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96–285 PDF 2004

S. HRG. 108–639

EXAMINING U.S. EFFORTS TO COMBAT HUMAN

TRAFFICKING AND SLAVERY

HEARING

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE CONSTITUTION, 

CIVIL RIGHTS AND PROPERTY RIGHTS

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY 

UNITED STATES SENATE

ONE HUNDRED EIGHTH CONGRESS

SECOND SESSION

JULY 7, 2004

Serial No. J–108–86

Printed for the use of the Committee on the Judiciary

(

(II)

COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY 

ORRIN G. HATCH, Utah, Chairman 

CHARLES E. GRASSLEY, Iowa 

ARLEN SPECTER, Pennsylvania 

JON KYL, Arizona 

MIKE DEWINE, Ohio 

JEFF SESSIONS, Alabama 

LINDSEY O. GRAHAM, South Carolina 

LARRY E. CRAIG, Idaho 

SAXBY CHAMBLISS, Georgia 

JOHN CORNYN, Texas 

PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont 

EDWARD M. KENNEDY, Massachusetts 

JOSEPH R. BIDEN, JR., Delaware 

HERBERT KOHL, Wisconsin 

DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California 

RUSSELL D. FEINGOLD, Wisconsin 

CHARLES E. SCHUMER, New York 

RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois 

JOHN EDWARDS, North Carolina 

BRUCE ARTIM, Chief Counsel and Staff Director 

BRUCE A. COHEN, Democratic Chief Counsel and Staff Director 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE CONSTITUTION, CIVIL RIGHTS AND PROPERTY RIGHTS

JOHN CORNYN, Texas, Chairman 

JON KYL, Arizona 

LINDSEY O. GRAHAM, South Carolina 

LARRY E. CRAIG, Idaho 

SAXBY CHAMBLISS, Georgia 

RUSSELL D. FEINGOLD, Wisconsin 

EDWARD M. KENNEDY, Massachusetts 

CHARLES E. SCHUMER, New York 

RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois 

JAMES C. HO, Majority Chief Counsel 

ROBERT F. SCHIFF, Democratic Chief Counsel 

(III)

C O N T E N T S 

STATEMENTS OF COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Page

Cornyn, Hon. John, a U.S. Senator from the State of Texas ............................... 1

prepared statement .......................................................................................... 94

Durbin, Hon. Richard J., a U.S. Senator from the State of Illinois .................... 31

prepared statement .......................................................................................... 109

Feingold, Hon. Russell D., a U.S. Senator from the State of Wisconsin ............. 4

prepared statement .......................................................................................... 110

Leahy, Hon. Patrick J., a U.S. Senator from the State of Vermont, prepared 

statement .............................................................................................................. 112

Schumer, Hon. Charles E., a U.S. Senator from the State of New York ............ 34

WITNESSES 

Dougherty, Sister Mary Ellen, Conference of Catholic Bishops, Washington, 

D.C. ........................................................................................................................ 13

Mattar, Mohamed Y., Co-Director, The Protection Project, Paul H. Nitze 

School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, Washington, D.C. ........................................................................................................... 20

Mettimano, Joseph, Child Protection Policy Advisor, World Vision, Washington, D.C. ........................................................................................................... 16

Patten, Wendy, Advocacy Director, Human Rights Watch, Washington, D.C. .. 24

Shelby, Michael, U.S. Attorney, Southern District of Texas, Houston, Texas .... 10

Song, Charles, Staff Attorney, Coalition to Abolish Slavery & Trafficking, 

Los Angeles, California ........................................................................................ 21

Sutton, Johnny, U.S. Attorney, Western District of Texas, San Antonio, 

Texas ..................................................................................................................... 7

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 

Responses of Mohamed Y. Matter to questions submitted by Senator Durbin .. 39

Responses of Johnny Sutton and Michael Shelby to questions submitted by 

Senators Cornyn, Durbin and Feingold ............................................................. 43

Responses of Sister Mary Ellen Dougherty to questions submitted by Senator 

Durbin ................................................................................................................... 91

SUBMISSIONS FOR THE RECORD 

Dougherty, Sister Mary Ellen, Conference of Catholic Bishops, Washington, 

D.C., prepared statement .................................................................................... 98

Mattar, Mohamed Y., Co-Director, The Protection Project, Paul H. Nitze 

School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, Washington, D.C., prepared statement ....................................................................... 114

Mettimano, Joseph, Child Protection Policy Advisor, World Vision, Washington, D.C., prepared statement ....................................................................... 126

Patten, Wendy, Advocacy Director, Human Rights Watch, Washington, D.C., 

prepared statement .............................................................................................. 131

Shelby, Michael, U.S. Attorney, Southern District of Texas, Houston, Texas, 

prepared statement .............................................................................................. 136

Song, Charles, Staff Attorney, Coalition to Abolish Slavery & Trafficking, 

Los Angeles, California, prepared statement and attachment ......................... 142

Sutton, Johnny, U.S. Attorney, Western District of Texas, San Antonio, 

Texas, prepared statement .................................................................................. 153

(1)

EXAMINING U.S. EFFORTS TO COMBAT 

HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND SLAVERY 

WEDNESDAY, JULY 7, 2004 

UNITED STATES SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE CONSTITUTION, CIVIL RIGHTS, AND

PROPERTY RIGHTS, OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY, Washington, DC. 

The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:04 p.m., in room 

SD–226, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. John Cornyn, Chairman of the Subcommittee, presiding. 

Present: Senators Cornyn, Feingold, Schumer and Durbin. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN CORNYN, A U.S. 

SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF TEXAS 

Chairman CORNYN. This hearing of the Senate Subcommittee on 

the Constitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights shall come to 

order. 

I first want to thank Chairman Hatch for scheduling today’s 

hearing, and also the distinguished Ranking Member of this Subcommittee, Senator Feingold, and his staff for working with us to 

make this hearing possible. 

This Subcommittee is expressly chartered to oversee both constitutional and civil rights issues across America. Just last month, 

for example, the Subcommittee examined the pervasive problem of 

hostility to religious expression in public squares across America, 

and I think the hearing was beneficial regardless of whether you 

perceive there to be a problem or not. 

Today’s hearing will examine U.S. efforts to combat human trafficking and slavery across America. As we continue to fight to protect the American way of life in our war against terrorism, we have 

also been fighting another war to protect American ideals and principles, a war against an old evil—human trafficking and slavery. 

Most Americans would probably be shocked to learn that the institutions of slavery and involuntary servitude, institutions that 

this Nation fought a bloody war to destroy, continue to persist 

today, not just around the world, but indeed hidden in communities 

across America. 

It has been nearly two centuries since the abolition of the transAtlantic slave trade, and well over a century since the ratification 

of the 13th Amendment. Yet, to this day, men, women and children 

continue to be trafficked into the United States and coerced into 

lives of forced labor and sexual slavery. The stories they tell are 

tragic, disturbing and heart-rending, and the acts that they endure 

are not just unconstitutional, not just criminal, but profoundly evil. 

2

Today, we will hear tales of human suffering from across America. The experiences that we will hear recounted amount to a modern-day form of slavery. The stories are not easy to hear, but we 

must hear them and we must face up to them if we are to finish 

the work of the 13th Amendment and truly expel the institution of 

slavery from our midst. 

We will hear the witnesses’ testimonies, and then we will learn 

what the administration has been doing in this area. Specifically, 

we will examine the Justice Department’s efforts to protect the victims of human trafficking and slavery, to punish the evildoers, and 

to prevent other innocent human beings from ever having to suffer 

the same fate. 

On March 21, 2001, Attorney General John Ashcroft announced 

the creation of a comprehensive Justice Department initiative to 

combat human trafficking in America. Since that announcement, 

the Department has undertaken an aggressive campaign to eradicate slavery in America, an effort led by the Civil Rights Division 

and joined by other components within Main Justice, as well as 

U.S. Attorneys across the country. 

The 13th Amendment states, and I quote, ‘‘Neither slavery nor 

involuntary servitude . . . shall exist within the United States or 

any place subject to their jurisdiction.’’ This is a unique provision 

in our Constitution. Many constitutional amendments protect individual rights against actions by Federal, State and local governments. Other amendments alter the structure of government. 

But the 13th Amendment is different. It protects fundamental 

human rights by abolishing an entire institution of society. The 

13th Amendment is unique because under it, slavery and involuntary servitude cannot exist in public and private spheres alike. 

Yet, the institution of slavery continues to exist even today. In 

communities across America, human beings are trafficked, literally 

bought and sold into lives of forced labor or sexual slavery. The 

trafficking of human beings is evil, immoral and wrong. Yet, most 

Americans are unaware of even its existence, let alone its magnitude. 

According to some estimates, approximately 800,000 human 

beings are bought, sold, or forced across the world’s borders each 

year. Moreover, Americans may be particularly alarmed to learn 

that at least 15,000 human beings are trafficked into lives of slavery in the United States each year. Indeed, according to some estimates, that number could be as high as 50,000 a year. 

We cannot grasp the true, horrifying nature of human trafficking 

and slavery with numbers alone. We must not simply count the victims; we owe it to them to hear their stories. 

Just recently, the Justice Department obtained convictions in the 

largest labor trafficking case it has ever prosecuted. Kil Su Lee, a 

Korean businessman, transported over 200 workers from China 

and Vietnam to the United States. He detained them and forced 

them to work in his American Samoa garment factory under slavelike conditions, enforcing his will by ordering beatings by his 

henchmen using sharpened pipes, florescent lights, chairs and fists. 

Civil Rights Division attorneys successfully prosecuted Mr. Lee and 

his partners under the Federal criminal slavery and peonage statVerDate 0ct 09 2002 09:26 Nov 10, 2005 Jkt 096285 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 S:\GPO\HEARINGS\96285.TXT SJUD4 PsN: CMORC
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utes. Mr. Lee’s sentencing is pending, and two of his thugs are already serving substantial time. 

Consider another tragic example, this one from my home State 

of Texas. An international trafficking operation known by local 

prosecutors as the Molina organization promised young women a 

better life and employment in the United States as either housekeepers or waitresses in restaurants in the Fort Worth area. Once 

they arrived in the area, however, they were coerced into lives of 

prostitution and forced labor. More than 200 young women were 

trafficked from Honduras into the United States by this operation. 

The U.S. Attorney’s office in the Northern District of Texas, 

working in conjunction with the Civil Rights Division, shut down 

the operation by bringing charges against nine defendants. Six defendants eventually pled guilty, while three others are fugitives 

from justice. 

I recently received a letter from the Justice Department detailing 

numerous examples of forced labor and sex slavery cases across the 

country, from California to Maryland, Hawaii to New Jersey, Georgia to New Hampshire. Without objection, that letter will be made 

part of the record. 

We are honored to have before the Subcommittee today two distinguished U.S. Attorneys from Texas who will bring tragic tales to 

tell from their respective districts. We also have a distinguished 

panel that will address many other aspects of this problem and 

what we need to do or need to be doing better in America to combat 

it. 

Thankfully, the Congress and the administration have been 

working closely together in recent years to combat this scourge. 

Congress has enacted the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 

2000 to strengthen Federal criminal slavery statutes, to provide 

victims with basic human needs so that they can begin down the 

road to recovery and encourage their cooperation with law enforcement so that others will not suffer a similar fate. Just last fall, we 

enacted legislation to reauthorize and strengthen that Act. 

The administration has responded to the call by dramatically increasing efforts and devoting substantially more resources toward 

combating human trafficking. Under the Civil Rights Division, the 

Justice Department has prosecuted and convicted three times the 

number of traffickers over the past three fiscal years as in the preceding 3 years. 

The Department has created the Office of Special Counsel for 

Trafficking Issues to coordinate anti-trafficking efforts, published 

educational and awareness-raising materials and circulated them 

to officials across America, and provided assistance to victims by 

installing a toll-free hotline. In addition, the Department has already established State and local task forces in Philadelphia, Atlanta, Phoenix and Tampa to coordinate anti-trafficking efforts of 

Federal, State and local governments and non-governmental organizations in those areas. 

Clearly, the Department realizes that the support of local officials in government and in the private sector alike is absolutely essential to any successful effort to uncover the evil of human trafficking and slavery that are so carefully hidden in pockets across 

4

America. I look forward to working with the Department to begin 

establishing such task forces in the State of Texas later this year. 

Next week, the Justice Department is sponsoring a historic national conference on human trafficking in Tampa, Florida, bringing 

together Federal, State and local officials, social service agencies 

and NGOs to provide training for coordination of anti-human trafficking efforts across the country, as provided in the fiscal year 

2004 appropriations bill. 

I also applaud Congress—by the way, a Congress that I was not 

yet a part of—for recognizing this problem. Today’s hearing is certainly not the first Congressional hearing to bring attention to the 

deeply disturbing problems of human trafficking, and it should not 

be the last. My colleagues and I must continue to vigilantly monitor this situation and to consider whether further legislation is 

necessary to bolster the Department’s efforts. 

For example, if further improvements to our Federal criminal 

slavery and peonage statutes would assist prosecutors and facilitate legitimate prosecutions, so be it. If Federal legislation is needed to ensure that immigration T visas and other important and 

compassionate protections are provided to true victims of human 

trafficking and slavery, let’s do it. 

If more State laws are necessary to ensure that Federal efforts 

are accompanied by robust efforts at the local and State level, let’s 

encourage it. My home State of Texas, as well as the States of 

Washington and Florida, have led the way by enacting State criminal laws against human trafficking. Other States might consider 

joining the cause. 

Human traffickers peddle in human misery. They smuggle innocent human beings into this country and condemn them to lives of 

forced labor or sex slavery. For a countless number of victims, the 

American dream quickly became an American nightmare. Such 

tales of human suffering should not exist anywhere in the world, 

and especially not in the United States of America. 

The American commitment to eradicating human trafficking and, 

slavery from our midst is a solemn vow, reflecting the highest traditions of our Founding Fathers and the drafters of the 13th 

Amendment. It is a commitment to the principles of freedom and 

liberty that Americans have fought and died for, a commitment 

that Americans across the Nation commemorated just a few short 

days ago. And it is a profoundly moral commitment not just to punish violators of our criminal laws, but to repel an assault on our 

Nation’s core beliefs about the fundamental worth and dignity of 

every human being. 

With that, I will be glad to recognize the distinguished Ranking 

Member of this Subcommittee, Senator Feingold. 

STATEMENT OF HON. RUSSELL D. FEINGOLD, A U.S. SENATOR 

FROM THE STATE OF WISCONSIN 

Senator FEINGOLD. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I thank you 

for holding this hearing on human trafficking and the U.S. Government’s efforts to combat this deplorable practice. I look forward to 

hearing from our distinguished witnesses about the work they are 

doing to prosecute traffickers, provide services to victims, and raise 

awareness of this issue. 

5

Human trafficking is one of the more pernicious violations of 

global human rights. It is also one of the fastest growing areas of 

international criminal activity. According to its 2004 Trafficking in 

Persons report, the State Department estimates that 600,000 to 

800,000 victims of human trafficking are transported across international borders each year. 

Estimates of the number of people trafficked in the United States 

each year range from 14,500 to 17,500. Victims of trafficking include men, women and children who are trafficked for forced farm 

labor, domestic servitude, sweat shop labor, forced prostitution, 

construction work, restaurant work, or adoption. 

The U.S. Department of Justice, as well as State and local law 

enforcement, are confronting this international human rights problem by prosecuting traffickers and providing services to victims. I 

look forward to exploring these efforts with the witnesses today. 

Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to see a bipartisan effort to confront 

human trafficking and a commitment to this issue by both the current Bush administration and the Clinton administration. I also 

think that we cannot review our Government’s efforts in this area 

without recognizing the contributions of the late Senator Paul 

Wellstone. 

I know this was an important issue to my dear friend and colleague and his wife, Sheila. Senator Wellstone was one of the first 

legislators to recognize this escalating abuse of human rights, just 

as the U.S. Government and international organizations were beginning to identify trafficking in human beings as a serious international problem. 

Senator Wellstone brought his unique passion, zeal and integrity 

to this issue. His efforts culminated in a resolution introduced in 

1998 calling human trafficking a global human rights problem, and 

directing the State Department to review it and report to the Congress on its findings. 

Senator Wellstone continued his efforts in 1999 by introducing 

the first comprehensive anti-trafficking bill in Congress. Working 

with his colleague, Republican Senator Brownback, his efforts resulted in enactment of the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act in 2000. That law, I believe, is one of Senator Wellstone’s greatest achievements and one of the most important pieces 

of his legacy to our Nation and to unknown numbers of victims of 

trafficking for years to come. I was proud to support both pieces of 

legislation. I know Senator Wellstone would welcome our efforts 

today to explore a human rights problem he was so passionate 

about years ago. 

President Clinton also recognized the horror of this global human 

rights abuse and the need for the United States to make every effort to combat human trafficking. In March 1998, President Clinton 

issued a directive establishing a U.S. Government-wide anti-trafficking strategy to prevent human trafficking, prosecute traffickers, 

and protect and support victims. 

The Clinton administration suggested the need for programs to 

increase economic opportunities for potential victims, legislation to 

provide services to victims, and increased penalties for traffickers. 

Additionally, the Clinton administration created the Workers Exploitation Task Force, chaired by the Justice Department’s Civil 

6

Rights Division and the Labor Department’s Solicitor’s office, which 

was charged with investigating and prosecuting cases of exploitation and trafficking. 

The State Department spearheaded the creation of a database on 

U.S. and international legislation on trafficking. And, of course, the 

Clinton administration worked with Congress on legislation to combat trafficking, culminating in the passage of the victims of trafficking law in 2000. 

I am pleased that President Bush has continued this commitment to combatting human trafficking. I hope we can continue to 

work in a bipartisan fashion. I look forward to hearing from our 

witnesses on how effective our efforts have been in fighting this 

global human rights menace and what suggestions they might have 

for making improvements. 

Thank you again, Mr. Chairman. 

Chairman CORNYN. Thank you, Senator Feingold, and thank you 

for mentioning the contribution of Senator Wellstone to this important effort. This is something that we can all agree on, regardless 

of political affiliation or other stripe. This is something we need to 

work on together, and indeed we have and we will continue to do 

so. 

The members of the panel have already taken their seats, and 

we are pleased to have a distinguished panel of government officials and representatives of non-governmental organizations with 

us today. They will discuss their views and experiences on U.S. efforts to combat human trafficking and slavery. 

I will introduce the panel and I will give them each 5 minutes 

to make an opening statement. Of course, any longer written remarks that you may have will be made a part of the record. If you 

will try your best to confine it roughly to 5 minutes, we will have 

rounds of ten minutes of questioning each per member of the Committee, and depending on how many of our colleagues show up, we 

may have more than one or two rounds, depending on how we go 

from there. 

First, we are honored to have before the Subcommittee two distinguished U.S. Attorneys from my State, both distinguished graduates of the University of Texas Law School and both of whom 

have overseen prosecutions of disturbing cases of human trafficking 

within their districts. 

Johnny Sutton is the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of 

Texas, which encompasses San Antonio, El Paso and Austin, a 

huge chunk of Texas. He previously served as an Associate Deputy 

Attorney General at the Justice Department as Policy Coordinator 

for the Bush-Cheney transition team assigned to the Department 

of Justice, and as the Criminal Justice Policy Director for thenGovernor George W. Bush. He is a longtime prosecutor, having 

served in the Harris County District Attorney’s office for 8 years. 

Michael Shelby is the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of 

Texas, another large district that covers Houston, Brownsville, Laredo, Corpus Christi and Huntsville. He, too, is a career prosecutor, 

having worked for 5 years in the Harris County district attorney’s 

office before becoming a U.S. Attorney in Phoenix, Arizona, as well 

as Houston. He is also a commissioned officer in the U.S. Naval ReVerDate 0ct 09 2002 09:26 Nov 10, 2005 Jkt 096285 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 S:\GPO\HEARINGS\96285.TXT SJUD4 PsN: CMORC
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serve who served during Operation Desert Storm and most recently 

in Bosnia. 

We are honored today to hear testimony from representatives of 

five non-governmental organizations, individuals with experience 

and expertise in this area. 

Sister Mary Ellen Dougherty is the program manager for outreach, education and technical assistance in the trafficking in persons program operated by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops 

and its Office of Migration and Refugee Services. She is a frequent 

speaker and writer on this subject, most recently before the U.S. 

Embassy to the Holy See in Rome just last month. 

Joseph Mettimano is the child protection policy advisor at World 

Vision. He also serves as the director of World Vision’s Child Sex 

Tourism Prevention Project. World Vision is one of the largest 

Christian relief and development organizations in the world with 

operations on six continents, all devoted to the protection of children. Before joining World Vision, Mr. Mettimano served as deputy 

director of public policy and advocacy for the United States’ arm of 

the United Nation’s Children’s Fund, or UNICEF USA. 

Dr. Mohamed Mattar is an adjunct professor of law and co-director of The Protection Project. The Protection Project is a legal 

human rights research institute based at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. Dr. Mattar has 

taught courses on human rights and human trafficking law, and 

has published several articles in the area. He holds numerous law 

degrees from universities in the United States as well as Egypt. 

Charles Song is a staff attorney with the Coalition to Abolish 

Slavery and Trafficking based in Los Angeles. CAST, as it is called, 

provides legal services to combat human trafficking. Mr. Song previously served as a human rights fellow and staff attorney at the 

Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law. 

Our final panel member is Wendy Patten, the U.S. advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. She has worked on human trafficking issues at the U.S. Department of Justice, where she served 

as special counsel for trafficking in persons in the Civil Rights Division, chief of staff in the Violence Against Women Office, and senior counsel in the Office of Policy Development. She has also served 

as director of multilateral and humanitarian affairs at the National 

Security Council in the White House. 

Thank you all for being here and for your commitment to combatting human trafficking and slavery. I would like to now ask 

each of you to start with your opening statements. Mr. Sutton, I 

will recognize you first for that purpose. 

Let me remind each of the panelists you have a microphone with 

a button it and when the button is lit, that means we can hear you. 

So, please punch the button. 

STATEMENT OF HON. JOHNNY SUTTON, U.S. ATTORNEY, 

WESTERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS, SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS 

Mr. SUTTON. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and members of the 

Subcommittee. Thank you for the invitation to discuss this important topic, the horrible crime of human trafficking. 

It is important to distinguish at the beginning the difference between the crime of human trafficking and the more common crime 

8

of human smuggling. Trafficking is a particularly brutal offense because it involves the treatment of human beings as commodities 

who are forced to work in deplorable conditions in factories, fields, 

and sometimes as commercial sex workers. Trafficking in persons 

is not a crime, it is a violation of the most basic human rights. 

It has been reported that some 15,000 people are trafficked into 

the United States each year. The trafficking profits feed organized 

crime, and trafficking is linked to a wide variety of criminal activities, including document fraud, money laundering, prostitution and 

drug trafficking. 

The Department of Justice has made the investigation and prosecution of human trafficking a top priority, and our effort has been 

greatly enhanced by the efforts of Congress. I want to thank you 

all especially for all you have done to improve our ability to prosecute these cases. 

Congress’ passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 

2000, the TVPA, essentially did three things. First, it provided a 

range of new protections and assistance for victims of trafficking. 

Second, it expanded the crimes and enhanced punishments that 

are available to Federal investigators and prosecutors to go after 

these traffickers. And, third, it expanded U.S. activities internationally to prevent victims from being trafficked in the first 

place. 

Mr. Chairman, as you know, last year President Bush signed 

into law the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 

2003. This new law not only reauthorized the 2000 Act; it improved 

it by mandating new information campaign to combat sex tourism 

and added a new civil action provision that now allows trafficking 

victims to sue traffickers in Federal court. 

The TVPRA also requires that the Attorney General report to 

Congress every year on the U.S. Government’s efforts to combat 

trafficking. The first report was submitted in May of this year and 

included details of information on what the U.S. Government has 

done in the past year to address this problem. In a moment, my 

colleague, Mike Shelby, will provide a summary of the Department’s recent activities in this area. 

As United States Attorney in a district that shares over 600 

miles of border with Mexico, I have seen firsthand how traffickers 

prey on the most vulnerable and desperate victims. Coyotes or the 

smuggling rings that they work for have long exploited the remote 

and informal crossings on the Rio Grande River. For years, a large 

number aliens have entered into the U.S. through these remote regions and then traveled to other parts of the country. 

In recent years, it has become increasingly evident that significant numbers of these aliens face the risk of physical harm trying 

to enter the U.S. These aliens face not only harsh weather and terrain, but unsafe vehicles and reckless drivers. They are also increasingly held hostage to the payment of high smuggling fees, in 

some cases being forced into virtual slavery as farm workers and 

prostitutes. 

To address this problem, my office has joined with 30 other entities in central Texas, as well as the Homeland Security Department, to create the Coalition Against Human Trafficking. This is 

an informal group that meets monthly and it is made up of law enVerDate 0ct 09 2002 09:26 Nov 10, 2005 Jkt 096285 PO 00000 Frm 00012 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 S:\GPO\HEARINGS\96285.TXT SJUD4 PsN: CMORC
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forcement agencies, social service providers and other non-governmental organizations all dedicated to working together to provide 

assistance to victims of these crimes. The coalition has recently put 

on a training conference to train people on the intricacies of human 

trafficking. 

Human trafficking cases are difficult to investigate and prosecute, with victims typically unwilling or unable to contact the authorities. My district, like every other district in the country, has 

nevertheless made these cases a priority, and I am pleased to report that by using the cooperative efforts discussed above, we have 

had at least some successes. I would like to briefly talk about two 

cases from my district to highlight what has gone on in some of the 

cases that we see in west Texas. 

The first one is a case that my office prosecuted in 2002 where 

an assistant professor, a research assistant at the University of 

Texas at El Paso and his wife would recruit women from their 

home country of Uzbekistan, from their home city, to come to the 

United States under the false pretenses that they would receive lucrative jobs as models, that they would live extravagant lifestyles, 

that they would be able to bring their families at some later date. 

The defendants in this case obtained visas by falsifying what 

these ladies would be doing, and they were recruited to the United 

States saying they were brought to do scientific research at UTEP. 

But when they arrived in the United States, they immediately had 

their documents confiscated. Many of these women did not speak 

English, were not prepared to live in the United States or El Paso, 

and they were turned into dancers in a strip club. They were forced 

to do that demeaning work, and then all the profits derived from 

having to do that went to the two defendants in this case. 

My office was able to prosecute and prove up the trafficking in 

this case. We were able to discover that these women were held in 

a slavery-like situation and prosecute the defendants in this case 

and send them to the Federal penitentiary. We were also able to 

recover—they were fined $700,000, which was an enormous profit 

they were making from the money they were taking from these 

women. Both defendants were convicted and sent to Federal prison 

and ordered to pay over $500,000 in restitution to the victims in 

this case. 

I would like to also briefly cover one other case that occurred in 

Austin, Texas, a town you are familiar with. My office, in 2003, 

convicted a 32-year-old woman of human trafficking-related offenses. This woman would go into the remote villages in Mexico. 

She would speak to poor Mexican families who had young teenage 

girls in the house and she would convince them that they would 

take their daughter, take care of their daughter, take them to the 

United States to get them a better life. In fact, she went so far as 

to sign a written contract saying that I will care for your daughters. They will have a job in my restaurant in the United States. 

They will pay a fee of $1,500. 

When these young girls, two of them age 16 and one of them age 

17, arrived in the United States, their documents were removed. 

They were immediately forced to have sex for money in Austin, 

Texas. They were held at a location not far from a place you may 

know, the Arboretum, which has a Pottery Barn and a Gap. One 

10

mile from there, these young Mexican girls were held in virtual 

slavery, being forced to have sex with up to 15 men a day for 

money. 

Eventually, two of them ran away. They were threatened with 

death if they did run away, and when they did, kidnappers went 

out and kidnapped them and brought them back. The only reason 

we found out about it is we got an anonymous 911 call to the Austin Police Department and we were able to track back and break 

this case and prosecute that woman who was holding those women 

in bondage and send her to Federal prison. 

These cases are but two examples of a criminal growth industry, 

the true scope of which is still unknown. However, through this unprecedented cooperation between Federal, State and local governments, we are making significant strides in fighting this difficult 

but important battle. We are committed to increasing our efforts in 

this area and we will do the best we can to knock down this terrible problem. 

Mr. Chairman, I thank you for your leadership on this issue. I 

thank you for having this important hearing today and I would be 

happy at the end of our discussion to answer questions that you or 

the other Subcommittee members may have. 

Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Sutton appears as a submission 

for the record.] 

Chairman CORNYN. Thank you, Mr. Sutton. I appreciate your 

statement. 

Mr. Shelby, if you would give us your statement, please. 

STATEMENT OF HON. MICHAEL SHELBY, U.S. ATTORNEY, 

SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS, HOUSTON, TEXAS 

Mr. SHELBY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I also want to join my 

colleague, Johnny Sutton, in thanking you for inviting us both here 

to discuss this very significant problem, and to personally thank 

you again for your continued commitment to the people of the 

southern portion of Texas. 

The last two times you and I have spoken a bit in Laredo and 

Brownsville, where you were engaged in a discovery of the intricacies of these issues in both human trafficking and in smuggling, in 

general, and I appreciate your concern for all of the people in Texas 

and the United States in that regard. 

As you indicated, in March of 2001 the Attorney General announced the creation of an anti-trafficking initiative that was designed to fully engage all of the personnel and the resources of the 

Department of Justice and to focus those people on this very significant problem area. 

I am pleased to report that in the 3 years since that initiative 

has been underway, the Department of Justice has taken some 

substantial and in some cases some unprecedented steps to combat 

this very difficult problem. For instance, over 200 new cases have 

been opened during that 3-year period, and that number is particularly significant because it represents a two-fold increase over the 

previous 3-year period. 

110 different defendants have been convicted or charged with 

trafficking-related offenses, which represents a three-fold increase 

11

over the previous 3-year period. Finally, we have had 77 convictions, including 59 sex traffic-related convictions, that have been 

obtained by the Department during that remarkable 3 years. 

While I think it is easy to point to those results as the most tangible results of our commitment, I want to assure you that they are 

by no means the only measure of that commitment. Because these 

cases necessarily involve the most susceptible and the most vulnerable of victims, victims who are not likely to seek out law enforcement to answer their specific needs, they are extraordinarily difficult to identify and distinguish from the traditional smugglingtype operations. 

To overcome those obstacles, the Department of Justice has significantly increased the training opportunities that are made available to local, State and Federal law enforcement officials and prosecutors wherever they may find them. In fact, you just alluded to 

an unprecedented conference that will be held next week in Tampa, 

Florida, where the Department is bringing in all of the different 

participants in this extraordinary endeavor, bringing in Federal 

and State prosecutors, bringing in local and State police agencies, 

bringing in the extraordinary non-governmental organizations that 

help us in this regard, all to focus on this significant problem and 

come up with a strategy that can help us defeat those who would 

enslave other people. 

That combined approach, as you well stated in your opening remarks, is absolutely essential to our success in this effort because 

the Department has overseen the creation of these anti-trafficking 

task forces that are presently located in just four cities, in Philadelphia, Atlanta, Tampa and Phoenix. With your help, they will be extended to dozens more cities in the near future, and I am hopeful 

that your statement was actually a promise that Johnny and I will 

see one of those in Texas, as well, that we can benefit from and 

our colleagues can. 

Lastly, because certainly the most effective way to combat this 

problem is to stop the movement of human beings before it ever 

starts, the Department of Justice has engaged in a round-the-world 

effort to send out representatives to the countries that act as 

sources of these people and try to educate and train their law enforcement people and their prosecutors in ways that they can identify and disrupt the organizations that bring about this human 

trafficking. 

Those efforts are significant, they are substantial, and in many 

ways they are unprecedented. But they are also absolutely essential, given the incomprehensible tragedy that the victims of these 

cases suffer. While in my prepared remarks I have laid out for you 

many—in fact, too many examples of the tragedies associated with 

the victims of these cases, I want to share with you this afternoon 

just one of those examples. 

From July 2002 to April 2003, three brothers in south Texas—

Juan, Armando and Hector Soto—controlled and operated a largescale smuggling operation that was based right there in McAllen, 

Texas. During the nine-month period that we were able to identify, 

these individuals recruited hundreds of people in northern Mexico 

who had come to northern Mexico from all over Central and South 

12

America all for the purpose of wanting to illegally enter the United 

States. 

For a fee of $1,500, the Soto brothers and their organization 

would cross those people across the Rio Grande into southern 

Texas and then would house them in a trailer compound that they 

had acquired solely and completely for the purpose of housing these 

individuals. 

Once they were there at this trailer compound located near Edinburgh, the Sotos would demand additional money from each of 

these smuggled individuals. If you could pay, if you complied with 

their demands for additional money, you were sent on to Houston 

and then wherever else you wanted to go in the United States. 

If you could not pay, you were literally held captive at that trailer park until they had no further use for your labors. People there 

were forced to work for the various members, to cook for them, to 

clean for them, to do their chores, to do their housework, to do all 

the menial labor associated with keeping this organization on 

track. Most significantly, the women that were unable to pay this 

additional extortion fee were forced into forced-labor acts with Mr. 

Soto, his two brothers and their entire crew. 

So throughout their captivity, they were beaten, they were sexually assaulted, they were threatened at gunpoint on a daily basis 

with death. In sum, they were enslaved with absolutely no chance 

that they would ever gain their freedom in the land of freedom that 

they had come to. 

So after 36 days of this brutal treatment, one very brave, very 

courageous woman, a Honduran national, attempted to contact a 

neighbor of this trailer park for help. She saw one opportunity, she 

took it, and she was discovered in her attempt. She was taken to 

a remote area in south Texas by six men. She was forced to strip 

naked. She was kicked, she was beaten to near death, she was repeatedly raped, threatened with death on a number of occasions, 

and then abandoned in a lonely location literally in the middle of 

nowhere. 

But through her remarkable force of will and her remarkable 

perseverance, she made it to a house, contacted the local sheriff’s 

department and set in motion through her outcry on February 7 an 

international, multi-agency, Federal and State task force that came 

together for the purpose of identifying what this horrible tragedy 

was all about. 

So the Hidalgo County sheriff’s office, the McAllen P.D., the FBI 

and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service all came 

together to find out what the problem was and how they could disrupt this organization. Their investigation disclosed the full extent 

of the Soto organization’s depravity, and that is truly the only word 

that fits this. 

They discovered four additional women, each of whom had undergone a similar fate. They had been forced into labor, they had 

been repeatedly threatened and beaten, and they had been repeatedly raped by their captors for their own sexual pleasure. It is difficult for anyone, even a career prosecutor like me or like Johnny, 

to imagine a more profound or more intentional violation of the dignity of one human being by another human being. 

13

Our office worked extensively with each of the victims of that 

case through our victim witness coordinators to ensure that the full 

nature of their story was brought to the attention of the Federal 

judge when these individuals were indicted. As a result of their 

courage and their ability to come forward and tell this horribly embarrassing tale that happened to them, six of the seven Soto conspirators were sentenced to significant terms of Federal incarceration, and the seventh member is a fugitive from justice that we 

seek today. 

Significantly, Juan Soto, who was the leader of the organization, 

was sentenced to 14 years in Federal prison without parole, which 

at that time represented one of the most significant sentences for 

this type of activity. Equally significantly, the court used the provisions that you have provided to us to order the Sotos to make restitution to all of their various victims. 

Mr. Chairman, the trafficking and the enslavement of any 

human being is a direct affront to the dignity of every human 

being. Without doubt, the Soto case illustrates the very worst aspects of this very terrible crime. The physical abuse, the forced 

labor, the sexual enslavement aspects—all of those come to light in 

this one terrible case. 

But Soto also illustrates the Department of Justice’s unshakable 

commitment to use all of the tools that you and your colleagues 

have given to us to combat this very serious offense. We are going 

to identify, we are going to apprehend and we are going to hold accountable all those individuals who would subjugate another 

human being. 

Mr. Chairman, thank you again for this opportunity to testify to 

you and for your commitment to this very serious issue. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Shelby appears as a submission 

for the record.] 

Chairman CORNYN. Thank you, Mr. Shelby, for your opening 

statement and for your work, as well as that of Mr. Sutton, in investigating and prosecuting these cases. 

Now, as I stated earlier, we have a number of representatives of 

non-governmental organizations to talk about their good work in 

this area. 

At this time, Sister, we would be glad to hear from you. 

STATEMENT OF SISTER MARY ELLEN DOUGHERTY, UNITED 

STATES CONFERENCE OF CATHOLIC BISHOPS, WASHINGTON, D.C. 

Sister DOUGHERTY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I thank you 

for the opportunity to be here. It is certainly a privilege, as it is 

also a privilege as far as I am concerned to be able to work on this 

global issue. 

I share the enthusiasm of Mr. Shelby and Mr. Sutton for what 

the U.S. Government has tried to do in its efforts to combat human 

trafficking. I have been in this work for not quite 2 years, since October of 2000, and I have seen major, major strides, and I am 

grateful for that. 

However, we have one significant failure, and it is a steady failure, and that is a failure to identify victims. We know, by count, 

that we have approximately 500 victims identified since the law 

14

was implemented in 2000. That is not the fault of any Federal 

agency, that is not the fault of any one person, but it is a failure 

to educate our communities and to educate ourselves to the discovery of victims. 

That is much of my concern in the work that I do. At the United 

States Conference of Catholic Bishops, I work toward education 

and outreach for human trafficking. We also have somebody who 

works on providing services among our networks for adult victims 

and for child victims. 

Last summer, I was at a wedding in southern Maryland and 

there was a man there whom I have known for about 20 years, but 

did not know him well. He asked what I was doing, if I was still 

teaching, which I had done for years. And I said no; I was administering a grant to combat human trafficking. And he said to me, 

my biological mother used to do that. And I said, do what? And he 

said, she trafficked people. 

He went on to tell me about his mother, who was a Mohawk Indian, deceased at the time he was talking to me for a few years. 

From the time she was 70 until her death in 1976, she picked up 

Asian women, primarily Chinese women, in Canada. She got them 

across the border through an Indian reservation in the trunk of her 

car and she would deliver at a designated place in Albany at $800 

a head. A 75-year-old Mohawk woman. 

Whether that would deconstruct into trafficking or smuggling, we 

know, depends on what happened to them when they were finally 

taken to New York. It was Michael’s belief that it was trafficking, 

that they were then going to be forced into labor until at least they 

could pay the debt. That is right next door to us. That is somebody’s mother, and yet we fail to see it. So I applaud also the efforts of the Office of Refugee Resettlement for rescuing and restoration to help us identify victims. 

We have a major concern at USCCB around the area of victims, 

and that is the concern of the child victim. If we have approximately—and I say approximately 500 victims because we just uncovered, as you know, Justice did, and Homeland Security, a large 

case in Long Island which is another 69 victims or so. 

But if we have approximately 500 victims, we have only—and 

this is a fact—we have only 34 child victims identified since this 

law was implemented in 2000. Now, 34 child victims identified 

since this law was implemented—if we look at our records of the 

exploitation of children both for labor and for sexual purposes 

across the world, we know that a number of 34 is absolutely unacceptable. And the failure, again, is a failure to identify them. 

So toward that end, we are working for the identification of the 

child victim. We had a major national conference—attendees were 

there by invitation only—in Houston at the end of April. It was not 

just for Texas. It was for people from across the country, but we 

capitalized on expertise from Texas, so that we had local law enforcement there. We had Border Control people, we had Catholic 

Charities, we had child protective services, and we recognized the 

problem, if we can solve it. 

The problem is articulation across the board so that the trafficked child is recognized. So problem number one is recognizing 

the trafficked child. The second problem we see with the trafficked 

15

child is a problem that I think the Department of Justice can help 

us address, and that is immediately, when a child is identified as 

a trafficking victim or a probable trafficking victim, bringing in a 

professional child care welfare person, not waiting until the child 

is officially declared eligible, but immediately bringing in somebody 

who will look at the best interests of the child. 

I would like to move on from there, in the interest of time, to another concern that we have about trafficking, and this is a concern 

that represents the difference between perception and reality, or I 

might say intent and effect. 

I agree that we have a good law and I agree that we are working 

hard to implement it, and I see a lot of good work and a lot of collaborative work between NGOs and the Government. I have felt 

very well-supported by the Department of Justice and by other 

Federal agencies in this work. 

There is a popular perception that human trafficking is about 

sexual exploitation. Any time I get a call from the media—and I 

can tell you I have had three calls from major media in the past 

six weeks wanting information about trafficking—they only want to 

talk about sexual exploitation. What they really want me to 

produce are victims whom they can interview. 

I think we need to combat this popular perception. We know that 

there are prosecutions for labor. We have more victims of labor 

trafficking than we have sexual exploitation, although we probably 

have more incidents of sexual exploitation. We need to combat this 

for a lot of reasons and keep the labor piece in front so that any 

time we talk about it, we need to talk about it with both prongs. 

I was very pleased last September that President Bush mentioned human trafficking in his speech to the UN. However, he too 

mentioned it in the context of sexual exploitation and there was no 

mention of labor there. That is a concern. 

Finally, in closing, I would like to cite one particular avenue of 

improvement I have seen as we have been working on this in 2 

years, and it concerns the Department of Justice and their collaboration with NGOs. When I came on board with this work, there 

was a very concrete tension between NGOs and the Department of 

Justice around prosecution versus victim, and it is the right and 

the responsibility of DOJ to prosecute and it is the right and responsibility of NGOs to take care of the victims. Sometimes, I 

thought the twains would never meet. 

I have seen major leaps in the dialogue around that, and I have 

seen the Department of Justice move in the direction of being as 

victim-centered as their role would allow them to be. Again, I allude to the conference that is coming up next week that is particularly to enable the victims. 

Finally, in closing, I would like to share with you one short incident that happened to me a few months ago. I was in the Perry 

Family Health Center here in D.C., in a very, very poor neighborhood of Washington, D.C. It is an offshoot of Providence Hospital. 

I have great respect for the work they do there with poor neighborhood people of all ethnic communities. 

I was a little early for my meeting. I was going to do a training 

with the medical staff there. I deliberately went early so that I 

could spend a little bit of time in the waiting room and get a feel 

16

for the place, and I did just that. It was a very crowded waiting 

room and a man from the middle of the room looked up and said 

to me, you have a mission. And I stopped; I wasn’t expecting that 

in the middle of the Perry Family Health Center. 

Then he said, it is a spiritual mission; I can tell. And then I went 

over and talked to him for a while and I talked to him about himself and about his neighborhood, and eventually about trafficking. 

What that says to me any time I come to any trafficking event is 

I think we all have a mission, and I think any mission that is the 

mission of the care of people is a spiritual mission. Thank you for 

the opportunity to participate in it. 

[The prepared statement of Sister Dougherty appears as a submission for the record.] 

Chairman CORNYN. Thank you, Sister Dougherty. I appreciate 

that very much. 

Ms. DUNHAM [AUDIENCE PARTICIPANT.] I am a victim, okay, and 

I want to present this. 

Chairman CORNYN. It is out of order at this time. 

Ms. DUNHAM. I really don’t want to stop you, but— 

Chairman CORNYN. We need to proceed to hear from the rest of 

the panel. 

Ms. DUNHAM. I have been a victim of this Government. The Government has used me. This isn’t a planned thing because I truly—

I want to put this under oath that the letter I have right here is 

true. And I don’t want to be on the camera because that is not my 

point. And I do think— 

Chairman CORNYN. This hearing will stand in recess until the 

police can restore order. 

[The Subcommittee stood in recess from 2:55 p.m. to 3:02 p.m.] 

Chairman CORNYN. The hearing will come back to order. I apologize for the disruption. I trust that the woman will get the help 

that she needs if, in fact, she needs help. We wish her well, but 

obviously no one should be disrupting hearings in the Senate Judiciary Committee or anywhere else. But, we will wish her well. 

Mr. Mettimano, we were coming to you. So, if you would care to 

go ahead with your opening statement, I would appreciate it. 

STATEMENT OF JOSEPH METTIMANO, CHILD PROTECTION 

POLICY ADVISOR, WORLD VISION, WASHINGTON, D.C. 

Mr. METTIMANO. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I would like to 

thank you and the Subcommittee for inviting me to participate in 

this important hearing. It is a great encouragement to see this 

issue be made a priority of this Subcommittee. 

My name is Joseph Mettimano and I serve as the child protection 

policy advisor with World Vision. World Vision is a 54-year-old 

Christian humanitarian organization with programs in 100 countries served by a staff of 20,000 people worldwide. World Vision is 

a child-focused organization and, as such, it is a witness to the impact of child trafficking and child sexual exploitation both here in 

the United States and in many countries abroad. My remarks will 

focus on the impact of trafficking and sex slavery on these, the 

most vulnerable victims, children. 

The practice of human trafficking is as old as slavery itself. Each 

year, nearly 1 million people, predominantly women and children, 

17

are trafficked from one country to another for the purpose of servitude in the commercial sex trade, forced labor, or domestic service. It is a problem impacting nearly every country on the planet, 

including the United States. 

Traffickers, pimps and brothel owners target vulnerable children, 

particularly those living in poverty. Each year, millions of children 

fall victim to some form of sexual exploitation or abuse. Many of 

these children are abducted, forced or coerced into sexual slavery 

by strangers, while others are sold in prostitution to pay off family 

debts or are forcefully recruited on the streets, where many runaways are trying to escape abuse in the home. 

Frequently, children are trafficked out of one country and into 

another, where they are beaten and forced to work in brothels. 

Driven by supply and demand, these abhorrent practices comprise 

a multi-billion-dollar international business, and the impact on 

children is catastrophic—long-lasting physical and psychological 

trauma; disease, including HIV/AIDS; violence; abuse; drug addiction; unwanted pregnancy; malnutrition; social ostracism; poverty; 

and in many cases death. 

Outside of the United States, many factors have contributed to 

the increase in commercial sexual exploitation of children, including poverty, inadequate or non-enforced laws, government corruption, lack of political will, and the low status of girls in many countries. 

Recent growth in the number of prostituted children can also be 

traced to the spread of HIV/AIDS. You see, Mr. Chairman, the 

spread of HIV/AIDS has encouraged predominantly local men in 

developing countries to seek young children for sex, with the erroneous belief that children are less likely to carry or transmit the 

disease. As you may know, the opposite is true. 

Statistics suggest that the highest concentrations of prostituted 

children are found in Asia and Latin America. For example, it is 

estimated that one-third of the prostitutes in Cambodia are children under age 18. In Eastern Europe, Russia, Poland, Romania, 

Hungary and the Czech Republic have experienced an increase in 

child prostitution as well. 

World Vision has learned through its work in many of these 

countries that the average age of a child exploited in the commercial sex trade is 14 years old, but some of these children are as 

young as 5 years old. Many of these children have acquired sexually-transmitted diseases. 

The practice of child sex tourism wherein men from wealthy 

countries travel to have sex with children predominantly in poor 

countries is especially on the rise in countries in Asia and Latin 

America. This has resulted in a greater supply of child victims to 

meet the increased demand. 

A survey conducted in December 2001 by World Vision and the 

Cambodian government indicates that Westerners, including Americans, account for about 38 percent of all child sex offenders in 

Cambodia. In Latin American countries such as Costa Rica, estimates are as high as 80 percent. An organization called ECPAT, 

which provides most of the ground-breaking research on this issue, 

estimates that 25 percent of child sex tourists worldwide are from 

the United States. 

18

Mr. Chairman, these statistics, while sobering, do not come close 

to fully revealing the depth of this scourge, nor in telling the story 

of the victims. I am reminded of a 13-year-old girl that I met in 

Phnom Penh about a year ago. She was sold to a brothel owner because her father desperately needed medical care that her impoverished family could not afford. Her parents were faced with the 

nightmare decision to sell their child for the money to pay for the 

medical treatment or the father was going to die. 

Closer to home, in 2001 I met a 19-year-old woman from the Chicago area who had been prostituted since she was 15 years old. 

Earlier, she was sexually abused at home by her stepfather, which 

caused her to run away. She later met a man at a bus station who 

offered her food and shelter, but she was later raped, beaten and 

forced into prostitution. 

These stories, while shocking, are not unusual. A 1996 survey of 

World Vision national offices revealed that 70 percent of our offices 

overseas were dealing with some form of exploitation of local children. Through World Vision’s vast network, we have been involved 

in programming aimed at preventing children from being drawn 

into the sex trade and helping those already victimized. 

Our work has focused on prevention programs such as skill training designed to prevent children from being sold into the sex trade; 

residential treatment facilities to provide exploited children with 

ongoing medical care, counseling and skill training; training of 

local law enforcement officials; and most recently a program that 

is deterring Americans from participating in child sex tourism and 

assisting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in their 

work by helping to identify child sex tourists from the United 

States and providing key information that can be used in their 

prosecution. 

Fortunately, sir, organizations like World Vision are no longer 

fighting this problem alone. In recent years, the U.S. Congress has 

made several important advancements in international trafficking 

and slavery. The Mann Act of 1910, which banned the transportation of prostitutes beyond State lines, provides the underpinnings 

of child sexual exploitation law in the U.S. 

The Act was strengthened in 1994 with the passage of the Child 

Sexual Abuse Prevention Act, which was part of the 1994 crime 

bill, and most recently by the passage of the PROTECT Act of 

2003, which imposes a fine and prison sentence of up to 30 years 

for any U.S. citizen who is convicted of participating in or attempting to participate in child sex tourism overseas. 

One of the most comprehensive pieces of trafficking legislation 

passed by Congress is the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000. This important law contains several strong provisions to both combat trafficking and assist victims. All of these 

measures have not only made advancements in combatting international trafficking and slavery, but have set a leadership example 

for the rest of the world in addressing these issues. 

Mr. Chairman, in recent years much attention has rightly been 

drawn to the plight of trafficking and sexual exploitation victims 

outside of the United States. However, this problem is not limited 

to poor countries, nor is it limited to perpetrations by foreign criminals. The problem is very real in the United States, and notably, 

19

sir, the exploitation that happens outside of the U.S. is made worse 

through the participation of U.S. citizens in sex tourism. 

Research conducted by experts such as Dr. Melissa Farley of 

Prostitution Research and Education and Dr. Richard Estes of the 

University of Pennsylvania have provided the American public with 

just a snapshot of the commercial sex trade in the U.S. 

Dr. Estes’ research revealed that between 244,000 and 325,000 

American children are at risk of being victimized by the commercial sexual exploitation trade every year. Further, Dr. Farley’s 

interviews with 130 people working as prostitutes in just the San 

Francisco area revealed a number of things, including 82 percent 

of them had been physically assaulted, 68 percent had been raped, 

84 percent reported past or current homelessness. 88 percent truly 

desire to leave prostitution, and 50 percent of these were sexually 

abused as children. 

All too often, these women and children are exploited as a result 

of difficult circumstances, previous abuse, homelessness and other 

vulnerabilities. Pimps and brothel owners prey on people such as 

these in order to fulfill the demand of their customers, known as 

‘‘johns.’’ The use of the Internet has only exacerbated the problem 

by providing a forum for pornography, prostitution on demand and 

chat boards. 

Markedly, the U.S. Department of State estimates that between 

14,500 and 17,500 women and children are trafficked into the 

United States annually for service in the sex trade as well. The 

U.S. Department of State, the Department of Justice and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, otherwise known as ICE, 

have made much progress in recent years to combat sex crimes 

against children. 

For example, in the past year more than 3,000 sex offenders and 

predators have been arrested in the U.S. due to the great work of 

Operation Predator, an ICE initiative that has just completed its 

first year in operation. The work of these agencies, along with local 

police, non-governmental organizations and many other organizations, should be praised for their significant work. 

Needless to say, the opportunity for additional measures to combat trafficking and slavery are abundant. In the United States, a 

greater emphasis on preventing women and children from being 

vulnerable to the sex trade, along with increased measures to identify and prosecute the abusers themselves, including pimps, brothel 

owners and johns, is greatly needed. 

State and local police need to be better equipped to address these 

issues. Innovative programs such as ‘‘john schools’’ and amnesty 

support programs for victims who testify against their pimps are 

needed as well. Cracking down on international child sex tourism 

through better information exchange among law enforcement agencies is imperative. And, in general, we need to have an increased 

emphasis on the demand side of this problem. 

Finally, sir, your leadership on this issue is greatly needed. As 

you know, a number of non-governmental organizations, including 

citizens groups, faith-based groups, feminist groups and human 

rights organizations have worked with this Congress in the past on 

historic measures such as the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, 

20

the Sudan Peace Act, the International Religious Freedom Act and 

the Prison Rape Elimination Act. 

Organizations and individuals from across the political spectrum 

have found common ground on these very issues, and for good reason. These are issues that strike at the core of human decency. We 

stand prepared to work with you. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for your leadership on this issue and 

I would be glad to answer any questions. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Mettimano appears as a submission for the record.] 

Chairman CORNYN. Thank you very much, Mr. Mettimano, for 

your opening statement. 

Professor Mattar. Did I pronounce that correctly? 

Mr. MATTAR. That is correct. 

Chairman CORNYN. Good. Thank you very much. You may proceed, sir. 

STATEMENT OF MOHAMED Y. MATTAR, CO-DIRECTOR, THE 

PROTECTION PROJECT, PAUL H. NITZE SCHOOL OF ADVANCED INTERNATIONAL STUDIES, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY, WASHINGTON, D.C. 

Mr. MATTAR. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am really privileged 

to speak to you today on the United States current legal responses 

to combat the problem of trafficking in persons on the Federal, 

State and international levels. 

But, first, according to the official Government statistics, there 

seems to be a decline in international trafficking, as well as trafficking into the United States. One may question, however, whether this decline in the number of trafficking cases is because of recent efforts to combat the problem or simply because victim identification has become more difficult, as Sister Mary mentioned. 

Recently, the United States has adopted a number of Federal 

laws that address these problems. The significance of these legislative measures is that they expanded the rights of victims of trafficking. And, to me, the Federal law has expanded four main 

rights—the right to be heard in court, the right to civil compensation, the right to receive social and economic benefits, and the right 

to seek residency in the United States. 

However, it remains to be seen how courts will interpret the provisions of the Federal law. Would a victim of a case of trafficking 

that was prosecuted under the Mann Act be entitled to the benefits 

granted under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act? How would 

the courts define a commercial sex act? Would sex trafficking involve cases of mail order brides? Would we consider massage parlors, strip clubs and other sexually-oriented establishments that 

may be involved in illicit sexual activities as forms of sexual exploitation? 

I understand that such adult expressions are protected as free 

speech under the First Amendment. I also understand that they 

are subject to zoning requirements. But what is more important is 

that States take steps to curtail the activities of these establishments when they facilitate acts of trafficking. 

I would also like to see an expansion in the interpretation of 

what we consider labor trafficking, especially cases that involve 

21

child labor. Corporations that are involved in such illegal acts must 

be held accountable. I want to make a reference to the newly enacted Trade and Development Act of 2000 that prohibits importation of products made with the use of forced labor. 

On the State level, it is encouraging to learn that, in addition to 

Texas and Washington State, legislators from Arizona, Connecticut, 

Hawaii, North Carolina, Minnesota and Florida are considering enacting specific anti-trafficking legislation. 

State resources should be used to prosecute cases of trafficking, 

and anti-trafficking legislation in the criminal code of a State 

would make prosecution of a case of trafficking easier, instead of 

struggling to prosecute the case under existing laws. This would ultimately have the effect of identifying more victims of trafficking. 

However, a number of issues must be resolved in establishing the 

relation between the Federal law and the State laws. In addition, 

State legislation should not be limited to the criminalization of 

trafficking as a crime. The creation of a task force that mobilizes 

efforts to combat trafficking in a particular State is imperative. 

Finally, on the international level, the Department of Justice has 

been assisting foreign countries in drafting anti-trafficking legislation, but at least 62 countries still lack legislation that specifically 

makes trafficking a crime. This year, I have been part of a training 

program that was conducted by the War Against Trafficking Alliance, where Shared Hope International, The Protection Project and 

the Department of Justice have cooperated in training law enforcement officials in the countries of Moldova, the Dominican Republic, 

India and South Africa. 

Prosecution rates in countries of the Middle East, Africa and 

Latin America are still very low, and further efforts are needed to 

not only assist in drafting anti-trafficking legislation, but to train 

investigators, prosecutors and judges to effectively consider cases of 

trafficking. 

Mr. Chairman, thank you so much for holding this very important hearing. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Mattar appears as a submission 

for the record.] 

Chairman CORNYN. Thank you, Professor, for your statement and 

your participation. 

Mr. Song, we would be glad to hear from you. 

STATEMENT OF CHARLES SONG, STAFF ATTORNEY, COALITION TO ABOLISH SLAVERY & TRAFFICKING, LOS ANGELES, 

CALIFORNIA 

Mr. SONG. Chairman Cornyn, Ranking Member Feingold and distinguished members of the Subcommittee, thank you very much for 

the privilege to testify today on behalf of the hundreds of survivors 

of trafficking and their families. I have the honor of directly serving as the staff attorney at the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and 

Trafficking and as a member of the Freedom Network, a group of 

22 community-based organizations that provide direct services to 

survivors of trafficking throughout the United States. 

I would also like to thank this administration, Congress and the 

American people for rightfully taking a leadership role in the global 

struggle to eradicate one of the most egregious human and civil 

22

rights violations known to humankind by courageously championing the most advanced anti-trafficking legislation in the 

world—the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 

2000 and Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 

2003—which have literally saved the lives of hundreds of survivors 

of trafficking and their families. 

As you know, and as Mr. Sutton already discussed, the VTVPA 

and TVPRA provided comprehensive Federal legislation to address 

the problem of human trafficking through a holistic, three-pronged 

approach of protection, prosecution and prevention. This legislation 

has dramatically improved the ability of prosecutors to punish traffickers, while providing the critical protections survivors need to cooperate with law enforcement. 

By creating new trafficking crimes and increasing sentencing requirements, these laws ensure that traffickers are punished for the 

full panoply of offenses associated with trafficking and given appropriately severe sentences. Most importantly, the VTVPA, recognizing that effective prosecution of human traffickers requires survivors to risk their lives and their families’ lives to cooperate with 

law enforcement agencies, provides greater protections for trafficked persons by creating new immigration benefits—T non-immigrant status and continued presence. 

It also guarantees victims specific services and enumerates legal 

rights that include the right to social services and benefits available to refugees, the right to appropriate shelter not incompatible 

with their status as victims of a crime, the right to receive medical 

care, the right to witness protection, the right to access information 

about legal and translation services, and the right to mandatory 

restitution and civil action. 

Make no mistake about it, survivors of trafficking risk their lives 

and their families’ lives to assist in the investigation and prosecution of their former captors, and legislators’ primary intent in passing the VTVPA was to protect victims of those violent crimes. 

Representative Chris Smith, one of the authors of the VTVPA, 

unequivocally confirmed this was the case in his keynote address 

at the State Department Conference on Trafficking in February of 

2003. Speaking for the American people, he stated, ‘‘While it was 

the intent of the VTVPA that victims of trafficking should help in 

the investigation and prosecution of trafficking cases, there should 

be no doubt that the T visa was primarily intended as a humanitarian tool to facilitate the rehabilitation of trafficking survivors.’’ 

In narrow circumstances, the VTVPA saves the lives of survivors 

of trafficking and assists them in rebuilding their lives, as the 

American people intended. For example, I am pleased to announce 

that due to the collaborative efforts of local law enforcement, the 

Department of Homeland Security and many other dedicated individuals, CAST recently obtained a T visa for a woman sold into 

sexual slavery at the age of 16 and later wrongfully imprisoned because of her trafficking situation. When she finally obtained a T 

visa, this woman took her first breath of freedom in almost 27 

years. Additionally, she is also receiving other urgent social and 

legal services through the VTVPA. 

However, nearly 4 years after the enactment of the VTVPA, 

which authorized 5,000 T visas per year, or nearly 20,000 over 4 

23

years, only 371 T visa applications have been granted since 2000. 

Perhaps even more disturbing is the fact that only 34 children have 

been identified as eligible for services by the unaccompanied refugee minors program as trafficked minors. 

These statistics are extremely disturbing particularly in light of 

the fact that experts have estimated anywhere from 14,500 to 

50,000 men, women and children, just like our own sons and 

daughters, are being trafficked and enslaved in the United States 

every year. What these numbers indicate is that survivors of trafficking are not being provided the critical protections they need in 

order to assist in the investigation and prosecution of their traffickers, as Congress intended. 

A few weeks ago, I received a phone call from a woman who informed me her brother had been tricked into coming to the United 

States and was being physically and illegally forced to work. I advised the woman that her brother’s life may be in imminent danger 

and recommended immediately contacting the proper authorities. I 

also advised her of the Federal protections available to her brother 

and the legal and social services CAST could provide him. 

She asked if I could guarantee he would not be deported or if she 

reported to law enforcement, because he would be seriously injured 

or murdered if he was deported. I told her I could not guarantee 

anything, but based on the information she had provided me, he 

would be permitted to remain here legally and provided many 

other benefits to help him recover from his enslavement if he cooperated with law enforcement. 

After discussing these issues further, she concluded the telephone call by saying that she was terrified of subjecting him to the 

risk of deportation and would think it over and contact me as soon 

as possible. I never heard from the woman again. 

Fortunately, concerned legislators such as yourselves and Government officials such as Assistant Attorney General Acosta are 

asking why survivors such as these are not coming forward. In my 

view, United States efforts to combat human trafficking and slavery are being thwarted by unintentional yet overly restrictive barriers to critical victim protections. 

Relatively speaking, there is tremendous benefit and very little 

risk and cost associated with the United States providing life-saving protections and services to human beings who have narrowly 

escaped from violent criminals with their lives. Conversely, survivors of trafficking are confronted with the highest possible cost 

and risk—theirs, their parents’, their siblings’ and their children’s 

lives. 

On behalf of the thousands of men, women and children who are 

enslaved in the United States and whose constitutional and civil 

rights are being violated as I speak to you today, I urge you to review the critical victim protections contained in the VTVPA that 

were unintentionally drafted too narrowly out of an abundance of 

caution and ensure survivors of trafficking can more easily access 

these protections and assist in investigating and prosecuting their 

traffickers. 

Due to the brief period of time I have to speak with you today, 

I have not discussed the specific legislative amendments I am recommending. However, I and other members of the Freedom NetVerDate 0ct 09 2002 09:26 Nov 10, 2005 Jkt 096285 PO 00000 Frm 00027 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 S:\GPO\HEARINGS\96285.TXT SJUD4 PsN: CMORC
24

work would be more than happy to provide detail briefing papers 

on specific recommendations, as well as review these important 

changes with members of the Subcommittee. 

The recommendations include amendments to the threshold requirements for benefits, amendments to make it easier to protect 

family and reunite family members with trafficking survivors, and 

the addition of a requirement that trafficking survivors have access 

to legal counsel. 

I look forward to continuing to work with members of Congress 

to eradicate all instances of human trafficking in our country and 

the world, and I am confident that with your support, the VTVPA 

can be amended to more fully realize the goals and intentions of 

the American people when they passed the VTVPA. 

Thank you for your attention and for the invitation to appear 

here today. I look forward to your questions. 

Chairman CORNYN. Thank you, Mr. Song, for your opening statement, and we will take you up on your offer to give those proposals 

to us and to work with us to look at any changes that may be required. 

Mr. SONG. Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Song appears as a submission for 

the record.] 

Chairman CORNYN. Ms. Patten, we would be glad to hear from 

you. 

STATEMENT OF WENDY PATTEN, U.S. ADVOCACY DIRECTOR, 

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, WASHINGTON, D.C. 

Ms. PATTEN. Mr. Chairperson and members of the Subcommittee, 

thank you for inviting me to provide testimony on behalf of Human 

Rights Watch. It is an honor to testify before you today and we 

thank you for focusing on this important human rights problem. 

For over a decade, Human Rights Watch has documented and 

monitored trafficking of persons around the world. We have published reports on trafficking of women and girls from Burma to 

Thailand, Nepal to India, Thailand to Japan, Eastern Europe to 

Greece, the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe to post-conflict Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the trafficking of children in 

West Africa. In 2001, we reported on the abuse of domestic workers 

here in the United States with special employer-based visas. 

Trafficking flourishes throughout the world, aided by corruption 

and neglect by governments. Seeking better lives and opportunities, trafficking victims migrate, only to find themselves trapped in 

debt bondage, forced labor and slavery-like conditions. The United 

Nations has estimated that 700,000 people are trafficked around 

the world each year, and recent U.S. Government estimates are 

consistent with this figure. 

Both the International Protocol on Trafficking in Persons and the 

U.S. trafficking law cover all forms of trafficking in persons. As our 

research has shown, trafficking occurs for a variety of pernicious 

purposes, ranging from bonded labor to forced prostitution. Women 

and men, girls and boys, are trafficked and forced to work or provide services on farms and in factories, restaurants, homes, brothels and bars. 

25

Despite the varied settings into which people are trafficked, the 

common element in all trafficking cases is the ongoing violation of 

the person. The goal of traffickers is to exert total control over the 

victim in order to extract labor or services from her. Traffickers 

around the world use a common set of tactics to track their victims 

in exploitative situations—physical force, threats of physical force, 

deception, intimidation, isolation, debt bondage, threats of deportation and threats to family members. It is vital for the U.S. Government to address trafficking in all of its horrific forms. 

Trafficking in persons is in many ways a quintessential 21st century crime problem. In an era of globalization and enhanced technology, small networks of criminals can operate internationally, 

preying on those who would migrate in search of work or a better 

life, and subjecting them to horrible abuse. 

As governments map out anti-trafficking strategies, they must 

see this problem not only in law enforcement terms, but also in 

human rights terms. They need to understand that trafficking in 

persons is a serious human rights abuse and that governments 

have an obligation to protect victims and to provide redress. 

While much has been done here in the United States, much more 

can and should be done to better prosecute traffickers and protect 

victims of trafficking here in the U.S. I would like to focus now on 

four issues. 

First, the United States should ratify the Trafficking in Persons 

Protocol. Proposed by the United States and Argentina in January 

1999, this is the first international protocol to require governments 

to criminalize trafficking in persons and to provide a framework for 

enhanced protection of and assistance to victims. The protocol establishes a global standard for government action, which is particularly important given the transnational nature of many trafficking 

networks. 

The protocol entered into force in December 2003 and now has 

62 states party and 117 signatories. The U.S. Government was 

among the first countries to sign the protocol in December 2003, 

and earlier this year President Bush transmitted the protocol to 

the Senate. The Foreign Relations Committee had a hearing on the 

protocol in June. We urge the Senate to promptly provide its advice 

and consent to ratification of the Trafficking Protocol. 

Second, the U.S. Government should enhance its capacity to provide meaningful witness protection and victim protection for victims of trafficking in the United States. Witness protection is a 

subset of the broader category of victim protection, and it is not 

limited to the safety of witnesses involved in criminal proceeding. 

To be sure, prosecution is a core obligation of states in protecting 

the rights of trafficking victims and in holding traffickers accountable for their crimes. But despite the critical importance of prosecution, it would be a mistake to talk about protection for victims and 

witnesses only in the context of testimony at trial. Victims need 

protection in order to break free from the control of their traffickers 

and to avoid falling back into the hands of traffickers. They also 

need a range of support and assistance in order to rebuild their 

lives without fear of reprisal from those who traffic them. Specifically, victims need counseling; medical and psychological services, 

including specialized services in support for sexual assault; legal 

26

assistance; employment authorization and training; and safe and 

secure shelter. 

The U.S. Government should also ensure that all trafficked persons are allowed to remain in the U.S. throughout the duration of 

any criminal or civil proceedings against their abusers and ensure 

full implementation of measures that enable victims who fear retaliation upon return to their home country to apply for permanent 

resettlement on that basis. In particular, it should ensure that victims who fear retaliation can seek to remain in the United States 

even if they are unable to comply with law enforcement requests 

for assistance. The Government should also ensure special protections for child victims of trafficking who are under the age of 18. 

In emphasizing the witness protection issues today, I want to emphasize a crucial reality. Governments cannot effectively fight trafficking unless they develop and implement comprehensive protection policies and programs. 

Third, the U.S. Government should expand and intensify its efforts to train Federal law enforcement, prosecutors and victim witness personnel, and to conduct outreach to State and local police, 

prosecutors and service providers. Such training and outreach is 

critical in identifying trafficking victims and in ensuring that community-based networks are established to provide support for victims when a case occurs. 

Proactive community-wide work is needed before Federal prosecutors or local police encounter a large trafficking case with multiple victims who have urgent needs for shelter and services. This 

kind of effort echoes a key recommendation that the Department 

of Justice itself made in its June 2004 assessment of U.S. activities 

to combat trafficking in persons. Its efforts to expand training and 

local task forces are necessary steps that we urge the U.S. Government to undertake in a comprehensive and sustained way. 

Fourth, the Senate should not enact the Homeland Security Enhancement Act which would have serious consequences for trafficking victims and for trafficking investigations and prosecutions. 

If enacted, this bill and its House counterpart, the CLEAR Act, 

would require State and local officials to enforce Federal civil immigration laws, which would in turn deter trafficking victims from 

contacting local police about the abuses they had suffered. 

Finally, the United States should above all else return control to 

the victims of trafficking. The greatest challenge for governments 

around the world is seeing and respecting at the most basic level 

the humanity of all survivors of trafficking, and therefore working 

with survivors in a way that demonstrates their commitment to 

protecting the equality and dignity of all human beings. Because 

violation of human dignity lies at the core of trafficking in persons, 

the affirmation of the dignity of trafficking victims must be at the 

center of any effort to address and solve it. 

To conclude, trafficking in persons is a profound human rights 

abuse, and women are particularly vulnerable to this practice due 

to the persistent inequalities they face in status and opportunity. 

With the passage of domestic legislation and the entry into force 

of the International Trafficking Protocol, important advances have 

been made in developing a framework for action. 

27

Governments now need to take concrete steps to prevent trafficking, punish traffickers and provide human rights protections for 

victims. It is imperative that the United States demonstrate its 

leadership on this critical human rights issue by doing all it can 

to provide protection and redress for victims of all forms of trafficking here in the United States. 

Thank you, and I look forward to your questions. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Patten appears as a submission 

for the record.] 

Chairman CORNYN. Thank you, Ms. Patten. 

We appreciate all of the opening statements. We will proceed to 

a ten-minute round of questioning and I will begin. 

Mr. Sutton and Mr. Shelby, I would like to direct this to both of 

you. First of all, I understand the distinction between trafficking 

and smuggling, but it seems to me that many of the problems that 

we are talking about—that is, people operating in a lawless environment—is what makes victims of human trafficking the most 

vulnerable, and that a lot of the concerns that we have about border security post-9/11, concerns we have about drug trafficking into 

the United States, money laundering—you can go down the whole 

list—that this is another element of that and maybe something 

that we can’t totally separate and look at as an isolated sort of 

problem. 

I would be interested in your reaction and comments. First, Mr. 

Sutton, and then Mr. Shelby. 

Mr. SUTTON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Again, thank you for the 

opportunity to be here today to address this. I think you are exactly right. As you listen to all these witnesses and the statistics 

and the numbers, you realize that this is a big problem. The Department of Justice takes it seriously, the President takes it seriously. It is a priority for us, but obviously we need to do more. 

The real difficulty in these cases is identifying the victims. Usually, we find about them—someone will call 911, or a lucky break; 

someone runs away. But like we have said over and over again, 

these victims often don’t speak the language. They are usually far 

from home, like that example. I can’t even think of a worse scenario to be a 16-year-old Mexican girl from a small village in Mexico, brought to America with who you thought was a trusted family 

friend, a women who was going to be like your mother, and then 

she gets you here thousands of miles from home and turns your life 

upside down in the most horrific of ways. 

What I can say is hearings like this matter. It is important that 

we educate law enforcement, that we get the NGOs and law enforcement together to work together to identify these cases, because 

oftentimes we may see something going on and not recognize at the 

time that it is a trafficking case because it is under the surface. 

They keep this very quiet, but somebody is making a lot of money 

in this. And in my mind it is not that different than any organized 

crime, other than it is so much more horrific to the victims. 

I think you are exactly right. We need to look at it an in overall 

way of protecting the border, having secure laws and enforcing our 

laws, and getting cooperation at the Federal, State and local levels. 

Chairman CORNYN. Mr. Shelby, I would be interested in your response. 

28

Mr. SHELBY. Mr. Chairman, I agree that the most effective way 

to approach this would be through a task force concept. And I don’t 

say that believing that task forces are necessarily a panacea for all 

kinds of investigative approaches, but because within that task 

force element is this notion of education, where you bring in a 

number of different people to look at facts that they may see before 

them everyday, but not realize what it is that they are looking at. 

In the area specifically of human trafficking, there are no victims 

making outcries. They are not allowed to by the very nature of the 

crime itself. But there are indicia that those people are being victimized, and if we can pick up on that through the education of the 

State, local and even the Federal agencies who see those indicia 

but don’t realize them for what they are, then I think that we can 

have a significant impact. 

But I would also—and you and I have had this discussion in Laredo—I would also urge you to look at these as two separate 

crimes, because in the trafficking-related offenses the offense itself 

is clearly a victimizer against a victim. An individual’s rights are 

being violated and being subjugated for the purpose of some sort 

of financial gain. 

But in a smuggling scenario, typically, the smugglee, the person 

who wants entry into the United States, is himself part and parcel 

of this. He wants the smuggler to succeed, he wants to be part of 

a successful effort to enter into the United States. Although they 

certainly can be victimized at some point during a smuggling operation gone bad, those people are not traditionally victims in the 

same sense. 

I don’t think, in fairness, they should be treated as victims because really what it would do is encourage everyone to participate 

in a smuggling operation as a smugglee and then claim the protections of some specific Act that is designed for people who are more 

closely victimized. 

Chairman CORNYN. Thank you. 

We have heard from a number of you about the importance of 

having cooperation not just at the Federal level. The Department 

of Justice is to be congratulated, and I think everyone here did, for 

the leadership that has been shown from top to bottom and where 

the rubber meets the road, where you gentlemen and your staff operate. 

But, it seems like we have got to do something to get local and 

State law enforcement more involved. I know, because I have participated in hearings, that getting local law enforcement involved 

in immigration-related matters is somewhat controversial. As a 

matter of fact, Ms. Patten mentioned one bill that suggests that 

State and local law enforcement officers get involved in perhaps apprehending people who are here illegally in the country. 

So, I would just maybe ask you, Ms. Patten, how do we get State 

and local officials involved unless we enact some sort of legislation 

that authorizes them, or at least authorizes them to enter into 

memoranda of understanding to investigate and pursue these 

crimes? 

Ms. PATTEN. Well, I think that the approach that the Department has taken and that has been outlined today by the U.S. Attorneys in terms of creating local task forces or local cooperation 

29

is really incredibly important, and it is one that I am glad to see 

is being furthered and expanded. 

We already see that many local law enforcement on the ground 

have an understanding of what this problem is. They may vary in 

terms of whether they are familiar with all of the language that 

describes it, or know it as trafficking in persons or understand that 

there is a Federal law. But they see and live with the on-theground reality of how these traffic networks operate in their communities, and in my experience they are often eager to learn about 

and coordinate with Federal officials in order to help support and 

in many ways plug gaps in their ability to really address the problem. 

I recall speaking with local law enforcement who understood that 

they might be able to deal with a couple of victims that they found 

working on a street corner in one city in the Midwest. But they 

knew that three weeks later, there would be other victims to come 

and replace them and they wanted some way to address the broader network that was involved. 

So I think that the kinds of cooperative efforts that have been 

described are really, really important in terms of bringing together 

all the players in a community who have a piece of this, from local 

law enforcement to victim service providers with a range of different kinds of expertise, to those who understand linguistically- or 

culturally-appropriate services for the victims in question, as well 

as the local offices of the Federal Government—the FBI, the INS, 

the U.S. Attorney’s office, et cetera. 

So, I think the way to do is to pursue more of that kind of training and outreach work so that we raise awareness of the problem 

and people learn who to work with in their local communities when 

they see a case. 

Chairman CORNYN. So, let me see if we are on common ground 

here. Would you have any concerns about local and State law enforcement officials being authorized or allowed to enter into memoranda of understanding for purposes of perhaps investigating and 

prosecuting violations of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, or 

obviously State statutes against human trafficking? 

Ms. PATTEN. Well, as I have already explained, we have concerns 

about deputizing local law enforcement with enforcing immigration 

violations. We have sent a separate letter to all of the members of 

the Committee with our concerns about the CLEAR Act and the 

HSEA. We have broader concerns that they will go beyond the trafficking problem, but for purposes of this hearing I wanted to focus 

on the concerns we had about how doing that would impact the 

broader immigrant community, and in particular victims of trafficking. In terms of local law enforcement collaborating on Federal 

prosecutions of trafficking, I think that can be helpful especially 

when local police may have done some of the initial investigative 

work. 

Chairman CORNYN. Well, I guess my concern is maybe a local police officer or highway patrol who makes a traffic stop and identifies someone who is not legally in the country who may be in a situation where they have been unable or simply afraid of reporting 

a violation of human trafficking laws. So, it seems like the line gets 

a little fuzzy. 

30

Let me ask for a quick reaction from the rest of the panel who 

I have not had a chance to ask questions of yet. We have heard 

estimates of the number of people in this country who are victims 

of human trafficking, but I wonder how in the world we have any 

confidence in those numbers, given the nature of the crime and 

given the reluctance of the victim to come forward. 

Sister, do you have any observations along that line? 

Sister DOUGHERTY. I share your reservations about the credibility of the numbers. Nevertheless, they are the numbers we have 

in terms of State Department reports, and they do the research. 

It is interesting to me that in 1999, the study that was put out 

by the State department—I think it was commissioned by the CIA 

of Amy O’Neill Richard as an independent researcher—that study 

that was behind the passing of the law said 50,000 people. And 2 

years later, we drop from 50,000 people to 20,000 people, and now 

we have dropped from 20,000 people to 17,000 people being trafficked into the United States. 

When we questioned the State Department about that radical 

change in numbers, their response last June at the issuing of the 

TIP report was that there has been a change in methodology. I 

don’t know exactly what that means, but I think it is safe to say 

that the numbers are certainly underestimated. And I can guarantee you that 34 identified children in the United States is certainly nothing—the estimate of every credible analyst in terms of 

children is that at least a third of the people trafficked into the 

United States are children. So that, by anybody’s numbers, would 

increase those radically. 

Chairman CORNYN. Professor Mattar, you specifically mentioned 

the apparent decline. 

Mr. MATTAR. Yes. I have a problem with the Government statistics. When the Trafficking Victims Protection Act passed and was 

signed into law on October 28, 2000, Section 102 referred to 

700,000 victims of trafficking being trafficked globally and 50,000 

being trafficked into the United States. 

This last year, in 2003, the State Department told us, well, the 

number now is between 800 to 900, and in the United States between 18,000 and 20,000. This last report made reference to 14,500 

to 17,500 trafficking victims into the United States, and between 

600 to 800 annually. I am not sure that we have a reliable basis, 

a credible basis for this number. 

That is why I want to bring to your attention that the reauthorization Act calls for conducting research, and I think that we have 

to do more research to find out what are the exact numbers we are 

talking about here so we can define the appropriate responses. 

Chairman CORNYN. Thank you. 

Mr. Mettimano. 

Mr. METTIMANO. I share the frustration with my colleagues, but 

after working on these issues for 10 years, I have come to the conclusion that hard numbers pertaining to any aspect of this crime 

simply do not exist. And the reason is this, because it is largely a 

black-market crime that does not readily lend itself to conventional 

measurement. It is like asking how many spouses in the United 

States are battered. It is not like people stand up to be polled. 

Much of this goes unreported. 

31

I have found that the diversity and the range of estimates on everything from the number of trafficking victims to the number of 

children that are involved vary greatly from agency to agency. The 

only consistency that I have seen typically either on an international basis or on a country-by-country basis is going to be the 

ratio. I find some level of consistency in the ratio of children that 

are involved in the sex trade. 

As far as the overall numbers, though, sir, I think just because 

of the nature of the crime and often because it goes largely unreported, it is very difficult to come up with hard numbers. 

Chairman CORNYN. My time is up, and at this time I will recognize Senator Durbin for any questions he may have. 

STATEMENT OF HON. RICHARD J. DURBIN, A U.S. SENATOR 

FROM THE STATE OF ILLINOIS 

Senator DURBIN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for 

this hearing. I just have a couple of questions, and thank you all 

for your testimony. I am sorry I was in the Senate Intelligence 

Committee and had to come a little late, but I have reviewed your 

testimony. 

First, let me say that I think it is worth noting that the first 

time that this issue was raised on the Senate floor was by our late 

colleague, Paul Wellstone, who really was outspoken on this issue. 

I am glad that we are continuing our efforts to look into it. 

I also want to note that John Miller, a former colleague of ours 

from the House of Representatives, is now heading the State Department’s anti-trafficking office, and I met with him to talk about 

some efforts underway there. I think he is a very talented individual and I hope to work with him. 

Going back to your point, Mr. Mettimano—I hope I didn’t mispronounce your name—I look in your testimony at all the range of 

people trafficked in the United States. The estimates range from 

14,500 to 50,000, depending on which one of your statements we 

stick by, and I think you get to the point that when you are dealing 

with black market, you just don’t have easily quantifiable numbers 

to deal with here. 

But some things are quantifiable. From the U.S. Attorneys, we 

have heard that there have been 110 prosecutions over a 3-year period of time, which pales into insignificance if any of the numbers, 

if any of the estimates are correct. We also know that there were 

591 immigration hearings in the year 2003 relative to these problems, which again is a very, very small number compared to any 

of the estimates before us. 

And then the point made by Mr. Song about the T visas that 

have been issued, 371 over a 4-year period of time, suggests that 

perhaps we aren’t being as aggressive as we could or should be. 

Maybe it is for lack of resources. Maybe it is for lack of legal authority. I am not sure which, but I am just curious at this point 

and I would ask the U.S. Attorneys, in particular, it seems that 

several witnesses have identified strip clubs, massage parlors and 

that sort of activity as a magnet for a lot of these trafficked victims 

who are exploited. 

Is that your experience, and if so, what are we doing about it? 

32

Mr. SUTTON. Thank you, Senator. I agree with you. I mean, I 

think the improvement is we have dramatically increased prosecutions. But when you look at the overall numbers, they are very low, 

and that is one of the reasons we are here today is to try to give 

attention to this problem to say we need to know about these cases 

to prosecute them. 

Our experience has been that they are very hard to detect. You 

weren’t here when I gave the example, but we had an example in 

one of the cases we had in our district where a woman traveled 

deep into Mexico to remote villages and would convince parents of 

teenage girls, 16-year-olds, that she was going to take care of their 

daughters, take them to the United States, have them working in 

a restaurant, get a better life. She even signed a contract to that 

effect that, you know, there would be a 1-year deal that would pay 

off the $1,500 smuggling fee. And then when they got way out of 

sight to Texas, they would turn it around and force them to have 

sex with up to 15 men per day. 

Along with that, those girls, who were again 16, didn’t speak 

English, far away from home, are being threatened that if you run 

away or if you speak out, we are going to kill you; and not only 

are we going to kill you, we are going to go back to your village 

and kill your family. 

So they are very, very difficult situations to find about because 

these girls are held in just terrible situations. Usually, someone 

calls 911 who sees a situation in a house or a— 

Senator DURBIN. It is a lot like the discussion on narcotics. I am 

talking about the demand side at this moment. If we know that 

they are being used for sexual purposes in the United States, I am 

asking you as prosecutors, are you focusing on that in terms of 

your investigations to try to discover this illegal trafficking here? 

Mr. SUTTON. Sure. I mean, we try to identify those people as 

much as possible. There is renewed emphasis on sex tourism, renewed emphasis on getting—Senator Cornyn has an idea to get 

these task forces organized around the country, which we think is 

a very good one. But it is really getting that information out and 

sort of breaking the mind set of some law enforcement. 

A lot of this happens at the local level. I mean, at a local level 

they are dealing with street prostitutes, dealing with situations 

like when they see that, and they may not recognize that you are 

arresting what you think is a prostitute when, in reality, it is a 

slave. That is why it is so important that we have hearings like 

this that get that information out and that we work together to 

educate local law enforcement and the NGOs to identify these 

folks, because once we have got them identified, we are going to 

bring both feet of the Federal Government down on their heads. 

Senator DURBIN. My time is limited. I want to go to the supply 

side for a moment. One of the articles which I read on the subject 

which really caught my eye was in the New York Times Magazine 

several months ago. It was a front-page story about a situation involving Mexico, with photographs and graphic detail. I then coincidentally met with some Congress men and women—senators, I 

suppose, from Mexico—gave them the article and said what are we 

doing; what can we do together? 

33

Can I ask you, any on the panel who would like to respond, what 

can or should we be doing about Mexico that we are not doing now? 

Are they taking this situation seriously? Are they dealing with the 

problem? Are they cooperating with us in the prosecutions? Should 

we be doing more to develop a more aggressive posture by both 

countries? 

Mr. SHELBY. Senator, I would like to address that if I could. I 

guess immediately after General Ashcroft came into his position, 

there was a tragedy in Phoenix, Arizona, or the southern part of 

Arizona where I had worked, where 14 aliens died in the desert 

that were being led in. They weren’t being trafficked in. They were 

people who were being led and were ultimately led astray. That 

was one of the most horrible tragedies up to that point in time 

until the situation in Victoria a year-and-a-half later, where 19 

people died in the same way. 

If any good came out of those very horrible situations, it was that 

the Mexican government reached out to us to help us investigate 

thoroughly not only those specific instances where there was this 

singular loss of life, but also a number of bridges were created to 

help us with the overall problem of smuggling individuals, both 

consensually smuggled individuals and ultimately individuals who 

are not consensually smuggled into the United States. 

So we have forged new relationships with this Mexican administration and they have shown a cooperation to engage us in that 

way that was not present in the preceding 14 years of my Federal 

practice as an Assistant United States Attorney. 

Senator DURBIN. Thank you. 

Sister, did you want to comment on that? 

Chairman CORNYN. Sister, if I could just ask your indulgence 

just briefly. 

Colleagues, as I mentioned, I am going to have to leave to go preside on the Senate floor, but I know Senator Durbin and Senator 

Schumer have additional questions and what I would like to do is 

turn the gavel over to Senator Schumer for purposes of each of 

them asking the questions they would like to ask, making any 

statement they wish, and then closing out the hearing. 

Senator DURBIN. You are a very trusting Chairman to turn the 

gavel over to the Democrats. 

Sister? 

Sister DOUGHERTY. About a month ago, I was in Rome and I was 

there doing trafficking business for my organization, specifically 

speaking at a conference to the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See, but 

also I took the time then to get around to the safehouses in Rome 

where victims of trafficking are housed. Many of them are from 

Eastern Europe. 

I talked to the people who run the houses about what is happening, and Rome has developed—and perhaps all of Italy, but certainly out of the Rome Coalition Against Human Trafficking, part 

of their training is automatically to go to Romania and do training, 

to go to countries that are feeding the trafficking in their own 

country. 

It may be legally naive on my part to think that we could do 

some of that with Mexico and Central America, particularly with 

so many victims coming from there, and that it could be built into 

34

part of the whole grant process; that that in itself could be a major 

effort on our part to train from a U.S. point of view with the collaboration of those governments. 

Senator DURBIN. Thank you. 

Mr. MATTAR. I just want to add that Mexico is one of the 62 

countries that does not have specific anti-trafficking legislation. 

The Department of Justice has been assisting countries to enact 

good laws on trafficking. Especially in light of the good relations 

between Mexico and the United States, I think we should go there 

and help them put together a good law that defines the crime of 

trafficking in a better way. 

Senator DURBIN. Thank you very much. 

Mr. Song, did you want to say a word? 

Mr. SONG. I just wanted to add very quickly that I have been 

working on a few trafficking cases with the Mexican government, 

specifically with the Mexican consulate in the L.A. area, and they 

have been very helpful. They assisted us in getting victim protection. 

Some of our clients’ children are still in Mexico and being threatened by traffickers and they have been very helpful. The First 

Lady of Mexico even sent a letter regarding another case of trafficking that we are working on. But they still need to do more especially in regard to Mexican children who are being trafficked into 

the United States and being brought over the border and being 

summarily returned. 

Thank you. 

Senator DURBIN. Thank you very much. 

Mr. Chairman, I ask that my opening statement be made part 

of the record. 

Senator SCHUMER [PRESIDING.] Without objection. 

[The prepared statement of Senator Durbin appears as a submission for the record.] 

STATEMENT OF HON. CHARLES E. SCHUMER, A U.S. SENATOR 

FROM THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

Senator SCHUMER. Well, thank you, and I want to thank the witnesses for comprehensive testimony and questions. I will read a 

brief statement that I have. Only one of my questions hasn’t really 

been addressed. So I will ask you that and then we will let you all 

go on your way. 

But, first, I wanted to thank Senator Cornyn for holding this 

hearing and shining a spotlight on this important issue. As we all 

know, human trafficking is a serious problem. It is getting worse. 

According to the State Department, 600,000 to 800,000 people are 

trafficked across national borders into slavery each year, and then 

another 2 to 4 million victims are trafficked within national borders. 

The plight of those trafficked is among the most horrible we can 

imagine, and many are young girls, beaten, abused and sexually 

assaulted. Their lives will never be the same. The lack of protection 

against HIV/AIDS means that many sexual trafficking victims are, 

in effect, receiving a death sentence. When I read the stories of 

what happens to these young girls, it sickens me to imagine that 

anyone’s daughters would ever have to suffer these horrors. 

35

This is one of those problems we would like to think can’t happen 

here, maybe somewhere far away, not here in America. Yet, the 

sad fact is that approximately 16,000 people here, again mostly 

children, are trafficked into the United States each year. Their 

dreams are turned into nightmares right in our own backyard. 

So too often this isn’t a problem simply of a few bad apples. In 

many places in the world, corrupt police and justice systems protect traffickers and allow them to continue to traffic human beings 

into other countries, including ours. A problem like this can’t be 

solved easily. It is embedded in the system and we have to take 

action to make sure that sexual trafficking and slavery of any kind 

is not permitted in any corner of the world. 

A few weeks ago, I met, as Senator Durbin did, with Congressman John Miller. He is head of the Trafficking in Persons office at 

the State Department and we talked in-depth about this issue, 

where we stand right now and how we can all work together in the 

future to advance this issue. 

The State Department recently released the 2004 Trafficking in 

Persons report. The stories of the victims told in that report are extraordinary, and it is hard to imagine the terrible wrongs these victims have endured. But they also embolden us to continue this 

fight to try and stop more sons and daughters from being trafficked. 

So I am proud to join Senator Brownback as the Democratic cosponsor of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act 

of 2003. We were able to stand together in a bipartisan way to combat this evil. So frequently, we find ourselves at odds with one another on this Committee and in the Senate. Our efforts on this 

issue show we can work together to protect some of the most endangered people in our world. 

We have accomplished some important goals in the fight against 

human trafficking legislatively in the past year. We have elevated 

the importance of the issue by making the head of the TIP office 

an ambassador-at-large. We have created a senior policy operating 

group to help different agencies work on this issue. We have given 

prosecutors new tools to help fight against this crime in the U.S. 

and we have authorized money to help fund this fight and work toward eliminating sexual trafficking in all corners of the globe and 

in our backyard. 

That said, it is clear that there is much more to be done and I 

look forward to working with all of you on this issue. If you need 

tools in this fight, let us know and we will do everything we can 

to get them for you. Finally, I want to thank every one of you for 

the work you have done and for appearing before the Subcommittee 

to share your stories and insights on this important issue. 

Again, the questions have been good and comprehensive. Let me 

ask one or two here. 

First, currently, less than 2 percent of the T visas for the victims 

of trafficking that can be issued are actually being issued. Yet, we 

know from State Department figures that tens of thousands of trafficking victims are never identified and given T visas. What can we 

do to improve our ability to identify and distribute T visas to those 

who need them most? 

Mr. Song. 

36

Mr. SONG. I will take that. Regarding my testimony, it primarily 

focused on getting the victims the protections. We can’t identify 

them if they are not coming forward, if we are not running into 

them. For me, what strikes me as so difficult is there are such difficult requirements for people to get benefits under the TVPA. 

I understand why Congress initially drafted some of the language in the TVPA, but I currently believe that it is overly restrictive. There are too many barriers in place. There are four very difficult requirements for trafficking victims to meet in order to get 

T visas and it makes it extremely difficult for them. 

What we need to do is provide protection so that they can have 

the services so that they can be able to cooperate in investigations 

and prosecutions. We are asking them to first cooperate in investigations and prosecutions, and then we might give you the protections or you will get them later. But the situation is they can’t do 

it without some of these protections and services. If we can get 

them the protection and let them know that they are safe and their 

families are safe, then they will come forward and they can help 

us in investigations and prosecutions. 

Senator SCHUMER. Does everyone agree with that? T visa requirements should be loosened a little bit? 

Mr. SHELBY. Senator, may I? 

Senator SCHUMER. Yes. 

Mr. SHELBY. While I certainly agree that we should encourage 

and do everything that we can to encourage the victims of these 

trafficking offenses to come forward, I think your question really is 

how do we get more T visas into the hands of the victims. That is 

the same question that we face on the law enforcement side about 

what can we do to encourage victims to come forward. 

I am convinced that if they come forward and if we are able to 

identify who they are, the T visas will follow because it is in the 

best interest of the individual victim, and ultimately the prosecution, to have those individuals ready and available to testify. 

The problem is getting the victims to come forward or having 

some independent party identify them as victims in the first place. 

That is why I believe that this concept of educating the local, State 

and our Federal counterparts in what to look for when they inevitably run across individuals whom they may first view as isolated 

victims, but are, in fact, victims of a trafficking offense—basically, 

human slaves—that educational component is essential to this. I 

am convinced that once those people are identified, we will go 

through the process, as we have on 500-plus occasions, to get them 

the visa to stay here and help us with the prosecution. 

Senator SCHUMER. Mr. Song is saying that one of the things that 

holds people back from coming forward is the requirements in the 

T visa. You believe it is other things, the obvious kinds of things? 

Mr. SHELBY. Yes, sir. I believe it is the same things that hold 

any person, even a voluntary smugglee, from coming forward if 

they are victimized in another way in the United States after their 

smuggling has been successful. They don’t want to run the risk of 

being deported. 

Senator SCHUMER. Professor Mattar. 

Mr. MATTAR. I just want to make the case that I am not sure 

that we need to reexamine the Act itself or the reauthorization Act. 

37

I think what we should do is interpret the Act in a way which is 

friendly to the victim. Why? Because the Act never really required 

the victim to come forward and testify. 

Senator SCHUMER. Right. 

Mr. MATTAR. The Act says, well, a victim has to come forward 

and show willingness to comply with a reasonable request in the 

prosecution or in the investigation of a case of trafficking. In fact, 

under the reauthorization Act, no longer is a victim required to go 

to a Federal law enforcement official; a State official is enough. 

Under the reauthorization Act, a child who is under 18 does not 

even have to cooperate at all. So I think it is a matter of interpretation, not a matter of a problem with the Act itself. 

Senator SCHUMER. Yes, Ms. Patten. 

Ms. PATTEN. I would just add that I think we are talking about 

two different kinds of outreach here, and that goes to the question 

of how do we find more cases. One is conducting outreach to those 

in law enforcement, State and local prosecution, and then the 

broader community who can identify trafficking cases that are existing in their community. And that is obviously very important, in 

large measure for the reason you alluded to in your testimony that 

we have had to overcome a certain amount of disbelief, I think, 

that modern-day slavery exists here in the United States. 

But, secondly, also is the question that Mr. Song raised about 

how do we reach the victims themselves so that they feel protected 

and safe enough to come forward. And the ease, or lack thereof, 

with which they can access protections is certainly going to be part 

of that. 

This is a difficult challenge, but the victims will need to understand that trafficking and slavery are illegal in this country and 

that they have legal rights, and that they can access those protections particularly through trusted community-based organizations 

whom they can go to who can help explain to them how this works. 

Senator SCHUMER. Anyone else on that? Mr. Song, go ahead. 

Mr. SONG. I just have a short response. While I understand the 

argument for the reinterpretation of the Act, I will just give you 

one example. There is an unintended consequence by the law enforcement cooperation requirement. When an immigrant is detained and put into proceedings, and most trafficking victims have 

no defense to removal, they are actually required to cooperate with 

law enforcement, whether they want to willingly, or they will be 

deported back to their country, to their traffickers, to serious injury 

or death. 

What is perverted or strange about that is that this is exactly 

what the traffickers threaten against them when they say, if you 

don’t work for me, if you don’t stay for me, I am going to send you 

back to your home country where we are going to have our way 

with you or your family. 

This is an unintended consequence, but if they are put in detention and removal proceedings, DHS has no choice but to remove 

them from the country if they have no defense to their deportation. 

So these victims are placed in this situation where they are literally being legally coerced into cooperating with law enforcement 

and it is simply not necessary. 

38

You can imagine, if you have been enslaved and raped and beaten by people, you are going to be the first one to line up to want 

to testify and want to investigate and prosecute somebody. We 

don’t need to coerce them. We don’t need to make it a requirement 

that they cooperate. These people want to; they just need to be safe 

and they need to be protected first. So I respectfully disagree and 

still believe that there are certain problems with the Act, such as 

that one. 

Senator SCHUMER. Anyone else? 

Well, I want to thank all of you for your testimony on a very important subject that we have to focus more on. 

I am going to ask unanimous consent, which means me, I guess, 

that the record be open for one week for written questions to be 

submitted to our witnesses. 

Thank you. The hearing is adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 4:11 p.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.] 

[Questions and answers and submissions for the record follow.]

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