U.S. Department of Justice 

Washington, D.C. 20530 

Report to Congress

from Attorney General John Ashcroft

on U.S. Government Efforts to Combat

Trafficking in Persons in

Fiscal Year 2003

May 1, 2004 
Table of Contents 

I. Introduction .......................................................... 3

II. Benefits and Services Given Domestically to Trafficking Victims .................. 6

A. Trafficking Victims Served by the Department of Health and Human Services’s

Office of Refugee Resettlement and the Department of Justice’s Office for Victims

of Crime ....................................................... 8

B. Trafficking Victims Served by the Labor Department .................... 14

C. Trafficking Victims Served by the Legal Services Corporation ............. 14

III. Immigration Benefits Given to Trafficking Victims: Continued Presence

and T Nonimmigrant Status ............................................. 15

A. Repatriation For Victims Who Choose To Go Home .................... 16

IV. Investigations and Prosecutions of Trafficking in Persons ....................... 17

A. Investigations and Prosecutions of Traffickers ......................... 17

B. Statistics on Persons Charged or Convicted ........................... 20

C. Charges Brought in Fiscal Year 2003 ................................ 22

D. Prosecutions Ongoing During Fiscal Year 2003 ........................ 23

E. Convictions Secured During Fiscal Year 2003 ......................... 24

F. Sentences Obtained in Trafficking Cases in Fiscal Year 2003 .............. 27

V. International Grants to Combat Trafficking ................................. 28

VI. Training and Outreach ................................................. 31

A. Training of Non-governmental Organizations .......................... 32

B. HHS Campaign: Look Beneath the Surface ........................... 33

C. Domestic Law Enforcement Training ................................ 34

D. International Law Enforcement Training .............................. 38

VII. Senior Policy Operating Group on Trafficking in Persons ....................... 41

VIII. Conclusion .......................................................... 42

2
There’s another humanitarian crisis spreading, yet hidden from view. Each year, 

an estimated 800,000 to 900,000 human beings are bought, sold or forced across 

the world’s borders. 

There’s a special evil in the abuse and exploitation of the most innocent and 

vulnerable. The victims of [the] sex trade see little of life before they see the very 

worst of life – an underground of brutality and lonely fear. Those who create 

these victims and profit from their suffering must be severely punished. Those 

who patronize this industry debase themselves and deepen the misery of others. 

And governments that tolerate this trade are tolerating a form of slavery. 

President George W. Bush

The United Nations

New York, New York

September 23, 2003

The Department of Justice’s charge [is] to safeguard, nourish and protect the 

conditions of freedom that make America unique. One of those conditions is the 

respect and value that American culture places on the dignity of each and every 

individual. The Justice Department is committed to defending freedom and 

human dignity. One of the greatest threats to human dignity is human trafficking: 

the commodification of human beings. 

Attorney General John Ashcroft

State Department Conference

PATH-BREAKING STRATEGIES IN THE

GLOBAL FIGHT AGAINST SEX

TRAFFICKING

February 25, 2003

I. Introduction 

Trafficking in persons is a horrific crime and grotesque violation of human rights. The fact 

that an estimated 600,000 to 800,000 people continue to be trafficked across international borders 

each year having been bought, sold, transported or held in slavery-like conditions for sex and 

labor exploitation is almost mind-boggling. Such a legacy from centuries past is startling. Today, 

in 2004, slavery ought to have been consigned to the dustbin of history. In the United States, 

where slavery was outlawed nationally more than 130 years ago, this tragic phenomenon should 

no longer exist. Yet it does. 

The U.S. Government estimates that between 14,500 and 17,500 people are trafficked 

annually into the United States. The nature of this crime – underground, often 

under-acknowledged – contributes to an inability to determine the precise number of people who 

3
are victimized by traffickers each year. The scope of this hideous exploitation is wide and varied, 

but typically involves victims entrapped in commercial sexual exploitation such as prostitution, or 

labor exploitation in sweatshops, domestic servitude, construction sites and agricultural settings. 

Trafficking is a transnational criminal enterprise that recognizes neither boundaries nor 

borders. Profits from trafficking feed the coffers of organized crime. Trafficking is linked to 

other criminal activities such as document fraud, money laundering and migrant smuggling. 

Moreover, as a matter of policy, the U.S. Government opposes prostitution and any related 

activities as contributing to the phenomenon of trafficking in persons. These activities are 

inherently harmful and dehumanizing. 

Although slavery and involuntary servitude have been outlawed throughout the United 

States since 1865 (see U.S. CONSTITUTION, Amendment XIII, § 1), the U.S. Government received 

helpful changes to extant law through Congress’s passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection 

Act of 2000 (“TVPA”), Pub. L. 106-386, signed into law on October 28, 2000. The TVPA 

enhanced three aspects of federal government activity to combat trafficking in persons: it 

provided for a range of new protections and assistance for victims of trafficking in persons; it 

expanded the crimes and enhanced the penalties available to federal investigators and prosecutors 

pursuing traffickers; and it expanded U.S. activities internationally to prevent victims from being 

trafficked in the first place. Specifically, the TVPA: 

• Provided for victim assistance in the United States by making trafficking victims eligible 

for federally-funded or -administered health and other benefits and services as if they were 

refugees; mandated U.S. Government protections for victims of trafficking and, where 

applicable, their families; outlined protections from removal, including T nonimmigrant 

status for certain trafficking victims who cooperate with law enforcement in the 

investigation and prosecution of trafficking; and allowed T nonimmigrant status holders to 

adjust to permanent resident status; 

• Created new crimes and enhanced penalties for existing crimes including forced labor; 

trafficking with respect to peonage, slavery, involuntary servitude, or forced labor; sex 

trafficking of children or by force, fraud or coercion; unlawful conduct with respect to 

documents; criminalized attempts to engage in these behaviors; and provided for 

mandatory restitution and forfeiture; and 

• Provided for assistance to foreign countries in drafting laws to prohibit and punish acts of 

trafficking, and to strengthen investigation and prosecution of traffickers; created 

programs to assist victims; and expanded U.S. Government exchange and international 

visitor programs focusing on trafficking in persons. 

The TVPA was a landmark piece of legislation, some parts of which needed to be reauthorized after several years. In addition to re-authorization provisions, the Trafficking Victims 

Protection Re-authorization Act of 2003 (“TVPRA”), Pub. L. 108-193, signed into law by 

4
President George W. Bush on December 19, 2003, also added responsibilities to the U.S. 

Government’s anti-trafficking portfolio. In particular, the TVPRA mandated new information 

campaigns to combat sex tourism, added some refinements to the federal criminal law, and 

created a new civil action provision that allows trafficking victims to sue their traffickers in federal 

district court. In addition, the TVPRA’s section 6(a) required a report from the Attorney General 

to Congress to be submitted to Congress every year beginning on May 1, 2004. This report was 

mandated to provide information on the following U.S. Government activities to combat 

trafficking in persons: 

• the number of persons who received benefits or other services under section 

107(b) of the TVPA in connection with programs or activities funded or 

administered by the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Secretary of 

Labor, the Board of the Directors of the Legal Services Corporation, and other 

appropriate federal agencies during Fiscal Year 2003; 

• the number of persons who had been granted “continued presence” in the United 

States under TVPA section 107(c)(3) during Fiscal Year 2003; 

• the number of persons who applied for, had been granted, or had been denied T 

nonimmigrant status or otherwise provided status under section 101(a)(15)(T)(i) 

of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 USC § 1101(a)(15)(T)(i)) during Fiscal 

Year 2003; 

• the number of persons who were charged or convicted under one or more of 

sections 1581, 1583, 1584, 1589, 1590, 1591, 1592, or 1594 of title 18, United 

States Code, during Fiscal Year 2003, and the sentences imposed against each 

such person; 

• the amount, recipient, and purpose of each grant issued by any federal agency to 

carry out the purposes of sections 106 and 107 of this Act, or section 134 of the 

Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, during Fiscal Year 2003; 

• the nature of training conducted pursuant to section 107(c)(4) during Fiscal Year 

2003; and 

• the activities undertaken by the Senior Policy Operating Group on Trafficking in 

Persons to carry out its responsibilities under section 105(f) of the TVPRA. 

This is the first such report required by the TVPRA. This report is different from an 

interagency U.S. Government publication issued in August 2003 entitled, ASSESSMENT OF U.S. 

ACTIVITIES TO COMBAT TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS, available at 

<http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/crim/wetf/us_assessment.pdf>. The assessment was an analytical 

review by several Cabinet agencies of U.S. Government anti-trafficking activities through August 

5
2003, when it was published. This report to Congress does not take the 

same self-analytical posture but instead responds to the statutory mandate 

of the TVPRA to list certain U.S. Government activities during Fiscal 

Year 2003. For an analytical review of U.S. Government activities, with 

recommendations for improvement, the reader should consult the 

assessment, pictured at right. 

II. Benefits and Services Given Domestically to Trafficking 

Victims 

In the United States, a person's eligibility for benefits and services 

is often linked to his or her immigration status. Most trafficking victims do not come to the 

United States with an immigration status that would allow them to receive assistance. 

Recognizing this situation, the TVPA created a mechanism for allowing certain non-citizens who 

were trafficking victims access to benefits and services from which they might otherwise be 

barred. The TVPA allows for the “certification” of adult victims to receive certain federallyfunded or -administered benefits and services, such as cash assistance, medical care, food stamps, 

and housing, to be available for certain non-citizen trafficking victims.1 (Child victims do not 

need to be “certified” to receive such benefits and services, but instead receive eligibility letters to 

the same effect.) Indeed, under sections 107(b)(1) and (b)(2) of the TVPA, various federal 

agencies must extend some of their existing benefits to trafficking victims and are authorized to 

provide grants to effectuate such assistance. This section chronicles the activities of the 

Department of Health and Human Services’s Office of Refugee Resettlement, the Department of 

Justice’s Office for Victims of Crime, the Labor Department’s Employment and Training 

Administration, the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration 

Services and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Legal Services Corporation to 

implement sections 107(b) and 107(c) of the TVPA. 

1

It should be noted that the Department of Health and Human Services’s refugee benefits 

and services programs and the Office for Victims of Crime’s victim assistance funds are available 

to alien trafficking victims who are trafficked internationally into the United States as well as to 

alien victims who are trafficked internally, but not to U.S. citizen victims of trafficking. Based on 

the statutory language and legislative history creating the grant programs that assist victims, the 

Department of Health and Human Services’s grant moneys apply to “aliens.” Because those grant 

moneys were limited to post-certification under the TVPA, the Office for Victims of Crime grant 

moneys focus on the “pre-certification” period of victims, which logically only apply to those 

victims who need to be certified to receive benefits and services, i.e., aliens. In most 

circumstances, U.S. citizens would be eligible for assistance, such as Temporary Assistance for 

Needy Families, Medicaid, and food stamps, that, absent this law, would otherwise be barred to 

non-citizen trafficking victims on the basis of their immigration status. To the extent, however, 

that non-citizen trafficking victims access federally-funded or 

-administered refugee assistance, the provision of that assistance to U.S. citizen victims would 

require a statutory amendment. 

6 
During Fiscal Year 2003, trafficking victims received information from federal authorities 

about the rights and protections available to them. Under provisions in the TVPA’s section 

107(c) and in other victim-witness laws, federal authorities are required to identify trafficking 

victims and provide them with information about their rights and protections. The Departments 

of State, Justice, and Homeland Security have been implementing this mandate. A regulation (see 

66 Fed. Reg. 38514 (July 24, 2001)) was issued outlining procedures for appropriate federal 

employees to ensure to the extent practicable that victims are housed in a manner appropriate to 

their status as crime victims, afforded proper medical care and other assistance and protected 

while in federal custody. In addition, this regulation outlines procedures to provide victims with 

information about their rights and applicable services, such as pro bono and low-cost legal 

services, including immigration services; federal and state benefits and services as if they were 

refugees; services from victim service organizations including domestic violence and rape crisis 

centers; protections available, especially against threats and intimidation; rights of individual 

privacy and confidentiality issues; victim compensation and assistance programs; immigration 

benefits or programs that may be relevant to trafficking victims; right to restitution; right to 

notification of case status; and availability of medical services. Federal agencies also have to 

ensure reasonable access to translation services. See 28 CFR § 1100.33. 

Federal law enforcement officials provide such assistance to victims in a number of ways. 

For instance, federal investigators from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Immigration and 

Customs Enforcement, and the Diplomatic Security Service, as well as other federal officials – 

notably prosecutors – who encounter trafficking victims, hand out a brochure 

describing a trafficking victim’s rights and the protections available to him or her. 

The victim’s brochure is at right and has been translated into a number of 

languages. 

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has also engaged in a number 

of other “victim friendly” activities, including the following: 

• More than 30 million nonimmigrant visas are issued by the U.S. 

Government every year, and no medical exams are required of such visa 

applicants. Some trafficking victims enter as nonimmigrants – others are 

smuggled across borders and do not enter through ports of entry. These 

aliens have not received pre-screening for medical concerns. The potential 

impact on the public health (especially regarding tuberculosis and hepatitis 

B) is significant. Moreover, work with trafficking victims thus far has revealed that 

trafficking victims have had little health care and few, if any, inoculations. Recognizing 

the enormous implications for the public health relating to trafficking in persons situations, 

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement convened in October 2002 a multi-agency 

work group that included the U.S. Public Health Service and the Departments of State and 

Justice to address the public health aspects of trafficking in persons. 

• U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operates a toll-free 1-800 line for victims and 

7
non-governmental organizations to communicate directly with the U.S. Immigration and 

Customs Enforcement victim-witness assistance program. 

• In 2003, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement provided each Special Agent in 

Charge office with limited funds to purchase items needed for trafficking victims. Funding 

could be used for car seats to transport minor children of trafficking victims safely, or to 

purchase clothing, personal hygiene items, bags to transport personal belongings, cots for 

children, and other needed items. 

• U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement retro-fitted 75 cars (three for each Special 

Agent in Charge office) with tinted glass so investigators and victim-witness coordinators 

could transport victims, including trafficking victims, with confidentiality. 

• U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement coordinated with the Special Agent in 

Charge office in New York to provide nationwide translation services for victims of 

trafficking in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigations. 

• U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement purchased teddy bears to be utilized by 

agents and victim-witness coordinators when they encounter juvenile trafficking victims 

who are too traumatized or terrified to communicate. The bears have become an 

investigative tool to make children feel more comfortable and willing to discuss their 

victimization with criminal investigators. 

A. Trafficking Victims Served by the Department of Health and Human 

Services’s Office of Refugee Resettlement and the Department of Justice’s 

Office for Victims of Crime 

The Department of Health and Human Services provides certification and eligibility letters 

for victims that allow them to access federally-funded or -administered benefits and services 

comparable to the assistance provided to refugees. In many ways, the U.S. Government’s refugee 

programs contain a strong infrastructure for assisting trafficking victims. The refugee programs 

are designed for people who have suffered persecution or torture, have been torn away from 

everything that is familiar to them, and need to rebuild their lives in a new place where they may 

not understand the culture or speak the language. Nonetheless, in some cases, the refugee 

programs may not meet all of the needs of trafficking victims. 

To fill the gaps, by April 2004, the Department of Health and Human Services had 

awarded over $8 million in grants to 28 organizations for services geared specifically toward 

trafficking victims and for outreach to them. Specifically, in Fiscal Year 2003, the Department of 

Health and Human Services issued $3.48 million to fifteen organizations to provide assistance 

needed by victims of trafficking, including temporary housing, independent living skills, cultural 

orientation, and transportation needs, as well as access to appropriate educational programs and 

legal assistance and referrals. A list of both Fiscal Year 2002 and 2003 trafficking grantees is 

8
attached as Appendix 1. In addition to such benefits and services, the Department of Health and 

Human Services may provide trafficking victims with intensive case management programs to 

help them obtain housing, find employment, access mental health counseling, and obtain 

specialized foster care programs for children. Child trafficking victims may be placed with caring 

families who understand their cultural background and can speak their language. There are also 

therapeutic placements for children with special needs. 

HHS Office of Refugee Resettlement

Fiscal Year 2003 Trafficking in Persons Grantees

Center for Multicultural Human Services, Falls Church, Virginia

Crisis House, San Diego County

DWA FANM, New York City

Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, Florida

International Institute of New Jersey, Jersey City

International Rescue Committee, New York

US Conference of Catholic Bishops, Washington, DC

St. Anselm’s Cross-Cultural Community Center, Orange County, CA

New York Association for New Americans, New York City

Nihonmachi Legal Outreach, San Francisco

Refugee Women’s Alliance, Seattle

Pacific Gateway, Honolulu

Refugee Women’s Network, Decatur, GA

San Diego Youth & Community Services, San Diego

County of Los Angeles, Community & Senior Services, Los Angeles

Since the enactment of the TVPA and through Fiscal Year 2003, the Department of 

Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement issued 448 certifications to adult 

trafficking victims or benefits eligibility letters to child trafficking victims; child victims do not 

need to be certified, but may access these same benefits. In Fiscal Year 2003, the Department of 

Health and Human Services provided 151 certifications and benefits eligibility letters, of which 

145 were certification letters to adults and six were eligibility letters to child trafficking victims. 

The Fiscal Year 2003 letters were sent to benefit offices in eighteen states. The largest 

concentrations of victims receiving letters were in California, Oklahoma, Texas and New York.1 

The beneficiaries of these letters were predominantly male (54 percent).2 The types of 

1

In Fiscal Year 2002, the Office of Refugee Resettlement issued letters to benefit offices in 

fourteen states, of which the largest concentrations were to Texas (31 percent), Florida (nineteen 

percent), and California (fourteen percent). Note that these concentrations reflect where victims 

were living after victimization and do not necessarily reflect where they were victimized. 

2

In Fiscal Year 2002, 80 percent of the victims were female. 

9 
exploitation that victims certified in Fiscal Year 2003 endured included sexual exploitation, 

involuntary domestic servitude, forced migrant agricultural labor, and sweatshop labor. The 

countries of origin for the greatest number of victims were India (38 percent), Vietnam (eleven 

percent), Mexico (nine percent), Indonesia (five percent), Tonga (five percent), Zambia (five 

percent), and Thailand (four percent). The countries of origin for the remaining victims were 

Bangladesh, Bolivia, Cameroon, China, Czech Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Eritrea, Estonia, 

Ethiopia, Guatemala, Honduras, Kenya, Korea, Latvia, Malaysia, Nepal, Nigeria, Peru, 

Philippines and Russia. Two victims had an unknown country of origin.3 

The Office of Refugee Resettlement 

strives to encourage the participation of certified 

trafficking victims in extant assistance programs 

for refugees – primarily the voluntary agency 151 victims were certified or eligible 

for refugee benefits and services 

in Fiscal Year 2003 matching grant program4

 and the refugee cash 

and medical assistance program.5 Of the 145 

adults certified as victims in Fiscal Year 2003, 

three elected not to apply for either of these programs, 136 enrolled in the matching grant 

program, and six enrolled in the refugee cash and medical assistance program. Of the six minor 

victims on whose behalf the Office of Refugee Resettlement issued letters of eligibility, as of April 

2004 two were residing with guardians and were not receiving public benefits. The remaining 

3

In Fiscal Year 2002, the most prevalent victim nationalities were Honduran (36 percent) 

and Mexican (35 percent), with the remaining victims coming from Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, 

El Salvador, Ghana, Guatemala, Indonesia, Jamaica, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and 

Vietnam. With the exceptions of Ghana, Jamaica and Sri Lanka, victims from all of these 

countries received certification or eligibility letters in Fiscal Year 2003 as well. 

4

The voluntary agency matching grant program is a congressionally-funded alternative to 

state-administered refugee resettlement assistance. Participating agencies agree to match every 

two dollars in Office of Refugee Resettlement funds with one dollar in cash and in-kind 

contributions (a minimum of 20 percent of their match must be in cash). The program goal is to 

help refugees attain self-sufficiency within four months of date of eligibility without accessing 

public assistance. The participating non-governmental organizations provide intensive case 

management and services including job counseling and placement; assistance with food, housing 

and transportation; English language training; and assistance in obtaining health, medical, and 

social adjustment services. The victims who want to enroll in this program must obtain 

employment authorization documents from the Department of Homeland Security. Some 

trafficking victims in the voluntary matching grant program may also be eligible to receive other 

benefits (such as food stamps, Medicaid, or refugee medical assistance). 

5

The refugee cash and medical assistance program provides transitional assistance for up 

to eight months. (Note that a victim’s receipt of benefits in a particular state is dependent upon 

level of income.) This program is designed to provide temporary assistance to those refugees 

who are not eligible for other federal benefits such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, 

Medicaid, or Supplemental Security Income. For trafficking victims, these eight-month benefit 

periods begin on the certification date. 

10 
four minor victims were enrolled into Office of Refugee Resettlement’s Unaccompanied Refugee 

Minors program.6 

In gathering information for this report, the Department of Health and Human Services 

articulated that state and local benefit offices are not statutorily required to report information on 

benefits and services accessed by trafficking victims. Nonetheless, the Office of Refugee 

Resettlement strongly encourages the state and local benefit offices to report the benefits and 

services actually provided to trafficking victims. In Fiscal Year 2002, the Office of Refugee 

Resettlement established a toll-free “HHS trafficking victims verification” telephone line to 

encourage a better response rate. To date, however, the Office of Refugee Resettlement cannot 

provide a comprehensive list of services and benefits accessed by trafficking victims.7 

Notwithstanding that caveat, the experience of Boat People S.O.S. provides instructive anecdotal 

information on services and benefits accessed by victims. Boat People S.O.S., a grantee of the 

Office of Refugee Resettlement and the Department of Justice’s Office for Victims of Crime, 

primarily serves victims from the Kil Soo Lee case, a labor trafficking case discussed later in this 

report. Kil Soo Lee involved Vietnamese and Chinese nationals trafficked to American Samoa; 

they were rescued in March 2001. Boat People S.O.S. has provided direct services or case 

management to over 200 victims from that case. The victims now reside throughout the United 

States but are concentrated in six geographic areas. 

Fifty-six victims responded to Boat People S.O.S.’s 2003 tracking update. Thirty-two of 

those victims applied for food stamps,8

 of which 30 were approved and of which only one is still 

6

The Unaccompanied Refugee Minors program offers specialized resettlement and foster 

care services for unaccompanied refugee minors. Unaccompanied minor trafficking victims under 

the age of eighteen are eligible to enter this program. As appropriate to their developmental 

needs and their cultural, linguistic and religious backgrounds, the Unaccompanied Refugee 

Minors program places minors into foster care, group homes, or independent living arrangements. 

The program provides the victims with comprehensive care, including medical and mental health 

services, education, case management, independent living skills, job skills training, career/college 

counseling, legal assistance and, when possible, on-going family tracing. 

7

As required by section 107(b)(1)(D) of the TVPA prior to re-authorization, the Office of 

Refugee Resettlement consulted its trafficking counterparts at the Departments of Agriculture and 

Labor, the Social Security Administration, and the Legal Services Corporation to gather 

information on benefit and service programs available to trafficking victims. 

8

Another method to glean a rough estimate of the food stamp benefits issued under the 

TVPA was suggested by the Food and Nutrition Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture 

(USDA) in providing information for this report. Because USDA does not have a data collection 

requirement for state welfare departments to report the number of trafficking victims who receive 

food stamp benefits as refugees under the TVPA, one could obtain a rough estimate of the 

benefits issued by multiplying the number of certification letters the Office of Refugee 

Resettlement issued in Fiscal Year 2003 by the average monthly per person food stamp benefit 

issued in Fiscal Year 2003 ($83.90). According to a 1999 Food and Nutrition Service study, the 

spell of participation for first time participants is nine months. See THE DYNAMICS OF FOOD 

11 
receiving food stamps. The two denials were because the applicants did not have permanent 

addresses. (Note that the USDA is following up on these two denials.) Two of the 56 victims 

applied for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, both of whom were approved. None of the 

56 victims is presently receiving Medicaid. Previously, 21 victims were approved for Medicaid 

and 25 were denied. None of the 56 victims is presently receiving housing subsidies. Seven 

applied for such subsidies – of which one was denied and six are on the waiting list or are 

awaiting a decision. 

While the Office of Refugee Resettlement’s refugee assistance provides a useful 

mechanism to meet a trafficking victim’s short- and long-term needs, there is also a need for 

emergency services to be available to victims as soon as they have been encountered by federal 

authorities. The Department of Justice met immediate needs of trafficked persons through its 

emergency witness assistance program and 

through services provided by the grantees of 

the Department of Justice’s Office for Victims 

of Crime. Under section 107(b)(2) of the 

TVPA, the Office for Victims of Crime may 

provide grants to governments or 

organizations to “develop, expand, or 

strengthen, victim service programs for 

victims of trafficking.” 

In January 2003, the Office for 

Victims of Crime awarded twelve grants 

totaling more than $9.7 million to various 

non-governmental organizations for the 

purpose of providing trafficking victims with 

comprehensive or specialized services, and for 

the purpose of providing these grantees 

training and technical assistance for program 

support and enhancement. Eight of the grants 

support comprehensive services to trafficking 

victims in a specific state or region. Three of 

the grants support specialized or select 

Office for Victims of Crime

Trafficking in Persons Grantees

Fiscal Year 2003 

Little Tokyo Service Center, Los Angeles

Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach, 

San Francisco

Heartland Alliance for Human Needs and

Human Rights, Chicago

International Rescue Committee, Arizona

International Rescue Committee, Florida 

East Dallas Counseling Center, Dallas

YMCA International Services, Houston

Boat People, S.O.S., Falls Church, Virginia

Massachusetts Mental Health Institute

Trauma Center, Boston

Salvation Army National Corporation,

Alexandria, Virginia

Safe Horizons, New York City

STAMP PROGRAM PARTICIPATION IN THE EARLY 1990S, released in April 1998, by Phillip Gleason, 

Peter Schochet, and Robert Moffitt, available at 

<http://www.fns.usda.gov/oane/MENU/Published/FSP/FILES/Participation/DYNAMICS.PDF>. 

Thus, the average per-person benefit for victims of trafficking would be $755.10. With 151 

victims certified or declared eligible in Fiscal Year 2003, in rounded numbers, this would equate 

to a little over $114,000 in food stamp benefits distributed in Fiscal Year 2003. 

12
services to trafficking victims in larger multi-state areas. Finally, the training and technical 

assistance grantees develop and deliver training and technical assistance to the grantees who 

provide direct services. These Office for Victims of Crime grants have supported services for 

victims during the “pre-certification” period. The Office for Victims of Crime also transferred a 

total of $500,000 to the National Institute of Justice to oversee an evaluation of three of the 

comprehensive services projects funded. Evaluation findings will help inform the design and 

implementation of services to trafficking victims. A list and description of the Office for Victims 

of Crime’s grantees are attached as Appendix 2. 

From January to December 31, 2003, the first year of operation for the Office for Victims 

of Crime grants, grantees assisted 200 victims: specifically, Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach 

assisted 33 people; Boat People S.O.S. assisted ten people; the Little Tokyo Service Center 

assisted 41 people; Heartland Alliance assisted 40 people for comprehensive services and twelve 

people for supplemental services; International Rescue Committee Miami assisted six people; 

International Rescue Committee Phoenix assisted seven people; Mosaic Family Services assisted 

40 people; YMCA of Greater Houston assisted four people; and Massachusetts Mental Health 

Institute assisted seven people. The Salvation Army and Safe Horizon were not funded by the 

Office for Victims of Crime to provide direct victim services, and 

therefore served no victims using Office for Victims of Crime moneys.9 In 

addition to direct assistance to victims, several grantees also developed 

brochures to share with communities about the new services available to 

trafficking victims. Several brochures are displayed at right; the Heartland 

Alliance’s brochures were translated into Korean, Chinese, Polish and 

Spanish. 

As part of the Office for Victims of Crime grants, grantee 

organizations must provide comprehensive services, including immediate 

housing. Some have partnered with shelters to ensure that trafficking 

victims have access to shelters appropriate for their needs. One grantee 

developed transitional housing, which could last for months, instead of the current norm of days 

or weeks. At the present time, these housing options are available in the geographical areas 

where grantees are working, and thus do not cover the entire country; however, federal agencies 

have worked with the grantees to effect transfer and placements for victims when the trafficking 

occurred elsewhere. One of the Office for Victims of Crime supplemental services grantees is 

working with several of its geographical divisions to develop more comprehensive and 

appropriate services for victims of sex trafficking at its local shelters. New options for relocating 

services to underserved areas will be made available through the Office for Victims of Crime’s 

issuance of an additional $8 million in grants in Fiscal Year 2004; the activities of those grantees 

will be covered in next year’s Fiscal Year 2004 report to Congress. 

9

The Salvation Army and Safe Horizon did not assist any victims using Office for Victims 

of Crime moneys, because the funding was provided for technical assistance only. 

13 
In addition to benefits and services provided to trafficking victims under section 107(b) of 

the TVPA, the Office for Victims of Crime continues to fund two main formula grant programs 

that provide services to crime victims, including trafficking victims, through compensation and 

assistance programs in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and 

Puerto Rico. Compensation programs reimburse crime victims for crime-related expenses. Each 

state compensation program is administered independently, and most programs have similar 

eligibility requirements and offer comparable benefits. The victim assistance program funding is 

awarded to the states to support community-based organizations that serve crime victims. 

B. Trafficking Victims Served by the Labor Department 

After passage of the TVPA, the Department of Labor's Employment and Training 

Administration sent a directive to its field offices outlining the provisions of the TVPA and 

explaining the obligation to provide Employment and Training Administration services to 

trafficking victims. The services provided at Employment and Training Administration “One-Stop 

Career Centers” – notably job search assistance, career counseling, and occupational skills 

training – may be of significant value to trafficking victims. Any such services are provided 

directly by state and local grantees to trafficking victims; the Employment and Training 

Administration does not collect information on the extent to which such services are offered or 

utilized by trafficking victims. The Employment and Training Administration’s Job Corps 

program also may provide useful job training opportunities. 

C. Trafficking Victims Served by the Legal Services Corporation 

Victims of trafficking often need legal assistance with immigration and other matters. 

Since the passage of the TVPA, the Legal Services Corporation must make available legal 

assistance to trafficking victims, and has instructed its lawyers to do so. (See TVPA § 107(b) and 

guidance to the field, available at 

<http://www.lsc.gov/foia/pl/02-5.htm>.) The Legal Services Corporation grantees Legal Services Corporation is a private, 

non-profit corporation established by 

Congress which funds legal aid programs 

around the nation to help poor Americans 

gain equal access to the civil justice system. 

The Legal Services Corporation 

polled its grantees nationwide to determine 

whether any clients had required assistance 

under the TVPA during Fiscal Year 2003. 

Legal Services Corporation grantees assisted 

assisted 81 persons seeking services 

related to the TVPA in the following 

places: 

Florida (6 persons); 

Massachusetts’ Cape Cod and the 

Islands (1 person); 

Georgia (1 person); 

Texas (25 persons);

Los Angeles, California (48 persons).

a total of 81 persons nationwide. The following grantees assisted particular victims: Florida 

Rural Legal Services, which serves approximately twelve rural Florida counties, assisted six 

persons; Legal Aid of Northwest Texas, which serves several dozen counties in North and West 

14
Texas and the entire Panhandle, assisted 25 persons; Legal Services of Cape Cod and the Islands 

(Massachusetts), which serves the far-eastern counties and townships of Massachusetts, assisted 

one person; Legal Services of Georgia, which serves the state of Georgia except for the Atlanta 

area, assisted one person; the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, which serves part of greater 

Los Angeles, assisted 43 persons; and Neighborhood Legal Services, which serves a different part 

of greater Los Angeles, assisted five persons. Assistance can take a variety of forms, from 

counsel and advice to a fully-litigated case. The minimum threshold is met when financial 

eligibility is established, and the person is accepted as a client for service. 

III. Immigration Benefits Given to Trafficking Victims: Continued Presence 

and T Nonimmigrant Status 

There are two immigration benefits available through the TVPA to trafficking victims who 

meet certain eligibility requirements. Victims may be authorized “continued presence” to remain 

temporarily in the United States if federal law enforcement determines that they are potential 

witnesses to trafficking and submits a request on their behalf to the Department of Homeland 

Security.10 Victims may also petition U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services within the 

Department of Homeland Security to receive T nonimmigrant status, also known as a “T visa,” a 

status available to victims who have complied with reasonable requests for assistance in the 

investigation or prosecution of acts of trafficking. Victims 

who receive T nonimmigrant status may remain in the United 

Applications for T visas States for three years, and then may apply for lawful in 

FY 2003 

received: 601 

approved: 297 

permanent residency subject to certain statutory criteria. 

The Departments of State and Justice have issued 

regulations to implement the continued presence provisions 

of the TVPA (66 Fed. Reg. 38514 (July 24, 2001)), and the 

Department of Justice has issued regulations allowing for 

applications for T nonimmigrant status (67 Fed. Reg 4784 

(January 31, 2002)). These benefits are now available to eligible applicants. In Fiscal Year 2003, 

the Department of Homeland Security’s Vermont Service Center received 601 applications for T 

nonimmigrant status, approved 297, and denied 30. Once a trafficking victim has held T 

nonimmigrant status for three years, he or she may apply to adjust status; the first T nonimmigrant 

status recipients will become eligible to adjust status beginning in 2005. The United States is 

currently the only country that offers the possibility of permanent residency to victims of 

trafficking. 

10As of March 1, 2003, the functions of the Immigration and Naturalization Service were 

transferred to the Department of Homeland Security and placed within Directorate of Border and 

Transportation Security and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. 

15 
When informed of a potential 

trafficking victim, federal prosecutors, with 

the assistance of the Federal Bureau of 

Investigation and U.S. Immigration and 

Customs Enforcement agents, typically 

mobilize to arrange an interview with the 

victim and reach a determination as to 

whether the victim has been subjected to a 

severe form of trafficking under the TVPA. 

The interview enables prosecutors and 

investigators to assess the victim’s willingness 

to assist law enforcement efforts. Federal law 

Requests from federal law enforcement

for continued presence for trafficking

victims who are potential witnesses 

Fiscal Year 2003 

active cases: 88

closed out cases*: 63

granted: 22

denied: 0

*were granted T visas

enforcement has also assisted victims by filling out law enforcement endorsements for T 

nonimmigrant status applications and by applying for continued presence for victims to remain in 

the United States during the pendency of the investigation. 

To place the Fiscal Year 2003 numbers regarding trafficking victims’ applications for 

immigration benefits in context, from the creation of these new immigration benefits in the TVPA 

through Fiscal Year 2003, approximately 450 victims of trafficking had accessed immigration 

benefits, either by receiving continued presence or by receiving T nonimmigrant status. 

Specifically, as of September 30, 2003, the Department of Homeland Security had granted about 

374 continued presence requests and as of November 30, 2003 had received 757 T nonimmigrant 

status applications, 328 of which resulted in T nonimmigrant status grants, 38 of which were 

denied, and the remaining of which were pending. Please note that many trafficking victims who 

received continued presence later applied for and received T nonimmigrant status; therefore, the 

total of approximately 450 victims served over the life of this program reflects victims who have 

received both types of benefits. 

When the Department of Justice issued regulations outlining the eligibility requirements 

for T nonimmigrant status, we included a provision that noncitizens victimized prior to passage of 

the TVPA needed to apply by the end of January 2003. Those victimized in the past are included 

in the 757 total. The U.S. Government is uncertain whether many more people were victimized in 

the past and chose not to apply, or whether this was the universe of all eligible victims. Federal 

prosecutors made efforts to reach out to victims whose cases they were handling or had handled 

in the past to let them know about the availability of such benefits. The Department of Homeland 

Security also engaged in outreach efforts to bring these new benefits to the attention of victims. 

A. Repatriation For Victims Who Choose To Go Home 

Note that not all victims have chosen to remain in the United States; some have requested 

repatriation to their home countries, either during the investigation or upon its conclusion. In one 

case, a group of juvenile victims requested to be reunited with family members in their native 

country, though the victims expressed their willingness to return to the United States to testify 

16
against the traffickers at trial. In another investigation, a victim of Indo-Nepalese origin requested

repatriation to India in order to reunite with her daughter. In these few instances, Department of

Justice personnel assisted in maintaining housing and victim benefits pending repatriation. 

Further, U.S. Government personnel have assisted in the repatriation process itself by liaising with

foreign governments in order to facilitate the victim’s return and to ensure that the victim is not

trafficked again. 

IV. Investigations and Prosecutions of Trafficking in Persons 

A. Investigations and Prosecutions of Traffickers 

Human trafficking cases are among the most labor- and time-intensive matters undertaken 

by the Department of Justice. They often involve large numbers of victims; language barriers; 

multiple investigating agencies; overseas investigations; and, in many cases, severe sexual or 

physical traumatization of victims and witnesses, requiring the expertise of various professionals, 

including rape counselors, psychiatrists, physicians, and child interview specialists. 

Within the Department of Justice, the Criminal Section of the Civil Rights Division, in 

collaboration with United States Attorneys’ Offices nationwide, has principal responsibility for 

prosecuting human trafficking crimes, except for cases involving trafficking in children, which is a 

specialization of the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section of the Criminal Division. Since its 

creation in 1957, the Civil Rights Division, at first relying on general civil rights statutes, has 

investigated and prosecuted cases of exploitation in which force and threats of force were used to 

compel persons to work involuntarily, or to engage in prostitution or other sexual exploitation. 

Similarly, the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section historically has taken a leading role in the 

prosecution of cases involving prostitution, with a particular focus on sex tourism and trafficking 

of minors for sexual exploitation. 

Investigations of trafficking in persons are undertaken by Federal Bureau of Investigation 

and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Federal Bureau of Investigation agents 

investigate the spectrum of federal criminal civil rights violations, crimes against children, and 

organized crime. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents follow the strategic 

priorities of border security and immigration enforcement. These strategic priorities allow for a 

comprehensive law enforcement approach to address the scourge of human trafficking – both 

domestically and internationally. The combination on March 1, 2003 of the investigative and 

intelligence arms of the former Immigration and Naturalization Service and the U.S. Customs 

Service and their respective international offices created an enormous investigative and 

intelligence infrastructure to address all aspects of human trafficking – forced child labor, human 

trafficking for sexual exploitation or labor, and sex tourism. The responsibility for the domestic 

enforcement of the TVPA is located in the Federal Bureau of Investigation headquarters Civil 

Rights Unit and in field offices, as well as in the Human Smuggling/Trafficking Unit at U.S. 

Immigration and Customs Enforcement headquarters and in its Special Agent in Charge offices. 

On October 10, 2003, the overseas offices from the legacy agencies at the Department of 

17
Homeland Security were officially combined into U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s 

International Affairs, which has assumed responsibility for certain aspects of international 

enforcement of the TVPA. 

Specifically, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents in the Civil Rights Unit liaise with 

agents in the Organized Crime and Crimes Against Children Units to ensure that smuggling cases 

are identified appropriately as trafficking cases when exploitation is present, that organized crime 

groups that traffic in commodities are identified as human trafficking operations if applicable, and 

that trafficking aspects of Internet crimes against children or sex tourism investigations are 

examined. 

investigative strategies of the legacies created by the Immigration and Naturalization Service and 

the U.S. Customs Service to investigate trafficking crimes; U.S. Immigration and Customs 

Enforcement financial investigative divisions follow systematically the trail of illicit money of the 

organizations that traffic in humans; U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement asset 

identification removal groups at each regional office target the finances and assets of trafficking 

organizations and focus on civil asset forfeiture; and the U.S. Immigration and Customs 

Enforcement Law Enforcement Support Center serves as a national enforcement operations and 

intelligence center that provides timely information on the status and identities of aliens, which, in 

turn, allows U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to arrest rapidly and maintain custody of 

potential traffickers under immigration charges while further criminal investigations are being 

completed. 

focuses on child exploitation investigations, including those under the PROTECT Act of 2003. 

Finally, through U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s global network of Foreign 

Attachés in 52 locations, immigration investigators collaborate on international investigations. 

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigations support prosecutions of traffickers by 

the Department of Justice’s prosecutors. 

Despite increased pressures on the Department of Justice’s investigative resources in the 

wake of September 11, 2001, the Department 

of Justice’s trafficking caseload has steadily 

grown. 

in Fiscal Year 1993, there were twelve 

trafficking investigations initiated; by Fiscal 

Year 2003, there were 82 investigations 

initiated, nearly seven times as many. 

April 2004, the Criminal Section of the Civil 

Rights Division had 153 open trafficking 

investigations – twice as many as were open in 

the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2001. 

one-half of these investigations have been 

initiated as a result of the “Trafficking in 

Persons and Worker Exploitation Task Force 

Complaint Line,” established in February 2000 

In addition, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents employ the combined 

In addition, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Cyber Crime Center 

Indeed, as the chart to the left shows, 

As of 

Over 

18
and described in greater detail in Section 

VI on outreach and training. As a result 

of the Department’s outreach and public 

education campaigns, the Complaint 

Line has received increased publicity, 

and is now an important means by which 

victims, witnesses, good Samaritans and 

others report potential trafficking 

matters to the Department of Justice. 

In Fiscal Years 2001 to 2003, the 

Department of Justice’s Civil Rights 

Division and U.S. Attorneys’ Offices 

initiated prosecutions of 110 traffickers, 

nearly a three-fold increase compared to 

the previous three fiscal years. In Fiscal 

Years 2001 to 2003, the Department of 

Justice secured 78 convictions and guilty 

pleas, a 50 percent increase over the 

previous three years. As the chart to the 

right indicates, in Fiscal Year 1999 

nineteen trafficking defendants were 

charged by the Civil Rights Division and 

U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, and in Fiscal Year 2003 30 defendants were charged. As a subset of 

these cases, there has also been an increase in the number of defendants charged in sex trafficking 

cases, from eight charged in Fiscal Year 1999 to 25 charged in Fiscal Year 2003. 

As the rate of reporting of trafficking crimes has increased, it has become clear that no 

state or territory is immune to human trafficking. Trafficking investigations have been initiated in 

every state and territory of the United States except Delaware, Maine, Rhode Island, South 

Dakota and Wyoming. Moreover, trafficking prosecutions through Fiscal Year 2003 have 

involved victims transported from countries around the world, notably Bangladesh, Cameroon, 

China, El Salvador, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, Indonesia, Jamaica, Mexico, Russia, Thailand, 

Tonga, the United States, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam. 

To place in context the increases in investigations and prosecutions shown in the two 

preceding charts, the TVPA’s passage in 2000 allowed for the possible investigation and 

prosecution of new crimes, namely forced labor; trafficking with respect to peonage, slavery, 

involuntary servitude, or forced labor; sex trafficking of children or by force, fraud or coercion; 

unlawful conduct with respect to documents in furtherance of trafficking, peonage, slavery, 

involuntary servitude, or forced labor; and attempts to engage in these behaviors. The TVPA also 

provided for forfeiture and mandatory restitution. The new law also substantially increased the 

maximum penalties for crimes previously associated with the Mann Act’s prohibition against 

transportation for sexual exploitation. Nonetheless, in Fiscal Year 2003 there continued to be 

refinements to the federal criminal law that would have proven useful. The TVPRA provided for 

19
such refinements in December 2003 by passing jurisdictional amendments to 18 USC § 1591 and 

including the TVPA trafficking offenses as predicates in racketeering cases. 

In order to further increase law enforcement and prosecutorial efforts to combat 

trafficking in persons, Attorney General Ashcroft has made it a priority to create and develop task 

forces through local U.S. Attorneys’ Offices where the greatest number of trafficking incidents 

occurs. Prosecutors are assisting efforts to develop regional anti-trafficking task forces in New 

York City; statewide in Florida; Chicago, Illinois; Cleveland, Ohio; Dallas, Texas; Denver, 

Colorado; Los Angeles, California; Atlanta, Georgia; and San Diego, California. These regional 

task forces represent a partnership among non-governmental organizations, local and federal law 

enforcement agencies, and U.S. Attorneys’ Offices. Since the start of Fiscal Year 2002, multiple 

anti-trafficking task force meetings and training sessions have taken place or are being organized 

for the listed cities. The U.S. Government is aware, however, that such task forces are difficult to 

sustain long-term unless a case arises to activate them. As such, the development of task forces is 

an ongoing endeavor. 

Law enforcement efforts to investigate trafficking in persons include the work of the 

Department of Labor, which continues to increase its emphasis on compliance with labor 

standards laws, such as the Fair Labor Standards Act and Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural 

Worker Protection Act, in low-wage industries like garment manufacturing and agriculture. 

Department of Labor civil law enforcement responsibilities relating to trafficking are carried out 

by the Wage and Hour Division with the support of the Solicitor's Office. The Wage and Hour 

Division is broadening its enforcement strategy to focus on other low-wage industries, including 

healthcare, day-care facilities, restaurants, guard services, janitorial services, hotels and motels, 

and temporary help agencies. These industries include a substantial concentration of 

undocumented, and sometimes trafficked, workers. Wage and Hour investigators are in 

workplaces every day, and often are the first government authorities to witness exploitive 

conditions and to talk to victims. These investigators collaborate closely with Department of 

Justice criminal investigators, notably through the federal Trafficking in Persons and Worker 

Exploitation Task Force, which coordinates trafficking investigations. 

B. Statistics on Persons Charged or Convicted 

The TVPRA requires statistics be provided to Congress on the number of persons who 

have been charged or convicted under one or more of sections 1581, 1583, 1584, 1589, 1590, 

1591, 1592, or 1594 of title 18, United States Code, during Fiscal Year 2003 and the sentences 

imposed against each such person. The following two charts list all trafficking prosecutions and 

those under the TVPA during prior fiscal years and Fiscal Year 2003. The reader should note 

that the people charged in Fiscal Year 2003 with a trafficking offense are unlikely to be the same 

people convicted and sentenced in Fiscal Year 2003. 

20
All Trafficking Prosecutions 11 

All Trafficking 

Prosecutions 

FY98 FY99 FY00 FY01 FY02 FY03 

Cases Filed 

Total 2 6 3 10 10 12 

Sex (subset of total) 1 2 3 4 7 9 

Defendants Charged 

Total 19 19 5 38 41 31 

Sex (subset of total) 16 8 5 26 27 25 

Convictions 

Total 25 13 10 23 28 26 

Sex (subset of total) 4 5 7 15 23 21 

TVPA Prosecutions 

TVPA Prosecutions FY01 FY02 FY03 

Cases Filed 

Total 5 7 9 

Sex (subset of total) 2 5 7 

Defendants Charged 

Total 11 21 24 

Sex (subset of total) 6 13 20 

Convictions 

Total 5 6 17 

Sex (subset of total) 3 6 14 

11 These Fiscal Year 2003 numbers reflect activities through September 2003. Where a 

previously reported case has been superseded, it is not counted as a new case, but additional 

defendants not previously counted are included. 

21 
To understand the full picture of prosecutorial and investigative efforts against trafficking 

in persons, it is useful to keep in mind the progression of trafficking cases through the criminal 

justice system. The case synopses below reflect new investigations, new cases, on-going 

prosecutions, defendants charged, defendants convicted, and defendants sentenced in Fiscal Year 

2003. 

C. Charges Brought in Fiscal Year 2003 

Below are listed trafficking cases that were initiated in Fiscal Year 2003. 

United States v. Maka (D. Hawaii) 

A landscape maintenance contractor and rock wall builder allegedly transported Tongan 

males to Hawaii where they were forced to work in his businesses to repay the transporting 

expenses. The victims were housed in shacks on the subject's pig farm and were required to work 

in excess of twelve hours a day, six days a week for approximately $60 to $100 per week. The 

local U.S. Attorney’s Office, along with the Civil Rights Division, is prosecuting the case. 

United States v. Soto-Huarto (S.D. Texas) 

In February 2003, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents initiated Operation 

Pinkston after law enforcement encountered two women who were stripped, gang-raped and 

dropped off near a roadway. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement identified two 

additional female victims and rescued them. Investigators from U.S. Immigration and Customs 

Enforcement and the Federal Bureau of Investigation and prosecutors from the Civil Rights 

Division and the local U.S. Attorney’s Office discovered that from January through March 2003, 

alien smugglers brought newly-arrived illegal aliens across the U.S.-Mexico border to trailer 

“safehouses” where women were kept and forced to cook, clean, and submit to rapes at the hands 

of the smugglers. Seven defendants pled guilty, one of whom fled after entering his plea and is a 

fugitive. Sentencing for the other six defendants was in January 2004; the sentences were 23 years 

– the longest sentence received under the TVPA to date, fourteen years, ten years, two years three

months, fifteen months, and four months in

prison. The ringleaders were also required to

pay restitution to the victims. In Soto, the Department of Justice 

obtained the longest sentence ever 

United States v. Martinez-Uresti (W.D. Texas) received under the TVPA, 

Through Operation Dead End, the San 23 years of imprisonment. 

Antonio U.S. Immigration and Customs 

Enforcement office investigated and the local U.S. Attorney’s Office prosecuted a situation in 

which the defendant Martinez-Uresti executed employment contracts with minor females and their 

parents, falsely representing that the minor females would work for one year in a restaurant to 

repay their $1,500 smuggling fee. Once the girls reached the United States, they were held against 

their will and forced to engage in prostitution to repay the smuggling fee. On October 10, 2003, 

defendant Maricela Martinez-Uresti pled guilty to sex trafficking of children and human smuggling 

violations, and was sentenced to 108 months in prison. The co-defendant, Violeta Juanita de 

Hoyos-Hernandez, pled guilty to human smuggling violations and was sentenced to seven months 

in prison. 

22
United States v. Trisanti and Nasution (C.D. California) 

Two defendants were charged with trafficking Indonesian women into the United States 

and then forcing them to work as domestic servants against their will by threats and physical 

violence. The victims were told they were not free to leave and their passports were seized. 

Defendant Trisanti pled guilty to involuntary servitude on January 16, 2004, and sentencing is 

scheduled for July 2004. The Civil Rights Division is prosecuting the case. 

United States v. Bradley and O’Dell (D. New Hampshire) 

In a case prosecuted by the Civil Rights Division and the local U.S. Attorney’s Office, two 

U.S. citizens were convicted on eighteen counts of forced labor and wire fraud for their treatment 

of Jamaican citizens brought to New Hampshire 

to work in their tree cutting business. The shed 

in the photograph at right is where the victims 

slept at night. Bradley and O’Dell were 

convicted of conspiracy to commit forced labor, 

forced labor, trafficking for the purpose of forced 

labor, and document servitude for forcing two of 

these men to work. The convictions were the 

culmination of a seventeen-month investigation 

by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the 

Diplomatic Security Service and the Litchfield 

Police Department and represent the second 

convictions at trial of violations of the TVPA’s 

forced labor statute, 18 U.S.C. § 1589. 

United States v. Salazar-Juarez (S.D. California) 

The defendant pled guilty to conspiring to bring to the United States and harbor aliens for 

financial gain and prostitution. Along with his brother, who is a fugitive, the defendant recruited 

women from Mexico, transported them into the United States, and provided them with apartments 

to operate a prostitution ring in southern California. The U.S. Attorney’s Office is prosecuting the 

case, in consultation with the Civil Rights Division. 

D. Prosecutions Ongoing During Fiscal Year 2003 

Several case examples illustrate the extent to which the Department of Justice has 

mobilized, along with its investigative partners, to prosecute trafficking in persons. 

United States v. Kil Soo Lee 

In United States v. Kil Soo Lee, the largest trafficking prosecution ever brought by the 

Department, the Civil Rights Division led a long and difficult investigation resulting in a 22-count 

indictment against five defendants charged with subjecting workers to involuntary servitude in a 

garment factory in American Samoa. Specifically, the indictment, filed in federal court in Hawaii, 

charged that the defendants brought over 250 Vietnamese and Chinese nationals, mostly young 

women, to work as sewing machine operators in a Daewoosa garment factory. The victims, some 

of whom were held for up to two years, were forced to work through extreme food deprivation, 

23
beatings and physical restraint. The victims were held in barracks on a guarded company

compound (pictured at right), and were threatened with confiscation of their passports,

deportation, economic bankruptcy, severe economic

hardship to family members, false arrest, and a host of

other consequences. One victim had an eye gouged

out by a defendant who struck her with a jagged pipe

in order to punish her for refusing to comply with the

defendants’ orders.

Two of the five defendants entered guilty pleas 

on August 31, 2001 to conspiracy for their 

involvement in the scheme. The trial of the remaining 

three defendants lasted approximately three months 

and concluded on February 21, 2003 when the jury 

convicted Lee, the owner of the factory and leader of 

the operation, on nearly all counts. Sentencing is in June 2004. The other two defendants, his 

subordinates, were acquitted. 

For their service in investigating and prosecuting the case and assisting the victims, the 

U.S. Attorney’s Office (District of Hawaii) and Civil Rights Division prosecutors, victim-witness 

coordinators, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents, and a Department of Homeland Security 

attorney received the Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Service on July 30, 2003. 

United States v. Juan and Jose Rojas (N.D. Georgia) 

Two defendants were charged with importing a young Mexican female into the United 

States with the intention of forcing her into prostitution. The defendants allegedly persuaded her 

and possibly other young women to come to the United States to work in a restaurant, and then 

denied them food and threatened them with harm and abandonment if they indicated any 

unwillingness to work as prostitutes. The investigation and prosecution, headed by the Civil 

Rights Division and the local U.S. Attorney, are continuing. 

E. Convictions Secured During Fiscal Year 2003 

Chronicled below are examples of convictions secured during Fiscal Year 2003. As the 

chart on the next page indicates, there were 26 convictions or pleas in Fiscal Year 2003, 21 of 

which involved sex trafficking. 

United States v. Blackwell and Blackwell (D. Maryland) 

After a three-week trial, a husband and wife (natives of Ghana) were convicted in June 

2003 of conspiring to smuggle a woman from Ghana into the United States to work as an unpaid 

domestic servant and nanny. The defendants hid the victim’s passport and required her to perform 

household chores, including cleaning other people's homes, with little or no compensation. The 

defendants had also threatened to have her deported and imprisoned if she did not do as they 

instructed. A co-defendant, a member of the Ghanaian parliament, remains charged and is facing 

24
extradition to the United States. 

prosecuted the case; this is the first conviction 

after trial under 18 U.S.C. § 1589. 

United States v. Quinton Williams (D. Nevada) 

The defendant was convicted on April 2, 

2003 of sex trafficking of children, transporting 

both a minor and an adult for prostitution, money 

laundering, and interstate travel in aid of 

racketeering. 

2003 to 125 months in prison and ordered to pay a 

$2,500 fine. 

business, the defendant transported the sixteenyear-old juvenile and adult victims cross-country 

by car to Indiana, Texas, Arizona, and Nevada, 

where he supervised their prostitution activities 

and collected and kept all of their earnings. 

defendant, who has prior felony convictions for 

attempted robbery and narcotics trafficking, filed only one federal individual income tax return in 

the past ten years with fewer than $500 total reported earnings. 

Internal Revenue Service and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, was prosecuted by 

the local U.S. Attorney’s Office in consultation with the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, 

and was the first prosecution in Nevada under 18 U.S.C. § 1591. 

United States v. Lozoya (W.D. Texas) 

Two defendants pled guilty to charges arising from their illegal transportation of a young 

Mexican woman into the United States to perform domestic work. along 

with her baby daughter, was held in a trailer where the family mistreated them; the family’s failure 

to obtain medical assistance resulted in the death of the baby. 

and the Civil Rights Division prosecuted the case; each defendant was sentenced on June 25, 2003 

to prison terms of fifteen years and five years respectively. 

United States v. Ramos (S.D. Florida) 

Another successful prosecution by the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division is 

United States v. Ramos. Ramos, three defendants were charged on May 9, 2002 with illegally 

transporting Mexican citizens to Florida to work in fruit harvesting fields, and then forcing the 

victims to work by threatening beatings and death if the victims tried to leave; they subjected the 

victims to constant surveillance. 

suspected of transporting workers from the defendants’ fields. 

secured convictions at trial in the Southern District of Florida. 

Ramiro Ramos received a prison sentence of 180 months to be followed by three years of 

supervised release; he was also fined $20,000 and ordered to forfeit property valued at over $3 

million. 

May 2004. 

The local U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Civil Rights Division 

Williams was sentenced on June 20, 

As the operator of a prostitution 

The 

The case was investigated by the 

The Mexican woman, 

The local U.S. Attorney’s Office 

In 

In addition, the defendants pistol-whipped van drivers whom they 

Department of Justice attorneys 

On March 2, 2004 defendant 

His brother Juan is being re-sentenced (for reasons unrelated to his trafficking charges) in 

25
United States v. Guzman, et al. (N.D. Georgia) 

Four defendants were charged in a superseding indictment on January 30, 2003 with 

conspiring to transport and harbor three female aliens for prostitution, including two juveniles, 

from Mexico into the United States and forcing them to engage in prostitution in the Atlanta 

metropolitan area. One of the four defendants pled guilty to conspiring to violate the Mann Act 

and to importing, harboring and employing young Mexican female aliens for the purpose of 

prostitution; on July 30, 2003 he was sentenced to 33 months in prison. Trial is pending on the 

other defendants; the case is being prosecuted by the Civil Rights Division and the local U.S. 

Attorney’s Office. 

United States v. Jimenez-Calderon, et al. (D. New Jersey) 

In United States v. Jimenez-Calderon, the Criminal Section, in collaboration with the U.S. 

Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey, secured one of the first convictions under 18 

U.S.C. § 1591. The Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section consulted on this matter as well. In 

this case, five defendants were charged on September 26, 2002 with conspiring to lure and 

transport young Mexican girls into the United States under false pretenses, and then forcing them 

into prostitution, using physical violence and 

threats to maintain strict control over them. One trafficker received a 210-month In addition to the five indicted defendants, 

three other traffickers entered guilty pleas to sentence – more than seventeen years 

sex trafficking charges in September and of imprisonment – one of the longest 

October 2002. On the eve of trial, three of prison sentences ever received 

under the TVPA. the five remaining defendants entered guilty

pleas to various offenses, including

conspiracy, sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion, and conspiracy to obstruct justice. Having

previously pled guilty, two of the defendants were sentenced to 210 months in prison (one of the

longest prison terms to date for charges brought under the TVPA), while a third defendant was

sentenced to 44 months in prison. As an offshoot of the original investigation, called Operation

Sonic, Newark U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents conducted Operation

Supersonic; on August 7, 2003 they executed ten search warrants, arrested 50 undocumented

aliens, and seized $27,000. These warrants were a result of a human smuggling investigation

worked jointly with the New York Police Department and the U.S. Department of Labor. On

October 21, 2003, defendant Pedro Garcia-Burgos pled guilty and was sentenced to 96 months

imprisonment in the District of New York. On January 20, 2004, four additional subjects were

charged for violations ranging from human smuggling to transportation in aid of a racketeering

enterprise.

United States v. Flores (W.D. North Carolina) 

Wilmer Martin Flores was indicted on November 4, 2002 and later pled guilty on 

September 25, 2003 to charges including conspiracies to transport both a minor and an adult for 

the purposes of illegal sexual activity. Flores was the purported leader of a group (including two 

other men and a woman) who traveled interstate with the thirteen-year-old niece of one of the 

defendants and had the minor child and the female defendant engage in prostitution for money. 

The three other conspirators were similarly charged and previously pled guilty. The local U.S. 

Attorney’s Office prosecuted this case in consultation with the Child Exploitation and Obscenity 

Section. 

26
F. Sentences Obtained in Trafficking Cases in Fiscal Year 2003 

The TVPA specifically amended and created various sentencing guidelines to provide for 

higher sentences in trafficking cases. It also created a mandatory restitution section and a 

forfeiture provision. These three sections are working together to ensure that defendants 

convicted of trafficking in persons receive sentences that reflect the seriousness of their crimes. 

In response to the TVPA’s requirements, in November 2002 the U.S. Sentencing 

Commission permanently amended guidelines that characterize human trafficking offenses as 

crimes for which sentences should be increased if the conduct involved a large number of victims, a 

pattern of continued and flagrant violations, the use or threatened use of a dangerous weapon, or 

death or bodily injury to the victim. Other factors that could have an impact on a sentence include 

the amount of time the victims were held in servitude, the vulnerability of the victims, whether the 

victims were restrained, and whether the defendant’s motivation involved bias. A sentence can 

also be affected by the defendant’s prior criminal history, his or her role in the crime, and his or her 

willingness to accept responsibility. Because the criminal provisions of the TVPA cannot be 

applied retroactively, however, there have been to date only a handful of cases prosecuted in which 

the enhanced sentencing provisions apply, and the bulk of these cases were or will be sentenced in 

Fiscal Years 2003 and 2004. These considerations are important in reviewing any comparative 

sentencing data. 

In order to present the data required by this report, the Department of Justice’s Bureau of 

Justice Statistics reviewed the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AOUSC) criminal case 

database12 to preliminarily calculate average sentence length for cases completed in Fiscal Year 

2003 that involved the trafficking offenses of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1581 (peonage), 1583 (enticement for 

slavery), 1584 (sale into involuntary servitude), 1589 (forced labor), 1590 (trafficking with respect 

to peonage/slavery/involuntary servitude/forced labor), 1591 (sex trafficking of children or by 

force, fraud or coercion), 1592 (unlawful conduct with respect to documents in furtherance of 

trafficking), and 1594 (general provisions). We note that this calculation differs from the case 

statistics presented in the preceding charts, because the AOUSC database tracks the statutes 

involved in a court case rather than the underlying facts of each case. As a result, the AOUSC 

database search was unable to determine sentences in trafficking prosecutions in which defendants 

pled guilty to non-trafficking offenses such as immigration violations or visa fraud. In addition, the 

AOUSC database chronicles only the top five offenses charged, and not the universe of charges 

brought. 

12Two groups of data were used from the AOUSC criminal master file to complete this 

report’s requirements: defendants in criminal cases filed and defendants in criminal cases 

concluded. The first file describes the number of defendants in cases filed in Fiscal Year 2003, 

which includes the filing of an indictment, information, complaint or other significant paper 

against a defendant in U.S. district court. The second file describes the number of defendants in 

criminal case adjudicated in U.S. district court, the number convicted, and the sentences imposed 

in Fiscal Year 2003. Because of the time it takes to process a case, a defendant appearing in the 

"case filed" data group does not necessarily appear in the "case adjudicated" data group. Up to 

five filing offenses are reported per defendant. 

27 
Based on the AOUSC database search, in Fiscal Year 2003, there were 20 defendants in 

cases filed in U.S. district court where one of the above statutes was indicated. In addition, in 

Fiscal Year 2003 there were twelve defendants in cases concluded where a trafficking statute was 

indicated. Ten defendants were convicted and, of these, eight received a prison term, one received 

a suspended sentence and one received another sanction (e.g., fine). The average prison term for 

the eight defendants was 127 months and ranged from 33 months to 270 months (specifically: one 

with 33 months, one with 44 months, one with 46 months, one with 60 months, one with 125 

months, one with 168 months, and one with 270 months). 

V. International Grants to Combat Trafficking 

The ideal way to combat trafficking is to forestall the victimization of people in the first 

place. Because the United States is a destination country for trafficked people, those activities in 

which the U.S. Government engages abroad are particularly important in preventing trafficking. 

Through the Department of State, the Department of Labor’s Bureau of International Labor 

Affairs and the U.S. Agency for International Development, the U.S. Government gives a 

substantial amount of international assistance aimed at preventing trafficking in persons, as well as 

improving the treatment of victims and the prosecution of traffickers abroad. 

The Department of State has focused considerable diplomatic and political attention on the 

issue of trafficking in persons, particularly through the engagement of the Undersecretary of 

Global Affairs, Paula J. Dobriansky, and the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, 

in bilateral and multilateral relations. Specifically, the United States actively pursues awarenessraising about this issue bilaterally with foreign governments; through multilateral conferences, 

speeches, and outreach to non-governmental organizations; and by bringing people together from 

around the world to develop regional plans of action on trafficking. The U.S. Government has 

demonstrated leadership in several international and regional conferences focused on human 

trafficking, facilitating several of them. For example, in February 2003 the Department of State 

hosted an international conference in partnership with the non-governmental War Against 

Trafficking Alliance, entitled “Path-breaking Strategies in the Global Fight Against Sex 

Trafficking.” This conference, held in Washington, D.C., brought together 400-plus working-level 

activists from 113 countries who tackle sex trafficking in their own cultures to develop regional 

action plans and share best practices. The conference report summarizing best practices was 

released in May 2003 and may be found at <http://www.state.gov/g/tip/c8628.htm>. 

Another way to improve prevention of trafficking is to understand the situations in which 

vulnerable populations find themselves within source countries, particularly with respect to labor 

markets and other social and economic factors. The annual TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS REPORT, 

which assesses the anti-trafficking activities of governments of source, transit and destination 

countries, can prove a valuable source of such information, as can the Department of State’s 

continued expansion of reporting on trafficking in persons in its annual Country Reports on Human 

Rights Practices. Leveraging attention generated by these reports, the Department of State 

continuously engages with foreign government officials to promote cooperation and enhanced antitrafficking efforts, regionally and in individual countries. Since the introduction of the 

TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS REPORT, the Department of State, the U.S. Agency for International 

Development, and the Bureau of International Labor Affairs have focused their anti-trafficking28
related international assistance primarily on those eligible countries that are ranked in Tiers 2 or 3 

of the REPORT, in order to assist them improving their anti-trafficking efforts. 

The Department of Labor also publishes an annual report, mandated by the Trade and 

Development Act of 2000, on efforts being taken by governments to meet their international 

commitments to eliminate the worst forms of child labor, including the trafficking of children for 

exploitative labor and commercial sexual exploitation. The Trade and Development Act 

established efforts to eliminate the worst forms of child labor as a new eligibility criterion for 

countries that are recipients of trade benefits under the Generalized System of Preferences, the 

Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act, and the African Growth and Opportunity Act. 

In Fiscal Year 2003, the U.S. In Fiscal Year 2003, the U.S. 

Government supported approximately 234 Government funded 234 international 

international anti-trafficking programs totaling anti-trafficking programs totaling $91 

circa $91 million and benefitting over 90 million, up from 118 programs 

countries, up from 118 programs in 55 in Fiscal Year 2001. 

countries in Fiscal Year 2001. In Fiscal Years 

2002 and 2003, the U.S. Government invested 

over $146.8 million on international anti-trafficking efforts. A list of Fiscal Year 2003 

international anti-trafficking programs is attached as Appendix 3. 

The U.S. Government’s international anti-trafficking efforts range from small projects such 

as purchasing equipment, to large-scale, multi-year, multi-million-dollar programs to develop 

comprehensive regional and national strategies to combat the worst forms of child labor. The U.S. 

Government’s extensive experience of international development work suggests that the following 

types of assistance will have a favorable impact on trafficking in persons: development or 

improvement of anti-trafficking laws; provision of equipment for law enforcement; economic 

alternative programs for vulnerable groups; education programs; training for government officials 

and medical personnel; anti-corruption measures; establishment or renovation of shelters, crisis 

centers, or safehouses for victims; support for voluntary and humane return and reintegration 

assistance for victims; and support for psychological, legal, medical and counseling services for 

victims provided by non-governmental organizations, international organizations and governments. 

The U.S. Government funds programs in each of these substantive areas. 

A sampling of the 234 programs, and the needs they intend to address, is presented below: 

• Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea: This project, entitled “Mano River Union—assistance 

to trafficking victims,” aims to assist women who were abducted to serve as wives for 

former Revolutionary United Front members and then abandoned. This program supports 

1) facilitating the safe return and social re-insertion and rehabilitation of refugees, 2) crossborder peace building through community radio messaging, and 3) psycho-social treatment 

and rehabilitation of victims of torture and gender-based violence. 

• Cambodia: This project, entitled “Initiative to end commercial sexual exploitation,” plans 

to increase the capacity of Cambodian law enforcement authorities to capture and convict 

traffickers through (a) investigative training for the Ministry of Interior's Anti-Human 

29
Trafficking Juvenile Protection Unit and (b) legal advocacy to facilitate effective 

prosecution of trafficking cases. 

• Afghanistan: This project, entitled “Capacity building in counter-trafficking in 

Afghanistan,” aims to increase the capacity of the Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan 

to address effectively trafficking in persons in Afghanistan through technical assistance and 

awareness-raising activities. This project plans to raise awareness within the government, 

national non-governmental organizations, and women’s groups, through the establishment 

of working groups between government ministries, the United Nations, and community 

groups to address prevention, protection, and prosecution. The grantee will provide 

guidance and technical assistance to the Ministry of Justice and Judicial Commission on 

international and domestic legal instruments on trafficking in persons. 

• India: In the project entitled “Trafficking prevention/training in rural areas,” a local nongovernmental organization will survey child marriage patterns in rural West Bengal areas 

that are source areas for child trafficking and sexual exploitation; develop projects that 

deter child marriage; increase networking on prevention of child trafficking between nongovernmental organizations and government and law enforcement at both the rural and 

urban level; provide police training divisions with comprehensive reference material on 

child trafficking and sexual exploitation; and provide grass-roots government officials with 

Over 90 Countries Assisted by USG 

International Programs: 

Afghanistan, Albania, Angola, Argentina, 

Armenia, Azerbaijan, Australia, Bahrain, 

Bangladesh, Belarus, Belize, Benin, Bolivia, 

Bosnia-Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, 

Burkina Faso, Bulgaria, Burundi, Cambodia, 

Cameroon, Chile, Colombia, Democratic 

Republic of Congo, Costa Rica, Croatia, 

Cyprus, Czech Republic, Dominican 

Republic, Ecuador, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, 

Finland, Georgia, Ghana, Guinea, Haiti, 

Hungary, India, Indonesia, Italy, Jamaica, 

Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, 

Laos, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Macedonia, 

Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, Mexico, Moldova, 

Montenegro, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal, 

Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, 

Philippines, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, 

Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, 

Slovakia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan, 

Suriname, Swaziland, Syria, Tajikistan, 

Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, 

Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Zambia, 

Zimbabwe 

the training necessary to recognize and fight 

trafficking in children. 

• Albania, Moldova, Romania, and 

Ukraine: This project, entitled 

“Combating trafficking in children for 

labor and sexual exploitation in the 

Balkans and Ukraine,” contributes to 

the prevention and elimination of 

internal and cross-border trafficking in 

children for sexual and labor 

exploitation. Interventions will include 

advocacy to bring domestic legislation 

and procedures in line with 

international commitments, 

reintegration of child victims of 

trafficking into communities, and 

establishment of a sub-regional 

information exchange network to 

reinforce and complement existing 

regional structures and other subregional mechanisms. 

The U.S. Government also engages 

internationally through cooperation with 

countries that support the UN Protocol to 

30
Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, which

supplements the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime, adopted by the UN

General Assembly in November 2000; the United States signed the Convention and Protocol in

December 2000 and the Bush Administration has submitted them to the Senate for advice and

consent to ratification. Three other international instruments that address the sale of and

trafficking in children have also been adopted – International Labor Organization (ILO)

Convention 182 concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst

Forms of Child Labour (which the United States ratified in February 1999), the Optional Protocol

to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child

Pornography (which the United States ratified in December 2002), and the Optional Protocol to

the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict

(which the United States ratified in December 2002). The Department of Labor works with the

ILO to bring international attention to countries’ obligations under ILO Conventions 138 and 182

regarding the minimum age for work and worst forms of child labor,

and Conventions 29 and 105 that address the abolition of forced

labor.

VI. Training and Outreach 

There is a significant difference between the estimated number 

of people trafficked into the United States annually and the number of 

victims that the U.S. Government has reached through investigations, 

prosecutions, Health and Human Services’s certifications, and 

provision of immigration benefits. To ameliorate this situation and 

improve its contact with victims, the U.S. Government is employing 

several strategies. Foremost among these is the expansion of 

outreach and training activities. Such outreach and training activities 

take place in a variety of forums; some are interagency while others are focused on the traditional 

constituencies of particular agencies. Beginning in January 2004, the Civil Rights Division created 

a newsletter that informs the public about trafficking investigations and prosecutions. A copy of 

that newsletter is above at right. 

In February 2000, the Department of Justice established a toll-free Trafficking in Persons 

and Worker Exploitation Complaint Line. As this report details in the Section IV on investigations 

and prosecutions, over one-half of investigations instituted since then have 

been the result of calls to the Complaint Line. A Rolodex card image of 

the Complaint Line is at left. The number is also advertized publicly 

through the use of posters, shown at right. As a 

result of the U.S. Government’s outreach and 

public education campaigns, the Complaint Line 

has received increased publicity, and is now an 

important means by which victims, witnesses, good Samaritans, and others 

report potential trafficking matters to the U.S. Government. For instance, 

in a case during Fiscal Year 2003, the Complaint Line received a call 

relaying allegations that an Eritrean domestic worker had been held captive 

in the home of suspected traffickers for approximately twelve years. 

31
Within three weeks, Civil Rights Division prosecutors, with Federal Bureau of Investigation and 

non-governmental organization partners, conducted an operation to secure the victim’s liberation. 

While the criminal investigation proceeds as of this writing, the victim is receiving TVPA victim 

services and has been reunited with family members. 

A. Training of Non-governmental Organizations 

Non-governmental organizations have been vital to the U.S. Government’s efforts to 

identify and help trafficking victims as well as to prosecute trafficking 

cases. The U.S. Government engages in extensive outreach to nongovernmental organizations, which are often the first point of contact with 

trafficking victims. These contacts foster good relations with groups that 

receive and shelter trafficking victims and are often in a position to 

encourage victims to come forward and report their abuses. Additionally, 

in those situations in which law enforcement is actively involved in 

liberating victims from servitude, some non-governmental organizations can 

provide safe houses for the victims. In order to facilitate this relationship, 

the Departments of Justice, Labor, Health and Human Services and State 

produced a brochure, shown at left, for non-governmental organizations, 

explaining to them about the rights of trafficking victims under federal law 

and benefits and services available to them. 

U.S. Government personnel have been working closely with non-governmental 

organizations across the country to train service providers on the victim services and criminal 

provisions of the TVPA and amendments under the TVPRA. Through such training, federal 

prosecutors, Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement 

agents, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service’s officials, and Health and Human Services’s 

personnel have forged good relationships with non-governmental organizations, learned about 

potential new cases, acquired non-governmental organizations’ assistance in procuring refuge and 

support for trafficking victims, educated non-governmental organizations on the requirements for 

identifying a victim of a severe form of trafficking, and trained service providers on the roles that 

they can play to contribute toward the success of trafficking investigations and prosecutions. As 

an example of U.S. Government training of and with non-governmental organizations, the 

Department of Justice has conducted training during Fiscal Year 2003 in the Washington, D.C. 

metropolitan area; New York City; Chicago, Illinois; San Diego, California; Atlanta, Georgia; 

Dallas, Texas; and several other cities. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents 

focused on collaborative activities and clarification of the differences between alien smuggling and 

trafficking in persons in their outreach to non-governmental organizations during Fiscal Year 2003. 

For instance, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement provided training and a keynote speaker 

at the first national trafficking in persons conference in Dallas, Texas in February 2003; U.S. 

Immigration and Customs Enforcement provided trainers in March 2003 at the U.S. Conference of 

Catholic Bishops national training session on trafficking (focused primarily on children); and U.S. 

Immigration and Customs Enforcement provided trainers in March 2003 at the Denver, Colorado 

conference “Trafficking and Trade: Impact of Globalization on Women.” 

32
B. HHS Campaign: Look Beneath the Surface 

The need for outreach is continual. The Department of Health and 

Human Services developed an outreach program in Fiscal Year 2003 to 

attempt to identify and serve more victims and to educate the public about 

human trafficking and benefits and services for victims. That outreach 

campaign, called “Look Beneath the Surface,” will ultimately cost $5 

million over a 24-month period, transcending three fiscal years (Fiscal 

Years 2003 to 2005), with a potential for extension and expansion. Public 

service announcements are a part of the endeavor. This outreach campaign 

grew out of a strategy to provide fundamental information to more victims 

and to those who are most likely to encounter victims, for the purpose of 

encouraging more victims to report their cases, so that they may receive 

assistance and more traffickers can be prosecuted. In order of priority, the 

campaign targets are (i) victims of trafficking, (ii) people who are likely to know of victims, (iii) 

institutional partners, and – to the extent possible given available resources – (iv) the general 

public. 

People in the first three categories are best approached – especially given budget 

constraints – by a “narrowcast” strategy of specialized and highly-targeted media. Possible 

examples of such targeted media are non-English newspapers, trade publications and religious 

media networks. Institutional partners are those local government personnel (e.g., local law 

enforcement, family court and juvenile justice officials, public defenders, and community health 

officials) who are likely to encounter routinely victims and therefore need 

to begin screening for trafficking victims. 

In Fiscal Year 2004, the Department of Health and Human 

Services established a toll-free Trafficking Information and Referral 

Hotline as a critical complement to the public awareness campaign. This 

contract was awarded to Covenant House in New York City. Hotlines 

have a well-established history of serving individuals in crisis, whether 

victims of domestic violence, missing or exploited children, runaway teens, 

or victims of rape, incest, and abuse. The Hotline will be available 24 

hours per day, seven days per week and will provide information, 

counseling and referral to people who may not yet be prepared to 

approach law enforcement and who, without such support, may never 

contact law enforcement. The Department of Health and Human Services 

Hotline serves a different purpose than the Department of Justice 

Complaint Line; the purpose of the Hotline is to provide basic information 

and initial counseling to victims and to put them in touch with local nongovernmental organization that can provide assistance with the ultimate 

goal of persuading the victim to report the crime to federal law 

enforcement. Callers who are willing to report a trafficking situation will be transferred to the 

Department of Justice Complaint Line. 

33
The general message of the 

“Look Beneath the Surface” 

outreach campaign is: 

• victims of trafficking are numerous 

but often inconspicuous; 

• victims are not criminals; 

• the government is able to help 

victims; 

• here’s how to recognize a victim; 

• here’s what to do if you are or you 

know of a victim. 

officials who may be able to help. 

In tandem with these outreach efforts, 

the Departments of Health and Human 

Services, Homeland Security and Justice are 

developing intake procedures for individuals 

who seek out benefits in the United States in 

order to bring more victims to the 

government’s attention. To improve the 

understanding by non-governmental 

organizations of interactions between victims 

and the U.S. Government, the U.S. 

Government developed a protocol to explain 

to non-governmental organizations the 

processes that have an impact on victims, and 

provided contact information for federal 

C. Domestic Law Enforcement Training 

Training of federal and local law enforcement and federal and local 

prosecutors is also critical in advancing the U.S. Government’s efforts to 

combat trafficking in persons. Prior to Fiscal Year 2003, attorneys from 

the Department of Justice authored an article in the August 2002 issue of 

POLICE CHIEF magazine, entitled, “Working Together to Stop Modern-Day 

Slavery.” This article, shown at right, outlines ways for local law 

enforcement during the course of their usual investigations to identify 

trafficking cases. POLICE CHIEF is distributed to more than 17,000 police 

departments across the country. U.S. Government personnel continued to 

distribute this article as part of their Fiscal Year 2003 outreach and training activities. 

During Fiscal Year 2003, federal, state and local law enforcement received a variety of 

types of training in combating trafficking in persons. In November 2002 the Attorney General 

issued “blue sheets” for prosecutors, outlining the new TVPA crimes and adding guidance 

regarding the prosecution of such crimes to the U.S. ATTORNEYS’ MANUAL. Through law 

enforcement training, including federal prosecutors working in the field, the U.S. Government is 

helping to ensure that trafficking victims are quickly identified and protected, that human 

trafficking activity masquerading as other crimes (e.g., alien smuggling, organized crime) is 

appropriately investigated and prosecuted, and that law enforcement officials have a list of 

contacts, both locally in their districts, and at various federal agencies in Washington, D.C., to 

assist them in moving quickly to triage a trafficking case. The Department of Justice also authored 

a comprehensive legal monograph on trafficking issues to assist U.S. Attorney personnel in the 

field to prosecute trafficking cases more effectively, and has modified its website home page to 

highlight trafficking in persons as a Departmental priority and to provide a comprehensive source 

of information and resources within the Department and with related agencies, available at 

<http://www.usdoj.gov>www.usdoj.gov/trafficking.htm>. 

34
During Fiscal Year 2003, specifically in October 2002, the Criminal Section of the Civil 

Rights Division organized a comprehensive anti-trafficking training for federal prosecutors and 

agents at the Department of Justice’s training facility, the National Advocacy Center, in Columbia, 

South Carolina. Approximately 150 federal prosecutors and agents attended the training. 

Furthermore, also in Fiscal Year 2003, the Civil Rights Division continued to provide periodic 

training at the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Quantico training center and to provide training to 

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Quantico training was on civil rights crimes, 

including trafficking in persons, and took the form of in-service training of experienced agents and 

introductory training of new agents. 

Department of Justice staff have met with various federal, state, and local law enforcement 

agencies and victim service providers to provide technical assistance and training in identifying and 

assisting trafficking victims. Department of Justice personnel have trained local law enforcement 

officers in New York City on human trafficking laws and investigation, and have been assisting the 

New York Police Department in identifying and developing trafficking cases that were formerly 

prosecuted as other types of crimes. Other training efforts at the local level have occurred in 

Washington, D.C., Chicago, Illinois, and Ogden, Utah. Department of Justice personnel have also 

trained local, state and federal law enforcement officials at the International Asian Organized 

Crime Conference in Chicago and at the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement 

Executives (NOBLE) Conference in Tampa, Florida. Federal prosecutors and a Civil Rights 

Division victim coordinator attended meetings and conducted training held in Chicago, Atlanta, 

Milwaukee, Las Vegas, and Raleigh, North Carolina, as well as in Washington, D.C. Attendees at 

one such training included North Carolina state troopers, U.S. Immigration and Customs 

Enforcement agents and victim coordinators, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Women in 

Federal Law Enforcement, attorneys and legal advocates, as well as numerous non-governmental 

organizations. 

The Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section also plays a vital role in law enforcement 

training. It provides training to state, local and federal law enforcement agencies and prosecutors, 

domestically and abroad, that emphasizes trafficking and other sexual exploitation statutes. In 

particular, the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section has cultivated strong relationships with the 

specialized units and individual agents dealing with offenses against children in each of the major 

federal investigative agencies. These include the Federal Bureau of Investigation headquarters 

Cybercrimes and Crimes against Children Units, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and 

the United States Postal Inspection Service. The Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section is 

closely partnered with these agencies in conducting training, law enforcement initiatives, and major 

national and international investigations. The Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section also 

provides significant training to federal prosecutors, particularly at its Advanced Child Exploitation 

Seminar held at the National Advocacy Center. Additionally, the Child Exploitation and Obscenity 

Section has partnered with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to provide 

regularly training to state and local prosecutors in connection with the sexual exploitation of 

children. 

The Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section also maintains a network of points of contact 

for child exploitation and trafficking matters within each of the U.S. Attorney’s Offices, a system 

that allows the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section to provide regular updates on legislative 

35
and judicial developments related to child exploitation, and to inform prosecutors of the new 

prosecutorial tools and potential charges provided by the TVPA. This system helps the 

Department of Justice identify cases that should include sex trafficking charges. The Civil Rights 

Division also has a civil rights point of contact in each U.S. Attorney’s Office; some offices, in 

addition, have specific trafficking in persons points of contact. 

In its cooperative efforts with state and local law enforcement, the Child Exploitation and 

Obscenity Section is also increasingly emphasizing the recognition and response to potential 

trafficking situations. Along these lines, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Child 

Exploitation and Obscenity Section are currently undertaking a child prostitution initiative, which 

involves increased cooperation with state and local law enforcement and reliance on the Child 

Exploitation and Obscenity Section’s previously-established relationships with relevant nongovernmental organizations that address child exploitation issues. In select cities, the Child 

Exploitation and Obscenity Section is developing task forces designed to focus on commercial 

sexual exploitation of children. As part of this initiative, the Child Exploitation and Obscenity 

Section is pursuing investigations with local Federal Bureau of Investigation agents and vice 

detectives; these investigations jointly employ local social service organizations to assist child 

victims. Additionally, the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section is working with the Federal 

Bureau of Investigation to develop undercover initiatives to target those providing both the supply 

and the demand in the child sex tourism trade. 

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducted the following anti-trafficking 

training activities with local or federal law enforcement during Fiscal Year 2003: 

• U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement provided trafficking training at the national 

conference of the National Association of State Crime Victim Assistance Administrators. 

Administrators from all 50 states attended. 

• U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement provided subject matter experts (trainers) on 

human trafficking at the National Conference for Women in Policing in Los Angeles in 

April 2003. This national conference draws officials from federal, state, and local law 

enforcement, as well as elected and appointed officials and community leaders. The 

conference addressed current issues facing law enforcement agencies; trafficking in persons 

was highlighted in 2003. There were over 300 attendees. 

• An U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement staff member serves as an adjunct faculty 

member for the National Victim Assistance Academy at the University of South Carolina. 

The Academy is the federal government’s only college-level victim assistance training. 

There are courses taught simultaneously at three major U.S. universities. Trafficking in 

persons was added to the federal workshop curriculum for the summer session. 

• U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement staff provided trafficking training on the 

topics of continued presence and T and U nonimmigrant status to all Federal Bureau of 

Investigation victim-witness coordinators at their national in-service training in San 

Antonio, Texas. 

36
• U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement staff cross-trained Alabama State Troopers on 

the identification of trafficking in persons cases at the Department of Homeland Security’s 

National Center for Domestic Preparedness at Anniston, Alabama. 

• U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement gave two presentations to the International 

Association of the Chiefs of Police to assist in the development of local and state law 

enforcement guidelines to address human trafficking. 

In addition, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement also conducted special agent, 

immigration agent, deportation officer and immigration enforcement agent training to implement 

the TVPA; a complete list of these extensive training activities is attached as Appendix 4. 

The grantees of the Office for Victims of Crime and the Office of Refugee Resettlement 

often provide training of law enforcement as part of their outreach and coalition-building activities 

during Fiscal Year 2003. For instance, the Office for Victims of Crime grantee Heartland Alliance 

for Human Needs and Human Rights trained 614 federal and local law enforcement personnel and 

prosecutors on issues concerning victims of trafficking in persons. In addition, the Office of 

Refugee Resettlement provided a grant administered by the Coalition Against Slavery and 

Trafficking in Los Angeles to establish the Freedom Network Institute on Human Trafficking, 

which developed a two-day comprehensive training entitled, “Human Trafficking and Slavery: 

Basic Tools for an Effective Response.” This training was delivered in Fiscal Year 2003 to a 

variety of law enforcement, community and government participants in 21 cities. 

The Bureau of Diplomatic Security at 

the Department of State has instituted a 

training segment in its basic agent training 

course taught by a Department of Justice 

attorney addressing human trafficking issues as 

they pertain to passport and visa fraud 

investigations. 

The largest hurdles in providing 

training to local law enforcement are the sheer 

number of state and local law enforcement 

agencies that exist throughout the United 

States, and the turnover of officers, which on 

average is every few years. The U.S. 

Government has identified some vehicles 

through which to do training, e.g., annual 

conferences of law enforcement organizations, 

but the task is daunting. 

The following Office for Victims of Crime 

grantees also trained federal and local 

law enforcement personnel and 

prosecutors on the tragedy of trafficking: 

Little Tokyo Service Center, 

Los Angeles – 365 

International Rescue Committee, 

Miami, Florida* – 51 

YMCA International Services, 

Houston – 877 

International Rescue Committee, 

Phoenix, Arizona – 201 

Heartland Alliance for Human Needs and 

Human Rights, Chicago* – 614 

Boat People S.O.S., 

Falls Church, VA – 

43 

Massachusetts Mental Health Institute, 

Boston – 25

*Training was funded in part from awards by the

Office for Victims of Crime and in part by the

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D. International Law Enforcement Training 

Recognizing that trafficking in persons is an international problem, U.S. Government 

personnel have conducted international outreach and have helped train foreign visitors and officials 

to the United States on U.S. trafficking laws, investigations, and prosecutions. 

Working with the Department of Justice’s Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development, 

Assistance, and Training, in Fiscal Year 2003 federal prosecutors trained prosecutors, police, 

judges, and non-governmental representatives from a wide variety of countries, including officials 

from Albania, Bangladesh, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Costa Rica, the Czech Republic, El Salvador, 

Hungary, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Mexico, Nepal, 

Pakistan, the Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Ukraine, the 

United Kingdon, and Uzbekistan. In addition, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement staff 

provided briefings on the new statutes, TVPA immigration relief, and victim assistance procedures 

to representatives from over 40 countries as part of the State Department’s international visitor 

program on trafficking. 

During Fiscal Year 2003, Department of Justice officials also addressed international 

gatherings convened in countries such as Guatemala, the Dominican Republic and Brazil, to 

encourage a coordinated response to human trafficking worldwide. Within the Civil Rights 

Division, Assistant Attorney General Ralph Boyd and his successor Alex Acosta have made this 

outreach a priority for senior staff: in September 2002, the Assistant Attorney General attended a 

major trafficking conference hosted by the European Union in Brussels; also in the fall of 2002, the 

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division spoke in the Dominican 

Republic on trafficking issues, which led to passage of anti-trafficking legislation in that country in 

late 2002; and in February 2003 the deputy overseeing criminal matters for the Assistant Attorney 

General addressed a conference in Iceland devoted to combating the sex trafficking of women. 

Other senior Department of Justice personnel continue to speak on the issue. 

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has made trafficking in persons investigations 

a priority, and approaches the issue in a variety of ways. Michael A. Garcia, the Assistant 

Secretary for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, serves as the Vice-President 

(Americas) of Interpol’s Executive Committee. Mr. Garcia’s position provides U.S. Immigration 

and Customs Enforcement with an opportunity to take a leading role in international law 

enforcement anti-trafficking efforts. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Office of 

International Affairs (through its 52 foreign offices) routinely provides assistance and support to 

foreign governments and law enforcement agencies on initiatives and allegations regarding 

trafficking and forced child labor investigations occurring overseas. U.S. Immigration and 

Customs Enforcement participates on two Interpol working groups, Crimes Against Children and 

Trafficking in Women. In addition, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement staff traveled to 

Lyon, France to participate in meetings of international law enforcement agencies on these issues. 

Furthermore, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement implemented an internal policy to 

standardize the reporting of foreign forced child labor and related human trafficking investigative 

and outreach activities by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials stationed overseas. 

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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents regularly conduct seminars and 

training of foreign law enforcement, airline staff, other foreign and U.S. Government employees, 

and international non-governmental organizations. While the main focus of U.S. Immigration and 

Customs Enforcement training is on U.S. entry requirements, the interception of altered and 

counterfeit travel documents, and the identification of imposters using genuine travel documents, 

international training also addresses the related issues of trafficking in persons and human 

smuggling. During Fiscal Year 2003, thousands of people were trained worldwide by U.S. 

Immigration and Customs Enforcement components. U.S. Immigration and Customs 

Enforcement’s international training during Fiscal Year 2003 included the following: 

• U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement hosted two training conferences, in Singapore 

and Arlington, Virginia, which included forced child labor and human trafficking on the 

curriculum. 

• Many U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials stationed overseas are active in 

combating forced child labor: in Brazil authorities rescued 180 enslaved workers, ages 

four to ten, and are locating and donating forfeited vehicles to the Brazilian government for 

use by the child exploitation unit that investigates child sexual exploitation and child labor 

abuses; in the Philippines, authorities rescued eight girls from a forced labor situation; in 

Panama, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers trained 250 Panamanian 

police officers on forced child labor and related human trafficking; in Botswana, an U.S. 

Immigration and Customs Enforcement representative in Johannesburg made four 

presentations on trafficking at the International Law Enforcement Academy addressing a 

total of 178 participants; in Slovakia, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement 

conducted instruction for law enforcement officers, prosecutors, and judges on human 

trafficking in coordination with the U.S. Embassy, the Office of Overseas Prosecutorial 

Development, Assistance, and Training, and the American Bar Association’s Central 

Europe Eurasia Legal Initiative; in Barcelona, Spain, the U.S. Immigration and Customs 

Enforcement official stationed in Madrid gave a presentation on modern migratory 

movements and the nexus to human trafficking and alien smuggling at a two-day 

conference of 300 participants entitled, Los Movimientos Migratorios en el siglo XXI 

(Migratory Movements in the 21st Century); in India, the U.S. Immigration and Customs 

Enforcement Attaché in New Delhi gave a presentation on trafficking to approximately 100 

participants from law enforcement and non-governmental organizations; and in Poland, the 

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Attaché Moscow made a presentation at a 

trafficking conference in Warsaw reaching 60 participants, including government officials, 

lawyers, students and non-governmental organizations. 

• U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement provided extensive technical assistance to the 

Australian Federal Police to help them develop and establish a human trafficking program. 

• Through a cooperative effort among the U.S. Embassy in Bosnia, the International 

Criminal Investigative Training and Assistance Program manager, and the efforts of an U.S. 

Immigration and Customs Enforcement representative, Bosnia was brought from a Tier 3 

rating to a Tier 2. For this effort, the Anti-Trafficking Strike Force, a vetted unit for which 

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement offers oversight, was given a meritorious 

39
award from the Department of State. 

• A joint Copenhagen U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office, U.S. Coast Guard, 

and the International Organization for Migration training seminar was conducted in 

Bornholm, Denmark, reaching 44 participants from eleven European Union countries. 

On September 23 and 24, 2003, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in 

conjunction with the International Organization for Migration, provided two days of specialized 

training on trafficking in persons. The International Organization for Migration hired an 

internationally-renowned law enforcement trainer to develop a training curriculum for the 

Department of Homeland Security’s Embassy staff in several countries, including China, the 

Netherlands, India, Ecuador, Mexico, Russia and Thailand, as well as State Department personnel 

and law enforcement officials from Italy and Canada. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement 

also invited participation of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the State Department, and Civil 

Rights Division Special Litigation Counsel. A comprehensive CD Rom that included information 

about trafficking in each of the participant’s geographic areas, copies of all international legal 

conventions on trafficking, U.S. laws and regulations, research, government reports and guidelines, 

and the Interpol law enforcement manual on trafficking was provided to each participant. 

The Fiscal Year 2003 Omnibus Appropriations Act provided an additional $3 million for 

the Federal Bureau of Investigation to support its role in the Southeast European Cooperative 

Initiative (SECI). The Federal Bureau of Investigation participates in SECI as the lead observer 

on human trafficking and has agents detailed to Albania, Bulgaria, and Romania to work on 

trafficking issues. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement headquarters provided two agents 

and an intelligence analyst to the SECI Regional Center for Combating Trans-Border Crime to act 

as liaison and provide advice. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s SECI team’s 

deployment coincided with Operation Mirage, a multilateral effort to identify, disrupt, and 

prosecute trafficking organizations with a focus on identifying discernable connections to human 

smuggling and trafficking into the United States. With the Department of Justice’s International 

Criminal Investigative Training and Assistance Program and U.S. Immigration and Customs 

Enforcement support, SECI Mirage 2003 was considered a successful operation in Bosnia and 

various smuggling organizations and brothels were identified. Also, Bosnia is now aggressively 

addressing victim-witness considerations of human trafficking investigations. 

An Assistant U.S. Attorney from the Eastern District of New York, on detail to the U.S. 

Embassy in Moscow under the auspices of the Overseas Prosecutorial Development, Assistance, 

and Training office, wrote an article for the September 2003 issue of the USA BULLETIN on The 

Russian Connection: Sex Trafficking into the United States and What the United States and 

Russia Are Doing About It. The USA BULLETIN reaches all U.S. Attorneys’ Offices. Further, 

during Fiscal Year 2003 a federal prosecutor from the Civil Rights Division was on detail in 

Moldova to provide assistance specifically on trafficking in persons. 

Finally, in addition to law enforcement, the U.S. Government trains all diplomatic (ranging 

from junior officers to Ambassadors) and consular officers on the issue of trafficking in persons 

and responsibilities to address it. In regional training programs, officers learn to raise awareness of 

the issue with the foreign government and with non-governmental organizations, and to familiarize 

40
themselves with trafficking parameters in their country of assignment. In addition, the Department 

of State distributes brochures, Be Smart Be Safe, to visa applicants in selected countries alerting 

them to the dangers of trafficking in persons. 

VII. Senior Policy Operating Group on Trafficking in Persons 

The Bush Administration recognizes that trafficking is a global and national phenomenon 

whose elimination will require concerted U.S. Government efforts. In February 2002, pursuant to 

the TVPA, President George W. Bush established a Cabinet-level Interagency Task Force to 

Combat and Monitor Trafficking in Persons. This Task Force is chaired by the Secretary of State 

and includes the Attorney General, the Secretary of Labor, the Secretary of Health and Human 

Services, the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Director of Central Intelligence, the Director of 

the Office of Management and Budget, and the Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International 

Development. The Task Force’s responsibilities include coordination and implementation of the 

Administration’s anti-trafficking activities. 

At the December 2003 meeting of the President’s Interagency Task Force, the Task Force 

approved the formal establishment of the Senior Policy Operating Group on Trafficking in Persons 

(SPOG), chaired by the Director of the State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat 

Trafficking in Persons. The SPOG had been created by law and had been meeting regularly prior 

to the Task Force meeting. The purpose of the SPOG is to bring together senior policy officials 

from the Task Force member agencies. This year the SPOG was responsible for a number of 

interagency policy developments including: 

• The coordination of U.S. agency strategic plans to address trafficking in persons. 

• The development of an interagency grant policy statement on trafficking in persons to help 

implement the National Security Presidential Directive on Trafficking in Persons. 

• The development of a new grants policy to reach out to new organizations and a 

coordination process for the issuance of grants to combat trafficking in persons. Since the 

inception of that policy, the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, on 

behalf of the SPOG, requests that funding bureaus, agencies and overseas missions provide 

advance information internally when issuing a solicitation or considering funding of antitrafficking proposals. Specifically, when a part of the U.S. Government is soliciting 

applications for international anti-trafficking-in-persons-related proposals, the Office to 

Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, on behalf of the SPOG, adds the link of an 

agency’s solicitation announcement to <http://www.state.gov/g/tip>. Member agencies 

may also add solicitation announcements for anti-trafficking in persons proposals to their 

websites. This procedure should provide U.S. and foreign non-governmental groups not 

familiar with the various sources of U.S. Government funding easy access to all U.S. 

Government solicitation requests, both domestic and international, that are related to 

trafficking in persons. As the U.S. Government reaches out to those groups that support 

the U.S. Government’s objectives regarding trafficking in persons, this effort should 

broaden the pool of applicants. 

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• The development of a memorandum of understanding, as of the writing of this report not 

yet completed, among the Departments of Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, 

and Justice to assist in the certification of trafficking victims to receive refugee benefits and 

services. 

• The coordination of the President’s $50 million initiative to fight trafficking in persons. 

VIII. Conclusion 

In a world in which crime, poverty, corruption, inequality, low status of women and girls, 

and civil conflict show few signs of abating, individuals will continue to be at risk of being 

trafficked. The U.S. Government’s goal is to forge ahead on the road to abolishing and eradicating 

trafficking in persons by helping one victim at a time, funding one victim assistance organization at 

a time, investigating and prosecuting one trafficker at a time, training one law enforcement officer 

at a time, writing one good anti-trafficking law at a time, influencing one foreign government at a 

time through diplomacy and the possibility of sanctions, and encouraging one world community to 

adhere to the precepts of the UN Protocol on trafficking in persons. The TVPA and TVPRA have 

made reaching that goal much more possible. 

As Attorney General John Ashcroft stated in 2003: “Those who traffic in human lives treat 

people as easily expendable and highly profitable. But behind each dollar sign is a human tragedy.” 

The U.S. Government aims to remedy such human tragedy one victim at a time. 

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