HUMAN TRAFFICKING IS AN AFFRONT TO HUMAN DIGNITY: With millions affected worldwide, human trafficking is a global atrocity that deprives millions of their universal human rights.
- Human trafficking, also known as modern slavery, affects people from all backgrounds at home and abroad, placing millions into a sickening form of exploitation.
- Per the International Labor Organization, there may be as many as 24.9 million victims of forced labor across the world, with millions going unidentified and unseen.
- Children are especially vulnerable to this evil practice, as they account for 25 percent of modern slaves.
- Victims are compelled to perform labor or commercial sex acts through the use of fraud, force, or coercion, reducing the value of human lives to that of mere commodities.
- The United States is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children – both United States citizens and foreign nationals – victimized by human trafficking.
- In FY 2017, DHS’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations (ICE/HSI) initiated 833 human trafficking cases, resulting in 1,602 arrests and 578 convictions, and identified 518 victims of human trafficking.
- The HHS-funded National Human Trafficking Hotline (NHTH) received reports of 8,686 unique cases of potential trafficking in FY 2017, identifying 21,644 potential victims.
- Annual illicit profits from human trafficking were estimated to be as high as $150 billion in 2014, demonstrating the substantial economic scale of this abhorrent criminal industry.
PROTECTING THE INNOCENT: President Donald J. Trump is taking a stand against human trafficking, dedicating our Government’s full resources towards fighting this repulsive crime.
- The President’s Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (PITF) is working tirelessly to address all aspects of human trafficking.
- As defined by the Trafficking Victims Prevention Act (TVPA), it is the policy of the United States government to address human trafficking via “The Three P’s:”
- Prosecution of Traffickers.
- Protection of Victims.
- Prevention of Human Trafficking.
- In March 2018, the President appointed nine human trafficking survivors to serve on the U.S. Advisory Council on Human Trafficking for terms of two years.
- President Trump declared January 2018 National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month.
- In September 2017, Ivanka Trump and Deputy Secretary of State Sullivan joined more than 20 world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly for a global call to end modern slavery and to announce the State Department’s $25 million grant to the Global Fund to End Modern Slavery.
- In February 2017, the President signed Executive Order 13773, “Enforcing Federal Law with Respect to Transnational Criminal Organizations and Preventing International Trafficking.”
- This Order directed the United States government to identify, interdict, disrupt, and dismantle the transnational criminal organizations that engage in human trafficking.
- In light of the impending Senate vote on H.R. 1865 – the FOSTA-SESTA legislative package designed to fight online sex trafficking – the Trump Administration is hosting a roundtable on human trafficking to review and discuss the path forward on this critical issue.
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