Earlier this month, Luis DeBaca attended a reunion. It wasn't a nostalgic gathering of old classmates or friends from his Huxley childhood or Iowa State days, not an event replete with fond memories and school pride. The memories would best be forgotten. The pride was of a different kind.
The anniversary marked the end of 250 people's enslavement as forced laborers. Ten years ago, as a prosecutor against human trafficking at the U.S. Justice Department, DeBaca had been pivotal in freeing them from an unscrupulous garment-factory owner in American Samoa. The workers had been brought from Vietnam and kept through threats, beatings, indebtedness and food deprivation. Things came to a head after one dared to resist and was beaten to the point of losing an eye.
The survivors have moved on and up. And so has DeBaca. He recently left Justice for the State Department, and prosecutions for diplomacy. President Barack Obama appointed him ambassador-at-large for trafficking in persons.
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