On March 20, the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border, Maritime and Global Counterterrorism held a hearing on human trafficking and immigrant detention.
Chair Loretta Sanchez (D-CA) stated, “It is estimated that there are 600,000 to 800,000 people trafficked across borders annually. And, between 2 million and 4 million more are trafficked within their own countries. Of all these people women and children are the primary victims of trafficking.” Rep. Sanchez commended a local human trafficking task force in Orange County that “brings together local law enforcement, federal agencies, and community service organizations to respond to the needs of trafficking victims,” adding, “These are the kinds of initiatives that we should be supporting initiatives that mobilize local intelligence and resources, and that come from and are supported by our communities.”
Gabriel Garcia, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Human Smuggling and Trafficking Unit program manager, stressed the importance of ICE’s collaboration with foreign law enforcement agencies, the NGO community, and federal partners to detect and prosecute human traffickers. He stated that ICE maintains 56 Attaché offices worldwide and described a recent case involving the ICE Attaché in Russia: “The ICE Attaché reported that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Yekaterinburg, Russia, received information from a concerned mother that her daughter was being held against her will at a Florida residence. This lead was forwarded to the respective domestic field office. ICE agents located the victim and determined that she was held against her will, beaten, and forced into prostitution by the defendant in this case. The victim was placed under the care of a service provider. The ICE Attaché in Moscow worked with a Russian anti-trafficking NGO who contacted the victim and counseled her until the victim felt comfortable and agreed to cooperate. The trafficker was arrested, indicted, and ultimately pled guilty to trafficking charges.” Noting ICE’s “victim-centered approach,” Mr. Garcia said that certified trafficking victims receive short-term immigration protection (“Continued Presence”) that allows them to remain in the United States for up to one year in order to apply for a longer nonimmigrant status. Mr. Garcia highlighted ICE’s “aggressive outreach campaign to educate local, state, and federal law enforcement and NGOs” on human trafficking, and ICE’s mandatory web-based human trafficking course for its agents.
Asserting that “the broad scope of the U.S. anti-trafficking policy has been gradually narrowed to fit an anti-prostitution agenda that is based on the unproven belief that all prostitution (even legal prostitution in Nevada) is trafficking,” Ann Jordan, director of the Global Rights Initiative Against Trafficking in Persons, explained that the 2003 amendment to the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 (P.L. 106-386) restricts federal funding to organizations that do not support prostitution or the legalization of prostitution. This, she said, has limited “the ‘free flow of ideas’ needed to develop sound and effective evidence-based policies on human trafficking and prostitution,” caused “effective and respected organizations” to reject U.S. funding, and diverted much-needed trafficking funds to “non-trafficking prostitution cases.” Ms. Jordan also voiced her concerns regarding unaccompanied trafficked children having to undergo stressful interviews by the Department of Justice or Homeland Security before qualifying for a visa and other benefits. She proposed that the Department of Health and Human Services be authorized to transfer child victims of trafficking quickly into the Unaccompanied Refugee Minors program “where they can receive necessary emergency assistance such as medical care, relocation, family reunification, and mental health care.”
Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force Co-Director Derek Marsh stated that the emphasis on “severe” trafficking in federal law “has hampered the ability of prosecutors to pursue human trafficking charges against subjects” because “federal agencies will not collaborate unless juveniles are identified or severe elements can be proven before arrests are made.” He cited a recent case of severe trafficking in Orange County involving a young girl “sold into slavery by her parents in Egypt, kept in the garage on a urine soaked mattress for years, had to perform menial chores at the private residence, was not allowed outside contact, including education, and had to wash her clothes out of a bucket while the traffickers and their children enjoyed all the modern amenities.” Mr. Marsh contrasted that example with a more typical case of commercial sex exploitation involving illegal immigrants from Malaysia and Singapore: the women’s passports were confiscated, brothels were monitored by closed circuit television, and victims “were required to work 21 day cycles, with 7 days off, in accordance with their menstrual period.” He said, “The frustrations in finding cases involving trafficking, but not severe trafficking, put strains on the federal and local collaborations and information sharing commitments.”
Victor Cerda, partner at Siff & Cerda LLP, discussed the role of detention in the immigration process, including victims of trafficking. He stated, “The unique factors surrounding families, children, and trafficking victims require additional care and consideration…Efforts to create family friendly environments should be pursued, as well as viable alternatives to detention that meet both the individual’s and the government’s needs. Training and efforts should be undertaken to ensure that the unique needs of this population are in fact recognized and understood by both ICE and its contractors. Intelligence and questioning should be utilized to identify genuine trafficking cases as well as genuine asylum seekers.” He added that “genuine victims of trafficking should be able to have their claims for benefits as such victims reviewed and adjudicated properly and efficiently,” but stated that he disagrees “with any view that would eliminate any type of detention for such populations.”
