2021 report “ICE Faces Challenges in its Efforts to Assist Human Trafficking Victims,” the DHS concluded: “ICE did not adequately identify and track human trafficking crimes. Specifically, ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) did not accurately track dissemination and receipt of human trafficking tips, did not consistently follow up on tips, and did not maintain accurate data.”
LA28’s Human Rights Strategy also claims “The Department of Justice runs the Office for the Victims of Crime that provides comprehensive services for victims of human trafficking, including housing, legal aid, mental health care, and services for specific populations (e.g., youth) among multiple resources for Human Trafficking victims and organizations that support them” (LA28, 8). A quick Google search will show that the Office for the Victims of Crime does not provide direct services to victims; rather, it funnels grants to service organizations. The Human Rights Strategy does not touch on the fact that the office has been hamstrung by the Trump administration’s attack on DEI, or that it is currently subject to a temporary restraining order filed by the District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
The report also names the “T visa” program as an avenue for support for undocumented sex-trafficking victims. But the program makes the very people it’s meant to serve vulnerable to ICE: “Unfortunately, if ICE denies a stay of removal and you are deported before your T visa application is decided by USCIS, your application will be denied because you must be in the U.S. to obtain a T visa.”
How can LA28 believe the DHS will prevent human trafficking during the Olympics when all of the evidence, including the organization’s own reporting, points to a history of incompetence and human rights abuses of their own?
Alternative Recommendations
While the only way to protect Angelenos from the adverse effects of the Games is to not have them at all, advocates continue to assert LA28 should at least allocate some funding toward human rights efforts. (LA28 has consistently failed to show up to the L.A. City Council’s Ad Hoc Committee on the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games meetings to discuss the Human Rights Strategy.) On June 30, LA28 CEO Reynold Hoover announced the organization would create a grant program for “human-rights services.” Questions remain around how much will be allocated and which organizations will be eligible; LA28 claims funding will be available by August, although many are skeptical. As Sunita Jain Anti-Trafficking Initiative (SJI) said in a statement, “LA28 has taken far too long to make these basic commitments.”
In December 2025, when LA28 first agreed to draft a Human Rights Strategy, SJI published their own research, concluding a minimum of $3.1 million would be required for human trafficking prevention around the Games, not including the funds needed to address the other seven sections of the report. The SJI report emphasizes the specific need for prevention mechanisms, given that police can only intervene after harm has been done. As they put it, “law‑enforcement coordination cannot substitute for evidence‑based prevention, nor can it replace investments in community organizations that provide critical services long before and long after the Games.” During a June 29 conversation with Torched editor Alissa Walker, SJI Director Stephanie Richards discussed the complex challenges of aiding trafficking survivors against the background of a megaevent, especially as necessary resources like as hotel rooms become highly coveted by event goers.
Richards also expressed that despite LA28’s claim that “Public awareness campaigns are essential for combating human trafficking” (LA28, 9), bringing broad public attention to the issue is not enough to combat it. She underscored the potential harm these campaigns could cause if not informed by the lived experiences experts, as they may reinforce a particular image of victimhood that does not resonate, particularly because many trafficking victims end up freeing themselves after coming to terms with their exploitation.
The concerns around empowering survivors to seek support themselves are only heightened, Richard said, by LA28’s reliance on ICE, as “In this climate of workplace raids, deportations, and expanded federal security, labor trafficking survivors are even less likely to come forward for help, making detection and intervention increasingly difficult” (SJI, 3). In light of these concerns, SJI’s report calls for federal and local law enforcement agencies to be monitored in order to prevent abuses. They also highlight the potential for an alternative human rights model that uplifts the most vulnerable by funding community-based prevention mechanisms like harm reduction, reinforcing survivor-centered resources, and overall emphasizing a public safety strategy that prevents federal and local law enforcement from targeting survivors.
If LA28 is concerned about human rights, they should listen to and work with those closest to the issues. As SJI stated, “LA28 now has the chance to become the first Olympic organizing committee to make a significant, community‑centered investment in human rights protections — but only if the funding is meaningful and transparent.”
