Human Trafficking Prevention Act

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise in strong support of my bill, H.R. 4449, the Human Trafficking Prevention Act.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to also thank my colleague, Mr. Meadows, for his leadership on this bill. I would like to thank the Democratic whip--my friend, the gentleman from Maryland, Steny Hoyer--and his staff for the work they dedicated to this piece of legislation and to my own staff.

Worldwide, less than 1 percent of an estimated 27 million victims of human trafficking have been reported, and in the past year, only about 44,000 survivors have been identified.

Millions--literally millions of children, women, and men are trafficked each year and forced into modern-day slavery as part of the world's most evil and fastest growing industry. It may seem like it only happens on the other side of the world, but it is happening here in quiet neighborhoods across our country.

Some of those survivors are from neighborhoods I represent in the Hudson Valley of New York. In New Windsor and Newburgh, for nearly 4 years, one man would troll the streets, coercing at least 10 women to work for him as sex workers in local motels.

Last year, law enforcement authorities uncovered an international sex trafficking ring operating brothels in Yonkers, Poughkeepsie, and Newburgh, where women were brutalized and forced to have sex 10, 20, 30 times a day.

It is a hard truth, but it is a truth nonetheless. This disgusting, this horrifying practice of modern-day slavery happens here, right here in our own neighborhoods, in our own backyards, in our own country.

Even with the assistance of law enforcement and dedicated organizations like My Sister's Place in Westchester and Safe Homes of Orange County, groups which help survivors rebuild their lives, New York continues to be one of the top hubs of human trafficking where sex trafficking, child labor, child sex trafficking, and indentured servitude happen all too frequently.

In another community in Hudson Valley about an hour away from New York City, a man tricked teenage girls to travel to the United States on tourist visas from countries like Brazil, Hungary, and France. He instructed these women to lie to both Immigration and State Department officials in order to gain access to our country.

It is precisely this kind of situation that my legislation seeks to stop. We must ensure that our men and women on the front lines of our borders have the resources and training they need in order to identify and stop human trafficking at its source before these women and children and men become victims.

As part of our goal to end human trafficking, we can make sure that our foreign service officers and other government personnel have the tools and training they need to spot, to identify these victims and stop this trafficking across international borders.

In the past, the State Department estimated that between 14,500 and 17,000 foreign nationals were trafficked into the United States every single year. Although the Federal Government has a zero tolerance policy on human trafficking, our foreign service officers, who often have face-to-face contact with these victims when they are obtaining U.S. visas, currently undergo minimal training to define, identify, and recognize the indicators of human trafficking or smuggling.

My legislation would expand new minimum training procedures for foreign service officers and other government personnel in order to identify and stop human trafficking at its source and take action before people are trafficked across international borders before it becomes too late, when they are already in the United States and already victimized.

Since we know criminals will do just about anything to adapt and to avoid being caught, this legislation also requires annual updates on key problems, threats, methods, and warning signs of trafficking.

I want to thank my colleagues across the aisle because, by working across the aisle, we have a new opportunity to come together to combat this absolutely monstrous practice of trafficking in children, women, and men.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support my legislation, H.R. 4449, the Human Trafficking Prevention Act, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, as a senior member of the Judiciary and Homeland Security Committees, I rise in strong support of H.R. 4449, the ``Human Trafficking Prevention Act.''

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Chairman Royce and Ranking Member Engel for their stewardship in bringing this legislation to the floor and for their commitment to expanding the training and capability of Federal government personnel in detecting and combating human trafficking and assisting its victims.

Throughout my tenure in Congress and a founder and Co-Chair of the Congressional Children's Caucus, I have advocated on behalf of victims of human trafficking, especially children, who are the most vulnerable and innocent victims.

I am also committed to ensure that law enforcement agencies have the tools, resources, and training necessary to identify, apprehend, and prosecute criminals who ruthlessly traffic in people.

H.R. 4449 strengthens the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 by amending it to require training related to trafficking in persons for all State Department personnel. Specifically, the bill requires the following:

1. A distance learning course on trafficking in persons issues and the Department of State's obligations under the Act to be completed by embassy reporting officers, regional bureaus' trafficking in persons coordinators, and their supervisors;

2. Specific trafficking-in-persons briefings for all ambassadors and deputy chiefs of mission before they depart for their posts; and

3. Annual reminders to all such personnel and other federal personnel at each diplomatic or consular post of the Department of State located outside the United States of key human trafficking problems, threats, methods, and warning signs.

This legislation does for the State Department what the Jackson Lee to H.R. 4660, ``Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations Act for 2015,'' does for the Justice Department.

That amendment, adopted earlier this year by the House, provides another tool in law enforcement's arsenal to tip the balance in favor of victims by ensuring funding for the Attorney General to provide training for State and local law enforcement agencies on immigration law that may be useful for the investigation and prosecution of crimes related to trafficking in persons.

Mr. Speaker, trafficking in humans, and especially child trafficking, has no place in a civilized society and those who engage in this illicit trade should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

To effectively combat human trafficking, we need to provide resources and training to government personnel to assist victims and apprehend criminals.

By providing the necessary training and support, we will catch more human trafficking criminals and save lives, and prevent many other persons, including children, from becoming human trafficking victims.

I ask my colleagues to join me in supporting H.R. 4449, the Human Trafficking Prevention Act of 2014.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4449) to amend the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 to expand the training for Federal Government personnel related to trafficking in persons, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous materials on this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the bill, H.R. 4449, to amend the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 to expand the training for Federal Government personnel related to trafficking in persons, and for other purposes.

I thank the gentleman from New York for his leadership in addressing this issue.

As we look at this, this particular bill would require appropriate personnel of the Department of State, that they would be trained in identifying victims of severe forms of trafficking and provide for the protection of those victims.

H.R. 4449 would specify three minimum training requirements in that underlying statute: one, a distance learning course for Embassy and bureau personnel dealing with trafficking issues; two, trafficking briefings for all ambassadors and DCMs before they head to their postings; and, three, annual reminders to appropriate personnel regarding key trafficking problems and issues related to their countries.

The State Department believes that these specified forms of training largely track their current activities; thus, while adding these examples to the statute will ensure that these types of training will continue, it will not result in a substantial and additional cost.

Again, I thank the leadership, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Sean Patrick Maloney) as the primary sponsor of this, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I want to close by saying that anything we can do, certainly, to continue to highlight this particular issue, whether it is with the State Department or laws within our Nation, gives us a rare opportunity to affect lives not only here in the United States, but across the world.

I would like to thank the committee work for those on the Foreign Affairs Committee, their diligence and hard work here at a late hour-- certainly our own personal staffs, congressional staffs, for their work too. So many times, they don't get mentioned.

With that, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 4449, and I yield back the balance of my time.