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.
Slipstream
Maybe "we the people" didn't vote for it, but those now in office decided it was in someone's interest to do it, and are now implementing it. When I think about who benefits from this budget cut, it sends a chill down my spine and makes my blood boil at the same time. It's sickening.
I pray for an intervention of love into the hearts of those who have turned their backs on our nations' children.
Wilsons Grave
Sure does raise a whole lot of troubling questions that won't get answered anymore than who's listed in the Epstein files. This assministration is doing every twisted thing it can think of to darken our culture and give criminals more latitude in which to do their dirty deeds freely...which makes sense when you remember who's running the joint.
Well Street
I would love to see DT or one of his reps in a sit-down interview, be pointedly asked who specifically decided to withdraw support from these organizations, the logic behind that decision, and how impeding the fight against human trafficking makes America great.
If it weren't such a serious topic, it would be comedic watching them stammer and verbally dance around, trying to explain how this is a good idea.