Combating Human Trafficking in Slavery

COMBATING HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN SLAVERY

Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I come to the floor to speak about a bipartisan measure; that is, the resolution Senator Cornyn and I are submitting on human trafficking. I thank my friend from Texas for working with me to address this growing problem that devastates the lives of so many.

Human trafficking is one of the most heinous crimes in our world today. Everyone knows it is a heinous crime to take a person, often a young woman, kidnap her, and put her into, basically, sexual servitude. It is an absolute abomination.

What I think most people are not aware of is the large number of people who are so enslaved. Our State Department estimates 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders each year. Some are for domestic slavery, some are for farm slavery, and many are for sexual servitude.

According to these State Department estimates, approximately three-quarters of those trafficked are female, and 70 percent of these women are trafficked for sexual exploitation. So a little quick math would indicate it is pretty close to 400,000 a year who are engaged in sexual exploitation, and you cannot be too relieved that the other half are in other kinds of slavery.

The victims are kidnapped or lured with false promises of money, and then thrown into slavery. Their captors subject their victims to forced prostitution. They are sexually assaulted sometimes 20 times a day. The lack of protection against HIV and AIDS means an effective death sentence for many sexual trafficking victims.

The victims of forced labor fare only slightly better.

In the vast majority of cases, they are worked to near death. They are routinely assaulted, sometimes killed. The truly sad fact is that at least half of the human trafficking victims are children, sometimes as young as 9 or 10 years old. The traffickers abuse the children, keep them in line by threatening to kill their parents or other family members if they don't comply. Beatings and rape are part of their everyday experience. Their lives are more horrific than many of us could even imagine. To think I am the father of two daughters, just think of your young children being put in this situation, and you can see the gravity and the horror of the situation.

Here is another thing I will bet most Americans are not aware of. We think maybe this is happening in Africa or Asia or Europe. No, it is also occurring right here in the United States. Sixteen thousand people are trafficked into the United States every year. Most are forced into sexual slavery in our own country. I have read in newspapers in New York about how some of these rings have been exposed. It is often among immigrant groups, but we are not immune.

We have taken some important strides against this evil. In the year 2000, President Clinton signed into law the bipartisan Trafficking Victims Protection Act. This act gave law enforcement real tools to fight against sexual trafficking and the money to fund that fight. Last year I was proud to join Senator Brownback as the Democratic sponsor of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2003.

Of course, with the death of Senator Wellstone, who had been such a leader on this issue, a void has been left. I am doing my best to at least fill a little bit of it. We added new tools to fight against these traffickers and refined the tools we already had created to better serve law enforcement. We have made some strides. The laws are working. But the bottom line is, there is still a whole lot more to be done.

I am pleased to join Senator Cornyn today in sponsoring this resolution. I thank him for his important work on this issue. The resolution recognizes the fact we need more awareness of this horrible crime, particularly at the State and local level. State and local law enforcement officers are often the first point of contact with victims in trafficking in the course of their normal work. This resolution puts the Senate on record supporting efforts to educate and empower State and local law enforcement officers in identifying trafficking victims. By raising awareness at the State and local level, we can better make use of the many tools we have in this fight.

T-visas are a vital part of the fight against sex trafficking. These visas enable victims of trafficking to testify against their traffickers and help put these criminals in jail. We have had the situation where we have the victims and they are sent home, and the people who did it go free. Currently, we issue less than 2 percent of the T-visas available, and yet we know that tens of thousands of victims go without T-visas every year, condemning them to lives of abuse and terror instead of the protection they deserve and that is available under the visa.

By educating and empowering State and local law enforcement officers to recognize trafficking crimes and raising awareness of this issue, we can identify more victims and get them the help they need and, most importantly, take their traffickers off the streets. We are also calling on the States to do a close examination of their current laws to see if they are adequate in the face of the human trafficking threat.

We must make sure we are prepared to deal with this crime at all levels. We must also make sure the victims of trafficking receive the same level of services regardless of what laws are used to prosecute their traffickers.

Far too often we find ourselves at odds with one another in the Senate. Our efforts on this issue show we can work together in a bipartisan way to protect some of the most endangered children in our world and put some of the most awful criminals behind bars. This resolution is an important step in the battle to save the lives of hundreds of thousands of women and children who are trafficked each year.

Along with Senator Cornyn, I urge my colleagues to support its immediate passage. Together, if we work hard, we can greatly and dramatically reduce this horrible crime.

I yield the floor.