U.S. Department of Justice 

Washington, D.C. 20530 

Report to Congress

from Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales

on U.S. Government Efforts to Combat

Trafficking in Persons in

Fiscal Year 2004

July 2005 
Table of Contents 

I. Introduction ............................................................ 5

II. Benefits and Services Given Domestically to Trafficking Victims . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

A. Department of Health and Human Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

B. Department of Justice ............................................. 12

C. Department of Labor .............................................. 13

D. Legal Services Corporation ......................................... 13

E. Department of Agriculture .......................................... 14

III. Immigration Benefits for Trafficking Victims . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

IV. Investigations and Prosecutions of Trafficking in Persons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

A. Investigations .................................................... 15

B. Prosecutions ..................................................... 17

C. Statistics ........................................................ 19

D. Sentences ....................................................... 22

E. Descriptions of Cases .............................................. 23

F. Human Smuggling and Trafficking Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

V. International Grants ..................................................... 32

VI. Outreach and Training .................................................. 34

A. Domestic Law Enforcement Outreach and Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

B. International Law Enforcement Outreach and Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

C. Department of Health and Human Services Public Information Campaign . . . . 46

D. Training of Non-governmental Organizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

VII. Senior Policy Operating Group on Trafficking in Persons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

VIII. Conclusion ............................................................ 52
ACRONYMS 

AFMLS Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section 

AOUSC Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts 

ATF Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms 

BJA Bureau of Justice Assistance 

BJS Bureau of Justice Statistics 

CEOS Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section 

COPS Community Oriented Policing Services 

DEA Drug Enforcement Administration 

DHS Department of Homeland Security 

DOJ Department of Justice 

DOL Department of Labor 

DOS Department of State 

DSS Diplomatic Security Service 

DSS Domestic Security Section 

ETA Employment and Training Administration 

FBI Federal Bureau of Investigation 

FY Fiscal Year 

HHS Department of Health and Human Services 

HSTC Human Smuggling and Trafficking Center 

HSTU Human Smuggling/Trafficking Unit 

ICE U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement 

ICITAP International Criminal Investigative Training and Assistance Program 

INL Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs 

IOM International Organization for Migration 

IRS Internal Revenue Service 

LSC Legal Services Corporation 

NCMEC National Center for Missing and Exploited Children 

NGO Non-governmental Organization 

NSC National Security Council 

OCRS Organized Crime and Racketeering Section 

OJP Office of Justice Programs 

OIA Office of International Affairs 

3
OPDAT Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development, Assistance, and Training 

ORR Office of Refugee Resettlement 

OVC Office for Victims of Crime 

RLA Resident Legal Advisor 

SECI Southeast European Cooperative Initiative 

SPOG Senior Policy Operating Group 

SSI Supplemental Security Income 

TANF Temporary Assistance for Needy Families 

TIMS Total Information Management System 

TIP Trafficking in Persons 

TVPA Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 

TVPRA Trafficking Victims Protection Re-authorization Act of 2003 

UN United Nations 

URM Unaccompanied Refugee Minors 

USAID United States Agency for International Development 

USDA United States Department of Agriculture 

USMS United States Marshals Service 

VCMOS Violent Crimes and Major Offenders Section 

4
I. Introduction 

People come to America hoping for a better life. And it is a terrible tragedy when anyone comes 

here, only to be forced into a sweatshop, domestic servitude, pornography, or prostitution...This 

trade in human beings brings suffering to the innocent and shame to our country, and we will 

lead the fight against it. 

--President George W. Bush, July 2004 

Trafficking in persons is a regrettably widespread form of modern-day slavery. An 

estimated 600,000 to 800,000 human beings are trafficked across international borders each year. 

Furthermore, between 14,500 and 17,500 victims are trafficked into the United States each year. 

In response, the United States has led the world in the fight against this terrible crime. 

The U.S. government’s fight against modern-day slavery is an Administration priority. 

President George W. Bush addressed the subject in a speech to the United Nations in September 

2003, where he announced a $50 million initiative to combat trafficking around the world. In 

July 2004, President Bush demonstrated his concern for the plight of trafficking victims in the 

United States by speaking at the national conference, Human Trafficking into the United States: 

Rescuing Women and Children from Slavery, held in Tampa, Florida. He said, “America will not 

tolerate slave traders who bring women and children into our country for abuse.” 

The centerpiece of U.S. government efforts is the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 

2000 (TVPA), Pub. L. 106-386, signed into law on October 28, 2000. It enhanced three aspects 

of federal government activity to combat trafficking in persons (TIP): protection, prosecution, 

and prevention. The TVPA provided for a range of new protections and assistance for victims of 

trafficking in persons; it expanded the crimes and enhanced the penalties available to federal 

investigators and prosecutors pursuing traffickers to increase prosecutions; and it expanded U.S. 

activities internationally to prevent victims from being trafficked in the first place. 

Specifically, the TVPA: 

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

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

were refugees; mandated U.S. government protections for victims of trafficking and, 

where applicable, their families; outlined protections from removal, including “T nonimmigrant status” for juvenile victims and for certain trafficking victims who are willing 

to cooperate with law enforcement in the investigation and prosecution of trafficking; and 

allowed T non-immigrant status holders to adjust to permanent resident status; 

· Created new crimes and enhanced penalties for existing crimes, including forced labor, 

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

5
trafficking of children or by force, fraud, or coercion; and unlawful conduct with respect 

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

mandatory restitution and forfeiture; and 

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

trafficking and to strengthen investigation and prosecution of traffickers; created 

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

visitor programs focusing on trafficking in persons. 

The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2003 (TVPRA), Pub. L. 108­

193, signed into law by President Bush on December 19, 2003, reauthorized the TVPA and 

added responsibilities to the U.S. government’s anti-trafficking portfolio. In particular, the 

TVPRA mandated new information campaigns to combat sex tourism, added some refinements 

to the federal criminal law, and created a new civil action that allows trafficking victims to sue 

their traffickers in federal district court. In addition, the TVPRA required a report from the 

Attorney General to be submitted to Congress every year. This report was mandated to provide 

information on the following U.S. government activities to combat trafficking in persons: 

· The number of persons who received benefits or other services under section 107(b) 

of the TVPA in connection with programs or activities funded or administered by the 

Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Secretary of Labor, the Board of the 

Directors of the Legal Services Corporation, and other appropriate federal agencies; 

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

States under TVPA section 107(c)(3); 

· The number of persons who applied for, had been granted, or had been denied T nonimmigrant status or otherwise provided status under section 101(a)(15)(T)(i) of the 

Immigration and Nationality Act (8 USC § 1101(a)(15)(T)(i)); 

· The number of persons who were charged or convicted under one or more of sections 

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

during Fiscal Year 2004, and the sentences imposed against each such person; 

· The amount, recipient, and purpose of each grant issued by any federal agency to 

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

Foreign Assistance Act of 1961; 

· The nature of training conducted pursuant to section 107(c)(4); and 

· The activities undertaken by the Senior Policy Operating Group (SPOG) on 

Trafficking in Persons to carry out its responsibilities under section 105(f) of the 

TVPRA. 

6
This report, the second required under the TVPRA, is submitted to Congress in 

compliance with that directive. Information contained in the report is current as of May 1, 2005. 

II Benefits and Services Given Domestically to Trafficking Victims 

The success of U.S. government efforts to combat trafficking in persons hinges on 

pursuing a victim-centered approach. All U.S. government agencies are therefore committed to 

providing victims access to the services and benefits provided by the TVPA. Because 

government benefits are typically tied to a person’s immigration status, the TVPA created a 

mechanism for allowing certain non-citizens who were trafficking victims access to benefits and 

services from which they might otherwise be barred. The TVPA allows for the “certification” of 

adult victims to receive certain federally-funded or -administered benefits and services, such as 

cash assistance, medical care, food stamps, and housing. Under sections 107(b)(1) and (b)(2) of 

the TVPA, various federal agencies must extend some of their existing benefits to trafficking 

victims and are authorized to provide grants to effectuate such assistance. This section 

chronicles the activities of the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of 

Justice, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Labor, and the Legal Services 

Corporation to implement sections 107(b) and 107(c) of the TVPA.1 

A. Department of Health and Human Services 

1. Certification and Eligibility Letters 

The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) in the Administration for Children and 

Families within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issues certification letters 

to adults, and eligibility letters to minors, who are determined to be victims of a “severe form of 

trafficking in persons” and so that these individuals can qualify under the TVPA for federallyfunded or administered benefits and services to the same extent as refugees. In July 2004, HHS 

entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Departments of Homeland Security and 

Justice to streamline this process. 

The TVPA defines a “severe form of trafficking in persons,” as: (1) sex trafficking in 

1

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

and the Department of Justice’s victim assistance funds are available to alien trafficking victims who are 

trafficked internationally into the United States, as well as to alien victims who are trafficked internally, but not 

to U.S. citizen victims of trafficking. Based on the statutory language and legislative history of the TVPA, 

HHS-funded benefits and services are made available only to assist victims who are “aliens.” Because funds 

were initially limited to post-certification under the TVPA (certain grant funds were expanded by the TVPRA to 

reach pre-certification potential victims in the pre-certification stage), Department of Justice grant moneys have 

focused on the “pre-certification” period of victims, which logically only applies to those victims who need to be 

certified to receive benefits and services, i.e., aliens. In most circumstances, eligible U.S. citizens and refugees 

may receive assistance, such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Medicaid, and food stamps, 

that, absent this law, would otherwise be barred to non-citizen trafficking victims on the basis of their 

immigration status. 

7 
which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person who is 

induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age; or (2) the recruitment, harboring, 

transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, 

fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, 

or slavery. 

In the case of adults, ORR examines whether the victim meets the statutory requirements 

for certification: 

1) The individual is willing to assist in every reasonable way in the investigation and prosecution 

of severe forms of trafficking in persons; and 

2) The individual has made a bona fide application for a visa under section 101(a)(15)(T) of the 

Immigration and Nationality Act that has not been denied; or 

3) The individual is a person whose continued presence in the United States the federal 

government is ensuring in order to effectuate the investigation and prosecution of traffickers. 

ORR issues Certification Letters, which it signs and notarizes, to adults who meet these 

criteria, confirming their status as trafficking victims. The victims can then present the letter to social 

services agencies as proof that they are eligible for federally-funded or -administered programs to the 

same extent as refugees. The letter includes the toll-free ORR “Trafficking Victims Verification” 

telephone number so that the benefit-granting agency can verify the victim’s eligibility. 

Under the TVPA, victims under 18 years of age do not need to meet the statutory 

requirements for certification in order to receive benefits. For these victims, ORR issues Letters 

of Eligibility, similar to the adult certification letters, stating that a child is a victim of a severe 

form of trafficking and is eligible for federally-funded or -administered benefits to the same 

extent as refugees. 

In Fiscal Year 2004, ORR issued 163 letters on behalf Numbers of of victims, of which 144 were certification letters to adults and Certification and 19 were eligibility letters to minors. These certification and Eligibility Letters eligibility letters, combined with the 151 letters issued in Fiscal 

Year 2003, the 99 letters issued in Fiscal Year 2002 and the FY01: 198 198 letters issued in Fiscal Year 2001, bring to 611 the total FY02: 99 

number of letters issued during the first four fiscal years in FY03: 151

FY04: 163

Total: 611 

8
which the program has operated.2 

The Fiscal Year 2004 letters were sent to 

victims or their representatives in 19 states. The Victims who received certification and largest concentrations were in California, Arizona, eligibility letters were located in 19 

Illinois, Texas and New York.3 The beneficiaries 

states and were from numerous foreign of these letters were predominately women (65 countries, mainly Peru, Mexico, and 

percent).

4 The countries of origin for the greatest the Philippines. number of victims were Peru (39 percent), Mexico 

(17 percent), and the Philippines (7 percent).5 

2. ORR Programs 

ORR strives to encourage the participation of certified trafficking victims in existing 

assistance programs for refugees – primarily the Voluntary Agency Matching Grant Program and 

the Refugee Cash and Medical Assistance Program. Of the 163 adults certified as victims in 

Fiscal Year 2004, three elected not to apply for either of these programs, 150 enrolled in the 

Matching Grant Program, and 13 enrolled in the Refugee Cash and Medical Assistance Program. 

The Voluntary Agency Matching Grant Program is a Congressionally-funded alternative 

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

two dollars in ORR funds with one dollar in cash and in-kind contributions (a minimum of 20 

percent of their match must be in cash). The program goal is to help refugees attain selfsufficiency within four months of the date of eligibility without accessing public assistance. The 

participating non-governmental organizations (NGOs) provide intensive case management and 

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

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

adjustment services. In order enroll in this program, victims must obtain employment 

authorization from U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE) within the Department of 

Homeland Security (DHS). Some trafficking victims in the Voluntary Matching Grant Program 

may also be eligible to receive other benefits (such as food stamps, Medicaid, or Refugee 

Medical Assistance). 

The Refugee Cash and Medical Assistance Program provides transitional assistance for 

up to eight months from the date of certification. This program is designed to provide temporary 

2

 A single case in 2001, involving Vietnamese garment workers, resulted in 206 victims, most of whom received

certification in Fiscal Year 2001. 3

 In Fiscal Year 2003, ORR issued letters to benefit offices in 18 states, of which the largest concentrations were

to Texas, New York, Oklahoma and California. 4

 In Fiscal Year 2003, 46 percent of the victims were female. 5

 In Fiscal Year 2003, victims were primarily from India (38 percent), Vietnam (11 percent), and Mexico (9

percent).

9 
assistance to those refugees who are not eligible for other federal benefits such as Temporary 

Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Medicaid, or Supplemental Security Income (SSI). 

Of the 19 minor victims on whose behalf ORR issued letters of eligibility in 2004, 13 are 

residing with guardians and are not receiving public benefits. The remaining six minor victims 

were enrolled into ORR’s Unaccompanied Refugee Minors (URM) program. The URM program 

offers specialized resettlement and foster care services for unaccompanied refugee minors. As 

appropriate to their developmental needs and their cultural, linguistic, and religious backgrounds, 

the URM program places minors into foster care, group homes, or independent living 

arrangements. The program provides the victims with comprehensive care including medical, 

mental health, education, case management, independent living skills, job skills training, 

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

3. Discretionary Grants 

HHS has utilized discretionary grants to create a network of service organizations 

available to assist victims of a severe form of trafficking. 

Since the inception of HHS’s Human Trafficking Program in Fiscal Year 2001, ORR has 

awarded discretionary grants to 28 organizations. The Fiscal Year 2001 grants provided $1.25 

million in funding to eight organizations for an eighteen-month period that ended in March 2003. 

The purpose of these grants was to assist victims and promote awareness of the trafficking issue 

by hosting training and media activities. In Fiscal Years 2002 and 2003, all trafficking grant 

awards were for a one-year period, renewable annually for up to three years. ORR awarded the 

grants in two categories. 

Category One grants fund projects that raise awareness of trafficking in persons and/or 

provide case management and direct services to victims.6 Category One grant projects include 

establishing nationwide networks of anti-trafficking organizations and nationwide networks of 

providers of services to victims of trafficking. Additional Category One projects established 

regional anti-trafficking networks in Chicago; Florida; Georgia; Hawaii; Kansas; Los Angeles; 

the Mid-Atlantic states; New York City; New Jersey; Orange County, California; Portland, 

Oregon; San Diego, and San Francisco. 

Category Two grants fund technical assistance projects to provide training and 

technical expertise to law enforcement agencies, social service providers, faith-based 

6 Under the TVPA as originally enacted, grantees could not use HHS-funded assistance for pre-certified adult 

victims of trafficking. Depending on case circumstances, the prohibition frequently created a gap in federal 

assistance between the time the victim was identified (whether by law enforcement or by NGOs) and the time of 

certification. During that time period, grantees refrained from using HHS funds to assist the victims and, instead, 

attempted to identify other sources of funds. In the case of nonentitlement programs, the TVPRA authorized HHS 

to provide benefits and services to assist potential victims in achieving certification. Such funding may also be used 

to assist minor dependent children of victims or of potential victims of trafficking. 

10 
communities, and professional associations. In Fiscal Year 2002, ORR awarded 

approximately $3.37 million in grants to 14 organizations throughout the United States. 

In Fiscal Year 2003, ORR awarded approximately $3.48 million to 15 organizations. All 

Fiscal Year 2003 grants were Category One grants. 

In Fiscal Year 2004, ORR awarded approximately $3.37 million in second-year 

continuation grants to the 14 organizations that originally received grant awards in Fiscal Year 

2002. Ten of these groups received Category One grants, and the remaining four received 

Category Two grants. In addition, ORR awarded approximately $3.48 million in third-year 

continuation grants to the 15 organizations originally awarded grants in Fiscal Year 2003. All 

these grants are for Category One. 

Examples of Organizations Funded by ORR 

Center for Multicultural Human Services, Falls Church, VA

County of Los Angeles, Office of Refugee Assistance

Crisis House, Inc., El Cajon, CA

End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography, and Trafficking of

Children for Sexual Purposes, New York, NY

International Institute of New Jersey

International Rescue Committee, Resettlement Department

New York Association for New Americans

Nihonmachi Legal Outreach, San Francisco, CA

Pacific Gateway Center, Honolulu, HI

Refugee Women’s Alliance, Seattle, WA

Refugee Women’s Network, Decatur, GA

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

A full list of the organizations awarded grants is contained in Appendix 1. 

4. State-Administered Programs 

State and local benefit offices are not statutorily required to report information on benefits 

and services accessed by trafficking victims, though ORR strongly encourages benefit offices to 

report. ORR cannot, therefore, provide a comprehensive assessment of services and benefits 

accessed by trafficking victims. 

11
 

B. Department of Justice 

In Fiscal Year 2003, the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) within the Department of 

Justice (DOJ) awarded funding to 11 NGOs to provide trafficking victims with comprehensive or 

specialized services. Comprehensive services grants provide direct services to meet the broad 

range of needs of trafficking victims, including the following services: case management; legal 

advocacy; housing; medical, dental, and mental health services; and access to job skills training, 

education, and other social services. Supplemental/specialized services support an organization’s 

capacity to deploy a single service, for example emergency housing or mental health assessment 

and crisis intervention, as needed, within a broad geographic area. From January through 

December 2004 (OVC’s operating time-frame), OVC awarded 10 additional grants, including 

one to a state agency, to expand provision of comprehensive services to victims of human 

trafficking. One of these was awarded to the Salvation Army on January 7, 2005, but with a 

project period beginning in December 2004. In total, at the end of 2004, OVC was administering 

18 comprehensive services grants, three supplemental/specialized services grants, and one 

technical assistance grant. In addition, OVC made one award to an NGO to provide training, 

technical assistance, and other professional support to the other OVC grant funded programs that 

serve trafficking victims. OVC maintains a matrix of its grantees on its website, 

www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ovc/help/traffickingmatrix.htm. 

OVC-funded services are primarily focused on meeting the acute and emergency needs of 

trafficking victims before they are certified and subsequently eligible for federally-funded or 

federally-administered benefits. The period between being rescued and receiving certification, 

however, is the time when victims are most vulnerable and typically have a host of needs that 

includes housing, clothing, and food; medical, dental, and psychological care; legal assistance 

and immigration advocacy; and interpretation services; however, few organization or 

communities have the resources to provide or fund these services. The OVC grant program helps 

communities fill this critical service gap and, in the process, supports victims’ abilities to 

cooperate with law enforcement. 

During 2004, these OVC grantees provided services to 357 victims of human trafficking. 

OVC grantees have served a total of 557 victims of human trafficking since the inception of the 

program in January 2003. During 2004, OVC grantees provided training on trafficking to 17,285 

law enforcement officials, prosecutors, civil attorneys, social service providers, physicians, 

members of the clergy, teachers, and other members of their communities. Since the inception of 

the program in January 2003, OVC grantees have trained 24,600 individuals. Training topics 

have included the dynamics of trafficking, the legal definition of trafficking under the TVPA, 

legal rights and services for trafficking victims, and cultural considerations in serving these 

victims. 

In addition, OJP and its Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) awarded $7,674,614 to 18 

local communities to form law enforcement task forces to address the problem of human 

12
trafficking and rescue its victims. These 18 communities were among those identified by the 

Department’s Civil Rights Division as having a high number of trafficking operations and 

victims. These local law enforcement task forces will join forces with victim service providers, 

as well as with the local U.S. Attorneys, and other federal agencies, including ICE, to identify 

and rescue trafficking victims, including women and children. Applicants were specifically 

encouraged to partner with service providers supported by existing grants from OVC and ORR. 

Recipients of Task Force Grants 

American Samoa, Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Cobb County (Georgia), Collier 

County (Florida), State of Connecticut, District of Columbia, El Paso, 

Harris County (Texas), State of Hawaii, Los Angeles, Miami, Nassau 

County (New York), State of New Jersey, Oakland, Phoenix, San Diego 

County, San Francisco, San Jose, Suffolk County (New York), Seattle 

Information on OJP grantees in Fiscal Year 2004 is included in Appendix 1. 

C. Department of Labor 

After passage of the TVPA, the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) of the 

Department of Labor (DOL) sent an advisory to its field offices outlining the provisions of the 

TVPA and providing guidance on how the One-Stop delivery system can offer assistance to 

trafficking victims. The services provided at ETA “One-Stop Career Centers” – notably job 

search assistance, career counseling, and occupational skills training – may be of significant 

value to trafficking victims. Any such services are provided directly by state and local grantees 

to trafficking victims; ETA does not collect information on the extent to which such services are 

offered to or utilized by trafficking victims. ETA’s Job Corps program also may provide useful 

job training opportunities. 

D. Legal Services Corporation 

The Legal Services Corporation (LSC) is a private, non-profit corporation established by 

Congress which funds legal aid programs around the nation to help poor Americans gain access 

to the civil justice system. Under section 107(b) of the TVPA, LSC must make legal assistance 

available to trafficking victims, who often need assistance with immigration and other matters. 

Following enactment of the TVPA, the LSC issued a guidance to all LSC program directors 

describing the LSC’s obligations to provide legal services to trafficking victims. (see 

<http://www.lsc.gov/foia/pl/02-5.htm>) 

In Fiscal Year 2004, eight LSC grantees assisted 170 trafficking victims. (See chart.) 

13
LSC Grantees # of Persons 

Served 

Florida Rural Legal Services 13 

South Carolina Centers for Equal Justice 1 

Colorado Legal Services 1 

Southern Arizona Legal Aid 1 

Nassau/Suffolk Law Services Committee (New 

York)

 10 

Legal Aid Bureau of Maryland 5 

Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma 6 

Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles 133 

TOTAL 170 

E. Department of Agriculture 

Trafficking victims are eligible to receive food stamps through the Food and Nutrition 

Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Although USDA does not have a data 

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

who receive food stamp benefits as refugees under the TVPA, a rough estimate of the benefits 

issued can be obtained by multiplying the number of certification letters ORR issued in Fiscal 

Year 2004 by the average monthly per person food stamp benefit issued in Fiscal Year 2004 

($86.04). According to a 1999 Food and Nutrition Service study, the time period of participation 

for first time participants is nine months. Thus, the average per-person benefit for victims of 

trafficking would be $774.36. With 162 victims certified or declared eligible in Fiscal Year 

2004, in rounded numbers, this would equate to a little more than $125,000 in food stamp 

benefits distributed in Fiscal Year 2004. 

III. Immigration Benefits Given to Trafficking Victims: Continued Presence and T 

Non-immigrant Status 

Two immigration benefits are available to trafficking victims through the TVPA. First, 

victims may be authorized “continued presence” to remain temporarily in the United States if 

federal law enforcement officials determine that they are potential witnesses to trafficking and 

submit a request on their behalf to DHS. Second, victims may also petition U.S. Citizenship and 

Immigration Services within DHS to receive T non-immigrant status, also known as a “T visa,” a 

14
status available to victims who have complied with reasonable requests for assistance in the 

investigation or prosecution of acts of trafficking. Victims who receive T non-immigrant status 

may remain in the United States for three years and then may apply for lawful permanent 

residency subject to certain statutory criteria. 

In Fiscal Year 2004, the DHS’s Vermont 

Service Center received 520 applications for T Applications for T-Visas in FY04 

non-immigrant status, granted 136 and denied 

292, and had 92 pending at the end of the fiscal 

year. Received: 520 

Granted: 136 

As of September 30, 2004, DHS had Denied: 292 

granted 484 continued presence requests and, as Pending: 92 

of November 30, 2004, had received 1,015 T 

non-immigrant status applications, 454 of which 

resulted in T non-immigrant status grants, 286 of 

which were denied, and the remaining of which 

were pending. Many trafficking victims who received continued presence later applied for and 

received T non-immigrant status; therefore, the total of 686 trafficking victims served over the 

life of this program includes victims who have received both types of benefits. 

Once a trafficking victim has held T non-immigrant status for three years, he or she may 

apply to adjust status; the first T non-immigrant status recipients will become eligible to adjust 

status beginning in 2005. 

IV. Investigations and Prosecutions of Trafficking in Persons 

A. Investigations 

Investigations of trafficking in persons are most often undertaken by Federal Bureau of 

Investigation (FBI) and ICE agents. FBI agents investigate the spectrum of federal criminal civil 

rights violations, crimes against children, and organized crime. ICE agents focus on border 

security and immigration enforcement in addressing human trafficking, both domestically and 

internationally. The responsibility for the domestic enforcement of the TVPA is located in the 

FBI’s Civil Rights Unit at FBI Headquarters and in field offices, as well as in the Human 

Smuggling/Trafficking Unit (HSTU) at ICE headquarters and in its Special Agent-in-Charge 

field offices. International enforcement of the TVPA is supported by FBI Legal Attaches and 

ICE’s Foreign Attaches at U.S. embassies. 

In addition, FBI agents in the Civil Rights Unit coordinate with agents in the Organized 

Crime and Crimes Against Children Units to ensure that smuggling cases are identified 

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

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

15
trafficking aspects of Internet crimes against children or sex tourism investigations are examined. 

Similarly, ICE financial investigative divisions systematically follow the trail of illicit money of 

the organizations that traffick in humans. ICE’s asset identification groups at each regional 

office target the finances and assets of trafficking organizations and focus on civil asset 

forfeiture. In addition, ICE’s Law Enforcement Support Center serves as a national enforcement 

operations and intelligence center that provides timely information on the status and identities of 

aliens, allowing ICE to rapidly arrest and maintain custody of potential traffickers under 

immigration charges while further criminal investigations are being completed. In addition, the 

ICE Cyber Crime Center focuses on child exploitation investigations, including those under the 

Prosecutorial Remedies and Other Tools to end the Exploitation of Children Today (PROTECT) 

Act of 2003. ICE also has 305 collateral-duty ICE victim-witness coordinators in the Office of 

Investigation and Detention and Removals, as well as the Federal Protective Service. Also, the 

ICE Victim-Witness Assistance Program has a Federal Crime Victim Assistance Fund for 

Victims of Trafficking that is available to assist with emergency services for victims of slavery, 

peonage, involuntary servitude and trafficking. The fund is provided by DOJ’s Office for 

Victims of Crime to assist trafficking victims and their families when local resources are not 

available. 

In June 2004, the FBI, along with other law enforcement agencies, began an Involuntary 

Servitude and Slavery/Trafficking in Persons Initiative for aggressive investigation and 

coordination. Likewise, in the Innocence Lost Initiative, the Violent Crimes and Major 

Offenders Section (VCMOS) of the FBI, in partnership with the Child Exploitation and 

Obscenity Section (CEOS) of DOJ’s Criminal Division and the National Center for Missing and 

Exploited Children (NCMEC), address the growing problem of children forced into prostitution 

in the United States. The FBI identified 14 field offices located in areas where there is a high 

incidence of prostituted children and asked each of these offices to establish a task force to 

address the problem. VCMOS also asked the remaining field offices to assess whether the 

localities they serve have a substantial child prostitution problem. The original 14 cities 

identified as part of the initiative were Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Las Vegas, Los 

Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, San Diego, San Francisco, St. Louis, Tampa, and 

Washington D.C. Additional cities have been added as interest and potential cases have 

developed, including Atlantic City, Boston, Cleveland, Denver, Harrisburg, Houston, 

Indianapolis, Orlando, and Portland (OR). Federal law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, and 

social service providers from each city were brought to NCMEC, where the group from each city 

was trained together in order to cultivate cooperation, partnership and an effective integration 

between the critical enforcement entities in each city. 

The modern anti-trafficking investigative and prosecution model strives for interagency 

cooperation to bring the specialties of each agency to bear on these multi-faceted, complex, and 

labor-intensive criminal cases. FBI and ICE agents and victim-witness staff have exhibited a 

highly professional ability to work together as teams on trafficking cases. Agents from the State 

Department’s Diplomatic Security Service (DSS), both in the United States and abroad, are 

playing a key and expanding role in trafficking investigations since the passage of the TVPA. As 

16
needed, agents from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS); Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and 

Firearms (ATF); U.S. Marshals Service (USMS); and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) 

have been incorporated into investigative teams, as have state and local law enforcement, as 

necessary. 

Law enforcement efforts to investigate trafficking in persons also include those of DOL, 

which continues to increase its emphasis on compliance with labor standards laws, such as the 

Fair Labor Standards Act and Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act, in lowwage industries like garment manufacturing and agriculture. DOL civil law enforcement 

responsibilities relating to trafficking are carried out by the Wage and Hour Division with the 

support of the Office of the Solicitor. The Wage and Hour Division is broadening its 

enforcement strategy to focus on additional services and establishments in low-wage industries, 

including healthcare services, day-care facilities, restaurants, guard services, janitorial services, 

hotels and motels, and temporary help agencies. These include a substantial concentration of 

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

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

conditions and to talk to victims. These investigators collaborate closely with DOJ, notably 

through the federal Trafficking in Persons and Worker Exploitation Task Force (TPWETF), 

which coordinates trafficking investigations. Additionally, criminal enforcement agents from 

DOL’s Office of the Inspector General have worked hand-in-hand with their FBI and ICE 

counterparts on a growing number of criminal investigations. 

Finally, state and local police officers handle a significant number of child sex trafficking 

investigations. These officers are often most familiar with the locations, victims, and 

perpetrators of these crimes in their jurisdictions and provide critical facts and observations that 

can lead to larger interstate or international investigations. 

B. Prosecutions 

The Criminal Section of DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, in collaboration with U.S. 

Attorneys’ Offices nationwide, has principal responsibility for prosecuting human trafficking 

crimes, except for cases involving trafficking in children, which is a specialization of the Child 

Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) of the Criminal Division. Since its creation in 1957, 

the Civil Rights Division, at first relying on general civil rights statutes that were previously 

enforced by the U.S. Attorneys, has investigated and prosecuted cases of exploitation in which 

force and threats of force were used to compel persons to work involuntarily, or to engage in 

prostitution or other sexual exploitation. The Criminal Section, as the locus of the Department’s 

anti-trafficking activities, maintains a TPWETF complaint line (1-888-428-7581) that has been 

responsible for almost half of the trafficking investigations opened since its inception, and has 

resulted in the apprehension and conviction of 32 traffickers.

7 

7 The TPWETF complaint line differs from the Rescue and Restore hotline funded by HHS (described below) in that 

it provides a mechanism for victims and service providers to report trafficking cases when they are ready. The staffs 

of each complaint line, however, maintain close contact with the goal of a seamless and effective response to the 

17
Within DOJ’s Criminal Division, CEOS historically has taken a leading role in the 

prosecution of cases of trafficking of minors and sex tourism. Child sex tourism is a crime that 

involves individuals traveling to foreign countries to engage in sexual acts with children, who are 

often victims of trafficking. In April 2003, the United States strengthened its ability to fight sex 

tourism through the passage of the PROTECT Act and the TVPRA. These laws broaden 

statutory prohibitions against sex tourism in several ways, increase the penalties for statutory 

violations, and provide added protections for victims. Among other things, the PROTECT Act 

enhances the ability to prosecute sex tourism by broadening the sex tourism statute's coverage to 

include persons coming to the United States to engage in illicit sexual activity as well as persons 

who operate child sex tours, and making it a crime to engage in illicit sexual conduct while 

traveling in foreign commerce, regardless of whether that was the intended purpose of the travel. 

A number of other DOJ components within the Criminal Division contribute to 

prosecutions of traffickers as well. The Organized Crime and Racketeering Section (OCRS) has 

moved to ensure that its targeting of organized crime networks includes international trafficking 

networks. In addition, the Section has detailed one attorney on a full-time basis to the Human 

Smuggling and Trafficking Center (described in detail below). The person detailed will ensure 

that the Criminal Division’s efforts to target transnational trafficking enterprises are informed by 

the best intelligence and information. OCRS also works closely with the many Organized Crime 

and Racketeering Strike Forces throughout the country. In Philadelphia, San Francisco, and 

Houston, the U.S. Attorneys have assigned their Strike Forces the primary responsibility for 

prosecuting trafficking cases in their jurisdictions. 

The Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section (AFMLS) provides the critical 

expertise needed to identify, seize, and forfeit the ill-gotten gains of traffickers. In particular, 

AFMLS has the highly technical expertise necessary when dealing with hidden and foreign 

assets. Section attorneys oversee asset forfeiture and money laundering training and conduct 

training for federal prosecutors, investigating agents, and law enforcement personnel both 

domestically and worldwide. 

The Domestic Security Section (DSS) enforces federal criminal laws relating to 

immigration-related offenses, in which the line between alien smuggling and trafficking in 

persons is not always clear. For example, during the course of an investigation of a suspected 

alien smuggling network, investigators may see a pattern emerge involving the movement of 

small groups of young women as part of larger, more diverse groups of smuggled migrants. The 

ultimate destinations and fates of the migrants, including the subgroups, may not be readily 

apparent. In other cases, smuggled migrants may become trafficking victims after they have 

crossed our borders if they cannot pay their smuggling fees. Again, the ultimate fate of the 

migrant is not apparent at the border. Efforts to prevent alien smuggling can therefore have an 

important impact on anti-trafficking efforts, although it may never be known that a trafficking 

crime was prevented from turning to a trafficking crime. Additionally, by systematically 

identifying, targeting, and dismantling established smuggling networks, the DSS makes it more 

various needs of the victims. 

18
difficult and riskier for traffickers to get their victims into the United States. Finally, the alien 

smuggling and document fraud statutes allow DOJ to prosecute and put out of business targets 

suspected of involvement in trafficking, but against whom there is an insufficient quantum of 

admissible evidence to charge them with trafficking. 

The DSS also co-chairs the Interagency Working Group on Smuggling and Trafficking, a 

subgroup of the NSC’s International Organized Crime Policy Coordinating Council. Among 

other things, the Interagency Working Group assists in coordinating Administration efforts to 

dismantle significant international smuggling and trafficking organizations. 

The Office of International Affairs (OIA) is the link between federal, state, and local antitrafficking efforts and foreign prosecution and judicial authorities. All incoming and outgoing 

requests to obtain evidence from another country come through this office, including letters 

rogatory (requests for service of process) and Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty requests. OIA also 

processes all extradition requests, and in some cases fugitives are deported or expelled to waiting 

U.S. Marshals. OIA, working with the Department of State (DOS), also engages in the 

negotiation of new treaties, conventions, and other agreements on international criminal matters. 

Furthermore, experienced OIA attorneys participate in a number of expert groups established 

under the auspices of the UN and other international organizations to combat a variety of 

international law enforcement problems including organized crime, migrant smuggling, and 

trafficking in persons. OIA’s most significant contribution to U.S. anti-trafficking efforts has 

been to assist in gathering evidence from abroad and to assist foreign prosecutors in gathering 

evidence located in the U.S. For example, in the Carreto case (described in more detail below) 

OIA helped secure testimony, as well as documentary and physical evidence, gathered by 

Mexican authorities in their investigations of the Carretos transnational operation. Similarly, 

OIA secured evidence and testimony from Russia in support of a federal prosecution of a 

defendant in California accused of trafficking her niece into the United States and forcing her to 

be used in prostitution. In another case, OIA assisted a European country investigating a 

trafficking scheme involving Europe and Eastern Europe. DOJ sent to that country evidence 

obtained pursuant to searches in the United States of locations where the targets were believed to 

have stored potential evidence of their crimes. 

C. Statistics 

In the past four fiscal years (2001-2004), DOJ has 

! initiated more than three times the number of investigations (340 vs. 106) 

! filed almost four times as many cases (62 vs. 16) 

! charged more than twice as many defendants (170 vs. 72), and 

! doubled the number of defendants convicted (120 vs. 59) 

19
as in the prior four-year period.8

 All Trafficking Prosecutions 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04

 Investigations Initiated 6 18 18 64 63 65 82 130

 Cases Filed

 Total 5 2 6 3 10 10 13 29

 Sex 0 1 2 3 4 7 10 26

 Defendants Charged

 Total 29 19 19 5 38 41 32 59

 Sex 0 16 8 5 26 27 26 52

 Convictions

 Total 11 25 13 10 23 28 26 43

 Sex 4 4 5 7 15 23 21 40 

8

These figures include cases brought under the Involuntary Servitude (Section 1584) or Forced Labor (Section 1589) 

statutes, which also cover non-commercial sexual exploitation, and cases brought under Section 1591(Sex 

Trafficking), which is limited to commercial sexual exploitation. 

20 
In Fiscal Year 2004, DOJ filed 29 human 

trafficking cases, almost equaling the 33 

total that were filed in the three previous 

years combined. 

In Fiscal Year 2004, DOJ initiated 

prosecutions against 59 traffickers, the 

highest number ever prosecuted in a 

single year. More than half (32) of those 

defendants were charged with violations 

created by the TVPA, and all but one of 

those cases involved sexual exploitation. 

(See chart on next page) 

21 

In Fiscal Year 2004, DOJ obtained a 

record number of convictions against 43 

traffickers, the highest number ever 

obtained in a single year. 
The following chart lists the numbers of defendants charged, prosecuted, and convicted 

of trafficking offenses under the TVPA alone during Fiscal Year 2004 and prior fiscal years. 

(Defendants charged in Fiscal Year 2004 with a trafficking offense are not necessarily the same 

defendants convicted and sentenced in Fiscal Year 2004.) 

TVPA Prosecutions 01 02 03 04 

Total Cases Filed 5 7 10 12

 Sex (subset of total) 2 5 8 11 

Total Defendants Charged 11 21 25 32

 Sex (subset of total) 6 13 21 27 

Total Convictions 5 6 19 24

 Sex (subset of total) 3 6 14 24 

In addition to these trafficking cases, since the passage of the PROTECT Act, there 

have been roughly 60 sex tourism investigations (many still pending), 27 sex tourism 

indictments and 16 convictions (although these indictments and convictions reflect conduct that 

occurred both before and after the passage of the PROTECT Act). Descriptions of sex tourism 

cases prosecuted in 2004 are included in the section below. 

D. Sentences 

In order to present data regarding sentences, the DOJ’s Bureau of Justice Statistics 

reviewed the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AOUSC) criminal case database9

 to 

preliminarily calculate average sentence length for cases completed in Fiscal Year 2004 that 

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

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

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

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

9 Two groups of data were used from the AOUSC criminal master file to complete this report’s requirements: 

defendants in criminal cases filed and defendants in criminal cases concluded. The first group describes the number 

of defendants in criminal cases filed in Fiscal Year 2004, which includes the filing of an indictment, information, 

complaint or other significant paper against a defendant in U.S. district court. The second group describes the 

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

imposed in Fiscal Year 2004 Because of the time it takes to process a case, a defendant appearing in the "case filed" 

data group does not necessarily appear in the “case adjudicated” data group. Up to five filing offenses are reported 

per defendant. 

22 
furtherance of trafficking), and 1594 (general provisions). This calculation differs from the 

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

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

AOUSC database search was unable to determine sentences in trafficking prosecutions in 

which defendants pleaded guilty to non-trafficking offenses such as immigration violations or 

visa fraud. In addition, the AOUSC database chronicles only the top five offenses charged, and 

not the universe of charges brought. 

Based on the AOUSC database search, in Fiscal Year 2004, there were 29 defendants in 

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

Fiscal Year 2004 there were 18 defendants in cases concluded where a trafficking statute was 

indicated. All 18 defendants were convicted and, of these, 14 received a prison term and four 

received probation. The average prison term for the 14 defendants was 86 months and prison 

terms ranged from 27 months to 168 months (specifically, one with 27 months, one with 41 

months, two with 60 months, one with 63 months, two with 70 months, one with 96 months, 

two with 97 months, one with 108 months, one with 120 months, one with 121 months, and one 

with 168 months). Two defendants received a probation term of 12 months and one defendant 

received 36 months of probation (information on the probation term of the fourth defendant 

receiving probation is not available). 

E. Descriptions of Cases 

The following are summaries of trafficking and sex tourism cases prosecuted by the 

Department of Justice in Fiscal Year 2004. 

United States v. Kang, et al. (New York). Seven defendants, including a Korean couple 

named the Kangs and two DHS employees, were charged with violating the TVPA and other 

statutes. The Kangs lured young women from South Korea to New York City with promises of 

jobs as hostesses in their nightclub, but upon their arrival subjected them to rapes and physical 

abuse and attempted to force them into commercial sexual exploitation. After the victims 

reported the abuse, the two DHS employees, at the behest of the defendants, tried to obstruct the 

investigation by arranging for the victims to leave the country. One defendant, a Korean 

immigrant, pleaded guilty in September 2004 to obstructing justice for attempting to conceal 

business records and other documents from the bar run by the Kangs. Sentence for that 

defendant is pending. Trial for the remaining defendants is scheduled for October 31, 2005. 

United States v. Roberts (Florida). A police patrolman in Hollywood, Florida was 

charged with sex trafficking of children and coercion or enticement of a female into prostitution. 

He was arrested in a sting after going to a Miami hotel thinking that he was about to meet two 

children brought to the United States to have sex with him. He was convicted at trial in January 

2005 on the sex trafficking charge and acquitted on the other violation and was sentenced in 

April 2005 to 37 months in prison. 

23
United States v. Domingo Gonzalez-Garcia, United States v. Gonzalez-Garcia, and 

United States v. Romero-Gonzalez (New Jersey). In New Jersey, three Mexican nationals, 

including a man and his nephew, pleaded guilty to smuggling an alien into the United States for 

the purpose of engaging in prostitution. The defendants admitted that in July 2001 they brought 

the common law wife of the nephew from Mexico to Union City, New Jersey with the intent that 

she work as a prostitute in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere. They were 

sentenced to three years in prison to be followed by three years supervised release and fined 

$1,000. 

United States v. Mubang (Maryland). The defendant, a single mother of young children, 

was charged and convicted at trial of involuntary servitude and harboring an alien. A naturalized 

citizen from Cameroon, she brought a young Cameroonian girl from Africa to the United States 

under false pretenses and then forced the girl to work against her will as a domestic servant. 

Once in the United States, the girl, 11 years old, was forced to care for the defendant's two 

children and to perform all the household chores without pay. The defendant forced the victim to 

comply by beating her with a broken metal broom stick and a cable cord; forbade her from 

speaking to anyone about her living and working conditions; forbade her from leaving the house 

or opening the door to anyone; and interfered with her mail. The defendant had previously 

brought other young girls to the United States using the same false identification. Mubang fled 

the United States prior to sentencing and is now being sought as a fugitive. On February 28, 

2005, she was sentenced in absentia to 210 months in prison. 

United States v. Lopez-Torres (Texas). Defendant Maria Magdalena Lopez-Torres, a 

resident alien and convicted felon living in Austin, Texas, was charged in a three-count 

indictment with the illegal importation of aliens for prostitution and with firearm violations. The 

indictment alleged that on May 22, 2003, she managed or supervised an operation where minor 

females were forced to engage in commercial sex acts. The indictment also charged that LopezTorres possessed a Sako bolt-action rifle that she knew was stolen and, as a convicted felon, was 

prohibited from possessing. The defendant pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 12 years in 

prison. 

United States v. Alugubelli (Florida). The defendant, a naturalized citizen from India, 

brought an Indian woman to the United States in 1997 to care for an invalid son under a visitor’s 

visa that expired in 1998. The victim worked every day for more than five years without a day 

off and was never paid for caring for the child and doing other household chores. The defendant 

told the victim never to leave the house and not to let anyone in the home. When the victim 

asked to go back to India, the defendant told her that she would procure the proper paperwork to 

send her back, but she never did so. The defendant pleaded guilty to one count of harboring an 

illegal alien and was sentenced to 3 years probation. Her husband, a doctor, was not charged, but 

agreed to pretrial diversion requiring him to pay almost $69,564 in unpaid wages as restitution to 

the victim and to pay for her return air fare to India. The U.S. Attorney’s Office made 

arrangements with an international bank and a non-governmental organization in India to assist 

the victim. 

24
United States v. Parsons, United States v. Thomas, United States v. Washington, United 

States v. Williams and Southwell, United States v. White, United States v. Sutherland, United 

States v. Scott, and United States v. Phillips (Oklahoma). Nine defendants were charged in 

connection with “Stormy Nights,” a child prostitution investigation undertaken by the FBI. The 

defendants were charged with sex trafficking of minors and transporting juveniles for use in 

prostitution. Eight defendants pleaded guilty between June 14, 2004 and August 20, 2004, and 

received prison terms ranging up to 210 months, with the average about 100 months. A ninth 

defendant was convicted at trial on January 11, 2005, and his sentencing is pending. 

United States v. Gates and Heyward (District of Columbia). Defendants Gary Gates and 

Tamisha Heyward were charged with violating multiple counts of sex trafficking and 

transportation of persons, including minors, for use in prostitution. Heyward was also charged 

with unlawful possession of a firearm, while Gates was charged with two counts of first degree 

child sexual abuse. The defendants operated a sex-trafficking and Internet prostitution business 

from their home, at times using girls as young as 14 to perform sexual acts. Gates beat the 

women who disobeyed him, and he also sexually assaulted many of the women and provided 

drugs to support some of the women's addictions. Both defendants pleaded guilty. Gates was 

sentenced to 178 months in prison and fined $1,000, and Heyward was sentenced to 108 months 

in prison and fined $5,000. 

United States v. Valle-Maldonado, et al. (California). Four defendants, including a 

Mexican woman who ran a brothel, were convicted on federal conspiracy charges to bring at 

least 12 Mexican women, including 14- and 15-year-old girls, to work as prostitutes in the United 

States. Valle-Maldonado, who pleaded guilty, admitted that she recruited young women, 

including teenagers, in Mexico and paid for them to be smuggled into the United States so they 

could work for her as prostitutes at massage parlors and residences in the Los Angeles area. Two 

other defendants pleaded guilty to conspiracy to import and harbor aliens for the purpose of 

prostitution and importation of aliens for the purpose of prostitution. A fourth defendant was 

found guilty at trial of transporting illegal aliens. On November 1, 2004, defendant ValleMaldonado was sentenced to 54 months in prison and ordered to pay $135,542 in restitution to 

the victims; on August 16, 2004, and September 13, 2004 two other defendants received sixmonth prison terms. Sentencing for the fourth defendant is pending. 

United States v. Adaobi and George Udeozor (Maryland). The defendants, husband and 

wife Nigerian nationals, were charged with smuggling a teenage girl from Nigeria into the United 

States, forcing her to work long hours at their home in Maryland and at the wife's medical 

practice, sexually assaulting and regularly beating her. The husband fled to Nigeria prior to trial 

and is being sought as a fugitive. The wife’s month-long trial resulted in her conviction for 

harboring-for-financial-gain and for conspiring to hold the girl in involuntary servitude. Her 

sentencing is pending. 

United States v. Trakhtenberg, et al. (New Jersey). Three defendants were charged in 

2002 with conspiring to commit forced labor, document fraud, and inducing aliens to unlawfully 

25
enter the United States, for carrying out a scheme to obtain the labor and services of Russian 

women. From the summer of 1999 through August 2002, the defendants induced more than 25 

women to come from Russia to the United States using visa petitions falsely claiming they were 

part of an exchange program with the University of Illinois at Chicago. Instead, the women were 

forced to dance nude up to 10 hours a day, six days a week at strip clubs. In addition, the 

women's passports and return airline tickets were confiscated to make it difficult for them to 

leave. In 2004, two defendants pleaded guilty to conspiring to force Russian women to dance in 

New Jersey strip clubs and are awaiting sentencing. Trial is pending for the remaining defendant. 

In a related case brought in 2004 in the Southern District of New York, one defendant was 

charged and subsequently pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit extortion against another 

Russian woman he had prostituted, who was told she had to pay $5,000 when she wanted to quit. 

When the woman failed to pay the demanded sum, the defendant arranged for a conspirator to 

contact the woman and threaten her family with physical harm. He was sentenced in that related 

case on March 10, 2005, to 42 months in prison, to be followed by three years supervised release, 

and to pay $10,000 restitution. 

United States v. Trisanti and Nasution (California). In 2003, Mariska Trisanti, an 

Indonesian national, was indicted on charges of involuntary servitude, visa fraud, and harboring 

undocumented women who were forced to work as live-in domestic workers in her home. 

Trisanti's husband, Herri Nasution, was also charged with harboring illegal aliens. Trisanti used 

threats and physical violence to force the young Indonesian women to work against their will, 

often from early in the morning until very late at night. Trisanti pleaded guilty to involuntary 

servitude and was sentenced on March 4, 2005, to 46 months in prison and ordered to pay 

restitution to the victims. 

United States v. Carreto, et al. and United States v. Carreto Reyes (New York). As the 

result of an investigation based initially upon information from the U.S. Embassy in Mexico, 

eight defendants have been charged with forced labor and organizing and operating a trafficking 

ring that smuggled Mexican women and girls into the United States and then forced them into 

commercial sexual exploitation in Queens and Brooklyn. The defendants, most of whom are 

related to each other, come from the same small town in south-central Mexico. They recruited 

young impoverished women in Mexico by forming romantic relationships with them. Once in 

the United States, the women were beaten and threatened to keep them working. Proceeds from 

commercial sex acts were taken by the defendants and wire transferred to the defendants’ family 

in Mexico. Six defendants have pleaded guilty to trafficking charges, including three who had 

initially been prepared to go to trial, but then subsequently pleaded guilty to all 27 counts of the 

indictment after jury selection. The two remaining defendants are presently incarcerated in 

Mexico on Mexican federal charges related to their role in this human trafficking conspiracy. 

Private attorneys have also assisted the victims in obtaining custody of their children, who were 

being held by the traffickers’ families to control the women, and efforts are underway to reunite 

them with their mothers. This is a high-profile case that was featured on the television program 

48 Hours. 

26
United States v. Du Preez, et al. (Georgia). Five defendants were charged with violating 

8 U.S.C. §1324, 18 U.S.C. §1546 and 18 U.S.C. §1001 in connection with a scheme to bring 

aliens from other countries (most often South Africa) into the United States illegally and to 

provide them with employment at their granite and marble business. Once in the United States, 

the aliens resided in apartments leased by the granite company, and they were induced to provide 

labor for cash or for credit against the cost of their rent, furniture, utilities, and visa applications. 

The defendants threatened to report the aliens’ illegal status to ICE as a means to keep the aliens 

under their employment. Trial is pending. 

United States v. Thompson (Minnesota). Ray Jay Dean Thompson was charged with 

transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, sexual trafficking of a 

minor, and being a felon in possession of ammunition. The defendant allegedly prostituted two 

minor females in Minneapolis-St. Paul. On March 14, 2005, defendant Thompson entered a 

guilty plea, and sentencing is pending. 

United States v. Romero-Flores and Ventura (California). Two defendants were charged 

with two counts of harboring aliens and two counts of harboring aliens for purposes of 

prostitution. Defendant Ventura was also charged with one count of bringing an alien into the 

United States for financial gain and one count of transporting an alien for purposes of 

prostitution. The defendants allegedly brought two women to the United States from Mexico to 

work as prostitutes. Trial is pending. 

United States v. Tantirojanikitkan, et al. (New Jersey). Three of five defendants charged 

in 2001 with conspiring to transport illegal female aliens from Thailand into the United States to 

engage in prostitution have been convicted. Two defendants who pleaded guilty to conspiracy 

charges received prison terms of 17 months and 12 months. In Fiscal Year 2004, a third 

defendant was convicted at trial of alien smuggling, transporting aliens for prostitution and 

attempting to hire a hit man to murder a Special Agent of the FBI. He was sentenced to 17 and 

one half years in prison. Two defendants are fugitives. 

United States v. Rojas (Georgia). Three brothers, using various pseudonyms, engaged in 

a sex trafficking scheme to seduce young Mexican women and girls and lure them to the United 

States with promises of legitimate employment. The defendants smuggled the victims from 

Mexico to the Atlanta metropolitan area and then forced them into prostitution through a 

combination of psychological coercion, threats, and physical abuse. Upon their arrival in the 

United States, the victims were told never to leave the apartment. The defendants threatened to 

call the victims’ parents and tell them that the girls were working as prostitutes and threatened to 

abandon the girls without any money or support. Thereafter, the victims were made to work 

nearly every night of the week, servicing upwards of 20 customers per night. Arrangements were 

made for the girls to be taken to various apartments by taxi drivers. At the end of each night, the 

taxi driver would keep half the money earned, and the defendants, the other half. The defendants 

were charged with conspiracy, sex trafficking, importing and harboring aliens for the purpose of 

prostitution, alien smuggling and interstate transportation of illegal aliens. Two brothers pleaded 

27
guilty in 2004 and were sentenced to 71 months and 57 months in prison. The third brother fled 

and is now a fugitive. 

United States v. Bradley and O’Dell (New Hampshire). Two U.S. citizens were 

convicted on eighteen counts of forced labor and wire fraud for their treatment of Jamaican 

citizens brought to New Hampshire to work in their tree cutting business. These convictions, 

among the first secured at trial under the TVPA’s forced labor statute, 18 U.S.C. § 1589, were 

upheld on appeal in 2004. The defendants were sentenced to 70 months in prison, 3 years 

supervised release, and ordered to pay a $12,500 fine and $13,052 restitution. 

United States v. Nathan Lovaas (California). Nathan Lovaas was indicted on September 

30, 2003, in San Francisco, California, for distribution of child pornography and conspiracy to 

commit the offense of traveling for the purpose of engaging in a sexual act with a minor (sex 

tourism). He traveled from the United States to Thailand and Mexico on several occasions for 

the purpose of engaging in sexual acts with minors and photographing the abuse. On March 4, 

2005, Lovaas pled guilty to distributing child pornography in violation of 18 U.S.C. 

2252(a)(2)(A). Sentencing is pending. 

United States v. Russell (California). Bernard Lawrence Russell was indicted on 

December 3, 2003, on charges of traveling in foreign commerce with intent to engage in sex with 

a juvenile, production of child pornography, and possession with intent to import child 

pornography. Investigation by ICE revealed that Russell traveled to the Philippines on numerous 

occasions over a two-year period in order to engage in sexual acts with children and to produce 

child pornography for the purpose of importation into the United States. At least three Filipino 

children have been identified as Russell's victims. Russell pled guilty on April 22, 2005. 

Sentencing is pending. 

United States v. Bohning (Florida). A 13-count indictment was returned on February 24, 

2004, against Raymond George Bohning charging him with use of a computer to entice a minor to 

engage in criminal sexual activity; travel in foreign commerce to engage in such activity (sex 

tourism); attempt to produce child pornography; and receipt, possession, distribution, and 

transportation of child pornography. The investigation revealed that Bohning traveled to the 

United Kingdom on November 7, 2003, to engage in sexual activity with a 13-year-old girl there. 

A preliminary forensic examination of the hard drive taken from Bohning’s laptop computer 

revealed in excess of 10,000 images of child pornography including many images of infant 

children being sexually abused. The examination also revealed that Bohning had a list of 374 

computer user names and e-mail addresses, both from within and outside of the United States. On 

August 31, 2004, a superseding indictment was returned charging Bohning with two additional 

counts of receipt of child pornography as well as production of child pornography. Bohning is 

currently serving a sentence in the United Kingdom, and extradition from the UK to the United 

States is being pursued. 

28
United States v. Boehm, et. al. (Alaska). On March 19, 2004, an 18-count federal 

indictment was returned against Josef F. Boehm charging him with conspiracy to commit sex 

trafficking of children, possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute, being a felon 

in possession of a firearm, and being an unlawful user in possession of a firearm and ammunition. 

A superseding indictment also charged three others with conspiracy to commit sex trafficking, sex 

trafficking of children, and conspiracy to distribute cocaine and crack to persons under the age of 

21. All four defendants are in federal custody. Boehm pleaded guilty on November 22, 2004 to 

child sex trafficking and to drug charges. As part of the plea agreement, he agreed to forfeit his 

residence and also to provide $1.2 million in a trust fund for the future benefit of the victims. 

Three defendants previously pleaded guilty. Sentencing for the defendants is pending. 

United States v. Obert (California). On June 23, 2004, Timothy Obert, a former Peace 

Corps volunteer in Costa Rica, was charged with engaging in illicit sexual conduct with a minor 

boy. The sexual conduct occurred approximately 20 times over a two-year period during which 

the boy was between the ages of 12 and 14 years old. Obert was charged pursuant to the 

PROTECT Act. 

United States v. Flores, et al. (North Carolina). The charges in this case stem from the 

conspiratorial activities of four co-defendants who traveled interstate with the 13-year-old niece of 

one of the defendants and had the minor child and the female defendant engage in prostitution for 

money. Charges include conspiracy to transport a minor for the purpose of illegal sexual activity 

and conspiracy to transport an adult for the purpose of illegal sexual activity. Three of the four 

original defendants pleaded guilty on April 11, 2003, and the fourth pleaded guilty on September 

25, 2003. Two of the defendants were sentenced on February 10, 2004, and the other two on 

April 21, 2004, with the sentences of 46 months, 121 months, 180 months, and 235 months. 

United States v. Clark (Washington). Michael Clark was arrested in June 2003 in 

Cambodia for sexually abusing two Cambodian boys, ages 10 and 13. Clark was subsequently 

indicted in the United States on September 24, 2003, and charged with attempting to and engaging 

in illicit sexual conduct after travel in foreign commerce. The case is believed to be the first such 

prosecution under the new provisions of the PROTECT Act. Clark pleaded guilty on March 17, 

2004 and was sentenced on June 25, 2004 to 97 months’s imprisonment. 

United States v. Curtis (District of Columbia). On December 3, 2004, a seven-count 

indictment was returned charging Carlos Curtis with sex trafficking, transporting a minor in 

interstate commerce for prostitution, and production of child pornography. The FBI began 

investigating this case as part of the Innocence Lost initiative. Curtis and other associates 

recruited a 12-year-old girl in Times Square in New York and brought her to a hotel room in 

Brooklyn, where he photographed the girl engaged in sexually explicit conduct with an adult 

prostitute. A superseding indictment was returned March 31, 2004, charging obstruction of 

justice as a result of the defendant’s efforts to get the victim to change her testimony at trial. 

Following a two-week jury trial, Curtis was convicted on July 2, 2004. Sentencing is pending. 

He faces up to life imprisonment. 

29
United States v. Schmidt (Maryland). Richard Schmidt, a United States citizen, was 

charged by criminal complaint on January 13, 2004, as a result of his travel to Cambodia to 

engage in criminal sexual activity with underage boys. During the search of Schmidt’s apartment, 

court documents from the Philippines were also found which made reference to accusations 

against Schmidt for lascivious acts with two minor boys in the Philippines. Schmidt was indicted 

on February 5, 2004. OIA secured the expulsion of Schmidt from Cambodia to the United States, 

where he was arrested upon arrival on February 19, 2004. He pleaded guilty on July 8, 2004. 

Sentencing is pending. 

United States v. Branigan (Indiana). On November 19, 2003, a federal grand jury in the 

Southern District of Indiana returned a six-count indictment against Edward Patrick Branigan, 

charging him with two counts of traveling in interstate commerce to engage in illegal sex with a 

minor, three counts of production of child pornography, and one count of possession of child 

pornography. The indictment stems from a lengthy investigation by the FBI and ICE which began 

when the FBI learned that a minor female in Indiana had been the subject of child pornography 

produced by Branigan and that he may have been prostituting her in Las Vegas. Further 

investigation revealed that he had traveled to Indiana on at least two occasions to have sex with a 

14-year-old child and to film the child engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Branigan also filmed 

a second 14-year-old child in Indiana engaged in sexually explicit conduct and placed some of the 

sexually explicit images he produced on the Internet. Branigan entered a guilty plea on July 12, 

2004, and was sentenced on October 14, 2004 to 14 years imprisonment. Branigan was also 

ordered to pay $24,000 in restitution. 

United States v. Sims (Georgia). Maurice Sims transported a 16-year-old girl from El 

Dorado, Arkansas, to Atlanta, Georgia, for purposes of prostitution. Along the route he beat and 

raped the girl. On February 4, 2004, a federal grand jury indicted Sims on six counts including 

kidnapping, violations of the TVPA, and transporting a minor in interstate commerce for criminal 

sexual activity. A superseding indictment was returned March 2, 2004, adding three counts of 

obstruction of justice. Following a jury trial, Sims was convicted on September 20, 2004, and 

sentenced to life imprisonment on December 15, 2004. His co-defendant, who testified against 

Sims at trial, was sentenced to five years’s imprisonment. 

United States v. Seljan (California). John W. Seljan was charged in a nine-count 

indictment with attempted travel for the purpose of illicit sexual conduct, use of an interstate or 

foreign facility for the purpose of enticing a minor, production of child pornography, and 

possession of child pornography. ICE agents arrested Seljan at Los Angeles International Airport, 

on October 3, 2003, as he was about to board an international flight to the Philippines. At the 

time of his arrest, Seljan had a large sum of currency and Polaroid pictures of explicit sexual 

conduct involving him and minor Filipino girls. Following a bench trial, Seljan was convicted on 

November 19, 2004. He was sentenced on March 28, 2005, to 20 years imprisonment followed 

by lifetime supervised release. 

30
United States v. Jackson (Washington). On June 23, 2004, Gary Evans Jackson pleaded 

guilty to three counts of travel in foreign commerce to engaging in, and engaging in, illicit sexual 

conduct in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2423(c), for engaging in sexual conduct with three minor boys 

aged approximately from 10 to 15 years old. The plea agreement was conditional, giving the 

defendant the right to pursue a motion to dismiss the indictment on a Constitutional ex post facto 

claim, and included a stipulated sentence of 15 years’ imprisonment. On July 28, 2004, the court 

heard oral argument on Jackson’s motion to dismiss the indictment, and granted the motion on 

February 10, 2005, on ex post facto grounds. The government filed a notice of appeal on 

February 11, 2005. Further proceedings are pending. 

F. The Human Smuggling and Trafficking Center 

Investigations and prosecutions have benefitted from the creation of the interagency 

Human Smuggling and Trafficking Center (HSTC, or the Center) in July 2004 through a charter 

signed by representatives of the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the 

Attorney General. The Center was subsequently established by statute under Section 7202 of the 

Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004. The Center will provide greater 

integration and overall effectiveness of the United States government’s enforcement and 

intelligence efforts and will work with other governments to address the separate but related 

issues of alien smuggling, trafficking in persons, and smuggler support of clandestine terrorist 

travel. 

The Center provides a mechanism to bring together federal agency representatives from 

the policy, law enforcement, intelligence and diplomatic areas to work together on a full-time 

basis to achieve increased effectiveness and to convert intelligence into effective law enforcement 

and other action. It serves as an information fusion center and clearinghouse to ensure that all 

community members receive all useful information and foster a collaborative environment 

through sharing tactical, operational and strategic intelligence. The Center identifies issues 

related to migrant smuggling or trafficking in persons for referral to relevant agencies or 

interagency organizations for consideration and appropriate action. 

In addition to the charter agencies, the Central Intelligence Agency and National Security 

Agency participate in the Center. Desk officers and analysts detailed from the participating 

departments and agencies constitute the Center’s staff. The current Center director is an ICE 

supervisory special agent, and the current deputy director, on detail from DOS’s Bureau of 

International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL), has extensive experience as a consular antifraud officer. The director reports to the Secretaries of State and Homeland Security and the 

Attorney General through a senior steering group. The director and deputy director positions 

rotate among participating agencies on the basis of three-year terms of office. INL provides 

secure office space for the Center and other required logistics support. 

31
The Center has made 

initial strides in its anti-trafficking 

The Human Smuggling and Trafficking Center efforts, providing support for a 

number of U.S. government • facilitates broad dissemination of all source agencies, including the 

information; Departments of Homeland • prepares strategic assessments; Security, Justice, and State, and • identifies issues for interagency coordination members of the national 

or attention; intelligence community. • coordinates select initiatives and provides

support;

• serves as a focal point for interagency efforts

to address terrorist travel.

The following are some of its other activities: 

· The Center hosts a DHS-wide anti-trafficking working group. The purpose of the working 

group is to coordinate internal DHS anti-trafficking policy and initiatives and to facilitate 

coordination between DHS and other U.S. government agencies that conduct antitrafficking work; 

· The Center has prepared assessments designed to identify trafficking trends and issues and 

to assist in the formulation of anti-trafficking initiatives and policy. 

· The Center is a participant in the Senior Policy Operating Group (SPOG)which 

coordinates U.S. anti-trafficking initiative laid out in the National Security Presidential 

Directive on Combating Trafficking in Persons (NSPD-22), and its subcommittees. 

· Subject matter experts from the Center have lectured at a number of major anti-trafficking 

training and outreach events in an effort to educate state, local, federal and international 

agencies and non-governmental organizations regarding anti-trafficking efforts. 

V. International Grants 

Because the United States is a destination country for trafficked people, U.S. government 

activities abroad are of particular importance in the prevention of human trafficking. Through the 

DOS, DOL, and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the U.S. government 

gives a substantial amount of international assistance aimed at preventing trafficking in persons, 

protecting victims, and prosecuting traffickers abroad. In Fiscal Year 2004, the U.S. government 

supported 251 international anti-trafficking programs totaling approximately $82 million and 

benefitting approximately 86 countries. 

The DOS has focused considerable diplomatic and political attention on the issue of 

trafficking in persons, particularly through bilateral and multilateral engagement by the Office to 

32
Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons with other countries. That office’s annual Trafficking 

in Persons Report assesses the anti-trafficking activities of governments of source, transit, and 

destination countries and is a valuable source of information for U.S. and foreign policy-makers 

and the public (as is the information on human trafficking contained in the annual Country 

Reports on Human Rights Practices). The annual report ranks countries as Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 2 

Watch List, or Tier 3 based on their efforts to combat trafficking. In making grant awards, DOS, 

DOL, and USAID therefore focus their program funding primarily on countries ranked as Tier 2, 

Tier 2 Watch List, or Tier 3 in order to assist those countries in improving their efforts. 

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

as purchasing equipment, to large-scale, multi-year programs to develop comprehensive regional 

and national strategies to combat the worst forms of child labor. The following types of assistance 

have a favorable impact on ending this multi-dimensional abuse of human rights, risk to public 

health and agent of organized criminal networks: assistance in the development of anti-trafficking 

laws; equipping and training of law enforcement officials and medical personnel; education 

programs; training of government officials and medical personnel; establishment or renovation of 

shelters, crisis centers, or safe houses for victims; and support for psychological, legal, medical, 

and counseling services for victims provided by NGOs, international organizations, and 

governments. 

For example: Grants Awarded in FY 04 

The DOS’s Bureau for Population, Refugees and ! 

! 

! 

251 programs 

86 countries 

$82 million 

Migration provided $300,000 to the International 

Organization for Migration (IOM) to supply return and 

reintegration assistance to Afghan victims, principally for 

those trafficked internally, through a reintegration fund 

and referral mechanism. This program will build the 

capacity of governmental entities, non-governmental 

institutions, and law enforcement agencies to assist victims, and raise awareness on the dangers of 

irregular migration and trafficking 

The Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons awarded a grant of almost 

$600,000 to the Fund for Justice and the American Bar Association to train criminal justice 

officials in Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania to improve enforcement of anti-trafficking laws in each 

country and foster regional cooperation on trafficking. This office also awarded a grant of 

$570,000 to the Bilateral Safety Corridor Coalition to establish a bi-national network in Tijuana, 

Nogales, Ciudad Juarez and Laredo with regular, established communication and coordination. 

The coalition members will also renovate shelters for trafficking victims, conduct public 

awareness campaigns, train coalition members, and set up a databank for advocacy purposes. 

This grant complements a DOJ grant to the coalition to set up a similar infrastructure on the U.S. 

side of the border. 

33
The DOS’s Europe and Eurasia Bureau awarded a $30,000 grant to the Tartu Child 

Support Center in Latvia for a project entitled “Prevention of Human Trafficking” that provided 

training seminars and lectures on human trafficking issues for 12th grade students in 22 schools in 

the city of Tartu and its vicinity. 

In India, USAID supports the Victim-Witness Protection Program, implemented by a 

consortium of NGOs and local experts, that provides protection, support, rehabilitation, and 

reintegration services to rescued victims who are willing to testify against their traffickers. The 

program also fortifies the Indian legal system’s determination and ability to obtain convictions of 

both traffickers and sex tourists. In addition to safe haven and effective after-care, rescued 

victims may also need long-term assistance such as vocational training and outplacement because 

legal proceedings are lengthy in India. Continuing contact with rehabilitated victims will help to 

ensure a high rate of court appearances by these witnesses. 

DOL’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs/International Child Labor Program awarded 

$2 million to the International Labor Organization’s International Program for the Elimination of 

Child Labor for a multi-year project entitled Combating Trafficking in Children for Labor 

Exploitation in West and Central Africa (Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Gabon, Mali, and 

Togo). The project’s objectives are threefold: to reduce the demand for trafficked children; to 

withdraw trafficked children from exploitive situations and to provide them with a range of 

services leading to their sustainable reintegration; and to provide boys, girls, and adult familymembers in trafficking-prone high-risk areas with viable educational and socio-economic 

alternatives to reduce their vulnerability to child trafficking. 

A full list of international grant programs appears in Appendix 1. 

VI. Outreach and Training 

A. Domestic Law Enforcement Outreach and Training Activities 

In addition to investigating and prosecuting trafficking crimes, DOJ and DHS have spent 

extensive energy on outreach and training. Typically, these efforts are conducted by the same 

headquarters-level agents and prosecutors who have primary enforcement responsibility in this 

area. Such training has resulted in specific prosecutions as prosecutors and agents who attend 

these conferences put their knowledge to work in their districts. 

In 2004, DOJ undertook a comprehensive Trafficking Task Force Initiative to form 21 

multidisciplinary task forces, led by U.S. Attorneys, to address trafficking in areas of known 

concentration. This initiative sought to form, train, equip, and fund teams of state, local and 

federal law enforcement officials, prosecutors, and victim services providers in a coordinated and 

proactive effort to investigate criminal organizations, rescue victims and hold perpetrators 

accountable. 

34
The initial step was to convene a national training conference on human trafficking, called 

Human Trafficking into the United States: Rescuing Women and Children from Slavery, July 14­

16, 2004 in Tampa, Florida. Hosted by the DOJ and with a keynote speech by President George 

W. Bush, the conference brought together more than 500 attendees, consisting of 21 teams of 

about 20 state, local and federal officials who could work together to combat human trafficking in 

their respective communities across America. President Bush was joined by Attorney General 

John Ashcroft and other senior Administration officials at the ground-breaking conference. The 

communities that teams came from included Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, El Paso, Houston, Las 

Vegas, Long Island, Los Angeles, Miami, Newark, New Orleans, New York City, Washington, 

D.C., Philadelphia, Phoenix, Richmond, San Diego, San Francisco, St. Louis, Seattle, and Tampa. 

Civil Rights Division attorneys were featured speakers and appeared in the training videos 

prepared for the conference and for future trainings. 

DOJ produced two videos for the Tampa conference and subsequent training efforts. The 

first, “Liberty and Justice for Victims of Modern-Day Slavery,” featured the President’s 2003 

speech to the United Nations and a press conference by Attorney General John Ashcroft, as well 

as interviews with the prosecutors, agents, and NGO service providers who worked on the sex 

slavery case United States v. Soto. The second video, “Digging Deeper: The Reach of Human 

Trafficking,” focused on the “bargirl” case of United States v. Molina, the child prostitution case 

of United States v. Curtis, and the migrant worker case United States v. Ramos, and featured 

interviews with investigative and prosecution teams, as well as teaching segments. 

At the Tampa conference, the teams learned how to uncover and investigate cases, as well 

as how to provide services to trafficking victims. The conference emphasized the importance of 

combating trafficking using a victim-centered approach. The teams learned that rescuing victims 

requires proactive law enforcement strategies and an understanding of the collaborative approach 

to human trafficking that includes community members, first responders, restorative care service 

providers, victim advocates, as well as state, local, and federal law enforcement. 

The next step of the initiative was to follow up with the attendees and conduct initial task 

force meetings and additional training. The final step, initially announced at the national 

conference by Attorney General Ashcroft, was the award of $7,674,614 to 18 local communities 

by OJP and BJA to allow the communities to participate in the newly formed multidisciplinary 

task forces to address the problem of human trafficking and rescue its victims. These 18 

communities were among those identified by the Civil Rights Division as having a high number 

of trafficking operations and victims. These local law enforcement task forces will join forces 

with victim service providers, as well as with local U.S. Attorneys, and other federal agencies 

such as ICE, to identify and rescue trafficking victims, including women and children. 

Applicants were specifically encouraged to partner with service providers supported by 

existing grants from the OVC or ORR. In early 2005, BJA plans to add three jurisdictions to this 

list, bringing to 21 the number of funded task forces. In turn, OVC, working in partnership with 

BJA, will make awards to develop victim services at task force sites with insufficient capacity. 

35
Recipients of Task Force Grants 

American Samoa, Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Cobb County (Georgia), Collier 

County (Florida), State of Connecticut, District of Columbia, El Paso, 

Harris County (Texas), State of Hawaii, Los Angeles, Miami, Nassau 

County (New York), State of New Jersey, Oakland, Phoenix, San Diego 

County, San Francisco, San Jose, Suffolk County (New York), Seattle 

So that the task forces and other law enforcement entities would have the ability to conduct 

training and engage in capacity-building on their own, the BJA funded the development of a 

standard curriculum to be disseminated both to the task forces and through the established training 

mechanisms set up through the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program. This 

curriculum, developed by a contractor, the Institute of Intergovernmental Research (IIR), with the 

assistance of the Civil Rights Division, FBI, ICE, and NGO trafficking experts, includes Power 

Point presentations and supporting material, film clips of the speakers at the Tampa conference, 

and case studies drawn from real prosecutions. With the IIR, the BJA hosted a meeting of the task 

forces in March 2005 to begin the training. 

In addition, Civil Rights Division staff conducted more than fifty trainings around the 

United States at conferences and meetings in Houston, Seattle, Newark, San Antonio, Los 

Angeles, Chicago, Salt Lake City, New Orleans, San Francisco, Baltimore, New York City, 

Miami, El Paso, Austin, Orlando, Las Vegas, Connecticut, Albuquerque, Philadelphia, Northern 

Virginia, Phoenix, and elsewhere. In addition to these regional trainings, the Executive Office for 

U.S. Attorneys’ Office of Legal Education, and the Civil Rights Division hosted a comprehensive 

training session for federal agents and prosecutors, including FBI and ICE agents at DOJ’s 

National Advocacy Center in January 2004. Furthermore, the Civil Rights Division actively 

participates in human trafficking training at U.S. Attorneys’ Offices as part of the regular 

curriculum of the FBI, ICE, and DOS’s Diplomatic Security Service. 

Another important DOJ initiative in 2004 was the drafting of a Model State AntiTrafficking Statute. The Civil Rights Division and the Office of Legal Policy wrote the statute, 

based on the TVPA and federal experience prosecuting trafficking cases, in order to provide a 

model for state governments to follow the lead of the federal government in combating 

trafficking. The model statute seeks to expand anti-trafficking authority to the states in order to 

harness the almost one million state and local law enforcement officers who might come into 

contact with trafficking victims. The U.S. Senate subsequently passed a resolution endorsing the 

statute and encouraging states to adopt it, and DOJ officials used the statute to urge states to join 

the fight against trafficking. For instance, the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights 

promoted the statute in an address to the annual conference of the National Foundation of Women 

36
Legislators. 

The Civil Rights Division also initiated publication of its Anti-Trafficking News Bulletin, 

a bi-monthly update on DOJ’s anti-trafficking efforts. Each issue of the bulletin provides updates 

of recent case activity and describes outreach and policy activities of the Division and DOJ as a 

whole. The bulletin also tries to put a face on the government’s anti-trafficking efforts, by 

featuring individual prosecutors, agents, and even victims who have succeeded in the wake of 

their liberation. 

For its part, CEOS conducted its annual Advanced 

Child Exploitation course for federal prosecutors and 

agents at the National Advocacy Center in March 2004. 

The course addressed the investigation and prosecution of 

cases involving the commercial exploitation of children, 

child prostitution, trafficking, and sex tourism. This course 

is offered in addition to an annual Basic Child Exploitation 

course, which also focuses on crimes involving the sexual 

exploitation of children. Further, in conjunction with the 

Innocence Lost initiative, CEOS partnered with both the 

FBI and NCMEC to develop an intensive week-long 

training seminar, held at and sponsored by NCMEC, solely 

dedicated to the investigation and prosecution of cases 

involving child prostitution. The ongoing program brings 

state and federal law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, 

and social service providers to NCMEC, where the group is trained together. Although the pilot 

training program occurred during 2003, there were four additional training programs in Fiscal 

Year 2004 specifically addressing child prostitution and covering various regions of the country. 

Approximately 200 key personnel have been trained as part of the initiative. Three additional 

child prostitution training programs will be offered in Fiscal Year 2005. 

CEOS also provide numerous publications to prosecutors across the country, including 

issuing to all federal prosecutors an article in the March 2004 USA Bulletin entitled Sex 

Trafficking of Minors: International Crisis, Federal Response. In addition, CEOS prepares and 

distributes to each U.S. Attorney’s Office a quarterly newsletter which provides practical tips as 

well as the most current legal issues and cases. The last several issues have featured numerous 

articles focusing on the international aspects of prosecuting cases involving the commercial 

exploitation of children. The January and July 2004 editions of the CEOS quarterly newsletter 

highlighted the effective use of the sex tourism provisions of the PROTECT Act around the 

country. Additionally, the April 2004 edition included a discussion of extradition considerations 

in sex tourism and trafficking cases, as well as a comprehensive legal memorandum put together 

by CEOS attorneys addressing the legal issues which may be raised in such cases, including 

venue, jurisdiction, extradition, ex post facto issues, Commerce Clause challenges to federal 

jurisdiction, use of foreign evidence, and sentencing. 

37
CEOS has also focused on increased public awareness of the human trafficking epidemic, 

with particular attention to the issue of child sex trafficking. CEOS participated in a joint project 

with ICE, NCMEC, DOS’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, and the NGOs 

End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and the Sexual Exploitation of Children, World 

Vision, and the Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network to develop a brochure and posters 

designed to curb child sex tourism. The proposed brochure and poster are intended to be widely 

distributed, both within the United States and abroad, in an effort to combat the problem. 

Individual agencies also host training sessions for their officers. For example, in San 

Francisco and Salt Lake City, ICE’s HSTU, in conjunction with prosecutors from DOJ’s Civil 

Rights Division, provided in-service training on human trafficking to all special agents in those 

cities. Similarly, in the fall of 2004, ICE’s Division of Training posted the course “Stop 

Trafficking” to the on-line ICE Virtual University, for internal intranet training. The course is 

available to all ICE employees and consists of separate training modules, including modules on 

statutes, investigations, identifying victims, interviewing, and victim assistance and protections. 

For its part, the FBI provided training on trafficking in persons to its new Special Agent 

classes, to two sessions of classes for experienced Special Agents, to a class for Supervisory 

Special Agents, and to several classes for high-ranking and executive management personnel from 

state and local law enforcement agencies at its National Academy. In addition, the FBI 

participated in training sessions organized by DOJ in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, 

Florida, Missouri, Texas, Oregon, and California, as well as the July 2004 national conference. 

B. International Law Enforcement Outreach and Training 

Recognizing that trafficking in persons is an international problem, U.S. government 

personnel have conducted international outreach and have helped train foreign visitors and 

officials visiting the United States on U.S. trafficking laws, investigations, and prosecutions. 

The following are examples of this outreach and training: 

DOJ Civil Rights Division attorneys and CEOS attorneys have traveled throughout the 

world to meet with government officials and non-governmental organizations on strategies to 

combat trafficking in persons, and have also met with an array of foreign officials during those 

representatives’ visits to the United States. Furthermore, DOJ attorneys and victim coordinators 

have conducted trainings and have assisted in drafting trafficking legislation in Asia, Africa, 

Europe, the Caribbean, North America, and South America. One Civil Rights Division attorney 

has been detailed to Moldova for two years to work on human trafficking issues in the former 

Soviet republics. In addition, Division trafficking specialists have led assessment teams to the 

countries identified by the President’s Trafficking Initiative and, in turn, have made programmatic 

improvements in collaboration with other participating agencies. 

38
In September 2004, a United States assessment team composed of the Deputy Chief of 

Mission and the head of the Political Section of the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, attorneys from 

DOJ’s Civil Rights Division and CEOS, and ICE officials met with Mexican authorities and 

agencies to gather information about the trafficking problems in Mexico, Mexican investigations 

and prosecutions, victim assistance, the government response to trafficking, and obstacles to and 

opportunities for successfully combating trafficking. This assessment was part of the President’s 

Initiative on Trafficking in Persons. The Mexican organizations that participated in the site visit 

interviews included the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the federal prosecutor’s office, the National 

Institute on Migration, the National Center for Combating Delinquency, the Smuggling Working 

Group of the Senior Law Enforcement Task Force, and the NGO Casa Alianza. The International 

Organization for Migration also participated. 

The FBI also provided multiple sessions of alien smuggling/human trafficking training to 

various international law enforcement partners/governments, including Suriname, Italy, Thailand, 

Albania, Nigeria, Germany, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Australia, and China, and a contingent 

consisting of representatives from more than 31 different countries, including South Africa, 

Senegal, Sweden, the Dominican Republic, and Israel. 

The U.S. government also organizes and participates in international conferences on 

trafficking. For example, the United States Ambassador to Japan hosted a conference on 

trafficking from June 22-24, 2004, focusing on enhancing communication regionally and 

developing human trafficking legislation in Japan. The 200 participants included law 

enforcement, diplomatic and legal entities, as well as NGOs from the United States, Japan, and 

several countries in Asia. At the Forced Child Labor and Human Trafficking Conference on 

August 3-9, 2004 in Johannesburg, South Africa, ICE provided representatives from foreign 

governments, foreign law enforcement agencies, and five non-governmental African-based 

organizations with training on the TVPA, a global perspective on human trafficking, and a 

detailed overview of the human trafficking situation on the African continent. They were also 

provided with a “tool kit” containing those items needed for their law enforcement agencies to 

establish anti-trafficking units, as well as the most recent United States and African trafficking 

reports. After the conference, HSTU staff and the Johannesburg ICE Attaché met with the 

Divisional Commissioner, Detective Services of the South African Police Service (SAPS), who 

has been tasked with spearheading South Africa’s anti-trafficking efforts, and the Director of the 

SAPS Organized Crime Unit. SAPS pledged its support in assisting ICE in future smuggling and 

trafficking cases. And on February 10, 2004, staff from ICE’s HSTU participated in a 

U.S./Montenegro Policy Forum to discuss anti-trafficking efforts undertaken by the government 

of Montenegro. 

ICE attachés conduct extensive training and engage in other cooperative programs with 

their counterparts in local law enforcement. The ICE attaché in Brazil met with members of 

Brazil's federal prosecutors’ office and the director of a new Brazilian federal police unit created 

to increase law enforcement efforts in the area of child pornography, forced child labor, sex 

tourism and trafficking in persons in an effort to jointly investigate these crimes. HSTU personnel 

39
provided 14 training sessions for foreign teams of visitors representing the People’s Republic of 

China, Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Bulgaria, Turkey, 

Greece, Italy, Cyprus, Romania, the Ukraine, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, Columbia, Peru, 

Argentina, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay. 

HSTU discussed such topics as the TVPA, smuggling and trafficking investigations, victim 

assistance and options for immigration relief. In addition, Customs and Border Protection agents 

meet frequently with their foreign counterparts, including, in the Del Rio sector, monthly meetings 

with the Mexican Consul and in the Havre Sector, with ICE and Canadian officials. 

The FBI and ICE also participate in the Southeast European Cooperative Initiative (SECI), 

whose Regional Center for Combating Trans-Border Crime in Bucharest, Romania, coordinates 

Southeastern European police and customs regional actions for preventing and combating 

transborder crime, including trafficking in persons and migrant smuggling. The following twelve 

countries are actively involved with the Center: Albania, the Federation of Bosnia and 

Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Macedonia, Moldova, Romania, Serbia and 

Montenegro, Slovenia and Turkey. The U.S. government acts as observer to the Center and 

provides funding, training, and equipment in the area of human trafficking and alien smuggling 

for the SECI representatives and law enforcement officers from the participating countries in the 

area of human trafficking and alien smuggling. (Other observing countries include Austria, 

Azerbaijan, Belgium, Canada, France, Georgia, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, 

Ukraine, and the United Kingdom.) During a portion of Fiscal Year 2004, ICE detailed a special 

agent to the SECI Center. 

DOJ’s Criminal Division’s International Criminal Investigative Training and Assistance 

Program (ICITAP) and Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development, Assistance and Training 

(OPDAT) are similarly involved in outreach to and training of foreign law enforcement officials. 

The mission of ICITAP is to support U.S. criminal justice and foreign policy goals by assisting 

foreign governments in developing the capacity to provide professional law enforcement services 

that are based on democratic principles and respect for human rights. ICITAP activities focus on 

the development of police forces and the improvement of capabilities of existing police forces in 

emerging democracies. Among the many responsibilities of ICITAP is assistance designed to 

enhance professional capabilities to carry out investigative and related law enforcement functions 

in addition to assistance that creates or strengthens their capability to respond to emerging crime 

problems such as human trafficking. 

OPDAT draws on the Department’s resources and expertise to strengthen foreign criminal 

justice sector institutions and enhance the administration of justice abroad. With funding 

provided by DOS and USAID, OPDAT supports the law enforcement objectives and priorities of 

the United States by preparing foreign counterparts to cooperate more fully and effectively with 

the United States in combatting terrorism and transnational crime such as human trafficking. It 

does so by encouraging legislative and justice sector reform in countries with inadequate laws; by 

improving the skills of foreign prosecutors and judges; and by promoting the rule of law and 

regard for human rights. OPDAT is involved in numerous technical assistance and training 

40
programs in South and Central America, the Caribbean, Russia, the former Soviet Republics, 

South Asia, and Central and Eastern Europe. 

Highlights of OPDAT and ICITAP training, development, and criminal justice reform 

efforts around the world include: 

Albania. ICITAP works closely with the Anti-Trafficking Section of the Albanian 

National Police, which reported that in 2004 ATS regional offices detected 579 cases of 

trafficking in human beings implicating 978 perpetrators. Of this group, 428 were arrested, 162 

were detained, and 109 matched those on the wanted list. Thirty criminal organizations, involving 

101 persons, were identified and dismantled. 

ICITAP’s integrated border management program, called the Three-Port Strategy, 

implemented at the Mother Teresa International Airport in Tirana and the seaports of Vlora and 

Durres, has assisted the government of Albania in moving closer to compliance with international 

standards of security and enforcement. ICITAP’s Total Information Management System (TIMS) 

supports border control efforts, and, with the installation of TIMS throughout the country, all 

individuals and vehicles passing through points of entry (POEs) are registered into the system and 

checked against criminal databases as well as against Albania’s Ministry of Public Order watch 

lists. The system will also flag possible trafficking scenarios (e.g., the same adults or group of 

adults accompanied by different minors using different POE's). 

The OPDAT Resident Legal Advisor (RLA) in Albania, along with representatives from 

ICITAP and other DOJ components, provided assistance to the Albanian Ministry of Justice in the 

development of new anti-organized crime legislation which includes new witness protection 

measures that should prove significantly helpful in human trafficking cases. These measures 

include holding hearings in protected courtrooms; use of testimony from remote or foreign 

locations through audiovisual connection; use of anonymous testimony where the witness is in a 

witness protection program; closing of courtrooms during testimony of protected witnesses; and a 

controversial press provision penalizing the unauthorized publication of the identity of a protected 

witness. This legislation was approved by the parliament in September 2004 and took effect on 

October 23, 2004. 

Working closely with the Albanian government, OPDAT and ICITAP were instrumental 

in the formation of five organized crime task forces in Fier, Vlora, Durres, Shkodra, and Tirana. 

Formally established in March 2004, the task forces are composed of judicial police investigators 

and prosecutors, who, as of September 2004, have opened 155 formal investigations, including 

three cases of trafficking in children, 11 cases of trafficking in women for use in prostitution, and 

21 cases of exploiting women in for use in prostitution. In addition, ICITAP has provided 

regional training at the Vlora Anti-Trafficking Center and has conducted such courses as 

“Interviewing Victims of Trafficking,” “Maritime Interdiction,” and “Trafficking in Persons for 

Investigators.” 

41
Azerbaijan. In April 2004, OPDAT hosted a conference on “International Cooperation on 

Combatting Trafficking in Persons,” bringing together nearly one hundred Azeri government 

officials, local non-governmental organization representatives, and members of the international 

community to discuss effective anti-TIP strategies. Prior to the conference, the government of 

Azerbaijan had been reluctant to discuss the existence of a trafficking problem in the country. 

The forward momentum on TIP work generated at the April conference resulted in the 

government of Azerbaijan adopting a National Action Plan in early May. 

ICITAP assisted the government in designing and implementing policies and procedures 

for the operation of the established anti-trafficking unit within the Ministry of Interior. The 

OPDAT RLA and ICITAP Resident Law Enforcement Advisor helped coordinate the translation, 

dissemination, and review of the proposed anti-TIP legislation with DOS’s Office to Monitor and 

Combat Trafficking in Persons, the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, the Organization for Security 

and Cooperation in Europe, and IOM and later submitted proposed recommendations to the Azeri 

parliament for implementation. 

Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH). OPDAT and ICITAP technical assistance and training were 

largely responsible for the creation of the BiH anti-trafficking strike force in Fiscal Year 2004. 

Since its inception, the BiH strike force has opened 209 cases. In those cases, 16 defendants have 

been indicted, two acquitted, and three cases were dismissed for lack of evidence. Cases are 

regularly forwarded to the BiH strike force for action by the Federation, District of Brcko, 

Republika Srpska, and the State Border Service. Forty-two of the cases investigated by the strike 

force are currently under review by prosecutors. Four cases are under police administrative 

review before presentation to the prosecutor, and seventy-three are in initial stages of 

investigation. Of the cases investigated over the course of 2004, four are considered major cases 

that involve significant criminal organizations. 

Bulgaria. OPDAT assumed a leadership role in an inter-agency working group charged 

with developing the regulations implementing the landmark Combating Trafficking in Human 

Beings Act. In March 2004, the group helped implement the enactment of two-part regulations 

which address the activities of the National Anti-Trafficking Commission and establish a network 

of shelters for trafficking victims. 

Costa Rica. OPDAT, ICITAP, and CEOS have provided Basic Child Sexual Exploitation 

training for the courts, police, prosecutors, and victim-witness assistance units in Costa Rica. 

Georgia. OPDAT’s RLA provides regular guidance to the TIP unit at the national 

prosecutor’s office that investigates and prosecutes human trafficking cases. In Fiscal Year 2004, 

the unit initiated a major case involving 15 women being trafficked through Georgia from 

Uzbekistan for further transfer to Dubai for use in prostitution. This OPDAT-supported unit at 

the prosecutor’s office also commenced a case involving two women who tricked other Georgian 

women for use in prostitution in Turkey. OPDAT also provided assistance in drafting an antihuman trafficking law, which, at the close of FY04, was at the Ministry of Justice for final review 

42
prior to its presentation to Parliament. The RLA has worked closely with the Ministry of Justice 

to ensure that the draft complies with the mandates of the U.N. Convention against Transnational 

Organized Crime and its Palermo Protocol. 

Indonesia. ICITAP organized an international anti-trafficking conference in Batam that 

brought together national police elements from Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, as well as 

both local and national NGOs, to help coordinate efforts against human trafficking. In addition, 

using real scenarios from TIP cases in Jakarta and other key trafficking points in Indonesia, 

ICITAP training efforts in Fiscal Year 2004 provided Indonesian TIP detectives and investigators 

with practical skills and techniques to conduct proper investigations and to work effectively with 

TIP victims. In total, ICITAP has provided specialized TIP training to 81 police detectives and 

investigators, six immigration investigators, six Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration 

investigators, and general TIP training to 60 police officers and 112 immigration officer cadets. 

ICITAP has also played a key role in developing anti-TIP resources through the creation of the 

TIP Enforcement Manual, which has been an instrumental guide in arrest and rescue operations. 

The ICITAP-trained Anti-Trafficking Unit of the Indonesian National Police rescued, in 

one operation, 12 girls who were to be trafficked out of the West Jakarta area. ICITAP-trained 

detectives also discovered 33 trafficking victims in Malaysia and arranged for their safe return to 

Indonesia. With the assistance of a number of these victims, the Indonesian police arrested five 

traffickers, as well as the traffickers’ leader, who was arrested on July 20, 2004 in Jakarta after 

eluding capture in the mountainous province of West Kalimantan. 

Kosovo. OPDAT’s technical assistance in the area of human trafficking was influential in 

encouraging the United Nations Mission in Kosovo to adopt “Kosovo’s Strategy to Combat 

Trafficking in Humans” in May 2004. 

Laos. Following review and commentary by OPDAT’s representative to Laos of a draft 

bill on trafficking in women and children in August 2004, the Laotian government enacted the law 

in October 2004. 

Macedonia. OPDAT and ICITAP are members of the secretariat of the Macedonian 

National Anti-Trafficking Commission, which acts as an advisory body on TIP-related programs 

and has taken the lead in TIP prevention and suppression in that country. In line with the overall 

anti-TIP activities, OPDAT supported changes to the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure 

Code, which have been amended to provide stiffer sentences for child traffickers, criminal liability 

for legal entities used for TIP-related activities, stronger witness protection measures for TIP 

victims, and forfeiture of proceeds derived from TIP crimes. On September 28, 2004, the 

Macedonian government ratified the U.N. Convention on Combatting Transnational Organized 

Crime and its Protocols. 

The OPDAT RLA to Macedonia has also promoted the creation of country-wide Anti43
TIP/Organized Crime Task Forces. OPDAT, in conjunction with the Chief Public Prosecutor’s 

Office, the Minister of Interior, the Customs Director and the Directors of the Financial Police, the 

Anti-Money Laundering Directorate and the Public Revenue Office, organized and hosted three 

meetings in three different cities in Macedonia to this end. 

In Fiscal Year 2004, 11 criminal charges and a number of special criminal reports were 

brought against 50 perpetrators for a total number of 17 criminal offenses. In addition, 38 victims 

were rescued and sheltered in the Ministry of Interior’s Transit Center. Among the victims 

rescued and sheltered was a mother with three children, all accommodated in the Center. To help 

support Macedonia’s efforts to combat TIP, ICITAP coordinated the creation of a human 

trafficking case management database for the Ministry of Interior’s Anti-Human Trafficking Unit, 

and of an NGO Internet network on TIP-related issues. In addition, ICITAP facilitated a major 

DOJ donation for the Unit and organized the donation ceremony. ICITAP provided technical 

advice to the European Union Police Mission in the development of a handbook for police 

officers to assist in recognition of TIP victims. 

In 2004 ICITAP and OPDAT organized three TIP workshops, which brought together 

police officers and legal assistants for judges and prosecutors with no more than five years’ field 

experience. ICITAP designed case studies and facilitated the practical exercises, alongside their 

Macedonian counterparts, many of whom had attended the ICITAP/OPDAT training workshops 

in 2003. The role-play exercises also demonstrated the appropriate and inappropriate methods of 

conducting police interviews with victims of human trafficking. Thirty-four police inspectors 

received training in human trafficking interview skills in 2004. 

OPDAT is also involved in consultations with the national chief prosecutor to provide 

basic technology and equipment to support the new integrated team approach of the new Special 

Prosecutor’s Unit to fight trafficking in persons and works with other U.S. government assistance 

programs to provide appropriate funding. As a result of joint OPDAT/ICITAP/U.S. Embassy 

efforts, an interim witness facilitation program was established through a special grant to the 

Macedonian Association of Public Prosecutors. The witness facilitation program is implemented 

by the association, and it provides funds for safe travel, temporary residence in Macedonia, and 

return to the country of origin for the foreign TIP victims who are willing to return and testify. 

Moldova. Moldova has one of the most severe trafficking problems in Eastern Europe, yet 

only a handful of trafficking prosecutions have resulted in prison sentences. In an effort to remedy 

this, the OPDAT RLA to Moldova, on detail from the Criminal Section of the Civil Rights 

Division, devised a TIP prosecution monitoring plan to track TIP cases from inception to final 

resolution, matching U.S. law enforcement agency representatives with their Moldovan 

counterparts, providing technical assistance to those Moldovan agencies where appropriate, and 

identifying existing obstacles to prosecution. 

In addition, OPDAT has worked closely with the National Prosecutor’s Office and the 

44
Ministry of Interior to improve cooperation in reporting TIP cases. These efforts were rewarded 

by prompt reports from both agencies showing an increase in TIP prosecutions. For the ninemonth period ending September 30, 2004, 328 trafficking-related investigations were opened and 

46 convictions obtained. Four of those convictions were specifically obtained under the trafficking 

statute (as opposed to other provisions in the criminal code) and all four of those convicted 

received significant jail sentences. Two received ten years in prison and two received seven years 

in prison. In contrast, only 34 convictions under criminal code provisions and only two 

convictions under the trafficking statutes were recorded for the previous year. 

In early Fiscal Year 2004, OPDAT organized an international anti-trafficking conference 

that highlighted the need for legislative reform. As a result, the Moldovan Government’s National 

Committee Against Trafficking in Humans has drafted a comprehensive anti-TIP law, which will 

provide important new rights and protections for victims. The draft law was revised in light of 

detailed comments and recommendations from the RLA, and has now been sent to the Ministry of 

Justice, which will forward it to the Council of Europe for final review before it is submitted to 

the parliament. 

Qatar. In March 2004 ICITAP completed an assessment of the Qatar’s Ministry of 

Interior’s awareness and preparation for TIP investigations in this small peninsular Gulf state. 

With a population of 650,000, 80 percent of whom are imported labor from Asia, Africa, and 

Eastern Europe, Qatar is a likely destination for sex and labor trafficking. ICITAP reviewed the 

country’s skills, infrastructure, and training to combat trafficking and proposed a number of 

training and assistance programs to help the Qatari government prepare for this growing trend 

throughout the Gulf region. A complete assessment report and proposal was submitted to the U.S. 

Embassy in Doha in June 2004 and is currently under consideration by the Government of Qatar. 

Romania. During Fiscal Year 2004, the OPDAT RLA to Romania helped establish a 

victim/witness coordination working group comprised of Romanian justice officials. Based on 

the insights this working group gained after travelling to the United States in September 2004, 

they returned to Romania and developed a proposal to create the first victim/witness coordination 

program there. Currently, the RLA’s office and the members of the working group are attending 

press events to help raise public awareness about this problem. Romanian TIP investigations have 

increased as well. In the first nine months of 2004, there were 1,200 TIP investigations compared 

with fewer than 700 in all of 2003. 

Russia. In early FY04, an OPDAT RLA to Russia was instrumental in working with the 

Parliament and the Presidential Administration to organize Russia’s First National Assembly of 

Anti-Trafficking NGOs. Designed to promote coordination among Russia’s anti-trafficking 

NGOs and appropriate agencies of the Russian government, the Assembly was notable for the 

high level of participation on both the Russian and American sides, including a live address by 

Secretary of State Colin Powell and a written address from President Vladimir Putin. The 

Assembly adopted a strongly worded resolution calling on the government to pass legislation to 

protect trafficking victims, to create specialized anti-trafficking units in law enforcement agencies, 

45
and to establish a national anti-trafficking coordinating body, and requiring school curricula to 

warn of the dangers of trafficking. As a result of the Assembly, many NGOs have, for the first 

time in Russian history, received the official endorsement of the Russian government for their 

activity. 

In August 2004, the Russian parliament enacted landmark witness protection legislation, 

which creates and funds a program to relocate witnesses and family members who are threatened 

by their participation in a criminal case. A witness-protection program is critical to any 

comprehensive scheme to protect TIP victims and prosecute trafficking cases. Efforts to develop 

the witness protection law finally coalesced after two OPDAT-sponsored visits to the United 

States for Russian lawmakers and presidential aides. These visits emphasized the significance of 

witness protection for an effective anti-organized crime program. This legislation will be 

particularly critical in the TIP area as TIP survivors often fear retribution for themselves and 

family members if they testify. 

Serbia and Montenegro. Due in part to the April 2003 enactment of an anti-smuggling 

and TIP statute and to the OPDAT RLA’s technical assistance and training of prosecutors and 

investigators to implement this new statute, TIP prosecutions increased from six in Fiscal Year 

2003 to 15 in Fiscal Year 2004. Also critical to this was the formation of investigative interagency TIP task forces, which the RLA to Serbia and Montenegro helped facilitate. In addition, 

during the last quarter of Fiscal Year 2004, OPDAT helped finalize a draft witness protection law, 

which was submitted to the parliament in early 2005 and will be adopted later in the year. 

Sri Lanka. In late Fiscal Year 2004, OPDAT conducted for 60 Sri Lankan prosecutors, 

judges, and investigators a program on ways to streamline investigative and prosecutorial 

processes to improve access to justice by child witnesses and victims in TIP cases. As part of the 

program, OPDAT used a video recording of four case studies, performed by actors, on how to 

interview child victims of sexual assault or abuse without asking leading questions. The video 

demonstrates best practices for eliciting child-victim testimony admissible in court and was very 

well received by the Sri Lankan participants. The various techniques demonstrated may be used 

by customs agents to determine or verify the parentage of children leaving the country. 

Suriname. In April 2004, OPDAT, in conjunction with CEOS, conducted a three-day 

workshop in partnership with the U.S. Embassy in Suriname and the Surinamese Ministry of 

Justice. This workshop was instrumental in the eventual development of a law enforcement 

manual on TIP and is part of a comprehensive assessment and training program being conducted 

in Suriname by OPDAT and CEOS. 

C. Department of Heath and Human Services’ Public Information Campaign 

In April 2004, HHS launched its Rescue and Restore Victims of Human Trafficking public 

awareness campaign for the purpose of increasing awareness of the phenomenon of human 

trafficking, particularly among intermediaries. These intermediaries include local law 

46
enforcement officials; social service providers; health care workers; faith-based organizations; 

migrant and labor outreach organizations; child and homeless youth advocates and caregivers; and 

ethnic organizations. 

The goal of the Rescue & Restore campaign is to increase the number of trafficking 

victims identified by enhancing awareness of the crime of human trafficking. Campaign efforts 

focus on outreach to intermediaries who are most likely to encounter trafficking victims on a daily 

basis, but who may not otherwise recognize them. The campaign educates these groups about 

human trafficking, enabling them to identify trafficking victims and equipping them with tools to 

assist victims in accessing benefits and services. 

Local anti-trafficking coalitions were convened in ten cities to help disseminate the 

campaign materials to appropriate intermediaries, and to sustain local activism on the trafficking 

issue. And as part of the Rescue and Restore campaign, a web-based resource was established. 

Through the end of Fiscal Year 2004, roughly 40,000 persons had visited the web-based resource 

at www.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking. The theme of the campaign is “Look Beneath the Surface” in 

order to communicate that intermediaries may be encountering victims in their daily lives and that 

they need to look beyond the obvious, asking specific questions or noting certain behaviors of 

those who may be potential victims. 

Because U.S. media had approached human trafficking largely as an international problem, 

the campaign developed materials to demonstrate the crime’s domestic dimensions. It developed 

a series of fact sheets addressing human trafficking generally, sex and labor trafficking, the 

TVPA, victim certification and assistance, and child exploitation. It uses these fact sheets to 

educate the media, intermediaries and others who might encounter potential victims. It has 

distributed them to many media outlets and intermediary groups and at conferences and other 

speaking opportunities. HHS has posted the fact sheets – and all other campaign products – on its 

web site. Through Fiscal Year 2004, approximately 50,000 fact sheets were distributed. 

HHS collaborated with experts from the health care, social service, and law enforcement 

communities to develop posters, brochures and other promotional materials to educate and raise 

awareness among these key groups. For example, through a partnership with NCMEC, HHS 

developed materials focused specifically on the impact of this crime on children. All promotional 

materials were also made available to the media and often became the visual centerpiece of both 

broadcast and print stories. Through Fiscal Year 2004, 550,000 posters, brochures and other 

campaign materials were distributed. 

HHS has also developed comprehensive resource tools that could be used to educate and 

train intermediaries on how to interact with potential victims. Resource materials were created for 

health care professionals, law enforcement officers, and social service providers. The resource 

materials include: 

· Tips for identifying and helping victims of human trafficking 

47
· Screening questions to assess whether a person is a trafficking victim 

· Understanding the mindset of a trafficking victim 

· Communicating with victims of human trafficking 

· Health problems seen in victims of human trafficking 

· Α customizable Power Point presentation 

· Α pocket assessment card 

In Fiscal Year 2004, through a contract with Covenant House, HHS established a toll-free, 

national, 24-hours a day, seven-days-per-week Human Trafficking Information and Referral 

Hotline (1-888-3737-888), which serves callers in multiple languages and includes conference 

call access to a translation service with capability in more than 150 languages. To promote the 

hotline, the campaign produced various outreach materials, including stickers and Rolodex cards 

with the number and the types of services callers can receive. The hotline is prominent on all 

campaign materials and is promoted heavily in all media outreach. 

From April 2004 through the end of Fiscal Year 2004, the hotline received more than 

1,600 calls–many resulting in referrals to law enforcement and to NGOs. Numerous print and 

broadcast news stories have referenced the number, and President Bush promoted it at DOJ’s 

national training conference in Tampa, Florida, in July 2004. 

The campaign’s media effort focused on city-by-city launch events, with some additional 

efforts focused on national media and other local story angles. Through Fiscal Year 2004, more 

than 68.7 million media impressions were garnered as a result of media outreach efforts. 

Media outreach was primarily driven by the campaign launch events that occurred between 

April and October 2004 in the following cities: Atlanta, Milwaukee, Newark, Orlando, Phoenix, 

Philadelphia, Portland (OR), San Francisco, Seattle, and Tampa. Once a market was selected, key 

media outlets and reporters were identified in each market and outreach was conducted in 

conjunction with the rollout press event in that market. The campaign secured media coverage 

promoting Rescue & Restore and raising public awareness in the many outlets, including, for 

example, the Associated Press, Philadelphia Inquirer, Arizona Republic, Atlanta-Journal 

Constitution, Tampa Tribune, Newsday, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Newark Star-Ledger, Miami 

Herald, and local broadcast network affiliate coverage in every market. 

In each city, the campaign also concentrated on the appropriate ethnic media. This was 

particularly useful with the Hispanic media, where the campaign leveraged the availability of a 

Spanish-speaking HHS spokesperson to garner coverage on affiliates of the Univision and 

Telemundo networks. Research and interviews with former victims revealed that it is difficult to 

reach victims directly; however, there are some victims that may have access to ethnic media. 

Leveraging this potential touch point, HHS developed a targeted, paid-media outreach component 

that would touch victims directly and, potentially, ethnic intermediaries. In each rollout market, 

classified advertising space was purchased in select Hispanic, Russian, Chinese and Polish 

newspapers. The advertisements were strategically placed adjacent to massage parlor ads in the 

48
classified sections and called upon victims or anyone who may encounter victims (such as 

“Johns” who have, in the past, reported suspected cases of human trafficking) to call the 

Trafficking Information and Referral Hotline. HHS also developed and produced radio spots for 

Hispanic radio stations in the rollout markets. These radio spots also offered the hotline as a 

resource for victims. While it is unclear if the advertising is reaching victims directly, calls to the 

hotline have increased in conjunction with dates on which the print advertisements have run in 

certain markets. Because a link cannot be directly made between hotline calls and radio 

advertising, HHS decided to discontinue radio advertising after it occurred in the initial round of 

cities. 

Campaign outreach included national media such as CNN, ABC’s “Primetime Live,” 

Parade, Forbes, Latina, The Los Angeles Times, People and Marie Claire. Several of the features 

included interviews with HHS Assistant Secretary for Children and Families, Dr. Wade Horn, 

such as those in Forbes and The Los Angeles Times. While significant interest was generated, the 

lack of a victim willing to be interviewed stopped further development of the stories. While many 

grantees and other organizations have been contacted in an effort to find victims willing to tell 

their story, the efforts have only resulted in two victims being willing to do so. This problem is 

further complicated by the fact that a majority of reporters are looking specifically for victims of 

sex trafficking. 

The campaign also modified the content of two public service announcements (PSAs) 

addressing human trafficking, developed by the UN Office of Drugs and Crime in 2003, to 

address both sex and labor exploitation and added the Trafficking Information and Referral 

Hotline, Rescue & Restore logo, and HHS seal to the end of the spots. In addition, the campaign 

translated the spots into Spanish. The PSAs have been distributed in mass quantity in the rollout 

markets and, through Fiscal Year 2004, have aired in 23 markets on 35 television stations with 

more than 4.8 million viewers for a total of 246 airings. In addition to distributing them to the 

local TV network affiliates in each market, materials on how to pitch PSAs to local affiliates for 

use were provided to Rescue & Restore coalition partners. Congressman Dan Burton of Indiana 

also distributed the PSAs to national and cable networks with a letter signed by himself and six 

other Members of Congress. 

A key component to building awareness about human trafficking among intermediary 

groups involved forming or enhancing coalition partnerships with intermediaries in target markets 

and outreach to high-profile national organizations to aid in the campaign. These groups play an 

integral part in the campaign by disseminating materials to their local contacts and raising 

awareness through trainings and speaking events. In 2004, the campaign welcomed more than 

325 NGOs as coalition partners, including faith-based organizations, health care providers, social 

service organizations, and law enforcement agencies. A list of partners is attached as Appendix 2. 

49
HHS targeted for partnerships national organizations representing a variety of sectors 

including faith-based, law enforcement, child advocacy, health care, and social service 

organizations. Through Fiscal Year 2004, more that 45 national partnerships were secured. (See 

chart) 

National Partners of the Rescue and Restore Campaign include: 

American Immigration Lawyers Association

Boys and Girls Town USA

Break the Chain Coalition

Catholic Charities USA

Family Research Council 

Focus on the Family 

National Center for Missing & Exploited Children

National Consumer LeagueNational Council of La Raza 

National Immigration Forum 

United Methodist Church

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Migration & Refugee Services

YMCA International

Street Outreach Grants 

In Fiscal Year 2004, HHS’s Human Trafficking Program announced a new grant program 

for projects to expand existing outreach activities to identify trafficking victims. The purpose of 

the program is to increase the identification of trafficking victims, as defined by the TVPA, and to 

encourage victims to leave their trafficked condition by counseling them on the programs 

available to assist victims, by alerting local law enforcement where appropriate, and by connecting 

the victims with a qualified service provider prepared to assist victims of trafficking. 

The program strategy is to enlist groups that are already providing outreach to vulnerable 

populations in specific geographic areas. Such groups have expertise on their targeted 

populations, have built trust within those populations, and are therefore in the best position to 

identify victims and convince them to avail themselves of the federal anti-trafficking resources. 

Applicants can qualify for the street outreach grant whether or not their current activities 

pertain to trafficking. The grants will support direct, person-to-person contact, information 

sharing, counseling, and other communication between agents of the grant recipient and members 

of a specified target population. 

50
Populations among whom victims of trafficking may be found include, but are not limited 

to, prostitutes, persons engaged in sex entertainment, migrant farmer workers, domestic or 

household employees, low wage industrial or factory workers, janitors, homeless youth, restaurant 

and hotel employees, and immigrant populations generally. Public, private for-profit, and private 

nonprofit organizations, including faith-based organizations, are eligible to apply for any of these 

grants. For-profit entities are eligible to apply, although HHS funds may not be paid as profit to 

any recipient even if the recipient is a commercial organization. 

D. Training of Non-governmental Organizations 

The U.S. government collaborates routinely with NGOs that provide victims with direct 

services, who have been instrumental in helping to identify trafficking cases and victims. 

Outreach activities include presentations to corporate associations, academic groups and local 

agencies. Outreach addresses multi-jurisdictional issues, collaborative activities and problems of 

distinguishing between trafficking in persons and migrant smuggling. 

HHS presented at several conferences and other events to promote the Rescue & Restore 

campaign and raise awareness about human trafficking. For the National Center for Community 

Health Centers’ Annual Migrant Farm Worker Conference, HHS presented a workshop on 

trafficking and the campaign. As a result of participating at this conference, HHS has learned that 

a conference attendee called the Trafficking Information and Referral Hotline to report suspicious 

behavior, resulting in a large investigation. In addition, HHS also presented a workshop at the 

prestigious annual Dallas Crimes Against Children Conference in August 2004. The presentation 

focused on identifying and assisting child victims of human trafficking. Campaign materials were 

distributed at the conference, which was attended by more than 2,300 law enforcement officers 

and social service providers. HHS also sponsored a Rescue & Restore exhibit at the American 

College of Emergency Physicians’ Scientific Assembly in San Francisco, an annual October 

conference attracting some 5,000 emergency room providers. 

Through its Rescue and Restore campaign and its grantee network, HHS also funded 

several significant fora that fostered inter-agency collaboration. For example, HHS, ICE’s HSTU, 

and DOJ participated in the Second Annual Freedom Network Conference, held November 30­

December 3, 2003, in New York City. The Freedom Network, funded by an HHS grant, is a 

consortium of 16 NGOs that provide direct services to victims of trafficking. Similarly, HHS, 

HSTU, and DOJ also participated in the Forum on Trafficking in Children, held March 29-31, 

2004, in Houston, Texas. This invitation-only round-table discussion is sponsored jointly by the 

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Institute for Study of International 

Migration of Georgetown University. 

51
VII. Senior Policy Operating Group 

At the first meeting of the President’s Interagency Task Force on Trafficking in 2002, a 

Senior Policy Advisory Group was created to address inter-agency policy, program, and planning 

issues that arose in the implementation of the TVPA. In 2003, the President and Congress 

formalized the establishment of this group as the Senior Policy Operating Group (SPOG) to 

coordinate anti-trafficking policies, especially grant-making. 

The SPOG meets quarterly and includes representatives of the DOS, DOJ, DHS, HHS, 

DOL, USAID, the Office of Management and Budget, and the Central Intelligence Agency. The 

Department of Defense and the National Security Council also participate in SPOG meetings. 

Among other major projects, it has coordinated the President’s Initiative on Trafficking in 

Persons. In Fiscal Year 2004, the SPOG took action to implement several other key priorities. 

For example, in response to the National Security Presidential Directive on Trafficking in Persons 

(NSPD-22), which President Bush signed in December 2003, the SPOG created a mechanism for 

the exchange of information on agency strategic plans and programs and adopted a Grants Policy 

Statement to guide domestic and international grant-making agencies on the Administration’s new 

policies. In particular the guidelines require all anti-trafficking grants to be reviewed by the 

SPOG, give priority to organizations that support the policies outlined in NSPD-22; reach out to 

new organizations (faith-based, feminist, and community-based), and prohibit grants to 

organizations engaged in trafficking or favoring legalization or regulation of prostitution as a 

legitimate form of work. 

In Fiscal Year 2004, the SPOG created several subcommittees to further its work. The 

Subcommittee on Regulations was charged with drafting a regulation to implement the TVPRA’s 

limitation on awarding funds to programs and organizations that promote, support, or advocate the 

legalization of prostitution; the Subcommittee on Research was tasked to coordinate research 

projects on trafficking conducted by all SPOG member agencies; and the Subcommittee on Public 

Affairs was charged with coordinating the federal government’s outreach programs. 

VIII. Conclusion 

As this report has detailed, U.S. government departments and agencies provide victims 

with a range of social services, both directly and through grantees; vigorously investigate and 

prosecute trafficking cases; and provide training, outreach, and assistance to domestic and 

international law enforcement and non-government organizations. The United States is aided by 

the modern tools created by the TVPA to address this ancient evil with a renewed and intensified 

vigor. 

In his first policy address as Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales called trafficking “one of 

the most pernicious moral evils in the world today.” As Attorney General Gonzales stated, “This 

abomination does not exist only in other lands; it exists right here, on our shores. Today its 

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victims are usually aliens, many of them women and children, smuggled into our country and held 

in bondage, treated as commodities, stripped of their humanity.” 

The U.S. government is committed to combating this moral evil with all the resources 

available to it and will continue to guarantee the promise of the Thirteenth Amendment to the 

Constitution. The fight against trafficking and modern-day slavery is one of our highest priorities 

for ensuring justice in the United States and around the world. 

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