On July 7, the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights examined U.S. efforts to combat human trafficking and slavery.
In his opening remarks, Chair John Cornyn (R-TX) stated, “The trafficking of human beings is evil, immoral, and wrong yet most Americans are unaware even of its existence, let alone its magnitude. According to government estimates, approximately 800,000 human beings are bought, sold or forced across the world’s borders each year. Moreover, Americans may be particularly alarmed to learn that at least 15,000 human beings are trafficked into lives of slavery in the United States each year. Indeed, according to some estimates, the number could be as high as 50,000 per year.”
The Honorable Johnny Sutton, a U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas, said that the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000 (P.L. 106-386) accomplished three goals: 1) it provided for a range of new protections and assistance for victims of trafficking, 2) it expanded and enhanced the penalties available to federal investigators and prosecutors in the pursuit of traffickers, and 3) it expanded U.S. activities internationally to prevent victims from being trafficked. He explained that the TVPA reauthorization bill (P.L. 108-193) improved the 2000 law “by mandating new information campaigns to combat sex tourism and creating a new civil action provision that allows trafficking victims to sue their traffickers in federal court.” He also noted that the bill requires the Attorney General to report to Congress annually on the federal government’s efforts to combat trafficking. To address the large number of women and children trafficked into Texas across the Mexican border, Mr. Sutton explained that his office “has joined with thirty other entities in central Texas, such as the Department of Homeland Security, to create a Coalition Against Human Trafficking. This coalition is made up of law enforcement agencies, social service providers, and other non-governmental organizations, all dedicated to working together to uncover and prosecute these cases, and providing assistance to the victims of these crimes. The coalition meets monthly and recently hosted a training conference on human trafficking issues.” He also said that his office and local law enforcement agencies have created a Human Trafficking/Anti-Smuggling Working Group “to facilitate communication and coordination and to provide education so as to improve our collective ability to identify and prosecute trafficking and smuggling cases in our region.”
The Honorable Michael Shelby, a U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas, summarized the Department of Justice’s efforts to address human trafficking: “The Department has undertaken several initiatives aimed at maintaining our considerable momentum in this area. For example, the Executive Office for United States Attorneys and the Department’s Civil Rights Division have combined to provide training to investigators, prosecutors, and those who work with victims of these crimes. The Civil Rights Division has also devoted considerable resources to the development of awareness raising materials and has set-up and continues to operate a toll-free complaint line to receive information about suspected trafficking activity. In addition, the Department’s Criminal Division is providing its expertise in dismantling organized criminal networks, and pursuing alien smuggling offenses, document fraud offenses, child exploitation offenses, and engaged in working with their foreign counterparts to ensure that trafficking in persons is effectively investigated and prosecuted in other countries as well as in the United States. Later this month, the Department will host a Trafficking In Persons conference, which will bring federal, state, and local law enforcement officials and social service providers from around the country together for three days of seminars and workshops aimed at increasing awareness and cooperation.” Mr. Shelby said that over the past three years, 110 persons have been charged with trafficking offenses, 77 trafficking defendants have been convicted or have pled guilty, and the department has initiated more than 200 new investigations into trafficking offenses.
Testifying on behalf of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Sister Mary Ellen Dougherty, program director for Outreach, Education, and Technical Assistance, and Trafficking in Persons, said that victims of trafficking “are commonly linked by poverty and lack of opportunity. They are also connected by their desperation and urge to escape the double trap of deprivation and their perception of migration as an accessible escape route. Often they seek to escape life in a dreary village or oppressive slum, with the hope of finding opportunity and a brighter future in a more developed land.” She went on to add, “It is in these environments that human traffickers flourish, promising unsuspecting victims an opportunity to travel to a foreign land, at no immediate expense, for employment and housing. At the end of the journey, they find coercion, abuse, entrapment, and exploitation in a brothel, a massage parlor, an illicit factory, or an agricultural outpost. By the time they are rescued, if ever, they are shattered by physical, mental, and psychological abuse in the roles of prostitutes, domestic servants, or manual laborers. Many become ill with disease or become infected with HIV. Some lose their lives.”
Sister Dougherty explained that faith-based organizations are well positioned to provide assistance to victims of trafficking because they “act from a theological and philosophical perspective. For example, the themes of Catholic social teaching the protection of human dignity and human rights; the preferential option for the poor; the call to family and community; the rights of workers; solidarity and care for creation all address evils inherent in human trafficking. These principles of justice are not unique to Catholicism but are manifest in most religions. Commitment to these principles gives the issue of human trafficking a sense of urgency to many faiths and religious communities.” She also noted that faith-based organizations have national and international partners that enhance their capacity and reach to assist victims. They also have human and financial resources, which can assist in the fight against human trafficking.
In concluding, Sister Dougherty offered a number of recommendations for the subcommittee’s consideration: 1) funding for services should be increased and services should be made available to victims from the time they are rescued to the point they are self-sufficient and in good health; 2) more avenues should be created for the referral of victims for certification and services; and 3) federal agencies should better coordinate efforts, especially in the certification, protection, and care of victims.
Mohamed Mattar, co-director of The Protection Project at The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, identified areas in which the federal government needs to step up its efforts to combat trafficking. He argued that the main challenge facing law enforcement is the identification of victims of trafficking, but stated, “This is not an easy task especially because many cases of trafficking involve organized crime. Victims’ mistrust of public officials and the lack of public awareness about victims’ rights makes it difficult for victims of trafficking to come forward and cooperate with law enforcement officials in the investigation and prosecution of cases of trafficking.” Professor Mattar explained that many women are trafficked into the United States to work in massage parlors, strip clubs, and other sexually oriented establishments. While most of these establishments are legal, many women are forced to work as prostitutes after hours. He insisted that states take steps to curb activities at these establishments that create a demand for trafficking. Finally, Professor Mattar argued that the penalties for trafficking should be enhanced: “State resources should be used to prosecute cases of trafficking and especially when federal resources are not always available in light of the diverse priorities of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). This would ultimately have the effect of identifying more victims of trafficking in the different states.”
Charles Song, a staff attorney at the Coalition to Abolish Trafficking and Slavery, said that U.S. efforts to combat human trafficking “are being thwarted by unintentional, yet overly restrictive barriers to critical victim protections. Relatively speaking, there is tremendous benefit and very little risk and cost associated with the United States providing life-saving protections and services to human beings who have narrowly escaped from violent criminals with their lives. Conversely, survivors of trafficking are confronted with the highest possible cost and risk: theirs, their parents’, their siblings’, and their children’s lives.” He urged Congress to amend the TVPA reauthorization bill to make it easier for victims of trafficking to access government protections and assist in investigations and prosecutions against their traffickers.
Testifying on behalf of Human Rights Watch, U.S. Advocacy Director Wendy Patten offered recommendations on how the United States can improve its efforts to combat human trafficking: 1) the Senate should ratify the Trafficking in Persons Protocol, which would require the international community to criminalize trafficking in persons and provide a framework for enhanced protection of, and assistance to, trafficking victims; 2) the federal government should enhance its capacity to provide protection to victims trafficked into the United States; 3) the government should expand and intensify its efforts to train federal law enforcement and prosecutors; 4) Congress should not enact the Homeland Security Enhancement Act (S. 1906), “which would require state and local officials to enforce federal civil immigration laws and to detain and remove non-citizens;” and 5) the United States should return control to victims of trafficking.
House Hearing
On July 8, the House Government Reform Subcommittee on Wellness and Human Rights heard testimony on the federal government’s approach to eradicate the trafficking in persons.
Chair Dan Burton (R-IN) stated that modern-day slavery is “an all too real and living nightmare for the 27 million people who have fallen victim” to human trafficking. He explained that trafficking in persons has become “a highly profitable subset of organized crime, accounting for an estimated $13 billion in revenues every year to the global economy, $7 billion of which is a direct result of the illicit sex trade. In addition, human slavery is the third largest form of illegal trafficking, closely trailing the drug trade and illegal gun distribution.”
Addressing the large number of women and children who are trafficked into the United States each year, Ranking Member Diane Watson (D-CA) explained that most of the victims are from Southeast Asia and the former Soviet Union and arrive in New York, Florida, North Carolina, Hawaii, and California. She also noted that a large majority of victims are found in her hometown of Los Angeles. Rep. Watson argued that the fight against human trafficking “must be fought on two battlegrounds,” here in the United States and abroad.
As part of the TVPA, Congress mandated an annual State Department report on the global trends in trafficking. The annual report rates countries according to whether they meet minimum standards for addressing the global problem. Countries are assigned to a three-tier system: Tier 1 countries meet the minimum standards and are fully complying with those standards; Tier 2 countries are not fully complying with the minimum standards but are making a significant effort to comply; and Tier 3 countries are not fully complying with the minimum standards and are not making any effort to comply. The 2004 report was released on June 14.
The State Department Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons Director John Miller highlighted a number of new features in the 2004 report, which “has become an invaluable diplomatic tool the State Department uses to accelerate progress [in anti-trafficking efforts] abroad.” He stated, “The 2004 report…has been expanded to include 140 countries, and, as in the past, we are working vigorously with governments to achieve positive actions. This year you will notice some new features in the report: more reports from victims, new best practices, and stories of individual heroes in the struggle against human trafficking.” Mr. Miller also noted that the TVPA reauthorization bill created a “Special Watch List,” which includes countries that have improved one tier from the previous report and “weak Tier 2” countries.
Mr. Miller also detailed U.S. efforts to eradicate human trafficking: “The Department of Homeland Security has taken an aggressive approach to the worldwide problem of human trafficking, investigating and providing short- and long-term immigration relief to trafficking victims as well as arresting, processing, detaining, and removing undocumented traffickers from the United States. Additionally, the Department of Health and Human Services has launched a public awareness campaign to help rescue victims, including the first national 24-hour hotline. In comparing the last three fiscal years to the previous three fiscal years, the Department of Justice has nearly tripled the number of prosecutions of human traffickers. The Department of Defense has issued a zero-tolerance policy on trafficking in persons for its 3,000,000 service members, civilian employees and contractors, and Defense personnel overseas receive education and training on human trafficking.”
Testifying on behalf of the Department of Justice, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Alexander Acosta summarized the department’s “victim-centered approach” to combat human trafficking: “The physical and mental needs for assistance are well documented. Through victim interviews, our prosecutors have learned that trafficking victims are typically lured to this country through false promises of a new job or a husband, which the victims believe will lead to a better life in the United States. Once at their destination, however, trafficking victims are treated like cattle, stripped of their identity and travel papers, and often subjected to extortion and violence. Such victims are traumatized and disoriented, and many suffer post-traumatic stress disorders. In addition, victims of sex trafficking often contract sexually transmitted diseases and, in the process, are literally trafficked to death.” Mr. Acosta said that the department has promulgated new regulations that “mandate actions that federal law enforcement and other federal officials must undertake to ensure the trafficking victims who are willing to cooperate with law enforcement are protected and provided access to the full panoply of benefits offered under the statute.”
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Principal Deputy Secretary for Children and Families Christopher Gersten explained that under the TVPA, HHS is the agency responsible for certifying a trafficking victim’s eligibility for protection and federal services. In his written testimony, he walked the subcommittee through the certification process of a trafficking victim who has been referred to HHS by the Department of Homeland Security or the Department of Justice: “Once a referral is received, we must ensure that the victim has met criteria required by the [TVPA] in order to be certified. If the appropriate criteria are met, then a certification letter in the case of adults or an eligibility letter in the case of minors will be provided to victims safely and without breaches of confidentiality. We then contact grantees of local refugee services providers and other benefit-granting agencies to inquire about appropriate local programs to help the victims. Many victims are in need of psychological counseling, medical assistance and legal referrals.”
Mr. Gersten noted that trafficking victim identification rates have been low, and for this reason HHS initiated a public awareness campaign entitled, “The Campaign to Rescue and Restore Victims of Human Trafficking.” He explained that the campaign “is designed to overcome the barriers the federal government has experienced in identifying and rescuing victims barriers that keep victims well-hidden from society’s view even as they live among us,” adding, “The Campaign message is a call to action for people to Look Beneath the Surface, as the Campaign posters implore, of people they encounter and to call the HHS trafficking information and referral hotline to report possible trafficking situations. The Campaign has developed posters, brochures, fact sheets, educational materials and a trafficking website.” Mr. Gersten said that since the new campaign was initiated, calls to the hotline have increased more than 60 percent.
A number of nongovernmental organizations were represented at the hearing, and many of the witnesses reiterated suggestions made in previous hearings. Michele Clark, co-director of The Protection Project at The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, described how the Internet has impacted the trafficking in persons. “An increasingly troubling modern day phenomenon is the rise of on-line communities and their new function as auction block and recruiting station. On-line communities provide individuals, primarily young people, with instant access to thousands of ‘friends,’ including romantic partners, party buddies, or career networking possibilities. Newcomers create a personal profile which includes at least one photo and a personal profile of likes and dislikes, interests, dreams and other personal information. The potential for pimps and traffickers is mind-boggling. Whereas finding girls used to involve time spent in the street or bar, buying drinks and driving from place to place, now all that is required is a session to a local computer, plugging in a zip code and asking for a new listing of girls, 14-18, in a particular zip-code. It’s a slave owner’s paradise: Instant availability, the advantages of anonymity, and no accountability.”
