Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mrs. SHAHEEN. Mr. President, I am on the floor to discuss the Human
Trafficking Survivors Relief and Empowerment Act, which is legislation
I introduced last week to aid the recovery of survivors of human
trafficking.

This bill, which I have also filed as an amendment to Senator
Cornyn's Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act, will make important
strides toward helping survivors of human trafficking free themselves
from the social stigma that is associated with their victimization and
help them rebuild their lives as productive members of society.

I wish to start by sharing the story of a young woman who was
featured on NPR several weeks ago. She is a human trafficking survivor.
Her story is far too common.

She was raped for the first time at age 11. At 13, she was lured away
from her family and eventually forced into engaging in commercial sex.
She talked about the physical trauma she endured at the hands of her
captor--her skull was cracked, all of her ribs broken, and she endured
regular beatings and black eyes.

For roughly 7 years, her entire teenage life--a life she should have
been spending in school and among friends--she endured the worst kinds
of physical and emotional torture. Finally, at age 20, she was rescued
by a thoughtful police officer nearly 1,400 miles from her home.

Fortunately, this young woman is now in the process of rebuilding her
life. She has moved home near her family, she has a young son, and she
is hoping to go to school for nursing and to make a better life for
herself and her family. However, she is constantly confronted by the
reality of the criminal record she accumulated as the result of being a
trafficking victim. Every application she fills out, every job
interview she attends, she is forced to relive and explain the most
painful moments of her life.

As this victim told NPR, ``I'm not ever going to forget what I've
done, but at the same time, I don't want it thrown in my face every
time I'm trying to seek employment.''

Human traffickers use force, fraud, and coercion to compel their
victims to engage in criminal activity, particularly prostitution, yet
it is often the trafficking victims who are arrested, detained,
prosecuted, and convicted.

My legislation is simple. It provides an incentive for States to
enact laws that allow human trafficking survivors to clear their State
criminal records of prostitution and other low-level, nonviolent crimes
that result from being trafficked.

Specifically, these vacatur statutes allow trafficking survivors to
file a motion in court to expunge their criminal record for crimes they
can reasonably demonstrate were the result of being trafficked.

My colleague Senator Gillibrand has filed a similar amendment that
would address this issue at the Federal level or in Federal court. Her
amendment would ensure that victims charged with Federal crimes have
the opportunity to clear their record of the most serious types of
charges associated with trafficking.

My amendment would encourage States to provide a remedy for the most
common types of charges that trafficking victims face.

I urge my colleagues to support my legislation and my amendment. I
hope we can get trafficking legislation done in a way that will help
the victims in the future.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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