Nobody Voted For This

The Trump administration has cut to the bone all federal programs dedicated to combating human trafficking and child exploitation.

“The sweeping retreat threatens to negate decades of progress in the drive to prevent sexual slavery, forced labor and child sexual exploitation,” according to legal experts, former government officials, and anti-trafficking advocates interviewed for an investigative report by the Guardian.

Jean Bruggeman, executive director of Freedom Network USA, a national coalition of service providers, researchers, and trafficking survivors stated, “It’s been a widespread and multi-pronged attack on survivors that leaves all of us less safe and leaves survivors with few options.” 

The administration’s actions also impede efforts to prosecute perpetrators and protect survivors in the United States and around the world. Though the administration claims it remains committed to fighting human trafficking, its actions tell a very different story. 

While the President vowed to find and deport all the “rapists” who are here illegally, DHS agents have been diverted away from investigating those “major crimes” with “real victims” and placed instead in local neighborhoods for grab and catch ICE raids.

According to the Guardian’s investigation, the Trump administration slashed 71% of the workforce at the State Department’s office that monitors and combats human trafficking—a department that’s responsible for leading anti-trafficking efforts across the US government. 

The department is also holding back grants to nonprofit agencies dedicated to fighting trafficking around the world, putting their operations at risk. In addition, victims who have been helping special DHI agents track down the perpetrators, have themselves been thrown into detention.

This makes our country less safe.

Why would this administration give free rein to human traffickers, especially with the bright spotlight already cast on it for rescinding its promise to release the Epstein files? 

This administration has no answers other than more whitewash and denials.

Read more in the Guardian.