#savethechildren
By Madison S.
On a day-to-day basis, most Americans don’t think about human trafficking. Whether or not we choose to acknowledge it, human trafficking is a shockingly pervasive issue in this country. Until recently, our culture has largely ignored the issue, taking its cues from the mainstream media, which has prioritized other social justice campaigns while neglecting modern sex slavery in its reporting. While #BLM coverage overwhelmed our social media and news outlets for months, #savethechildren garnered an underwhelming amount of support from social media activists and was cast aside as a “political distraction.” The sheer numbers of human trafficking should invoke moral outrage in our liberal counterparts, and it’s a crime that they don’t. An estimated 14,500 - 17,000 people are trafficked into the United States every year. While human trafficking typically involves force, fraud, or coercion to obtain some labor or commercial sex act, other trafficking cases include forced marriage or organ removal. However, the fight against sex trafficking has found a champion in President Trump. Over his last four years in office, President Trump has taken the mantle on several issues his predecessors wouldn’t touch. From shifts in foreign policy thinking to criminal justice reform and the opioid crisis— human trafficking is the latest example in a long series of unorthodox victories for the President.
Since the beginning of his presidency, eradicating human trafficking has been a priority for President Trump. As one of his first acts in office, President Trump signed an executive order to derail transnational criminal organizations that engage in international trafficking and exploitation. President Trump noted, “This is an urgent humanitarian issue. My administration is committed to leveraging every resource we have to confront this threat, to support the victims and survivors, and to hold traffickers accountable for their heinous crimes.” Furthermore, President Trump designated the month of January as the National Human Trafficking Awareness Month in order to raise awareness of the issue. However, Trump’s commitment to the fight is more than just symbolic- he is the first sitting president to attend a federal trafficking task force meeting since its inception in 2000. The President has followed through on his pledge by signing multiple pieces of legislation to curb human trafficking throughout his term.
Most notably, the President signed the Abolish Human Trafficking Act, which strengthens programs supporting survivors, and the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act, which provided $430 million to fight sex and labor trafficking. He modified the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2017, originally drafted in 2000, to tighten international standards for countries in their efforts to curtail human trafficking. Additionally, the President signed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act to establish new, more effective methods of human trafficking prevention, prosecution, and collaboration initiatives to bring perpetrators to justice. The President went so far as to create the Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, with the aims of preventing human trafficking crimes, protecting victims, and prosecuting the criminals. The Department of Labor has actively led efforts to decrease child labor, forced labor, and human trafficking. It has also developed tools for companies and organizations to flag and thwart these abuses within the global supply chain. In 2018 alone, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) made 1588 human trafficking arrests, identifying and assisting 308 victims. In the process, over 4,000 criminal arrests for human smuggling violations were made. It is abundantly clear that President Trump and his administration take human and child trafficking seriously. Even with the media’s crusade on misrepresenting the President, he continues to fight the good fight.
The success that our administration has found in implementing countless initiatives to counter human trafficking is inspiring. This success is founded on the development of a robust team, the creation of a well-orchestrated plan of attack and the execution of direct action. For the first time in our nation’s history, there is a dedicated employee in the White House focused on combating human trafficking. Furthermore, the White House has the help of First Daughter Ivanka Trump, whose passion for battling trafficking is exhibited with her directive to allocate $100 million dollars in federal funding for trafficking. We’ve reached record levels of uncovering photos and videos of children being sexually abused that exist online. These findings are reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children for immediate removal. This order also improves the Justice and Homeland Security’s ability to find child pornographic images online and remove them.
Though the administration is focused on preventing trafficking and arresting traffickers, it is also unequivocally committed to victim-centered identification and trauma-informed assistance. In August 2020, the Trump administration announced that $35 million in Justice Department grants would fund safe housing for trafficking victims. The Trump administration is inspired by the strength and resilience of trafficking survivors. The SPOG Victims Services Committee is committed to focusing on housing for trafficking victims, including how to reduce the barriers in finding housing for them.
Even in the face of COVID-19, the Trump administration’s mission to #savethechildren is undeterred. The FBI’s Child/Adolescent Forensic Interviewers developed a process to conduct remote forensic interviews. At the same time, the ICE/HSI Victim Assistance Program has continued conducting forensic interviews in a virtual, safe manner. Special projects have been established and funded to study and address the impacts of Covid-19 on the fight against human trafficking. The National Human Trafficking Hotline successfully transitioned to a remote environment with no disruption in services. In 2020, USAID launched the Safe Migration in Central Asia Project, which protects trafficking survivors, promotes safe migration, and supports migrant workers with increased vulnerability to trafficking due to travel restrictions.
Though human sex trafficking has started to pique Americans’ interest, as evidenced by the #savethechildren movement, there is still an incalculable amount of work to do. Stars like Ashton Kutcher, Ricky Martin, and Demi Moore do fantastic work in raising awareness, but the Trump administration has brought serious firepower and funding to the cause. Regardless of where you stand on the political spectrum, President Trump’s focus on combatting sex trafficking is a major victory for sex trafficking victims and our society. Our country is making enormous and permanent strides in fighting this awful crime, and another four years would further cement this progress. Though the media don’t want to admit it, President Trump has shown his willingness, ability, and success in defeating human trafficking and is the man to continue the fight through 2024.
Photo via Politico
