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LOCAL AND PRIVATE SECTOR INITIATIVES TO

COMBAT INTERNATIONAL HUMAN TRAFFICKING

HEARING

BEFORE THE

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS

FIRST SESSION

MAY 7, 2013

Serial No. 113–19

Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs

(

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/ or

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/

(II)

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

EDWARD R. ROYCE, California, Chairman 

CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey 

ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida 

DANA ROHRABACHER, California 

STEVE CHABOT, Ohio 

JOE WILSON, South Carolina 

MICHAEL T. MCCAUL, Texas 

TED POE, Texas 

MATT SALMON, Arizona 

TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania 

JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina 

ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois 

MO BROOKS, Alabama 

TOM COTTON, Arkansas 

PAUL COOK, California 

GEORGE HOLDING, North Carolina 

RANDY K. WEBER SR., Texas 

SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania 

STEVE STOCKMAN, Texas 

RON DESANTIS, Florida 

TREY RADEL, Florida 

DOUG COLLINS, Georgia 

MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina 

TED S. YOHO, Florida 

LUKE MESSER, Indiana 

ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York 

ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American 

Samoa 

BRAD SHERMAN, California 

GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York 

ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey 

GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia 

THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida 

BRIAN HIGGINS, New York 

KAREN BASS, California 

WILLIAM KEATING, Massachusetts 

DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island 

ALAN GRAYSON, Florida 

JUAN VARGAS, California 

BRADLEY S. SCHNEIDER, Illinois 

JOSEPH P. KENNEDY III, Massachusetts 

AMI BERA, California 

ALAN S. LOWENTHAL, California 

GRACE MENG, New York 

LOIS FRANKEL, Florida 

TULSI GABBARD, Hawaii 

JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas

AMY PORTER, Chief of Staff THOMAS SHEEHY, Staff Director

JASON STEINBAUM, Democratic Staff Director 

(III)

C O N T E N T S 

Page

WITNESSES 

Mr. Don Knabe, supervisor, Fourth District, Los Angeles County Board of 

Supervisors ........................................................................................................... 7

Mr. Bradley Myles, executive director and chief executive officer, Polaris 

Project ................................................................................................................... 16

Shawn MacDonald, Ph.D., director of programs and research, Verite ́ ................ 25

LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING 

Mr. Don Knabe: Prepared statement ..................................................................... 9

Mr. Bradley Myles: Prepared statement ................................................................ 18

Shawn MacDonald, Ph.D.: Prepared statement .................................................... 27

APPENDIX 

Hearing notice .......................................................................................................... 64

Hearing minutes ...................................................................................................... 65

The Honorable Gerald E. Connolly, a Representative in Congress from the 

Commonwealth of Virginia: Prepared statement .............................................. 67

(1)

LOCAL AND PRIVATE SECTOR INITIATIVES 

TO COMBAT INTERNATIONAL HUMAN 

TRAFFICKING 

TUESDAY, MAY 7, 2013

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS,

Washington, DC. 

The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:08 a.m., in room 

2172 Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Edward Royce (chairman of the committee) presiding. 

Chairman ROYCE. This focus of this committee hearing is on local 

and private sector initiatives to combat international human trafficking in persons. If we think about it, one of the big questions of 

civilization is how we treat those who are most defenseless in our 

midst, and the responsibility that we all have in a society in order 

to try to come to the aid of those who are most exploited. And in 

terms of trafficking in persons, this is one of the most grievous offenses against human dignity. It impacts almost every country on 

this planet. It disproportionately victimizes girls, children. 

Experts estimate that, in terms of all forms of trafficking, there 

are 20 million people worldwide subjected to forced labor, a broad 

designation that covers everything from debt bondage to the forced 

conscription of child soldiers, to the commercial exploitation of millions of women and children trapped in lives of sexual servitude. 

But even these jarring statistics can obscure the despair at the 

heart of these crimes. The harm of trafficking may be more clearly 

seen in the eyes of an abused 12-year-old girl who is being robbed 

of her freedom, robbed of her youth and of her hope. 

My chief of staff, Amy Porter, has worked with young girls in 

India and in Cambodia, girls rescued from brothels and other deplorable situations whose ages ranged from 16 years of age down 

to 3. 

As we will hear today, these are not just faraway problems affecting the developing world. More than 17,000 people are trafficked into the United States every year, and there is an estimate 

of 100,000 American citizen children who are victims within the 

United States of trafficking. 

And just this week, the media has reported a Federal investigation into the alleged trafficking of two Filipino victims by a Saudi 

diplomat here in the DC area. 

This committee has played a role in putting human trafficking 

onto the radar screen for governments everywhere. In the past 13 

years, international peer pressure and the potential threat of U.S. 

2

sanctions have pushed many nations to try to avoid the stain of a 

‘‘tier III’’ designation in the State Department’s annual report, and 

more than 130 countries have enacted anti-trafficking laws. But, of 

course, passing a law is not the same thing as enforcing that law. 

And not only does much work remain to be done to prosecute traffickers and protect victims everywhere, but a lot of work remains 

to be done on this committee. 

Much of the focus on trafficking has been brought by our Subcommittee Chairman Smith over the years. He is the author of the 

original Trafficking Victims Protection Act, the TVPA. And he held 

an excellent hearing 2 weeks ago on the State Department’s country tier rankings. I fully expect the committee to return to those 

issues again in June, when the administration releases its annual 

TIP Report. 

But the struggle that I and Subcommittee Chairman Chris Smith 

have had over the last few years is with the State Department and 

their lack of willingness, their lack of honesty in naming names 

and in putting on the tier III list these countries that are involved. 

And in many cases, as in the case of Cambodia, this corruption 

goes right up to the top. And it is far past time, far past time for 

this government to be bringing all the pressure we need to bring 

to bear on regimes around the world that turn a blind eye or, as 

is the case of Cambodia, law enforcement agencies that are actually 

culpable in these abuses. 

The focus today is on some of the promising local and private sector initiatives that are connecting and empowering communities 

around the world in the fight against human trafficking. 

As is the case in so many endeavors, local communities, individual citizens, private businesses are often the engine of real 

change. And in that regard, I am pleased to welcome as one of our 

witnesses Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe, whose is 

here with his wife, Julie. Their commitment has aided victims and 

raised awareness among our shared constituents and throughout 

the State of California. 

The committee looks forward to learning more today about how 

these innovative partnerships are developing new tools to defeat 

traffickers, to rescue their victims, to fight the spread of modernday slavery around the globe. 

And I now recognize my good friend the ranking member for his 

remarks before turning briefly to the chairman and ranking member of our Human Rights Subcommittee for 2-minute opening statements. Mr. Engel? 

Mr. ENGEL. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, for holding 

this hearing. I know that California has been particularly progressive on measures to stop human trafficking. 

Supervisor Knabe, Mr. Myles, and Dr. MacDonald, welcome to 

the Foreign Affairs Committee. I look forward to hearing your testimony on creating successful local and private sector initiatives in 

the fight against human trafficking and modern-day slavery. 

The International Labor Organization estimates that there are 

21 million victims of trafficking worldwide, including 51⁄2 million 

children. The Department of Justice and the FBI reported over 

1,200 human trafficking investigations in 2011 in the United 

3

States. In reality, it is likely that there are many more victims of 

trafficking since it is a widely unreported crime. 

Unfortunately, trafficking is a thriving industry found in all re- gions of the world. It generates more than $30 billion in profits 

every year from the sale of human beings and the estimated proceeds from the activities or goods produced by its victims. 

Human trafficking is a crime that requires the coordinated action 

of governments to stop and prosecute, but the private sector also 

has a key role to play by engaging with NGOs and governments 

to combat trafficking. Members of the private sector admit a difficult truth, that human trafficking in their supply chains, factories, farms, plantations, and restaurants is a serious problem. 

Only by working hand in hand with private sector partners can we 

put an end to modern-day slavery. 

Since 2001, I have been deeply involved in a closely related issue: 

Ending child labor in the global cocoa industry. After learning of 

horrendous abuses involving children being sold into slavery in the 

cocoa fields of Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana, Senator Harkin and I formulated the Harkin-Engel protocol to put an end to these despicable practices. This approach was the first of its kind. Over the 

past 12 years, we have worked with the Governments of Cote 

d’Ivoire, Ghana, and the global chocolate industry to formalize engagements with the private sector. The private sector is supportive of these efforts with $10 million matched by $10 million in U.S. Government funds. The protocol 

supports active civic engagement of local communities to fight exploitation. We must do even more to promote greater certification 

and verification efforts across a wide range of industries to ensure 

that the products we consume at home are not tainted by trafficked 

labor. 

Working in human trafficking is a bipartisan cause. I am pleased 

that the Trafficking Victims Protection Act was reauthorized in 

February of this year along with the Violence Against Women Act, 

which included some important trafficking provisions. I also want 

to recognize President Obama’s Executive Order strengthening protections against trafficking in Federal contracts, which he issued 

last year. 

The original Trafficking Victims Protection Act, championed by 

our colleague Chris Smith, established a plan to eliminate the 

scourge of human trafficking. It included the three P’s: Prevention, 

Protection, and Prosecution. And, under the leadership of Secretary 

Hillary Clinton, a fourth P was established, partnerships with governments and organizations, the subjects of today’s hearings. 

I have been impressed by Supervisor Knabe’s efforts to raise 

awareness of trafficking in the Los Angeles area, Polaris’ partnership with Google to create a global anti-trafficking hotline and 

Verite ́’s work on ensuring that companies adhere to international 

labor standards down their supply chain. 

I am interested in hearing more from today’s witnesses on how 

to bring more businesses to the table to fight human trafficking 

and learn how the U.S. can lead by example for the rest of the 

world. 

One last point. I would like to commend the work of the State 

Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, 

4

or J/TIP. Their annual reports in human trafficking worldwide is 

key in making sure both Congress and the public understand the 

extent of the problem and the progress being made toward its 

elimination. I look forward to this year’s report. 

Mr. Chairman, I want to thank you again for your leadership 

and for holding this important hearing. And I look forward to the 

testimony. 

Chairman ROYCE. Thank you, Mr. Engel. 

We now go to Mr. Smith of New Jersey. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I, too, want to 

thank you for your leadership and for holding this extraordinarily 

important hearing on best practices by the local and private sectors. And I want to make the point that it is a fact that innovation 

and best practices that are developed in the United States are 

being exported to fight human trafficking abroad. 

The three P’s of Prevention, Protection, and Prosecution have become the standards by which we evaluate every country’s anti-trafficking efforts and the hammer with which we have chipped away 

at slavery around the world for more than a decade. 

Predictably, the traffickers have evolved and adapted along the 

way, but so have we, with the invaluable help of local governments, 

nongovernmental organizations, and private enterprise thinking 

carefully and creatively about what they can offer to this important 

fight. 

NGOs like Airline Ambassadors and Innocents at Risk pioneered 

training for flight attendants and other airline personnel to ensure 

that flight crews would know how to recognize potential victims of 

human trafficking and who to call for help. 

The Department of Homeland Security has subsequently developed this idea into a full-fledged training known as Blue Lightning 

for use by commercial airlines. Even more, what began as an NGO 

training for airline personnel has now developed into training for 

train conductors, bus station attendants, and other transportation 

professionals, as well as the hotel industry, who may have the opportunity to identify and help rescue trafficking victims. 

In my capacity as special representative to the Organization for 

Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly, I 

have had the privilege of sharing the fine work of Airline Ambassadors and the broader transportation implications with 57 participating states of the OSCE. 

In like manner, it is my deepest hope, and I raise it at every bilateral meeting that I have, that African countries, Asian countries, 

and all nations will embrace situational awareness strategies that 

empower the training to report suspicious activity to stop this egregious exploitation. 

The Airline Ambassadors initiative has already resulted in the 

rescue of more than 100 trafficking victims and will soon rescue 

thousands more. Collaboratively, we are narrowing the space in 

which traffickers can operate. Every best practice and innovation 

we can share with the world helps to tip the scale a little more in 

the direction of freedom for the enslaved and then prison for the 

slave masters. 

You pointed out the importance of honesty, Mr. Chairman. I am 

concerned. And that is why I had the hearing just a couple of 

5

weeks ago that now that those countries that are on tier II watch 

lists that have horrific trafficking records vis-a`-vis the minimum 

standards. 

Now, unfortunately, with the new reauthorization, there is a tipping of the balance toward the regional bureaus and a power shift 

away from the TIP office; there is always a fight inside the State 

Department. I am deeply concerned about those like China; Vietnam, and I know you have been a tenacious champion in fighting 

for human rights in Vietnam, and other countries will not go down 

to tier III, where they belong because the regional bureaus will 

have a disproportionate say as to what happens. 

We plan on holding hearings when the TIP Report comes out. We 

have given them forewarning with the hearing we have just had 

of these deep concerns. Just be honest, as you pointed out so well, 

Mr. Chairman. Call it the way it really is and not have that TIP 

Report in some way reflect a fiction. 

I yield back. 

Chairman ROYCE. Thank you, Mr. Smith. We do put them on notice. 

Karen Bass from Los Angeles, California, do you have an opening 

statement you would like to make? 

Ms. BASS. I do. I do. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, for holding this meeting, and ranking member. 

I was fortunate enough to assist with the passage of Supply 

Chain Act during my time in the California Assembly. So I am 

pleased to see the committee take up the issue at this time. 

I would also like to thank our witnesses for your testimony and 

recognize you for the inspiring work that you do every day to combat the exploitation of individuals domestically and internally. Supervisor Knabe and Child Welfare Director Philip Browning, I also 

want to personally commend you for launching the L.A. County 

Anti-Child Sex Trafficking Campaign and for your continued advocacy on behalf of foster youth. There is also the issue of sexual exploitation of women, men, and often children. 

This issue is particularly important to me because of the impact 

on my hometown of Los Angeles and the prevalence of foster youth 

being trafficked for this purpose. In 2012, the L.A. County reported 

that an astonishing 59 percent of youth identified as victims of sex 

trafficking were part of the foster care system. Forced to bounce in 

and out of homes without basic physical or emotional needs fulfilled, these youth are often exploited by pimps and are conditioned 

to believe that their value is based on how much income they can 

generate. It is absolutely unacceptable to allow the continued victimization and abuse of a population that we have vowed to care 

for and protect. 

That is why I, along with my colleague Tom Marino, have reintroduced the Child Welfare Response to Trafficking Act. This bill 

will provide child welfare employees with appropriate tools to identify, document, educate, and counsel child trafficking victims and 

at-risk youth and require these agencies to report the numbers of 

trafficking victims in foster care and their plans to combat trafficking to the Federal Government. 

But congressional action is not enough. We must undertake a 

whole of society approach to ensure the safety and dignity of trafVerDate 0ct 09 2002 12:53 Jun 05, 2013 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_FULL\050713\80798 HFA PsN: SHIRL
6

ficking victims. There are many private organizations that are currently addressing this issue in many creative ways. Humanity 

United, a foundation devoted to advancing human freedom across 

the globe, has supported anti-trafficking initiatives by the Federal 

Government and the California Attorney General’s Office. The University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Communication in Journalism has been working closely with the FBI and 

other Federal agencies to study technology’s role in both facilitating 

and fighting human trafficking. Many hotel chains are now training their employees to identify signs of sex trafficking. We really 

appreciate that. 

I look forward to hearing what other strategies are in place to 

address this problem in gaining a better understanding of where 

the gaps exist in our efforts to end human trafficking locally as 

well as internationally. 

Thank you. I yield back my time. 

Chairman ROYCE. Thank you, Congresswoman Bass. 

Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe, who is the first of 

our witnesses with us today, has been a tireless crusader in Los 

Angeles County ever since he became aware of the heinous child 

sex trafficking problems in our own backyard. And those challenges 

represent the victimization of girls as young as 12. He has pushed 

for multidisciplinary outreach and rehabilitation services for sexually trafficked females in the juvenile justice system. As you heard, 

he spearheaded several different initiatives. 

But a year ago in conjunction with law enforcement and transit 

officials and private sector media companies, he led an anti-sex 

trafficking campaign to raise public awareness and engagement by 

placing bilingual signs and billboards in high-traffic public places 

in the community, such as on the buses, on transit. And that program has been further extended this fall. 

He has also been a strong public advocate for the Californians 

Against Sexual Exploitation Act, an act which is now law in the 

State of California, that strengthens penalties against traffickers 

and extends victims’ protections. 

We also have with us Mr. Bradley Myles, chief executive officer 

of the Polaris Project, a leading organization in the fight against 

human trafficking and modern-day slavery. Mr. Myles helped 

launch the National Human Trafficking Hotline to identify and assist survivors of trafficking. Previously he worked to build the 

Human Trafficking Task Force here in Washington, DC. 

We also have with us Dr. Shawn MacDonald. Dr. MacDonald is 

the director of programs and research at Verite ́, a group that works 

with private companies to make their supply chains free of human 

trafficking victims. Prior to his current position, he worked as the 

director of accreditation at the Fair Labor Association. 

And, without objection, the witnesses’ full prepared statements 

will be made part of the record. Members may have 5 days to submit statements, questions, and extraneous material for the record. 

And we would ask that everybody summarize their opening statements within 5 minutes. We will begin with Supervisor Knabe. 

Mr. KNABE. Thank you. 

7

STATEMENT OF MR. DON KNABE, SUPERVISOR, FOURTH 

DISTRICT, LOS ANGELES COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS 

Mr. KNABE. Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, thank you 

for your leadership in helping to raise awareness of this horrific 

issue of child sex trafficking around the globe. 

I appreciate the opportunity to be with you today. And, Mr. 

Chairman, as you said, given our time frame, I am going to summarize the written statement which I have submitted to the committee. 

As some of you may know, Los Angeles County is the largest 

county in the Nation, with over 10 million residents. And in my 

district alone, I represent over 2 million people. I have been honored to serve the county for nearly 20 years. But never in my time 

in office have I heard an issue as shocking and disturbing as what 

is happening to young girls right here in the streets of America. 

About 18 months ago, staff from our Probation Department came 

to me to discuss what they were seeing as an escalating problem 

in our juvenile justice system: Young girls being arrested for prostitution. While society often has characterized it as a choice, the 

average age of entry we discovered into prostitution is 12 to 13. 

Shortly after our initial meeting, at a fundraising event for survivor programs, one of our probation officers was texted that a 10-

year-old, a 10-year-old, had just been taken into custody for prostitution at 6 o’clock p.m. on a Tuesday night. No 10-year-old little 

girl is choosing that life. 

Today I would like to just briefly discuss some of our efforts to 

combat child sex trafficking and the intersection of international 

and local efforts to safeguard our most vulnerable young people. 

Los Angeles County, unfortunately, is recognized as one of the 

hubs for sex trafficking in the Nation. With our two major ports, 

airport, proximity to the border, we are particularly vulnerable, 

though we are not alone. Big cities, small towns across this Nation 

are waking up to the horror that young girls are being trafficked 

across city limits, state lines, and country borders. 

Despite the varying locations, however, the story of these girls is 

much the same. Children who fall victim to predatory adults are 

often in the streets because of abuse or neglect at home. The trafficker, the scum bag pimp, as they are often called, in the United 

States promises love, family, a job, and security. 

In Los Angeles, our infamous gangs, many of which have international connections, are now engaging in child sex trafficking because it is much safer for them to sell a girl than guns or drugs. 

And, frankly, it is more profitable. Once put to work in the streets, 

these young girls can be given a quota of $500 or more a night, 

which could lead to 8 or 10 or more sexual acts, which she must 

meet or, unfortunately, risk brutal violence. 

Indeed, these threats are very legitimate. One survivor told us of 

an incident in which several girls were taken to the desert and 

forced to watch as one was burned to death for attempting to run 

away. 

As we see patterns in child sex trafficking across geography, we 

also must develop models for protection and prevention by working 

together across all levels of government and with NGOs both here 

as well as internationally. 

8

For us in Los Angeles County, it started with building awareness. As a member of the board, we also sit on the MTA board. 

Last year, we posted a campaign in English and Spanish about sexually trafficked youth on all 3,000 Metrobuses, railcars, trains, and 

at stations, and also on our Metrolink system, which crosses county 

borders, into places where we believe young people are most vulnerable. 

I was pleased that the private sector voluntarily joined us in our 

efforts. Clear Channel and Lamar Advertising donated over 100 

billboards and 50 digital displays to show advertisements across 

Los Angeles County. 

We have created a video called ‘‘Manipulated’’ to tell the story of 

child sex trafficking, which has had over 40,000 hits and been 

viewed in 171 countries. 

Raising awareness, however, is just not about the public. 

Through a grant through this gracious committee here, we have 

trained over 1,600 people, like judges, attorneys, county staff who 

regularly come in contact with victims but may not realize it. 

Through another Federal grant, we have established a Collaborative Court to focus specifically on the victims of child sex trafficking. Through this court, which is dedicated to the victims only, 

we are able to provide the girls with wrap-around victim-centered 

response teams to help them with their physical as well as their 

mental health issues as well as housing, education, and training 

services. 

Last summer, Los Angeles County hosted the first national Empowerment Conference for the victims, at-risk girls, to help them 

overcome their challenges; heal their wounds; and, most importantly, look toward the future. In fact, five of these young women, 

survivors, will be here in DC this week to advocate on behalf of all 

victims of human trafficking. And, of course, helping the victims is 

critical, but we also must find ways to prevent this atrocity altogether. 

We are beginning to build partnerships with local school districts. We have a program called My Life, My Choice to select middle schools where we know exploitation is the highest. 

It has been 18 months since we started our journey in Los Angeles County. I am proud of what our county staff has accomplished 

and pleased that we have had support from our Federal partners 

here as well as the private sector. 

The voices of these abused children often remain silent. In the 

past, young girls arrested for prostitution were judged by society 

exactly as their pimps predicted. 

The pimp life, outrageously, has been celebrated. Through education, survivor, and prevention programs and legislation, we are 

going to reverse this injustice. Young girls, those that we are responsible to protect, as you all know, no matter where they are 

from or where they have been trafficked, they are true victims, but 

that we are here to support to help them realize that their lives 

are valuable and that they are worthy of the dreams they once 

imagined. We must do everything we can to get these girls off that 

track and on a path to a better life ahead and together say no 

more, not in our streets, not to our young girls. 

Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today. 

9

[The prepared statement of Mr. Knabe follows:]


80798a-1.eps

Testimony by Mr. Don Knabe 

Supervisor, Fourth District 

Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors 

House Committee on Foreign Affairs 

May 7,2013 

Hearing: "Local and Private Sector Initiatives to Combat International 

Human Trafficking" 
10


80798a-2.eps

Mr. Chairman, members of the Committee, thank you for your leadership in raising 

awareness of the horrific issue of child sex trafficking around the globe. I appreciate the 

opportunity to speak with you today. 

My name is Don Knabe and I serve as Los Angeles County Supervisor for the Fourth 

District. Los Angeles County is the largest county in the nation, with over 10 million 

residents. In my district alone, I represent over two million people. 

I have been honored to serve Los Angeles County for nearly 20 years. While the County 

serves as the ultimate safety net for those most in need, never in my time in office have 

I heard an issue as shocking and disturbing as what is happening to young girls right 

here in our streets in America. 

About 18 months ago, staff from our Probation Department came to me to discuss what 

they were seeing as an escalating problem in our juvenile justice system - young girls 

being arrested for prostitution. While society often characterizes it as a choice, the 

average age of entry into prostitution is 12 to 13. 

Shortly after our initial meeting, at a fundraising event for survivor programs, one of our 

Probation officers was notified that a 10 year-old had just been taken into custody for 

prostitution at 6pm on a Tuesday evening. No 10 year-old little girl is choosing that life! 

In the year and a half since we began proactively addressing the sexual exploitation of 

children, we have gained significant insight into this issue, while recognizing we have a 

long journey ahead to protect these girls and prevent this heinous crime. 

Today, I would like to talk to you about our efforts to combat child sex trafficking and the 

intersection of international and local efforts to safeguard our most vulnerable young 

people. 

Los Angeles County is recognized as one of the hubs for sex trafficking in the nation. 

With our two major ports, airport and proximity to the border, we are particularly 

vulnerable, though we are not alone. Big cities and small towns across this nation are 

waking up to the horror that young girls are being trafficked across city limits, state lines 

and country borders. 

Despite the varying locations, however, the story of these girls is much the same. 

Children who fall victim to predatory adults who sexually exploit them for commercial 

gain are often in the streets because of abuse or neglect at home. The trafficker, or 

pimp as they are often called in the U.S., promises love, family, a job, security. 

In Los Angeles, our infamous gangs, many of which have international connections, are 

increasingly engaged in child sex trafficking because it is safer for them to sell a girl 

than drugs or guns, and frankly, it can be more profitable. Once put to work in the 

streets, a girl can be given a quota of $500 or more a night, which could lead to eight to 

ten or more sexual acts a night, which she must meet or risk brutal violence. 
11


80798a-3.eps

A young girl has suffered in her own home and then moves to a life on the streets where 

she is further victimized. A road out seems impossible. The pimp coerces her 

emotionally or physically, either by convincing her that what she has done will make her 

a societal outcast, or by threatening her or her family with violence. Indeed, these 

threats are very legitimate. One survivor told us of an incident in which several girls 

were taken to the desert and forced to watch as one was burned to death for attempting 

to run away. 

As we see patterns in child sex trafficking across geography, we must also develop 

models for protection and prevention, by working together across levels of government 

and with NGOs, both here and internationally. 

For us in Los Angeles County, it started with building awareness. I would argue that 

there is some public knowledge of human trafficking, but to most people, it is happening 

"over there" in some distant foreign country, not here in our communities. I admit that I, 

too, was guilty of that assumption. So we began our efforts with a focus on several 

levels of outreach. 

As a County Board Supervisor, I also sit on our Metropolitan Transit Authority Board. 

Last year, we launched a campaign to post information, in English and Spanish, about 

sexually-trafficked youth on all 3,000 Metro buses, on rail cars, trains, and at stations, 

and on all Metrolink trains (which cross county borders) to shine a light on this travesty 

in those places where we believe young people are most vulnerable (a copy is included 

with this testimony). 

I was pleased that the private sector voluntarily joined us in our efforts. Clear Channel 

and Lamar Advertising donated over 100 billboards and 50 digital displays to show the 

advertisement across Los Angeles County (a copy is included with this testimony). 

We also created a video called Manipulated, to tell the story of child sex trafficking 

through the eyes of a survivor and an undercover officer. It has had over 40,000 hits 

and has been viewed in 171 countries (a copy is included with this testimony). 

Raising awareness, however, is not just about the public. Through a federal grant, we 

have trained over 1600 people, including judges, attorneys, community partners, county 

staff and other stakeholders who regularly come in contact with victims. Similarly, we 

would like to help medical professionals in emergency rooms and rape crisis centers 

see the warning signs. 

Through another federal grant, we established a Collaborative Court to focus 

specifically on the victims of child sex trafficking. As it is a misdemeanor charge, the 

children arrested for prostitution are often released, with their pimp waiting outside the 

courthouse doors. Through the Court, we are able to provide the young girls with a 

victim-centered response team to help them with their physical and mental health 

issues, and to support them with housing, education and training services. 
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Last summer, Los Angeles County hosted the first national Empowerment Conference, 

"Inspiring Hope through Survivor Leadership," for the victims and at-risk girls to help 

them overcome their challenges, heal their wounds and look towards the future. In fact, 

five of those young women are here in Washington, D.C. this week to advocate on 

behalf of all victims of human trafficking. 

Of course, helping the victims is critical, but we must also find ways to prevent this 

atrocity altogether. We are beginning to build partnerships with local school districts to 

bring a preventive curriculum we are using in our probation halls, My Life, My Choice, to 

select middle schools where we know exploitation is highest. 

As the largest county in the nation, I believe it is our duty to share our knowledge, 

experiences and programs with other jurisdictions. Earlier this year, we hosted the 

National Association of Counties' Smart Justice Symposium. Our County Probation 

Department and Juvenile Court officials joined with Homeland Security and the FBI to 

share information with large and small counties across the United States. 

While survivor and prevention programs are fundamental, legislative action is necessary 

to punish the true criminals and defend the victims. Last year, the voters of California 

overwhelming passed the CASE Act, the toughest human trafficking law in the country. 

It will strengthen penalties and increase prison terms for human traffickers and protect 

sexually exploited children. Two pieces of legislation have also been introduced to add 

pimping, pandering and human trafficking to the list of crimes associated with gang 

activity, and to help us better assist children in these circumstances who are in our 

foster care system. 

It's been 18 months since we started on this journey in Los Angeles County. I am proud 

of what our County staff has accomplished and pleased that we have had support from 

our federal partners and the private sector. 

The voices of abused children often remain silent. In the past, young girls arrested for 

prostitution were judged by society, exactly as their pimps predicted. The pimp life, 

outrageously, has been celebrated. Through education, survivor and prevention 

programs, and legislation, we will reverse this injustice. Young girls, those we are 

responsible to protect, will know that, no matter where they are from or how they have 

been trafficked, they are the true victims. But that we are here for support, to help them 

realize their lives are valuable and that they are worthy of the dreams they once 

imagined. 

We must do everything we can to get these girls off the track and on a path to a better 

life ahead and together say, "No more; not in our streets; not to our young girls." 

Thank you again for the opportunity to speak with you today. 

4 
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16

Chairman ROYCE. Thank you, Mr. Knabe. 

Mr. Myles? Mr. Myles, just hit that button there. 

Mr. MYLES. There we go. 

Chairman ROYCE. There you go. 

Mr. MYLES. I will start again. 

STATEMENT OF MR. BRADLEY MYLES, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR 

AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, POLARIS PROJECT 

Mr. MYLES. Thank you for convening this hearing today and inviting me to speak. My name is Bradley Myles. I am the CEO of 

Polaris Project. We are a nonprofit organization dedicated to combating human trafficking and modern slavery. 

In my testimony today, I would like to focus on one area of a 

comprehensive approach to fighting trafficking, which is anti-trafficking hotlines and the powerful role that hotlines can play as part 

of an effective anti-trafficking response. And let’s first start with a 

point about victim identification. 

You all mentioned the statistic of 21 million. Well, that same 

year the Trafficking in Persons report estimated that only around 

41,000 trafficking victims were identified globally. So based on 

those 2 estimates, 21 million and 41,000, our collective victim identification rates are not yet even at 1 percent of the total people in 

modern slavery. 

And one of the most common problems is that victims don’t know 

where to go for help. They don’t know that there are numbers that 

they can call for help. 

So Polaris Project has piloted local anti-trafficking hotlines in 

multiple U.S. cities. And for the past 5 years, we have operated the 

country’s 24/7 central human trafficking hotline, the National 

Human Trafficking Resource Center. The number is 1–888–373–

7888. This hotline is funded, in part, by the U.S. Department of 

Health and Human Services. 

We have also recently launched a national texting service, which 

is BeFree, 233733, in partnership with THORN, Twilio, 

Salesforce.com, in an effort to reach more victims. 

Here are some of the highlights of the work that we have seen 

on the U.S. national hotline. First, we have fielded over 75,000 

calls. They are coming in at a rate of about 80 a day. Thus far, we 

have learned about 9,000 survivors of trafficking, and we have received calls directly from 3,500 survivors of trafficking. So the survivors are calling the hotline directly. We reported over 3,200 cases 

of trafficking to law enforcement authorities. 

So this brings me to a point about hotlines and the importance 

of data. Not only can hotlines play a role in victim identification 

and connecting survivors to services, hotlines can also play a role 

as robust sources of data to understand the crime of trafficking. By 

adding a data analysis component, hotlines can identify the newest 

trends in patterns and then communicate those to relevant actors 

in the field to learn about how to fight this crime. 

So, moving forward, I would like to share with you two initiatives that we are working on, both related to anti-trafficking hotlines globally. The first is in 2012, Polaris Project launched our 

new global programming with funding, in part, from the U.S. Department of State Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in PerVerDate 0ct 09 2002 12:53 Jun 05, 2013 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00020 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_FULL\050713\80798 HFA PsN: SHIRL
17

sons. And through this recent TIP office grant, what we are going 

to do is we are going to map and identify every human trafficking 

hotline globally around the world. We are going to connect with 

those hotlines to learn more about them, and we are going to offer 

training and technical assistance to support the creation and expansion of other human trafficking hotlines in target countries. 

In the early months of this program, we have already identified 

70 anti-trafficking hotlines around the world that we are beginning 

to be in touch with. And some of the initial lessons that we have 

learned are that hotlines around the world are essentially hidden 

gems. They are under-resourced. They are under-publicized. They 

are uncoordinated. And they are not fully maximizing their potential to identify more victims to connect them with services and to 

understand how to fight this crime. So this brings me to the second 

initiative. 

In April 2013, we joined with Liberty Asia and La Strada International to form a new network of anti-trafficking hotlines across 

the U.S., Europe, and Asia. This initiative, entitled the Global 

Human Trafficking Hotline Network, recently received a global impact award from Google and engineering support from Google 

Ideas, Palantir Technologies, and Salesforce.com. And through this 

network, we are developing a more coordinated global response for 

victims of this transnational crime. And one of our goals is hotline 

coverage for every part of the world. 

So let me end with these final thoughts. We need to modernize 

the concept of a hotline. For us, next generation hotlines need to 

communicate, not just through the phone but through texting, 

through email, through online, through social media. Hotline can 

also build better cloud-based call data tracking systems, and they 

could build better data analysis systems. These are some of the 

new standards that we could aim for. 

So imagine what our global anti-trafficking effort could feel like 

if there were a well-publicized, well-resourced hotline operating in 

every country or every region of the world. And through the 

GHTHN network that we are building these hotlines, we are sharing data. They were leveraging new technologies. They are 

partnering with the private sector and coordinating more with each 

other. 

And, combined with the spread of mobile devices around the 

world, this new global safety net will make it easier for the millions of people in slavery to reach out to the hotline and access 

help. To make all of this come to life, hotlines rely on public awareness. And it all starts with public awareness; with training; as 

Congressman Smith said, situational awareness strategies; transport systems; hotels, as Congresswoman Bass mentioned. And if we 

could take the situational awareness strategies, channel them into 

a well network infrastructure of hotlines, channel those calls into 

referral relationships to law enforcement and social service providers, and add to that data analysis to understand the crime, that 

is a powerful recipe for fighting trafficking in any country. So these 

are some of the initiatives that Polaris is working on that we believe will make a major impact in the global fight against trafficking. 

18

Thank you for this opportunity to speak before you today. I will 

look forward to taking your questions. Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Myles follows:]


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Chairman Royce, Ranking Member Engel, and Committee Members, 

Thank you for convening this hearing on Local and Private Sector Initiatives to Combat 

International Human Trafficking and for inviting a diverse group of stakeholders from the antitrafficking field to share our work with you. 

My name is Bradley Myles, and I am the Executive Director and CEO of Polaris Project, a nonprofit organization headquartered in Washington, DC and dedicated to combatting human 

trafficking and modern-day slavery. Polaris Project was founded in 2002, and we are named 

after the North Star, "Polaris," that guided slaves to freedom along the Underground Railroad. Tn 

our first 10 years of operations, Polaris Project's direct victim services programs have served 

more than 500 survivors of human trafficking; our policy advocacy program has been involved 

in the passage of multiple federal bills and nearly 100 state bills on human trafficking; our 

training and technical assistance programs have offered training to nearly 100,000 stakeholders 

and community members; and through our operation of the National Human Trafficking 

Resource Center (NHTRC) hotline, we have fielded over 75,000 calls, and played a role in 

identifying nearly 9,000 survivors of trafficking to date. We focus on all fonns and all types of 

human trafficking including men and women, adults and children, sex trafficking and labor 

trafficking, and immigrant and U.S. citizen victims. 

In my testimony today, I plan to focus primarily on one area of Polaris Project's comprehensive 

approach anti-trafficking hotlines and the powerful role that hotlines playas a critical part of an 

effective anti-trafficking response in any country. I will share lessons learned from our work that 

began with operating local community-based hodines in communities such as Washington, DC, 

and Newark, NJ, which then led to our work operating our country's central human trafficking 

hotline over the past five years. Beginning in 2012, our ten year anniversary, we launched our 

future global vision for expanding the scope of our work in the area of hot lines because we 

believe that investing in hodines can playa transfonnative role in the future of the global antitrafficking movement. 

The Persistent Challenge of Victim Identification 

Despite years of tangible progress in the global fight against human trafficking, many challenges 

remain that are ripe for intervention, innovation, and progress. Victim identification is one major 

challenge that warrants increased and urgent attention. Put simply, trafficking victims are not 

being identified and connected with services at fast enough rates, in the United States and in 

countries throughout the world. In 2012, the International Labor Organization (ILO) estimated 

that there are nearly 21 million people held in forms offorced labor and modem slavery 

worldwide. That same year, the June 2012 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report estimated that 

only 41,210 trafficking victims were identified in 2011. Based on these two estimates, we can 

conclude that as an anti-trafficking field, our collective victim identification rates are not yet 

even at 1 percent of the total people held in modem slavery. As one of the most pressing human 

rights issues facing our world today, we cannot accept the status quo of these low victim 

identification rates. 

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One of the common problems most often faced by a trafficking victim in trying to escape their 

situation is that they don't know whom to call or where to get help. Our experience has shown 

that well-run and well-publicized anti-trafficking hotlines can reach survivors and playa major 

role in increasing victim identification. 

Piloting Local Trafficking Hotlines 

Polaris Project first piloted operating anti-trafficking hotlines through our local victim services 

teams in Washington, DC and New Jersey. From 2003 through 2006, we operated local cell 

phone hotlines for trafficking survivors to call. These hotlines were operated by individual staff 

members and volunteers who were willing to be on-call 2417 to answer hotline calls as they came 

in. As community partners and law enforcement began to distribute our local hotline numbers to 

survivors and other at-risk populations, we saw first-hand how promoting the number led to a 

spike in the numbers of trafficking victims that called us seeking services. We began to see how 

marketing the number led to new victims being found I'll never forget the night that we 

received a call from two underage girls who were being forced by a pimp into the commercial 

sex trade in Washington, DC. The girls were from the Midwest, and a pimp had lured them to 

DC through a mix of manipulation, lies, and false promises. We first met these two girls through 

a phone call. They had only been in DC for a few days. A local DC police officer had seen the 

girls the day before, had a gut instinct that something was wrong, and gave them Polaris' local 

hotline number to call. That next day, when their pimp was asleep in the hotel room, the girls 

hid in the bathroom with the water running and whispered into the phone as they called the 

number for help. Without that phone call, we would have never known where these two girls 

were, or what they were going through, or who their trafficker was. Yet, the hotline number 

became a lifeline, and it was the bridge that connected them to us. Thanks to that hotline call, we 

were able to mobilize a response with law enforcement that night to get those two girls away 

from that pimp and connect them to our services. They're both now back in their home state and 

doing well. 

But there were dozens of other cases like this one, and time and time again, the calls and tips 

came in through the local hotline. As patterns and trends began to emerge, and case after case 

occurred, we learned lots of early lessons from our pilot efforts with local hotlines. These 

include: 

1) Hotlines ideally need to be 2417 because you can't predict what hours of the day calls 

will come in. 

2) We need to get hotline numbers into the hands of survivors and potential victims as 

much as possible so they know there's a number to call to get help. This will require new 

types of innovative marketing to reach hidden, transient, and marginalized populations. 

3) We need to saturate the community with an awareness of what human trafficking is, 

how to spot it, and what number to call if you suspect you've encountered it. 

4) Hotlines for survivors to call or text are lifelines to get people out of slavery and 

connect them to help. With universally available communications technologies and the 

massive spread of mobile devices all over the world, people are now "one phone call or 

text away from help" more than any other time in history. Simply put, well-run hotlines 

make a difference. 

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Operating the U.S. National Human Trafficking Resource Center (NHTRC) Hotline 

The insights we gained from our work with local hotlines sparked our interest to take on the 

challenge of operating hotlines nationally. In 2007, we were honored to be chosen by the U.S. 

Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to operate the country's central hotline on 

human trafficking, the National Human Trafficking Resource Center (NHTRC) at 1-888-373-

7888. We began answering the national hotline on December 7,2007, and we have been 

operating 2417 without interruption since that day. 

In operating the NHTRC, we aimed to apply the lessons we learned from our local hotlines and 

scale them nationally. Hundreds of different initiatives have been undertaken to promote the 1-

888-373-7888 number to trafficking victims and other at-risk populations in the US., and as of 

today, I'm proud to report that over 3,500 trafficking survivors have called the national hotline 

directly to get help. One of the most successful hotline distribution initiatives we have seen is 

the Know Your Rights pamphlet produced by the US Department of State. This has led to 

nearly 3,400 calls into the national hotline where the caller specifically indicated that they 

learned about the number through the pamphlet. 

Rotlines also do not need to be boxed into the typical image of people answering a phone. We 

need to make sure that hotlines are offering as many types of communications channels as 

possible to maximize the number of survivor we reach. In the past five years, we've added new 

modes of communication such as email, online webforms, and social media. 

Tn March 2013, we also just launched into a new partnership to add SMS texting to the national 

hotline as well. Thanks to the combined efforts of Polaris Project, THORN, Salesforce.com, and 

Twilio, we recently launched BeFree (233733), so that people can now connect to the NHTRC 

hotline through text functionality. This new texting initiative has received over 130 text 

conversations in its first few weeks of operation. 

More than five years after beginning work on the NHTRC hotline in 2007, we're continuing to 

work towards a series of important outcomes, such as asking - are more victims being identified? 

Are more survivors getting connected with services? Are more survivors learning that there's a 

number they can call to get help? As of March 2013, the national hotline had learned of nearly 

9,000 survivors of trafficking and has reported 3,235 cases of human trafficking to law 

enforcement. We've also been able to partner with thousands of other non-profits, communitybased organizations, service providers, and law enforcement to work through the national hotline 

as a conduit to increase levels of coordination and cohesion in the field. 

We learn new lessons from our work on the national hotline every day, and they enrich our initial 

understanding of hotlines from our earlier local hotlines work. Some of the key lessons include: 

5) Hotlines concretely increase victim identification rates on a national scale. 

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80798b-5.eps

6) Hotlines provide opportunities for millions more community members to participate in 

the anti-trafficking field because they can help with the effort to promote the hotline 

number or they can be the "eyes and ears" and look out for opportunities to call. 

7) Hotlines cannot be run like an island. Quite the contrary, hotlines need to have a deep 

and wide network of referral relationships and partnerships that leverage the strengths of 

local actors in the field. 

Hotlines and the Importance of Data 

In addition to the role of hot lines in victim identification and connecting survivors with services, 

it is important to also understand that hotlines are robust sources of valuable data about human 

trafficking and the behaviors of traffickers. In the U.S., we have received nearly 7,000 tips on 

the national hotline with either high or moderate levels of indicators of human trafficking. Each 

one of these tips contains highly relevant information about understanding the behavior of 

traffickers and how they exploit their victims. Hotlines therefore are in a unique position to gain 

strategic insights about effective interventions because hodines often receive thousands of calls 

with information about where trafficking is happening and to whom. By adding in a data 

analysis component, hotlines can identify the newest trends and patterns and then communicate 

those to the most relevant actors in the field who can use this information to fight the crime. 

Dating back to 2007, Polaris Project built our call tracking system for the national hotline using 

Salesforce.com. Each time a call, email, webform, or text comes in, we create a new unique 

"case" record in Salesforce. After years of operating the National Human Trafficking Resource 

Center (NHTRC) hotline, we now have a database of over 75,000 records. As our data tracking 

systems matured over the years, we also began to build customized reports and dashboards to 

help us understand the data at our fingertips at a deeper level. We are also extremely grateful to 

have recently partnered with Palantir Technologies to further expand our data analysis effort for 

the U.S. hotline. 

New Initiatives to Support Anti-Trafficking Hotlines Globally 

In recent years, as we continued to operate the U.S. national anti-trafficking hotline, we've had 

opportunities to interface with hotlines in other countries. We've received hodines calls from 

104 countries into the NHTRC, and we've also worked on dozens of transnational cases that led 

us to develop deeper relationships with actors outside the United States. Our experiences 

learning about anti-trafficking hotlines in other countries led to new ideas for strategies on how 

to improve the ecosystem ofhotlines globally. The more we connected with other counterparts, 

the more we realized that hodines are ripe for coordination and hold significant potential to bring 

about dramatic change and improvement in the global fight against trafficking. 

The lessons we learned so far from interfacing with hotlines in other countries include: 

8) Right now, anti-trafficking hodines in countries all over the world are essentially 

'hidden gems', under-resourced, under-publicized, and not fully maximizing their 

potential impact as lifesavers for victims of trafficking. 

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9) Hotlines are also not coordinating with each other across borders. Instead, they are 

often operating in isolation, and they frequently have low visibility and limited 

penetration in the public's eye. 

10) Hotlines around the world are often operating with nonexistent or outdated 

technologies, including hard-copy call tracking systems. 

In 2012, in conjunction with our 10 year anniversary celebration, Polaris Project launched our 

new global programming with generous funding from the U.S. Department of State, Office to 

Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, as well as essential in-kind support from Palantir 

Technologies and Salesforce.com. 

Through a forward-looking TIP Office grant, Polaris Project's Global Hotlines Program aims to: 

I) Map and identify all existing anti-trafficking hotlines worldwide; 2) Connect with as many 

individual hotlines as possible to foster mutual peer-to-peer learning and share best practices; 

and, 3) Offer training and technical assistance to support the creation and expansion of antitrafficking hotlines in target countries. In the early months of this program, we have already 

identified and begun to contact over 70 anti-trafficking hotlines around the world, and we have 

engaged at a deeper level with hotlines in Malaysia, Greece, Turkey, Mongolia, Mexico, 

Moldova, Bulgaria, and the Ukraine. Efforts on these three fronts will be ongoing through at 

least 2015. 

The Global Human Trafficking Hotline Network (GHTHN) 

Tn April 2013, we took an additional step that builds on our five years of work operating the 

National Human Trafficking Resource Center (NIITRC) hotlinc for the United States and our 

recent State Department funded work mapping, connecting with, and supporting individual antitrafficking hotlines around the world. We recently joined with Liberty Asia and La Strada 

International to found a new network of anti-trafficking hotlines across the U.S., Europe and 

Asia that makes the fight against human trafficking a more collective and data-driven effort. By 

sharing information between hotlines on a more global scale, we can work towards a global 

response network that can activate faster, more coordinated, and more effective responses. 

This initiative, entitled the Global Human Trafficking Hotline Network, recently received a 

Global Impact Award from Google and engineering support from Google Ideas, Palantir 

Technologies, and Salesforce.com. Google's Global Impact Awards support entrepreneurial 

nonprofits using technology to change the world. Through the GHTIIN, we'll work to share best 

practices amongst experts and craft new anti-trafficking strategies informed hy our data and 

focused on eradication, prevention, and protcctioll. We'll also build a broader safety net for 

survivors of modem-day slavery and develop a more coordinated global response for victims of 

this transnational crime. 

Those of us that tight human trafficking need to be smarter and more sophisticated than the other 

side. Our initial efforts to map hotlines have taught us that there are dozens of hotlines around 

the world that are working in isolation to connect survivors to resources. By working together 

and sharing data and information, we can use technology to uncover strategic insights about how 

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80798b-7.eps

and where traHicking is occurring, offer even better resources to vulnerable communities, 

support safe migration, and ultimately, reach more survivors. Working together will also build 

community and trust amongst hotline operators and will help to orgalliLe the broader ecosystem. 

Raising the Bar 

As a field, we cannot accept the status quo of identifying less than 1 percent of victims of human 

tramcking worldwide each year. We must increase victim identification rates, and one way we 

can do it is through the nexus between the rapid spread of mobile devices around the world and 

the existence of well-networked and well-publicized anti-trafficking hotlines for people to call. 

At their fullest potential, all "next generation" anti-trafficking hotlines should increasingly 

communicate through multiple channels, including phone, email, online forms, social media, and 

texting. These anti-trafficking hotlines need to have extensive referral relationships with the 

existing infrastructure of services and law enforcement in their local, regional, or national area. 

With modest upgrades in universally available technology, hotlines can also build better c1oudbased call tracking and data analysis systems. This is the new standard that we can aim for with 

as many hotlines as possible around the world. Through this network, we can also work towards 

the goal of anti-trafficking hotline coverage for evclY part ofIlle world. 

Furthermore, by engaging in data sharing and mutualleaming, the GHTUN mil also enable 

those in the field to map trafficking networks and understand how they operate -- and how they 

can be permanently disrupted. 

Imagine what our global anti-trafficking effort could feel like if there were a powerful, effective, 

multi-modal, well-publicized and well-resourced "next generation" anti-trafficking hotline in 

every country or region of the world, and those hotlines were integrated, sharing data, leveraging 

new technologies, and coordinating more with each other and mth myriad local law enforcement 

and service respondents. This global safety net will not only make it easier for the millions of 

people held in slavery to reach out to a hotline and access help, but it mil also ensure that the 

first responders in the field are more prepared for that call when it comes in. Shared data and a 

powerful global data analysis initiative involving hotline call data mil be critical to 

understanding the global footprint of human trafficking and driving new strategic interventions 

aimed at reducing and eradicating the crime. 

Thank you again for this opportunity to speak before you all today and share about our work 

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Chairman ROYCE. Dr. MacDonald, go ahead. 

STATEMENT OF SHAWN MACDONALD, PH.D., DIRECTOR OF 

PROGRAMS AND RESEARCH, VERITE ́

Mr. MACDONALD. Chairman Royce and Ranking Member Engel 

and other distinguished members of the committee, thank you very 

much for inviting me to testify today. My name is Shawn MacDonald. I am director of programs and research at Verite ́, which 

is an American NGO that works globally to help companies improve supply chain labor conditions. The assessment, training, and 

consulting work that we do benefit workers and companies alike. 

For more than 15 years, we have been documenting the mechanisms of labor trafficking. And, more importantly, we have been 

crafting solutions that are scalable and adoptable by any company. 

We believe that companies must base their anti-trafficking efforts squarely on responsible recruitment practices, particularly accountability for how their supplier factories and farms hire workers. Almost all products we buy, clothes, computers, furniture, food, 

involve a supply chain that employs migrant workers. And, to be 

clear, when we are talking about labor trafficking, we are mostly 

talking about debt bondage of migrant workers. 

Workers go to great lengths to secure a job and in the process 

often become indebted to labor brokers, so indebted that it can take 

years for them to be free of debt and intimidation. The actions of 

these middle men, the traps and tricks they use, the fees they 

charge, the ways they coerce and intimidate workers, these are the 

mechanisms of labor trafficking. And unless a company gains control of the outsourcing of recruitment to such people, they are part 

of the problem and not part of the solution. 

No worker should have to pay with their liberty simply to secure 

a job building a hotel in Dubai or harvesting palm oil in Asia or 

picking berries in New England. 

So I am glad to have the opportunity to let you know about the 

ways we have been working with real companies to create blueprints to assure fairness in how workers enter their supply chains. 

These are business-focused market-savvy approaches to complement public policies. 

First I want to tell you about Verite ́’s Fair Hiring Toolkit, which 

provides companies with implementation guidelines, program templates, management procedures, and the like. It is the pathway for 

any company that wants to ensure trafficking victims are not making their products. 

I want to tell you about one company Verite ́ worked with to do 

just that whose actions are already part of the public record. So I 

am not breaking business confidentiality. You all know Apple and 

its record for innovation, but you may not know that Apple is also 

a pioneer in reengineering its supply chain labor recruitment systems so workers are not trafficked. Some of their supplier factories 

were outsourcing recruitment to brokers. They charge workers 

sometimes thousands of dollars for that job. 

We worked with Apple to create an approach that requires their 

supplier factories to reimburse fees to workers who paid for their 

job. Now the supplier factory has a very real incentive to either 

hire directly or to outsource recruitment only to a reputable labor 

26

recruiter. This approach is working. Brokers and factories have reimbursed over $13 million to those cheated workers. Factories are 

changing practices to avoid that cost. No company is perfect, but 

we think others should pay close attention to Apple’s approach. 

That example leads me to another Verite ́ initiative. Last year we 

launched a Framework for Ethical Recruitment that is targeted to 

the global labor broker industry itself. Our framework shows exactly how a recruitment firm can meet legal and ethical standards 

and provides a practical way to validate which firms meet the 

standard and which do not. 

Our framework can also help Federal contractors meet President 

Obama’s executive order announced last September, which requires 

Federal contractors to have anti-trafficking safeguards in place. 

As recruitment firms become independently verified to our standards, they are more likely to be hired by Federal contractors and 

companies, like Apple suppliers, who have a tangible business prerogative to choose carefully whom they are hiring to find their 

labor. It will also help companies comply with California’s Transparency in Supply Chains Act that Representative Bass alluded to, 

which requires companies to disclose their anti-trafficking policies. 

And it helps companies protect themselves in the face of tougher 

state laws that we are seeing being implemented across the country that are holding employers much more accountable for labor 

trafficking. 

And, finally, we find many American companies are connected to 

trafficking deeper in their supply chains from the commodity level 

on up: The cotton that becomes our clothes, the metals that are 

mined for our electronics. 

As you know from Representative Engel, many years working 

with the cocoa sector to tackle child and forced labor, this is not 

easy. The chain is possible when companies, NGOs, and government work together to incentivize better business practice. 

In conclusion, we are working to harness American business creativity, American business enterprise to rework supply chain relationships so that nobody is ensnared in debt bondage. The attention from this committee sends a powerful message to the private 

sector to move from rhetoric to concrete action on this front. 

Mr. Chairman, we stand ready to work with you and the entire 

committee to help the private sector innovate to end human trafficking. Thank you for the opportunity to testify. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. MacDonald follows:]

27


80798c-1.eps

Testimony by Shawn MacDonald, PhD 

Director of Programs and Research at Verite 

Hearing: Local and Private Sector Initiatives to Combat International Human Trafficking 

U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs 

May 7, 2013 

Chairman Royce and Ranking Member Engel and other distinguished members of the 

Committee, thank you for giving me the opportunity to testify today. 

My name is Shawn MacDonald and I am Director of Programs and Research at Verite, a 

nongovernmental organization based in the United States that works globally to help companies and 

other stakeholders fully understand labor issues, overcome obstacles, and build sustainable solutions 

into their supply chains. The assessment} research} training} consulting, and advocacy work we do 

benefits companies and workers alike. 

For more than fifteen years we have been documenting the mechanisms of labor trafficking in 

the global supply chains of many types of businesses and, more importantly, we have been crafting 

solutions that are scalable and adoptable by any company. 

We believe that if you are a brand, investor -- or anti-slavery or human rights organization, for 

that matter -- your approach to promoting sustainable supply chains is not complete unless it includes a 

focus on the path that workers take to get a job in the global economy. Migrant workers all around the 

world make the products we buy and harvest the food we eat. These migrants leave home for jobs that 

can help them achieve a better life, or simply allow them to feed their family. Almost all of our products 

- clothes, shoes, computers, toys, furniture and food - involve a supply chain that employs migrant 

workers. Migrants provide the flexible workforce that keeps our just-in-time global economy humming. 

Workers will go to great lengths to secure promising jobs, no matter where they are located. 

Often workers become indebted to middlemen -labor brokers and moneylenders - whose practices can 

be exploitative and illegal and it becomes difficult or impossible for the worker to become free of debt 

and intimidation. The actions of these middle men - the traps and tricks they use, the fees they charge, 

the ways they coerce and intimidate workers to ensure loans and fees are paid to them - these are the 

mechanisms of labor trafficking. Much too much of the global labor recruitment system has been 

turned upside down so that the poorest pay just to get a job and often keep paying. Those of us in this 

hearing room would never pay to secure a job. We are working to ensure that no worker has to pay fees 

and face other costs and indignities simply for the ability to secure a job building a hotel in Dubai, 

harvesting palm oil in Indonesia, feeding American troops on bases worldwide, manufacturing a laptop 

in Taiwan, cleaning a house in Washington, or picking berries in New England. 
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Yet I am glad to have the opportunity to be here today to let you know that solutions do indeed 

exist and that we have been working with real companies and other stakeholders to create the 

blueprints for how companies of all stripes can re-assert control and accountability for how workers 

enter their supply chain. I want to describe a couple of our initiatives that provide open-source tools for 

companies to avoid or extricate their companies from association with labor trafficking. These are 

business-focused and market-savvy approaches that complement public policy but do not rely entirely 

on unrealistic hopes for more or better regulatory oversight by under-resourced governments the world 

over. 

First, I want to tell you about Verite's Fair Hiring Toolkit (www.verite.org/helpwanted), which 

provides multinational companies, as well as factory and farm managers in their supply chains, with 

dozens of policy frameworks, practical implementation guidelines, recommended forms and templates, 

stakeholder engagement instructions, public policy advice, incentive structures, management 

procedures, quality and control checklists, and the like - all designed to guarantee a non-exploitive labor 

recruitment and hiring system. Verite's Fair Hiring Toolkit provides the A to Z for anybody wanting to 

put in place a practical system to ensure that trafficking victims are not making their products or 

harvesting their food. I want to tell you about one company Verite worked with to do just that. Their 

experience shows that this set of tools works and can work for many other companies. By the way, 

when I mention a company we've partnered with by name, I want you to know that those efforts are 

already a matter of public record. 

You all know Apple and its iconic products and probably some of the challenges it faces, along 

with its peers, in its supply chain around wages and health and safety. What you may not know is that 

Apple is at the leading edge not just in touchscreen interface but in re-engineering the labor recruitment 

dynamic so that workers are not bearing the lion's share of the cost of labor migration, recruitment and 

hiring. We worked with Apple to document the ways in which factories supplying components for or 

assembling Apple products were too often relying on illegal and unethical approaches to recruit foreign 

contract workers, including by charging the poor migrants to get a job ... often tens of thousands of 

dollars. We worked with Apple to create a policy that required su ppliers to have transparency and 

accountability for how they recruited and hired workers, with a key provision that harnessed the power 

ofthe market. Apple didn't simply request that their supplier do this, they instituted a policy that 

required the supplier to repay fees to workers if it was found that a supplier factory outsourced 

recruitment to a labor broker that charged the worker more than a month's wages to secure that job. 

Now the supplier factory has a very real incentive to either hire directly or to outsource recruitment only 

to a reputable labor broker who is not over-charging workers or otherwise indebting them. This 

approach is working: Apple's policy has led to brokers and factories repaying over $13.1 million to 

contract workers since 2008, including $6.4 million in 2012. We see this as the ultimate solution in that 
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real changes were instituted and the workers regained the money taken from them. At a structural 

level, it means that dollars, real dollars, are at stake in Apple's supply chain: meaning this supply chain 

policy doesn't just rely on lots of talk about following codes of conduct and cajoling suppliers to behave 

differently. It restructures the incentives and disincentives for how recruitment and hiring is done and 

encourages factories to outsource recruitment only to reputable brokers. Or they can choose not to 

work for Apple. No company is perfect, but we think other companies need to pay close attention to 

how Apple is aggressively taking on the challenge of human trafficking in their supply chain. 

That story leads me to another Verite's initiative, another major open-source set of resources 

for companies to fight labor trafficking. Last year, we launched a Framework for Ethical Cross-Border 

Labor Recruitment 

(http://www.verite.org/sites/defaultlfiles/ethical framework paper 20120209 PRINTED. pdf) that is 

targeted not just to multi-nationals and supplier factories and farms but also to the global recruitmentl 

labor broker industry itself. Our framework was designed in partnership with a reputable recruitment 

firm called Manpower and builds on the legitimate recruitment industrls code and international 

standards from the International Labor Organization and others. It shows exactly how a recruitment firm 

can meet legal and ethical standards and provides a practical approach to independently validating 

which firms meet the standard and which do not. As we further develop and test this approach with 

leading companies like Wal-Mart and others who endorse its approach, we anticipate market forces 

taking over to drive out unethical actors and reward legitimate ones. As recruitment firms become 

independently verified to our standards, they are more likely to be hired by businesses, like those in 

Apple or Wal-Mart's supply chain, who have a tangible business prerogative to choose carefully whom 

they hire to find their migrant workers. And it's not just the policies of leading companies that are 

helping to create a market for good labor brokers, it is President Obama's Executive Order announced 

last September that requires federal contractors to create due diligence plans to prove workers do not 

pay fees or face other exploitation to obtain jobs with those contractors. It is the impetus created by 

California's pioneering Transparency in Supply Chains Act that is requiring thousands of companies to 

publically disclose what policies and practices they have to prevent trafficking. It is tougher laws in 

various American states that hold employers more accountable for labor trafficking. It complements 

new guidance on labor recruitment that is emerging from the European Union. We hope for new, 

transformative, social and market demand for ethical recruitment practices driven by employers, 

investors, workers, NGOs, labor unions, consumer groups and all other engaged stakeholders. 

Finally, I want to touch on other work we are doing with companies and others to root out labor 

trafficking and other forms of modern day slavery more deeply in supply chains. Everyday we are 

exposed to more ways in which companies and products we know here in America are tied through 

complex outsourcing and procurement policies and extended supply chains to labor trafficking and 

other severe labor abuses at the commodity level. The cotton that eventually becomes our clothes/ the 

palm oil that ends up in nearly 70% of products in our supermarkets, the metals mined for electronics. 

Verite produces research that helps companies understand their exposure to trafficking at all levels of 

their supply chains (http://www.verite.org/commodities). We help companies use emerging 

technologies and approaches to tracking and tracing commodities and product supply chains so that 
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new policies can be designed to gain visibility and promote accountability for suppliers not just at the 

top tier of the supply chain but down to the commodity level. As you know from Representative Engel's 

many years working with the cocoa sector to root out child and forced labor in that supply chain, this is 

not easy but it is possible when companies, NGOs, and governments work together to better understand 

root causes and fashion policies that incentivize better behavior and shun business partners who are 

entangled in trafficking. 

Many other terrific approaches to public private partnerships are being discussed by the other 

witnesses and will certainly emerge in our discussion today. The private sector has created new 

associations like the Business Coalition Against Trafficking and End Human Trafficking Now to learn from 

each other and promote best practices and I encourage you to learn more about them. The US 

Department of Labor recently released an online toolkit to help companies prevent forced and child 

labor in supply chains and we are proud to see our work among those recommendations. 

At Verite} we believe that strong protection against labor abuses like trafficking is essential to 

business success; indeed long term success for business is predicated on solving these structural issues 

like poorly regulated, unethical recruitment practices that are increasingly exposed as part of their 

supply chains and damaging their valuable reputations. Leadership and on-going attention from 

committees such as this one send a powerful message to the private sector. We want to see that 

famous American business creativity and enterprising spirit harnessed to innovate and re-imagine 

supply chain relationships so that nobody is ensnared in debt bondage simply in order to participate in 

our global economy. 

Mr. Chairman, we in civil society stand ready to work with you and the entire committee to 

encourage scalable solutions to the scourge of human trafficking. Thank you for all the work this 

committee does and for the opportunity to testify today. 
31

Chairman ROYCE. Mr. MacDonald, thank you. 

One of the issues that was discussed here is this full spectrum 

approach. For example, in L.A. County, the focus on what you do 

in order to create the public awareness so that you actually identify 

the victim and then getting law enforcement, getting the physician 

community involved in identifying and reporting, getting the training for law enforcement in terms of how to deal with those victims 

and then providing the resources to the victims that are in custody. 

And the last element, I guess, is the punishment that is directed 

toward those who are engaged in organizing this trafficking. 

In terms of that lesson, I would just ask each of you, how might 

we share those lessons with others, other communities, but also 

others overseas that have a similar interest but maybe not the lesson plan or the capability? How can that information be shared and 

empowered so that others in other countries begin to take action 

as well? 

Mr. KNABE. Well, to begin with, I think, you know, as the largest 

county in America, I believe it is our duty to be very involved in 

this particular program, particularly, as I mentioned in my testimony, about the ports and the airport and the borders. 

Earlier this year, we started with the National Association of 

Counties by hosting a Smart Justice Symposium. We can do a little 

bit at a time. And we had not only the county folks and our probation and Children and Family Services, but we had juvenile court 

officials. We had Federal Homeland Security representatives, as 

well as the FBI. It was a very successful program and a little bit—

because people started to realize, even from some of the smaller 

counties around America, that they had these similar situations in 

their own backyard, but they were not able to identify it until we 

put it out there. 

So, I mean, there are building blocks that we can do as a county. 

Obviously having Federal partnerships would really embellish or 

enhance our opportunities to get the word out. 

Mr. MYLES. I think what I would as well is that I think that in 

the anti-trafficking field, there are these very concrete nuggets of 

hope where things are successful and efforts are making impact. 

And we have documented that. 

And so what the field needs to do a better job of is pointing people toward these successful models and promising approaches, documenting those, and then leveraging the existing networks that 

have already been built through things like the National Association of Counties or different international coalitions that exist, 

business coalitions that exist. The channels for communication 

exist. 

What we need to do is we need to direct these documented successful strategies into those well-networked channels to begin 

spreading that information around the world through thought leadership. And I think we are beginning to do that with something 

like the Global Human Trafficking Hotline Network. We are going 

to share these hotline strategies with different hotlines around the 

world, but that same model can be applied to business coalitions, 

to coalitions within government. And using the existing channels, 

we don’t need to rebuild coalitions. We just need to slot the information into the existing infrastructure and let it spread. 

32

Chairman ROYCE. Shawn? 

Mr. MACDONALD. I would add that what we are finding with the 

private sector is that there is a great hunger for concrete examples 

of how companies are changing their policies and practices within 

their supply chain. And we are working to get that information out 

to other companies through trainings and webinars and things like 

that that enable them to learn from each other. And what is really 

exciting is that because so many companies, particularly the large 

American companies, large retailers, like the Wal-Marts, the Targets of the world, are taking these issues very seriously and are beginning to promulgate new standards and practices that are filtering out not just through their suppliers here in the United 

States but also globally. 

And businesses are finding ways to compete with one another. 

That is why in my remarks, I was alluding to market mechanisms 

that we hope will enable companies to compete on how well they 

are handling these programs. 

Chairman ROYCE. So information from one company here might 

be useful to businesses in other countries because of the way that 

they might key off of decisions made here, but then you also have 

the ability to get these international media companies involved and 

raise awareness, which is one of the things done in L.A. County. 

How else could you use international media to reach your goals 

there, Shawn? Well, I will ask Mr. Myles, too. 

Mr. MACDONALD. We are finding the international media is very 

interested in this. You see major outlets, like CNN and The Guardian Media Group out of the U.K. focusing very clearly on what companies can do. 

Supervisor? 

Mr. KNABE. I mean, I think while the international media is extremely important to help us facilitate the knowledge base, what 

is happening right here in our own backyard, I think, like many 

of us think, that it always happens in Third World countries when 

it is right here in the United States of America, whether it is a 

small rural area or major metropolitan area. And that knowledge 

and getting the word out, just looking at our domestic media is extremely important. 

Chairman ROYCE. Thank you, Don. 

Mr. MYLES. I think we need to saturate communities with awareness of what human trafficking is, how to spot it, and what to do 

when you think you have found it. And the international media, 

through the CNN Freedom Project, its new project launched by The 

Guardian, some of the reporting done by the BBC, can play a role 

in that saturation, but from my perspective, I want us to be careful 

not to put out media stories that don’t have an action item associated with it. 

And if the person’s action item is, ‘‘I read that. Good to know. 

Not quite sure how to take action from here,’’ that media story 

hasn’t done its full role. 

Chairman ROYCE. Exactly. 

Mr. MYLES. I think the full role is to put the action item at the 

end. So if you look at what Supervisor Knabe did in L.A., there is 

an action item at the end of those billboards. If you look at some 

of the media that has been reported in the U.S., they are reporting 

33

the national hotline of the BeFree texting at the end. International 

media can then channel to these hotlines around the world so there 

can be that action taken. 

Chairman ROYCE. And the Californians Against Sexual Exploitation Act would be an action item in California that was pushed 

that would certainly have a deterrent effect in terms of the new 

penalties on those involved in trafficking. 

We go now to Mr. Engel from New York. 

Mr. ENGEL. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Dr. MacDonald, let me ask you. You and Verite ́ have focused on 

standard setting and corporate social responsibility from your testimony in combating human trafficking. How does Verite ́ identify 

corporate partners to work to combat human trafficking? 

Mr. MACDONALD. I think it is through a combination of mechanisms. Very often companies will come to us because they are 

aware of the efforts we have made to publicize our approach to 

these. And so very often they will ask us for assistance. 

But we will also spend a lot of time reaching out to business associations, speaking at conferences, working closely with multistakeholder initiatives that demonstrate which companies are interested in moving forward on this because the vast majority of 

companies are not doing anything on this issue, unfortunately, but 

you do see some pioneering companies that want to take a first 

step. We will reach out to them. They will reach out to us. We will 

help them craft approaches and encourage them to share those lessons with others. 

And it is that wide range of experiences that we use to create 

these open sources pools that we put out there for the public 

around the world to learn from to build better business practices. 

Mr. ENGEL. How does Verite ́ design effective oversight programs 

for industries that may be reluctant to have outside groups examine their labor practices? 

Mr. MACDONALD. Well, much of our work is done under business 

confidentiality rules. So we will do assessment for companies. We 

will design an approach for them. We will train their suppliers, 

that kind of thing. We will work with the workers who are affected 

by these policies. And over time, they will become more confident 

about sharing their lessons with others. And then, as I said, we try 

to share the broad lessons learned with other groups. 

But I think it is important to note that there is really a revolution in technology around this where it is not just a few companies 

that sometimes get ensnared in the media spotlight, but tweets and 

videos that workers around the world, even in very poor countries, 

are making about their conditions are getting information out 

there. So companies are increasingly being held accountable for 

their policies, as I mentioned, deeper in the supply chain. 

So it isn’t the command and control situation anymore. It is very 

much a free-for-all of information and then more and more expectation that companies do something. 

Mr. ENGEL. Thank you. 

Through my work on the Engel Protocol, I have learned that the 

private-public partnerships are very important. I am wondering if 

anyone on the panel would tell me your experiences with forging 

these public-private partnerships in combating human trafficking. 

34

What obstacles did you encounter? How did you overcome them? 

And, based on your experiences, what key contributions can the 

private sector and the nonprofit sector offer to anti-trafficking campaigns that government entities cannot? Anyone? Mr. Supervisor? 

Mr. KNABE. Mr. Engel, as I mentioned in my testimony, we had 

a very good partnership with the private sector, with Clear Channel and Lamar Advertising coming forward on their own. It would 

be very difficult for us to find the ability to buy 100 billboards 

throughout the county and 50 digital boards. The cost to that, it 

is just very, very significant. It has absolutely changed the playing 

field in Los Angeles County by raising awareness, that in conjunction with our Metro and Metrolink programs. Again, people are 

seeing that. And those are the kinds of programs. And they have 

had a very adamant effect on all our programs there in Los Angeles County. And it is a great partnership. 

So we have not had any obstacles. We continue to reach out to 

see if we can get more, but, in particular, that was an incredible 

find for us and an incredible partnership. 

Mr. ENGEL. Thank you. 

Mr. Myles? 

Mr. MYLES. I would add to that I think Clear Channel has done 

amazing work through the partnership in L.A. County but also in 

other states around the country. They are publicizing different hotline numbers and billboards. So they are backing up that work and 

spreading it nationally. 

We have really seen over the past few years the way that partnerships with the private sector have rapidly increased the success 

of the anti-trafficking field. I think it has notably increased over 

the past 2 years how much the private sector has been involved in 

the field. Google has been helping us publicize the national hotline 

through revised search terms. Salesforce.com has been giving 

cloud-based computing solutions to nonprofits and to hotlines 

around the world. Palantir Technologies has donated their software 

data analysis system to Polaris to help us better understand the 

human trafficking data that we are seeing in the national hotline. 

We are also seeing companies like Sabre, the travel company, beginning to put this information out to travel agents around the 

world because they are in a position to identify it. Facebook is looking at how can they do a better job looking at prevention on the 

issue and also putting the hotline number out there, just dozens 

and dozens of private sector partnerships beginning to happen in 

the field. And it is really showing how the field can innovate and 

make sure that we are out innovating the traffickers in bringing 

the strengths together between nonprofits, government, and private 

sector. 

Mr. ENGEL. Thank you. 

Dr. MacDonald? 

Mr. MACDONALD. I would just add that what we are seeing is 

that NGOs and companies are becoming much more comfortable 

working with one another. The NGOs provide real legitimacy to the 

efforts of companies and help them push beyond their comfort zone 

and help them to become more comfortable with greater transparency around these efforts and also help them cooperate with 

their competitors within the business sector. 

35

And I think this experimentation that is happening between the 

private sector and NGOs is undergirded by new policy approaches 

that we have spoken of here today, not just the overall architecture 

from the TVPA but also the California Transparency Supply Chain 

Act, the executive order that we mentioned for Federal contractors. 

So that provides really strong impetus to public policy for businesses to step up to the plate with NGOs helping them. And we 

are seeing them in other countries, too, because this great surge of 

interest and outrage over human trafficking means as well as the 

TIP Report, for all of its flaws, really put focus on government 

agencies overseas to change the way that they are partnering with 

the private sector, the way that they are regulating labor brokers 

and things like that. 

So there is a fervent plethora of activity happening that we think 

is really exciting. 

Mr. KNABE. Just the fact it is just not a comfortable subject. And 

I think the awareness from the private sector that they are gaining 

something from that in their ability to work through the system 

without being punished or something like that and their willingness to come forward because this is just not a comfortable subject 

for everyone to deal with. And, again, thank you and all of you for 

your leadership in this issue. 

Mr. ENGEL. Well, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Chairman ROYCE. Mr. Smith? 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. 

Let me ask Mr. MacDonald, if I could, first and foremost. Last 

July I held a hearing on worker rights in China. And we heard 

from a man named Li Qiang, who is the executive director of China 

Labor Watch, who was an activist inside of China. And for more 

than a decade has headed up this organization. 

He spoke about some reports they had just done on Apple and 

on other companies. He had two major problems that seemed to be 

Achilles’ heels when it comes to the exploitation of that labor force 

and, of course, makes it harder to determine supply chains and 

whether or not products were being made by gulag labor or by exploited labor. 

He pointed out that dispatched workers are a huge issue, including with Apple; third party agreements that kind of evade a type 

of scrutiny that would lead to an accountability on the part of 

Apple. And then he spent a great deal of time talking about the 

auditors and said in 2010, one company that was doing auditing 

had dismissed two-thirds, about 300 of their auditors because they 

had been bribed. And there seems to be a great incentive to bribe 

auditors to give a good mark to a company. And then they come 

to their shareholders and say, ‘‘Look, we are doing great’’ when it 

is nothing but a fraud. And I wonder if you might speak to that 

because that seems to be an area of some neglect. 

Secondly, if I could ask Mr. Myles, with regards to the hotline, 

what is the interface and the response time with law enforcement? 

For example, I am a bus driver. I see something going on on my 

bus that looks very, very suspicious. I call the hotline. What happens? Do the police come to the offloading? 

You know, is there that kind of—you know, with the airlines, we 

know the flight attendants tell the pilot. Pilots call to the airport, 

36

the destination. And as they offload, if there is a suspicious activity 

going on, ICE or some law enforcement would be there to greet and 

to separate and to determine whether or not a trafficking situation 

has been in progress. Response time for law enforcement when 

hotel employees and others call, what has been your experience 

with regards to that? 

And then to Mr. Knabe, thank you for your leadership and for 

your being here today, coming out to testify. You mentioned in your 

testimony that child prostitution is a misdemeanor in L.A. and that 

pimps are often waiting outside the courthouse door to drag the 

child back into slavery. And I am wondering what law enforcement 

is doing to mitigate that. 

You know, it seems to me that we need to declare war on these 

pimps and, I mean, put them away and put them away for life. But 

if they are waiting outside the courtroom, it would seem to me that 

it is not a heavy lift to determine what is going on there and to 

seek to go after those pimps. 

What are your thoughts on that? 

Mr. KNABE. Well, first of all, as I mentioned in the testimony, 

the collaborative courtroom has been an incredible success story. 

Instead of just treating these young girls coming in, getting slapped 

in the wrist, you know, ‘‘You are a prostitute. Go back out in the 

street,’’ the pimp waiting in the parking lot, the collaborative courtroom brings everyone together. It brings law enforcement. It brings 

mental health issues, health services as well as housing issues. 

One of the biggest issues is being able to isolate these young girls 

into a safe housing situation because if they don’t go back out 

there—and most of them are tattooed and marked in different 

ways. The pimp is on the look to make their life miserable or kill 

them. 

So we have to bring some even to get into the juvenile justice 

system. We are doing some foster care training kinds of situations 

to be able to protect these young ladies from the violence that they 

are confronted with. 

But this is a small scale. We have a dedicated courtroom, this 

collaborative courtroom. The only cases they hear are these young 

cases. And so we are able to protect them. But there is so much 

more. I mean, we could do more if we had obviously additional 

funding to expand the program. 

But those wrap-around services for these young ladies, I can’t tell 

you how important they are because they have no self-esteem. They 

have none. And these scum bag pimps are just saying, ‘‘We love 

you. You are the most beautiful girl I have ever seen. I promise you 

a job, retire,’’ you know, whatever it may be. And there they go. 

And it is not their choice. 

And so when we are able to bring them in, treat them like a victim, not a guilty party. 

Mr. MYLES. I would say to the issue of response time, it is a 

great question. It is something that we focus on every single day. 

And I think there are some nuances to it. 

First, it depends on the type of call. So what is that person calling about? Is it a crisis? Is it a tip? Maybe they are calling about 

general information. Maybe they are calling about something that 

37

they would like to talk about a few months down the road. So it 

depends on how urgent is that call. 

The second thing is we try to be caller-centered in running the 

hotline because we want to build trust with the callers. We don’t 

want people to feel like when they call the hotline, they are going 

to get put in the situation that they didn’t want to get put into. 

So what does that caller want? And does that caller want to be in 

touch with law enforcement? What are they seeking? 

Third, the question is, what is the level of detail people are calling in? If someone is on a bus and calls in, says, ‘‘I am looking at 

something suspicious,’’ but whatever else, we might not have anything specific to act upon, but if they call in and say, ‘‘Here is a 

name. Here is a number. Here is a license plate,’’ we have actionable information. 

Fourth, it depends on the local infrastructure that exists there. 

We are in touch with all of the human trafficking task forces, the 

ACT teams, FBI offices, ICE offices, local police departments. If the 

infrastructure is there, we can leverage it, but if the infrastructure 

isn’t there and they are calling in in a remote area or they are calling in in a place where the response time might not be there for 

any other crime, then that is something that we have to deal with. 

What I would say is when we do need a kick in the gear with 

a specific crisis call, we have seen cases with response time in minutes, getting into the hands of law enforcement and people responding, but sometimes people need to realize that that is what 

911 is for also. If they are really dealing with something that needs 

an urgent crisis, we are recommending people go directly to 911. 

There are other hotlines out there. Law enforcement operations 

sometimes operate hotlines in L.A. There is the Department of 

Homeland Security tip line. So people can call other law enforcement sources if they want to go directly to law enforcement, but if 

they are calling a nonprofit hotline, for all the benefits of calling 

a nonprofit, trust blue collars, those types of things, we can still 

build that response time as quickly as we need to in the places 

where that capacity is there. 

Chairman ROYCE. We are going to——

Mr. MACDONALD. Mr. Smith, I am really glad to—oh, I am sorry. 

Chairman ROYCE. We are going to go to Karen Bass of Los Angeles. Congresswoman? 

Mr. MACDONALD. Okay. I will answer your question later. 

Chairman ROYCE. Go ahead. Go ahead. You had something. 

Mr. MACDONALD. I was just going to very quickly. I was glad 

that Congressman Smith mentioned this issue of poor labor-monitoring situations because far too many companies rely only on very 

superficial audits to get a sense of what is happening in their supply chain. That is simply not enough. And we are certainly seeing 

that with the fires in Pakistan, the building collapse in Bangladesh, just a terrible tragedy. 

What we are asking for, what we are asking you and everybody 

else is to really ask tough questions of these companies. An audit 

is just a simple first step in finding out what is happening. It has 

nothing to do with actually putting in practices and place and 

building in incentives, like the ones that I mentioned that really 

38

make the supplier factories and farms step up, pay attention, and 

be held accountable for what they are doing. 

So what we are really concerned about is that with more transparency around this with the California law, for example, with the 

executive order, the companies will get away, so to speak, with 

simply saying, ‘‘Of course, we monitor our supply chain’’ but leave 

it at that. 

Chairman ROYCE. Congresswoman Bass? 

Ms. BASS. Again, I want to really commend the panel for the 

work that you have been doing and for your testimony today. And 

I wanted to follow up with what my colleague Chris Smith was 

asking about what happens afterwards. 

Supervisor Knabe, you talked about the collaborative courtroom. 

And I wanted to understand what gaps there might be in L.A. And 

I know that this is a challenging population also. Sometimes they 

are not necessarily willing. They want to be rescued, but then, you 

know, they go back and forth. 

And so my question concerning gaps is after we have been 

through the courtroom process, what kind of support do we have 

in L.A. County to assist the girls once they are, you know, through 

the court process? Do we have community-based organizations? 

Mr. KNABE. We have community-based organizations we are 

working with. Our own Department of Children and Family Services is working with them. 

The unfortunate thing, probably the most difficult situation that 

we confront and probably the biggest gap is housing——

Ms. BASS. Right. I see. 

Mr. KNABE [continuing]. And our ability to place these young 

people in safe conditions. As an example, sometimes we are forced 

to actually bring them into our juvenile halls. Okay? But that is 

also a dangerous situation because they almost have to be isolated 

from the population because you always have to remember there 

are other young victims that still want to be part of the prostitution ring that will say, ‘‘Hey,’’ so and so ‘‘is in the system. She is 

in here.’’ And there will be threats on their life. 

So the placement, the biggest gap, the biggest gap, is in housing, 

whether it is being trained, our foster care folks, or being able to 

site a home for six or eight girls. You know, we do have those 

projects available. And we are working on them with, you know, 

various community kinds of groups and programs, but that is the 

number one gap, is housing. 

Ms. BASS. And, also, Mr. Smith mentioned that child prostitution 

was a misdemeanor in L.A. County. Is that accurate? 

Mr. KNABE. It is being treated as that. One of the things with 

your groundbreaking legislation—and now we have two new pieces 

of legislation which have been introduced to—well, first of all, the 

CASE Act, which passed overwhelmingly last year is the toughest 

human trafficking law in the United States, but we have added—

one of the things we are trying to do is add pimping, pandering, 

human trafficking to the list of crimes associated with gang activity——

Ms. BASS. Right. 

Mr. KNABE [continuing]. Because that is a huge deal. And obviously that would help us better assist some of our foster kids as 

39

well as—unfortunately, the system is not equipped to handle it 

right now. And so we are going to have to rely on more stringent 

penalties for these pimps and what they do to these young girls, 

you know, to create a situation where it is not as fruitful or they 

are put away for life. 

Ms. BASS. Well, I think one of the things that needs to change 

is our whole orientation toward this. I convened a meeting in Los 

Angeles of ministers to talk about the situation, particularly in 

south L.A. And I think we even need to get away from using the 

term ‘‘prostitution’’ because I don’t know how you can be a prostitute at ten. You know what I mean? That is child rape. And I 

think we need to change our whole orientation as to how we even 

look at the situation. And I think with that will flow more resources, hopefully. 

Mr. KNABE. Well, I would agree totally. I mean, that is one of 

the great things about the collaborative courtroom because they are 

not being treated as prostitutes. They are being treated as rape victims. And, as I said to Mr. Engel, I said, look it, this is not a comfortable subject for anyone. And we are going to have to rely on 

faith-based communities, one of our sources for group homes. I 

mean, that is another option that we have that we are looking at. 

So just the level because people don’t want to say, ‘‘It is in my 

backyard’’ or ‘‘It is in my city’’ or ‘‘It is here or there.’’ You know, 

they want to talk about it. And it is the same problem you run into 

with your food chain kinds of situations with your companies. 

And so I would totally agree with changing it from ‘‘prostitution’’ 

to ‘‘rape victims’’ or——

Ms. BASS. And it is the community awareness. So I was encouraging the ministers to slow down their cars and look in the faces 

because if you look at the females that are on the street, you can 

see that many of them are our children. 

Mr. KNABE. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And, I mean, one of the 

things with this whole billboard and the flyers that we put out 

there, you can’t just do that. It has to be training in awareness involved with that because it is not just a billboard saying. And it 

was law enforcement has to recognize. Look it, these young ladies 

have to get much better treatment than a backpack would on a 

train left by itself—you know, after 9/11, we did everything—and 

to be able to recognize. 

We had our CEO of MTA out of recognition, a successful recognition, because he was riding the trains. And so there is a public 

awareness that is so important and training that is so important 

and have people say, ‘‘Look it, I am not comfortable talking about 

it, but we have got to fix it. I want to be part of the solution.’’

Ms. BASS. Thank you. Thank you very much. 

Chairman ROYCE. We go now to Judge Poe from Texas. 

Mr. POE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you all for being 

here. I appreciate your candor, especially the supervisor’s candor. 

I like the way you say things. 

Just a quick background. I was a judge in Texas for forever before I came up here. And this trafficking issue is a scourge. Unfortunately, my hometown of Houston, Texas is the center and hub of 

international trafficking into the United States. Women are 

sneaked into Mexico from the south, from the Atlantic, from the 

40

Pacific, and then they are smuggled into the United States. Houston, by its location, is where they are brought. And they are scattered everywhere, including all the way to Los Angeles. 

It is my understanding, as you have pointed out, that the issue 

of where to put these young women is a major problem. 

There are approximately 5,000 animal shelters in the United 

States. I love those places. I got my Dalmatians from Dalmatian 

rescue. Good for them for doing what they are doing. 

But, according to Mr. Myles, your organization, the Polaris 

Project, last year, you said or your Polaris Project said that in the 

whole United States, there are only 1,644 beds for trafficking children or trafficking victims. 

Mr. MYLES. All victims. 

Mr. POE. All of them throughout the whole country? 

Mr. MYLES. Yes, sir. 

Mr. POE. That is not near enough based upon the massive problem that confronts us. 

Supervisor, I want to ask you about who is running these operations. You said it is organized gang activity. Are the drug cartels 

involved in bringing in these young kids primarily into the United 

States or is it an independent group of criminals doing this? 

Mr. KNABE. I think you have both. I mean, you do have the independent group of criminals doing it, but, unfortunately, in our 

backyard with one of the largest gang populations in America, the 

gangs are getting into this business. This business is so much safer 

than dealing with drugs or guns and so much more profitable. I 

mean, they could take these young women and make them turn 

tricks five, six, seven, eight times a night. They can only sell a drug 

once, and they can only sell a gun once. So they are organized. And 

many of our gangs have not only domestic connections but international connections as well. So there may be. 

And we are trying obviously to isolate that to see if there is any 

drug cartel involvement in the trafficking, which probably there 

will be, but it has not been validated yet. But it is organized I 

think through the gangs, but there are a lot of independent camps 

out there. 

Mr. POE. There are three people involved at least in the human 

trafficking. Of course, there is the victim. I think as a culture and 

society, we need to focus on helping that victim, rescuing the victim 

from forced prostitution, human slavery. That is a word and a 

phrase nobody wants to talk about, human slavery, which is what 

this is. 

And then you have got the criminal element that brings these 

kids into the United States. But then you have in the middle the 

consumer. You have got the person that is paying for this awful 

deed. As a society, I think we have got to focus on who those consumers are. 

And if convicted, if I had my way, if these folks were convicted 

of human trafficking, exploiting young women in human trafficking, that is when we would use the internet. We would let the 

world know what these folks look like. They don’t want anybody to 

know who they are. Of course, you put the trafficker in prison for 

as long as you can, but the victim is where I think the system has 

to start as allowing all victims. And this idea that many of these 

41

victims are immigrants brought in the United States and the pimp 

says, ‘‘You turn me in. I am going to make sure you are deported. 

You will never testify against me,’’ we have got to work on that 

problem, making sure they can come forward and testify, safely 

testify. 

But what can we do right now? As my time is expiring, what can 

we do right now as a body in Congress to move victims’ issues to 

the front on these young women? Any of you want to weigh in on 

that? 

Mr. KNABE. Well, I mean, from my perspective, obviously, you 

know, adding the pimping, the pandering, the human trafficking, 

the list of crimes associated either with gang activity or some of the 

other kinds of things that make it even more difficult to get a domestic media that is cooperative in putting out to consumers faces 

or names out there as well in the public are things that could happen immediately without a lot of, you know, Federal debate or 

stage debate or county debate, are the kinds of things that we need 

to get the information out there. 

Mr. MYLES. Two points briefly. If I could just jump in, Judge 

Poe? I think one is what we are seeing around the country is that 

states are recognizing that these kids are victims and shouldn’t be 

treated as ‘‘child prostitutes.’’ So you have certain states that are 

looking at laws that really do change the paradigm in the way that 

Congresswoman Bass was talking about. So these kids are seen in 

the victim situation as victims of abuse, not as criminals. 

Only about 11 states have done that so far. Thirty-nine other 

states haven’t. So if Congress were to say, ‘‘It is the sense of Congress that we do believe that these children should be treated as 

victims,’’ that would send a signal to the states. Even like a sense 

of the Congress resolution would work. 

And, then, secondly, to the point about the buyers, these buyers 

of children, police departments can police the buyers with a decoy 

ad. You could put a decoy ad on an online site about a fictitious 

child, set up an operation in a hotel room, and you are going to 

have 30 guys coming up trying to buy that fictitious child. And you 

do a massive sting. 

We have seen it happen in Montgomery County. We have seen 

it happen in Phoenix. There is nothing stopping more police departments from doing that, including a shockwave of basically deterrence for buyers attempting to buy children. Publicize those things 

in a major way. If we had 10 or 20, 30 cities do that simultaneously 

with a decoy ad and some hotel-based reverse stings, without even 

a child involved, you could see a massive shockwave against the 

buyers. And I think it would have a major, major effect. I would 

say those are two things I would love to see concretely happen. 

Chairman ROYCE. Will the gentleman from Texas yield to the 

gentleman from New Jersey? 

Mr. SMITH. Just briefly. 

Mr. POE. Yes. I will yield. I will yield to——

Mr. SMITH. Thank you for yielding. 

Just to underscore that the Trafficking Victims Protection Act 

made it very clear in its definition that anyone who has not yet attained the age of 18 and anyone who commits an act, one commercial sex act, is liable for the full sanctions, the full criminality that 

42

is ascribed in the law. And that is up to life imprisonment. And 

then after that, after 18, it is force, fraud, and coercion. 

So we already have a Federal law that makes it absolutely clear. 

We do need state laws to mirror that so there are more tools for 

prosecutors, but we already have it in Federal law. 

Chairman ROYCE. We go now to Dr. Bera, California. 

Dr. BERA. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member 

Engel. And I would also like to thank Chairman Smith and Ranking Member Bass because in our Global Health and Human Rights 

Subcommittee, we have been talking about this issue at the international level. 

I look at this as a doctor. I mean, this is shameful. It is ridiculous that this happens today in America and throughout the world. 

And it is an outrage. It is an affront to our moral fibers as a country. And we have to take this seriously. 

Supervisor Knabe, it is a difficult and uncomfortable conversation, but it is exactly the conversation we should be having as parents. If we want to stand up morally as an example for the rest 

of the world, we have to lead by example. We have to lead by having this conversation and showing how shameful this is. And it is 

unacceptable for us not to have this conversation in communities, 

states, and throughout this country. It has to happen. 

Now, my home community is Sacramento County, where we have 

a horrible crisis on our hands as well. We are one of the top five 

communities for human trafficking. And I am proud that our sheriff has partnered with the FBI to do what they can, but, all three 

of you have already pointed out, it is not nearly enough. 

And, you know, I guess my question to all three of you is, you 

know, these are well-intentioned organizations, you know, our law 

enforcement agencies, the FBI, the nonprofits in our communities, 

that want to do this. How do we elevate the national conversation? 

How do we raise the temperature in this so it is being talked about 

across the spectrum and it is deemed unacceptable? 

Mr. KNABE. Well, from our perspective, obviously the Federal 

partnership is extremely important. I mean, I think when we 

hosted that Smart Justice Symposium of National Association of 

Counties, people coming from all over the country, by having the 

Homeland Security folks there, the FBI, I think it raised the level 

of attention that we weren’t just doing Los Angeles County, it 

wasn’t just in the streets of Los Angeles County, but it is throughout America. Polaris and others are bringing that attention as well, 

too. 

But the conversation, I mean, we can start locally, and we can 

do the building blocks. And we can keep expanding it. But, even 

in your own law enforcement communities, you know, they were 

amazed what is going on in their own backyard because it is a 

whole training. It is a whole educational process to make them 

aware and make everyone aware just how significant this issue is 

and how repulsive the issue is and that we need to do more about 

it to isolate, to have a particular unit within a law enforcement. 

There are metropolitan. You know, the transportation police, everyone should be a partner in this. 

But the Federal elevation to let everyone know that it is not just 

locally isolated to one community or another but it is a national 

43

issue, your leadership and your partnership have been a very important part of that. 

Dr. BERA. And I would put my own profession. Health care has 

to be part of this, health care providers. 

Mr. KNABE. Bring in doctors. 

Dr. BERA. Exactly. For years, we have been training our doctors 

on domestic violence recognition and so forth. Doctors are seeing a 

lot of these victims as well. And they have an obligation. 

Mr. MYLES. Yes. I think what I would add to that briefly is, in 

addition to the political wealth, in addition to the leadership, in addition to faith-based communities taking on this issue at the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based Neighborhood Partnerships, I think that when certain types of research come out that 

show certain effects of this issue, it is going to get the attention of 

many people. And it is going to spike that political will. 

For example, if someone were to ask any of us in this room right 

now and say, ‘‘How many victims of trafficking are there in the 

United States right now?’’ none of us have a good answer. We 

would have a few estimates, but we haven’t had a full research 

study to look at men and women, immigrants, and U.S. citizens, 

sex, and labor, boys, and girls, all the types of trafficking. So we 

can’t put a number on it. 

When we put that number on it, that will be able to generate 

media. That will generate police attention. That will generate political leadership. 

And then, secondly, from the health perspective of health research, when you start looking at things like CDC research on adverse child experiences, the ACEs, and if you say these kids are so 

vulnerable because they have gone through these different types of 

traumas as children, pimps are targeting the vulnerable kids, and 

when we make the public health argument, that will also create 

the political will. 

Dr. BERA. So that is an actionable item. Let’s raise the level of 

this crisis. Let’s put a number on there. That is an actionable item 

that raises awareness and talks about how this is happening in 

every community in every state across this country. 

Mr. MACDONALD. Can I just add it is very difficult to talk about 

this subject, but what is more difficult is for people to talk about 

labor trafficking. You will note just in the conversation now that 

also in the media and generally, there is a lot more focus on sex 

trafficking, but if you look at the global estimates and the estimates in the U.S., even though the numbers aren’t as clear as they 

might be, labor trafficking is a bigger problem and is something 

that we are all much more connected to. It is not just ‘‘Those pimps 

over there, those poor victims,’’ and so on. It is something that we 

are all connected to. 

And it is harder for people to talk about that because we are all 

implicated in the way most companies are implicated in their supply chain. And that is where I think we need to be able to get past 

some of these really loaded terms and say, ‘‘Are you involved in 

slavery?’’ but, instead, saying, ‘‘How are people hired into your 

company? How are the companies that are making your products 

hiring people? Do they have safeguards in place?’’ so it becomes 

something very concrete and practical about business operations, 

44

not so much ‘‘Are you a trafficker or are you not? Are you one of 

these awful companies that has slavery or not?’’ because it is everywhere. It is based on the way that so much of our global labor situation is organized today. 

So I really want to make that point that to keep in mind that 

labor trafficking is also something that we need to learn to talk 

about in a more routine way. 

Dr. BERA. Absolutely. 

Chairman ROYCE. We are going to Jeff Duncan, South Carolina. 

Mr. DUNCAN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thanks for this 

very interesting committee hearing, very informative for me, especially in light of what was revealed today in Cleveland with three 

young women being abducted and held hostage for a decade in a 

standard neighborhood that you might find in that area or in my 

hometown. 

So, anyway, you mentioned, Mr. Myles, that the U.S. has a national hotline and the number of calls that you have gotten from 

104 different countries. I guess that piqued my interest a little bit. 

Typically why do people from other countries call a U.S.-based hotline? 

And then are there other creative ways we may be able to—well, 

is that a 1–800 U.S. number and how that exactly works, but then 

are there other creative ways that we are utilizing along those 

same lines? Are there numbers or Twitter or Facebook, other 

things, social media that we might be able to use to contact law 

enforcement to say, ‘‘Hey, I am captive. I am a sex slave. I want 

out. I need help’’? 

And then I want to ask you to elaborate a little bit. Okay. If a 

call does come in and the young girl says that, how does the U.S. 

get involved in rescuing that girl from that position of captivity? 

Mr. MYLES. Well, those are two great questions. And I think 

that, even pointing out the Cleveland case, if you look what happened in that case, it was a neighbor, Charles Ramsey, who played 

a role in identifying those girls, right? And so I think that that signals to me the role that community members can play in identifying what is going on in their community, identifying suspicious 

behavior that we encounter. 

The majority of calls that we get into the national hotline in the 

U.S. are from community members who identified something. They 

identified a house on their street with something suspicious. They 

identified somebody approached them about a trafficking situation, 

and they are calling in. 

So what we would like to see is saturating that awareness so 

that community members can know what to look for and know who 

to call. And that is going to lead to more cases being identified. 

Mr. DUNCAN. If it is an international call——

Mr. MYLES. Yes. 

Mr. DUNCAN [continuing]. Because you said you received 104 different countries. So how would the U.S. get involved in that situation? 

Mr. MYLES. Yes, sir. So we have received these calls from other 

countries. And we had the same question ourselves. So we ask, 

‘‘How are these other countries calling us? We are the U.S. national 

hotline.’’

45

But what we realized is that sometimes there isn’t a national 

hotline in other countries. And so a person who is very determined 

to get a response to their case, they will start calling different 

places. And so they have called the U.S. hotline. So one reason is 

there might not be a hotline in their country. Second reason is they 

might not be getting a response from the hotline in their country. 

There might be a hotline but no one answers it or they have gotten 

an answering machine. 

And so somebody who believes they have identified a trafficking 

case, they have fire in their belly to respond. And they want to get 

a response. And they will start calling. We are 24/7, and they can 

call us. 

Sometimes people call us through Skype. Sometimes people call 

us through certain online services. And we also have not a toll-free 

number but an actual 202 number that people can call internationally and contact us. 

So people have reached out to us. And what that has taught us 

is that is what has led us to want to work on this Global Human 

Trafficking Hotline Network. That is what has led us to want to 

help to build hotline in other countries because we need to build 

that local capacity in other places so people can call their own local 

country human trafficking hotline, instead of having to route it 

through us. 

So we are working on identifying what the response is on those 

other countries. We are working to identify what those hotlines are 

in other countries and build that response so the calls aren’t coming to us all the time. 

Mr. DUNCAN. Okay. Well, just shift gears a little bit. I am on the 

Homeland Security Committee here in Congress. And you gentlemen are familiar with DHS’ Blue campaign. The question I have 

is, do you see it as effective? And what recommendations would you 

have for DHS so they could improve? That is law enforcement 

training. That is investigations, public outreach, and other things. 

And so a) do you think it is effective? I ask all three of you that. 

And b) what more could DHS be doing? Because they do play a 

vital role, especially with cross-border issues. 

Mr. KNABE. Well, from Los Angeles County’s perspective, it has 

been very successful. And I think DHS’ opportunity is to give the 

whole program credibility that it does exist and it is just more than 

the back streets of your own community. 

Their involvement with the Blue program as well as others had 

a very big impact at our justice symposium because it made folks 

around the country—Department of Homeland Security is different 

than the local sheriff’s department or local PD in the sense that it 

raises the global network, it raises the international significance, 

and it gets the level of conversation going that says, ‘‘Well, it 

doesn’t exist in my community.’’ It does. 

I think DHS on long term on moving forward, obviously their 

awareness and their ability to train local law enforcement in identification and kinds of activities and the network and in conjunction with the hotline and those kinds of things and pure points of 

contact could be incredibly successful and helpful to all of us at the 

local level. 

46

Mr. MACDONALD. I would just add that in general, with the Customs enforcement role of DHS, that there is more opportunity for 

creativity around the way that they identify and try to work with 

importers of products so they are made with child labor and forced 

labor. There are statutes around that but not always a lot of clear 

enforcement. 

And I know that somehow—I don’t know all of the particulars. 

I am sorry. But somehow there is a role for the Customs enforcement people. And I know that they have been looking at ways of 

doing trainings and so on in their overseas offices to better understand labor conditions for products that are being imported here, 

but I think that there is always a lot more that can be done around 

that. 

Mr. DUNCAN. Right. Well, I am out of time, but are you all familiar with the coordination, collaboration, capacity report plan that 

the President is working on? The public comment period is still 

open on this, my understanding. And I hope you guys get involved. 

And, with that, Mr. Chairman, I will yield back. 

Chairman ROYCE. We will go now to Tulsi Gabbard. Congresswoman Gabbard? 

Ms. GABBARD. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. 

Dr. MacDonald, you mentioned the difficulty that exists within 

our culture in talking about labor trafficking, in particular. And I 

know there was some mention of this being addressed with some 

larger corporate entities, like Wal-Mart, et cetera, but I am wondering if you can address how we can deal with maybe the smaller 

either companies in different industries, whether it is agriculture 

or the garment industry, who have a little easier time flying under 

the radar. 

Just one example, in my home State of Hawaii, we saw in 2010, 

the largest human trafficking case in our country’s history where 

there was a labor recruiting company that bought 400 immigrants 

from Thailand to work in farms in the State of Hawaii. It did not 

have a good outcome in that the Federal prosecutor, unfortunately, 

misstated the law in front of a grand jury, which ended up throwing the whole case out, but it led to a heightened state of awareness, within our own community and I think nationally, about 

these kinds of entities that are really using economic intimidation 

in providing basically slave labor. 

So I wonder if you can address how we can, either through the 

carrot or the stick approach, deal with some of these smaller entities? 

Mr. MACDONALD. Well, I think definitely at the level of public 

policy, there are many ways that foreign labor recruiters within 

our guest workers visa system can be held more accountable 

through more transparency, more clear oversight of what they are 

doing. And that is a conversation that is very active now in the immigration reform debate. 

But also at the state level, more states are doing things to try 

to hold employers as well as labor recruiters accountable. In the 

State of California, there is a bill that is moving its way fairly 

quickly through the state legislature to have stronger accountability measures for labor recruiters. 

47

I think the other thing that we are hoping to see, as I mentioned 

in my remarks, I think, before you arrived, is that the President’s 

executive order saying all Federal contractors have to have a very 

specific plan in place for due diligence measures for labor recruiters 

who are providing the workers to Federal contractors, that is a real 

game changer because the Federal Government obviously buys a 

lot of things, has a great number of contractors. You pair that with 

some of the other efforts underway, and I think you will see that 

there is real reform happening possible within the labor recruiter 

sector, but a lot of attention, a lot of action needs to be taken. 

We are at the beginning steps. The guidelines are in place, including the ones that I mentioned, in a real world for better public 

policy, but I think as that happens, market forces will come to 

bear. And an American farmer; an American warehouse; big retailer like a Wal-Mart, will know what kind of questions to ask in 

holding their suppliers accountable for how they are hiring their 

workers because now it is essentially an unregulated industry, both 

here in the U.S., very poorly regulated, and overseas even less so, 

where people who can just register as a company and then go about 

charging people $20,000 to $30,000 to get a U.S. guest worker visa 

for a job in one of these supply chains that I have been referring 

to. 

So there is a lot of work to be done, but we and others have a 

lot of recommendations for what companies can do in their supply 

chains. And then we and Polaris Project and other NGOs that are 

part of the Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking and the International Labor Recruiters Working Group, another set of NGOs 

have a lot of recommendations for stronger accountability for labor 

recruiters. 

Ms. GABBARD. The Federal contract accountability that you just 

mentioned, that is for Federal contracts that are administered both 

here as well as overseas? 

Mr. MACDONALD. Yes. 

Ms. GABBARD. Great. I think that is all. Thank you. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN [presiding]. Thank you very much. I want to 

thank Chairman Royce, who just stepped out for a few minutes, for 

holding this important hearing this morning. I will recognize myself for my 5 minutes. 

Human trafficking, as we know, is one of the worst, most alarming human rights issues of our day depriving millions around the 

world of their most basic dignity as human beings. 

And, given today’s interconnected global economy and the reach 

of many organizations throughout the world, it is imperative that 

we find more ways to enlist the help of businesses and local organizations to help fight this awful crime. 

Many of the victims associated with human trafficking, as we 

know, are women and young girls who are forced to enter prostitution. Many who are attracted to our Nation are migrant workers 

from Mexico and Central America. 

So, Dr. MacDonald, how can we improve working relations on the 

border to help fight labor trafficking from Latin America? And 

what consequences should the U.S. place on companies for blatantly ignoring trafficking problems in their business? 

48

Also, it is not surprising that dictatorships around the globe are 

the largest violators of international anti-trafficking standards and 

do nothing to protect people from this modern-day slavery. Once 

again, the regimes of Iran, Cuba, Syria, and North Korea are designated as top tier III countries in the 2012 Trafficking in Persons 

report issued by our State Department. 

In Cuba, the Castro tyranny supports and encourages the sex 

tourism industry by exploiting vulnerable women and children. According to a recent report by El Nuevo Herald in South Florida, foreigners travel to Cuba to take advantage of young women who are 

recruited to enter prostitution in order to fill the coffers of the Castro brothers. 

On Central America, reports are that drug cartels and gangs are 

using their narcotic routes to traffic human beings across the border. These individuals may be migrant workers, drug traffickers, 

and even terrorists. 

So, Supervisor Knabe, what actions is your local government taking to prevent trafficking in the California-Mexico border? And how 

can we ensure that our allies in the region prioritize this threat as 

we have? As we consider the global scope of human trafficking, we 

must be clear that it occurs within our very borders, making this 

a domestic challenge as well as an international one. 

And this is especially true in my home district of South Florida, 

a region with one of the highest rates of human trafficking in the 

country. It is an appalling reality. And I remain committed to making sure that we have every effort at work in order to fight it because the promotion of basic human rights and human dignity 

must remain a cornerstone for the United States as our foreign policy initiatives. 

So, Supervisor and Dr. MacDonald, if you could address the issue 

that I brought up in my questions? 

Mr. MACDONALD. Okay. I will just quickly say that I think it is—

I am glad you brought up this issue of what is happening in the 

border because I think it is really important that with all of the 

attention placed on the drug war there and the smuggling and trafficking of people across the border, that many companies that have 

those workers within their supply chain need to be held accountable for how those workers are getting there. And it is really important to note that the people who are trafficking the drugs, trafficking the weapons are also trafficking the people, that there is a 

great deal of overlap between these gangs and this organized 

crime. 

And so if you are relying on workers who are taking those migratory routes, then, without a doubt, you are entangled in this problem. And to try to say that you are not is simply burying your head 

in the sand. 

And so, whether those people are coming here with documents or 

not, very often traffickers are involved. And so companies really 

must focus on what steps they can take, concrete steps, rather than 

try to pretend that they are not entangled with the issue. And that 

is where——

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you, sir. 

Mr. MACDONALD. Okay. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you. 

49

Supervisor? 

Mr. KNABE. Well, great question. You have given me an opportunity to do a little soapbox here. I mean, at the end of the day, 

those of us in local government, our job is to solve the problem, to 

fix it with the resources that we have. That is the case in some of 

the cases, particularly like items like this. 

We are at the beck and whim of the Federal Government and the 

state government to put the tools in place that covers everybody. 

We only as a county can do so much. As it relates to gang issues, 

penalties, those kinds of things, we need state legislation, enabling 

state legislation. We need Federal legislation to really raise the 

level so we can continue to do our jobs. 

You know, these young girls, nobody asked them whether they 

are Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, or Independent. They are 

true victims. And those of us at the local level have to deal with 

that. And that is why we appreciate your leadership here and others because we need that leadership and we need that assistance, 

both at the Federal level as well as the state level. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. We thank you, each one of you, for what you 

are doing. 

So proud to recognize Mr. Vargas for his 5 minutes of questioning. 

Mr. VARGAS. Thank you, Madam Chairman. Thank you again for 

allowing me to speak. 

I want to thank all of you for being here also. This is a horrible 

crime that happens right here in the United States, as you have 

all said today. I represent the border area in California, represent 

San Diego County. It is a horrible crime there. 

I have to say I have been working with the Federal prosecutors 

because we do have some problems in the Federal law, laws that 

we can change. And, in fact, I have sponsored a bill, H.R. 1690, 

which does this. Right now a prosecutor has to prove that a sex 

trafficker knew the child was a child. It is very difficult to do to 

prove that the trafficker knew that the child was a child. So what 

this bill says is that you don’t have to prove, the government 

doesn’t have to prove, that this pimp knew that the child was a 

child. The government has to prove that the child is a child. So the 

government just proves that this person is a pimp. He was sex trafficking this child. The prosecutors say that that will go a long way 

in being able to put people away. 

We are working with the prosecutors in San Diego and a very 

courageous young woman that escaped from these pimps. And her 

pimp ultimately got 30 years because she did have the courage and 

she did have the wherewithal to stand up in court, which is very 

difficult for a child to do but to be able to put this guy away for 

30 years. And that is what we will be able to do if we can change 

the law. 

So I would hope that maybe we could get behind that bill, H.R. 

1690. I think it is a very good bill. And I agree we glorify oftentimes the pimp. And we revictimize the victim and in this case a 

child. So we need to change Federal law right here in the United 

States to be able to go after these people. 

Supervisor Knabe, you have been a hero to many of us. Would 

you like to comment on that particular law or hopefully change——

50

Mr. KNABE. I think this week, you are going to have five young 

heroines here who will have the willingness to stand up. And they 

are five victims that have survived that are coming into town. You 

know, whatever tools are necessary when you go back to the question about what we can do, we can only do so much. But given the 

tools, like an H.R. 1690 or others, that would really help us at the 

local level work with our Federal prosecutors. You know, how we 

are able to raise this whole issue as it relates to the penalties, the 

better off we are that we are going to be able to—once we ID the 

folks, get them to court, do all the things that we need to do, that 

we have the laws that are on the books that everybody will recognize and can put these people away, whether it is 30 years, whether it is 60 years, whether it is 90 years. 

But at the end of the day, you know, we need to wrap our arms 

around these young ladies to give them the courage. And that is 

the whole purpose behind the collaborative courtroom. 

Mr. VARGAS. Thank you. Again I would like to note that it is very 

difficult, however, for a child to stand up in court because, you 

know, the opposing is tough, you are before all of these people. You 

know, we need to change this law. I mean, we absolutely need to 

change this Federal law to say, ‘‘No. You know, if you are a sex 

trafficker, if you are sex trafficking these children, the government 

has to prove that you are doing that, but it ought to be strict liability if it is a child. You are going to go away for a long period of 

time’’ because otherwise they have to, unfortunately, give them a 

light sentence because the child doesn’t want to or can’t go and testify. So I am hopeful that we can get behind the law and change 

it right here. 

Would you like to comment on this? I know that we are reaching 

out to your group. Would you like to comment? 

Mr. MYLES. I think you are pointing out an important issue. I 

know of one Federal case where they were trying to prove that the 

pimp knew that the child was a child. And there happened to be 

this bizarre occurrence where, actually, the father of the child had 

been hunting his child down for months trying to recover her. He 

finally learned she was in a hotel room. And he kicked in the hotel 

room door. And he saw the pimp in the room with his child, who 

was a minor. And he said, ‘‘You’’ so and so, ‘‘she is not yet 18. I 

am her father.’’ And that father was able to testify in the courtroom to say, ‘‘I informed him that the child—that he knew that the 

child was a child because he heard me say that she was my daughter.’’ How many times does that actually happen in a case, right, 

where you could actually find the father who hunts that down? 

So I think you are right. I think that you are zeroing in on an 

important area of the law where to prove that the trafficker knew 

that the child was a child in a random occurrence where the father 

bursts into the hotel room and has to say it, but lightning has to 

strike for that to happen. So I think that we can’t rely on that to 

get this many pimps at scale to create the turn effect at scale that 

we need to. 

Mr. VARGAS. Well, many of them are runaways to begin with. 

Mr. MYLES. That is right. And other times what the prosecutor 

has to do, he has to search the record to show that the pimp used 

his own credit card because the child didn’t have the credit card, 

51

a whole bunch of things to prove that the person—it is very difficult. I hope we can get behind this bill. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you so much, Mr. Vargas. 

Mr. Kinzinger? 

Mr. KINZINGER. Thank you, Madam Chair, appreciate it. And 

thank you, all, for coming in, such an important issue. 

You know, I always knew this was an issue, but I really had my 

eyes opened. There is a documentary out there; it is actually called 

‘‘Nefarious.’’ And I don’t know if you have seen it. If you haven’t, 

I would commend that to anybody who is either watching this on 

television or is in the audience. An outstanding documentary by basically a missionary I think that was—his eye was opened to what 

was going on. 

Specifically, they hid all over the world, but an area that is really 

disturbing to me is what I saw in Thailand. And I know we have 

been talking about Thailand a little bit, but you see, you know, as 

he documents Americans going to utilize the services, if you can 

say it so crassly, of a 10-year-old girl sold into sex slavery as her 

Dad sits back in his village and smokes and drinks all day long, 

you know, earning the profits of his daughter, and really doesn’t 

care, doesn’t see her as somebody he loves, more sees her as an opportunity, so that he can smoke and drink all day long. I watched 

this documentary and this video and it really opened my eyes and 

was jaw-dropping. 

One of the things that really has since kind of I guess driven me 

in this issue is the idea that nobody I think when you talk about 

the average American out there, they don’t think of this as a very 

serious issue. And I know we are doing everything we can to bring 

it on the forefront. This hearing today is part of that. But when you 

mention the issue to kind of ‘‘Johnny on the street,’’ in many cases 

they are interested in what you have to say, but they are unaware 

of the situation. 

So I am actually a co-chair of the Thai Caucus, and in that role, 

obviously, as Thailand, a strategic ally of the United States from 

a foreign affairs perspective, but it gives us an opportunity to really 

engage the government. 

One of the things I saw in this video—and I don’t know if this 

is still the case, but that was interesting was the Thai Government 

would actually sponsor billboards that say, ‘‘Welcome to Thailand, 

where our greatest asset is our women.’’ And, you know, you see 

things like that and it kind of makes you wonder, and you start 

to begin to understand why this is so prevalent there. 

So I will ask you a couple of questions. First off—and I will get 

to the second question, too. First off is, what can we do to better 

engage Thailand from maybe a Thai Caucus perspective, bringing 

that to the public attention? 

And, secondly, I represent a district in Illinois, and it is in between Chicago and St. Louis. And, actually, as you look at domestic 

human trafficking, you see that Chicago and St. Louis is a huge 

corridor for this. If you look at the numbers of it, Chicago had over 

250 I think cases of this, and there is many in St. Louis. 

What can we do from a domestic perspective? The other scary 

thing is you see cities like Bloomington, Illinois; Normal, Illinois; 

Rockford; where these issues are actually popping up. What can we 

52

do to better bring this to the American people’s attention? Whether 

it is a 911 kind of call center, I don’t know, or whatever, to bring 

it so when people see that these are occurring they are more aware 

of it. You know, they are not at a club or something, and they are 

more aware of what is going on and we can report it. 

So two questions. I pose those to all three of you, and I will start 

with you, Mr. Supervisor. 

Mr. KNABE. Well, as I said, it is all building blocks for us. I 

mean, we can do what we can do at the county level to elevate this 

issue, and we are doing what we can. But at the end of the day, 

we are going to need to get it where you would like to see it and 

where I think we all would like to see it. 

It is going to take a national campaign of some sort. That is 

going to take a major collaboration of who knows who yet, but we 

are trying to put that together because we can only do so much. 

Like I say, in our county, and we are doing a lot in a matter of 

months, but at the end of the day it is going to take a national 

campaign to elevate this conversation because it goes—as the others have said, in addition to this human trafficking, the workforce, 

you know, with the ports and, you know, all of the other kinds of 

issues that we have to deal with, it will take a national campaign 

of some kind. 

Mr. KINZINGER. Well, it is like the issue of the war on drugs. Everybody became very aware of it through a national campaign like 

the issue of AIDS in Africa, and it is an opportunity for the Federal 

Government to work on that level, but mostly also for NGOs and 

nonprofits to come and make people aware. 

Mr. Myles? 

Mr. MYLES. Yes, sir. I am glad you saw the movie Nefarious. 

There has been a whole explosion of movies out on this issue—Nefarious, Not My Life, Very Young Girls, Trade of Innocence, Taken. 

You know, all of these movies are coming out, and what is happening is one by one people are becoming more aware as they see 

those movies. 

But it is still happening a bit like popcorn. It is kind of all over 

the place. It is not a centralized national campaign the way you are 

describing, the way the supervisor is describing, and so we are 

moving the needle, but we are not moving the needle enough on 

the national awareness piece. 

And I think we need to be engaging faith communities way more 

on the national awareness piece. I think Federal legislation and 

Federal leadership can move that needle. But right now the documentaries and whatnot, they are increasing it, but we are not really getting to where we need to. 

To the piece on Thailand, you know, I was in Thailand 2 or 3 

months ago, and I experienced a number of the things that you described of just the horror at the sex tourism and the men buying 

children there and seeing it. 

I think one—I asked some questions about hotlines there. I said, 

you know, ‘‘What are the hotlines here?’’ They said, ‘‘Well, there is 

a hotline operated by the Thai Government, but it is not in all of 

these different languages.’’

So I think maybe asking the question about hotlines through the 

Thai Caucus there is some great work being done to build better 

53

hotlines there, so put some focus on that, so there are some victim 

identification mechanisms happening. I think that is one piece. 

I think the second piece is demand, and this is what Judge Poe 

talked about, the consumer piece. When anywhere in the world, or 

in the United States, when an economy becomes dependent on the 

sex trade and the objectification of women and girls, then there becomes an entrenched, monetized interest to keep that going. 

So whether or not it is present in a U.S. community or in Thailand, that challenge is going to be, and that is going to revolve 

around demand. 

Mr. KINZINGER. Thank you. 

Mr. MYLES. Whether or not that is Protect Act cases, whether or 

not that is cases of sex tourism, or whether or not that is actually 

looking at the Thai law to crack down on more consumers, that is 

going to begin to reverse that tide. But until then, we have got a 

huge problem on our hands because there is entrenched interest to 

keep that going. 

Mr. KINZINGER. Great input. Dr. MacDonald, I have got to cut 

you off because we are out of time. Sorry about that. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you so much. 

So proud to recognize my Florida colleague, Ms. Frankel. 

Ms. FRANKEL. Thank you, Madam Chair. I also thank the chairman and panel for bringing this issue, which I think most Americans don’t realize the depth of this. ‘‘Horrible’’ isn’t a big enough 

word to describe what is going on in the exploitation of folks. 

I have a number of questions. My first question has to do with 

the exploitation in the labor market, and you talked about debt 

bondage, and so forth. And in that regard, number one, could good 

immigration reform help, in your opinion, this exploitation of the 

human laborers? 

Number two, could stronger labor laws when we enact trade 

treaties, could that also go toward minimizing this human trafficking? 

Mr. MACDONALD. I will take a crack at that. I think with the free 

trade agreements and the labor agreements that are negotiated 

along with that, it is really important that the full spectrum of 

labor abuses be considered, including the out-migration and in-migration of workers. 

Very often the way that labor issues are looked at when we are 

investigating a particular country where there is a debate about 

whether there should be a trade agreement, the full extent of the 

labor dynamic is not always properly considered. So what is that 

country doing, not just for enforcing law in its own country, but 

protecting its workers who are moving overseas and protecting the 

workers who are coming into their country. So I think that is one 

point. 

With immigration reform, I am just going to focus on particularly 

this issue of foreign labor recruiters. I think one thing that we have 

found in our own research, and I think it is confirmed by a lot of 

other research, is that workers who are confined to one particular 

job because of the way that their visa is organized face a lot more 

vulnerability because they cannot move. 

So portability of employment is really important, as well as, as 

I have discussed before, the issue of accountability for the actions 

54

of the labor recruiters whom the farms are hiring or the businesses 

are hiring to help them process these visas to find the workers. So 

there are a lot of good proposals out there in the world lobbying 

around immigration to focus on more accountability for labor recruiters. 

So I think those are really important points—more transparency 

and accountability for labor brokers and issues of portability of jobs 

for workers, whatever their visa status is. 

Ms. FRANKEL. Thank you. Madam Chair, I wanted to give a 

shout out to Brandi Macaluso from my hometown, who was just 

recognized by Attorney General Bondi for her work in trafficking. 

In regard to the prostitution, trafficking, and so forth, question. 

I mean, it is outrageous to hear these stories, and there is a story 

playing out today. It is domestic, not international, in Cleveland. 

I think the country is going to be, you know, outraged by it. 

My question is, though, do you believe that law enforcement is 

really paying attention? Do we have the—because we have been 

talking about awareness and hotlines, and so forth. But let us talk 

about enforcement and getting the bad guys or whoever is, you 

know, behind the trafficking. 

In your opinion, is law enforcement at every level putting in the 

resources and the attention to this problem that it should have? 

Mr. KNABE. From my perspective, no. I think the issue of law enforcement is no different than the average person out there in the 

streets that thinks this is Third World kinds of activities and not 

here in our own backyard. I think the element of training for our 

law enforcement personnel, dedicated strike teams as it relates to 

this, and, most importantly, the legislative backup that when they 

do get the bad guy that the laws are tough enough to put them 

away for awhile. 

I think early on, and continuing beyond, right now when they get 

the bad guy, the bad guy is in and out, you know, kind of a thing. 

Again, going back to what Congresswoman Bass said, I think we 

need to change the name from prostitution to something else because they are truly the victim. 

But law enforcement—I know in our own case when we started 

out with these billboards and the flyers on the trains and buses 

and Metro and everything else, it was a whole coordinated effort 

that had to take place because our transportation police were not 

aware of this. They know how to look for the bag that is unattended, okay, but the identity of a young girl that may be—you 

know, so it is a whole training and awareness effort that they are 

not aware of. I don’t think that they have the resources yet, but 

they need to develop strike teams. 

Ms. FRANKEL. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you very much, Ms. Frankel. 

Mr. Chabot of Ohio. 

Mr. CHABOT. Thank you very much, Madam Chair. 

Mr. Myles, let me begin with you, if I could. You described in detail the successes of a U.S. national human trafficking resources 

center hotline. As chair of the Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, I can tell you that we have heard a lot of cases about trafficking in Asia. 

55

The subcommittee staff recently traveled to Cambodia and Vietnam, and I had been there a while back as well and heard the 

same things about the depth of the problem of human trafficking 

there. Unfortunately, it doesn’t sound like it is a whole lot better 

now than it was some years ago when I was there, according to the 

subcommittee staff. 

You indicated in your testimony that the only country in Asia I 

believe that you are currently working in is Malaysia. Does Polaris 

have any plans to expand its work in Asia to include other countries such as Cambodia and Vietnam? You know, the entire region’s 

traffic cases are interrelated. For example, the Vietnamese women 

are very highly trafficked in Cambodia. They are considered to be 

the poor of the poor and highly discriminated against, and Cambodians are trafficked in places like Thailand and Malaysia. 

Hotlines are certainly a good first step. Are there any efforts to 

kind of tackle this problem from multiple sides? 

Mr. MYLES. Yes, sir. I think it is a great question. So one of our 

partners on this global human trafficking hotline network that we 

are working on through the Google Impact Award is a group in 

Asia called Liberty Asia. They are working on building a regional 

hotline that would apply to the six countries in the Greater 

Mekong subregion. 

So through that partnership, that is one of the ways that we are 

working in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and other countries there. The one country that we have directly engaged with is 

Malaysia. But there is some temporal contextuality there to that 

answer, which is we are starting off on this project to try to identify and contact hotlines in every country around the world, and 

provide them training and technical assistance. 

We do intend to work with countries methodically, country by 

country, and not just handpick a few. So not only through our work 

with Liberty Asia will we access more countries, but through our 

own work through the State Department funding we will be directly interfacing with Cambodia, with Vietnam, with the countries 

that you talked about. So we just haven’t gotten there yet. 

Mr. CHABOT. Okay. 

Mr. MYLES. So just give us a few months, and we will get there. 

Mr. CHABOT. Okay. Thank you very much. 

Supervisor Knabe, if I could turn to you next. Our Embassy in 

Vietnam indicated that many of the labor trafficking cases are tied 

to criminal organizations in California. In situations where the 

trafficked women are from other countries, how do you handle 

those cases? 

Specifically, what happens to those individuals who have been 

trafficked to the United States via forged paperwork and against 

their will? When you step in to rescue them in those cases, is there 

anything in place to work with their respective countries to ensure 

that if they are sent back that there is some sort of safety net in 

place to help prevent them from falling victim to other trafficking 

circles? 

Mr. KNABE. The thing that I am most aware of is that there is 

something in place when they come this way or come to California, 

with our cooperation with the FBI, the Department of Homeland 

56

Security, and ICE, and we have dedicated folks that have that relationship with them. 

So if we, as a unit or as a county, are able to rescue some young 

girls coming across that are human trafficked from other countries, 

we have the situation in place to handle that. I do not know, and 

I can’t speak to the fact that when they go back what happens. I 

am not sure that there is that safety net. I think that is what everyone is worried about. 

There is a whole ethnic issue here. As an example, the largest 

Cambodian population outside of Cambodia resides in my district, 

in Long Beach, California. So you have issues there that you can 

deal with because they are trying to educate because you have an 

adult population that doesn’t look at this as horrific as the younger 

population does. 

They have groups that can reach back into Cambodia, as an example, to try to create that safety net. So we are trying to use 

every activity we can, but I can’t speak to the fact of whether or 

not there is an exact safety net. I only know through some of the 

Asian community members that I deal with. They are trying to create that in their home areas, but I don’t know for a fact whether—

we have it in place to rescue them and to return them, but I am 

not sure at the other end. 

Mr. CHABOT. Okay. Mr. Myles, did you want to comment? 

Mr. MYLES. Yes. I would just comment briefly. I think you are 

highlighting a really important area where innovation is needed in 

the human trafficking field, which is right now countries aren’t engaging on a bilateral basis. 

So, let us say, a huge bus of South Korean women is found here 

in the United States. Is there a strong bilateral relationship between governments, between law enforcement, between nonprofits, 

to work that case from both Korea and here in the United States? 

Not as much. 

So we can imagine hundreds of those happening, U.S. to Cambodia, U.S. to Korea, U.S. to Vietnam, U.S. to Mexico. And building 

those bilateral relationships after the case is found, so both countries are working the case together, I think is something that the 

field needs to be doing a lot more of in future years. 

In the first 10 years in the field, they haven’t been doing that 

as much because we have been getting the infrastructures in place. 

Now that the infrastructure is in place, we can begin to partner 

them country by country in exactly the way you are describing. 

Mr. CHABOT. Thank you, Madam Chair. My time has expired. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you very much. 

Mr. Lowenthal? 

Mr. LOWENTHAL. Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a question for 

Supervisor Knabe. First, I would like to commend you and Los Angeles County for your great work in both educating us, but really 

providing kind of a model for the rest of the counties and for the 

Nation in terms of what, at the local level, we can do. 

I followed your presentation earlier; I had to leave, but in terms 

of raising awareness, of involving the private sector, in terms of 

bringing in Federal grants and beginning to build relationships 

with school districts, and working with victims. 

57

So my question is—and I see how this is a process that is taking 

years, that counties are not just going to jump in and solve this. 

This takes a lot of work and a lot of coordination. I am just kind 

of interested in if you can share with us how that work with 

schools is doing. 

Since this is—you know, we are talking about children’s mental 

health right now, and I am wearing a ribbon for Children’s Mental 

Health Awareness Month, if you could tell us, with your experiences, how—and as you began with people who are subjected to 

prostitution at ages 10 or 11, what kind of recovery is going on? 

How does mental health work? 

I just think that is such an important task, but I would like to 

understand more how effective it is being. 

Mr. KNABE. Well, it is effective. I think it is on two fronts, Congressman Lowenthal. I mean, one is going back to the collaborative 

court where we are bringing the wrap-around services. 

Mr. LOWENTHAL. Right. 

Mr. KNABE. You can’t operate in silence anymore. The mental 

health piece is an absolutely critical piece to all of this. You always 

have to remember that the victim is usually a runaway or a subject 

of domestic violence, so they really have no self-esteem——

Mr. LOWENTHAL. That is right. 

Mr. KNABE [continuing]. The most significant part of the mental 

health issue. Then, the housing, as I said, is the biggest thing that 

is missing to be able to protect them, because they may have a tattoo on their forehead or on their shoulder to identify their pimp. 

So these wrap-around services, you know, dealing with the victim. 

As it relates to the other part, there has to be a public conversation, you know, our school districts, getting the word out through 

them about trafficking issues. Again, it is a very uncomfortable 

subject, but I would venture, you know, that there are kids out 

there that can identify other kids that may be in that potential situation. There has got to be a level of comfort. 

So we can only do so much, but we try to do it through the mental health programs, through outreach campaigns, and through the 

school districts. We are having some limited success, but, again, 

school districts aren’t really comfortable about talking about it either, and that is what we have to be able to raise the level of attention, so that it is a comfortable subject. 

Mr. LOWENTHAL. Thank you. 

Mr. MACDONALD. Can I just add one quick thing to that in terms 

of services? As many of these victims are further entrapped 

through drug addiction, where the pimps and other traffickers are 

getting them addicted to drugs as a way to further control them, 

and so services around addiction is a really important component. 

Mr. KNABE. We do have that. The health services and public 

health folks are also part of this collaborative courtroom. 

Mr. LOWENTHAL. I think it is important that we talk about those 

kinds of issues also here. 

Mr. MYLES. The point that I would just jump in briefly, there are 

some really exciting efforts happening around the country related 

to schools. Georgia has been training its schools, kids in schools. 

There are a number of nonprofits that are particularly focused on 

reaching out to high school age kids. One program here in DC is 

58

called Fair Girls. They are trying to educate kids in the DC public 

schools. They are also doing it in Baltimore. There is a group called 

Love146 that is educating schools in Connecticut, a group called 

the A21 Campaign in Georgia, the Frederick Douglas Family Foundation is educating kids through New York City public schools. 

It is beginning to happen a bit more, and it is happening in a 

spotty fashion around the country. But we need to get to a point, 

maybe 2 or 3 years from now, where this is getting introduced as 

a topic in all high school age public schools. It is talked about like 

bullying, and it is not the difficult subject that people are having 

a hard time talking about. 

People need to recognize that pimps are targeting vulnerable 

kids, and so it is an important outreach strategy to make sure that 

kids can prepare themselves and talk about in schools. So I think 

that these initial efforts that we have seen around the country, including in California, are going to spread. And what your instinct 

is is how do we talk about this more in schools? We are going to 

see that spread and become more of a national standard. So we are 

getting there, but we are in the early nascent stages of what you 

are describing. 

Mr. KNABE. Congressman Lowenthal, I would just say, you know, 

we have that preventive curriculum that we use in our probation 

halls called My Life My Choice. We are trying to elevate and move 

that to middle schools where these exploitation efforts could be the 

highest as possible trafficking kinds of issues. 

So we do have this program, My Life My Choice, that we are 

using in probation. We are trying to take it to the middle schools 

as well. But, again, we need the cooperation of the school districts. 

Mr. LOWENTHAL. Thank you. I think sharing that information 

with us is vitally important, and I yield back my time. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you very much, Mr. Lowenthal. 

And Mr. Connolly of Virginia is recognized. 

Mr. CONNOLLY. Thank you, Madam Chairman. Last, but maybe 

not least. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. The best for last. 

Mr. CONNOLLY. Thank you so much. More chocolate for you. 

Mr. Knabe, first of all, I just want to thank you. I spent 14 years 

on the Board of Supervisors in Fairfax County, and I always like 

saluting my fellow local government servants because it is where 

the action is. And, God knoweth, you guys get so much more done 

than some other levels of government. 

I am particularly glad that you are so committed to this. You 

know, I say to all three of our panelists, we had a series of hearings on human trafficking in the Oversight and Government Reform Committee in the last Congress from which we passed a bill, 

actually, as part of the Defense Authorization Bill. 

Dr. MacDonald, you referred to the Executive Order, but our bill 

actually codifies that and does a few other things. I want to get 

into that in a second. 

But it is so important that at the local level we have leaders like 

Supervisor Knabe and others, and I hope the National Association 

of County Supervisors is very seized with this mission because that 

is a nationwide network that can make a difference because we 

59

know that human trafficking doesn’t just occur in big urban areas 

such as Los Angeles. 

It can occur even more successfully, unfortunately, in rather remote areas in the country where it is not detected, where the police 

forces are much weaker, the ability to gather intelligence and the 

like. So your commitment and building a network up to fight it 

from the local level I just think is so critical. 

Dr. MacDonald, are you familiar with the legislation that got 

passed? Because what we highlighted was, frankly, U.S. Government contractors and subcontractors, especially at DoD and the Department of State, and we were shocked at the testimony. I mean, 

shocked. It was rampant. 

This is compromising human autonomy, and there can be nothing more antithetical to American values than that. What we 

found, frankly, was the practice was turning a blind eye because 

we have got to get, you know, that building constructed or that facility put up. If some foreign subcontractor feels that is what they 

need, that is what they need. 

Your comment on that? 

Mr. MACDONALD. Yes. I am quite familiar with it. I am glad that 

you all took that effort to really make it happen. What is really important now is that in the Federal regulatory writing process, with 

the Executive Order and also in relation to your legislation, that 

clear guidance for these contractors or subcontractors is creating, 

and that there is real enforcement from within the Federal bureaucracy, those who are in charge of contracts, because, as you 

know, clear policy is in place there around no fees, no contract substitution, all sorts of issues about repatriation of workers, and so 

on. 

So the things are spelled out there about what they need to have 

in their due diligence plan. But whether or not the Federal bureaucracy is going to take the step, have the resources, train its 

contracting officials to actually identify what is an acceptable plan 

in place for Federal contractors, and whether there are systems in 

place for those Federal contractors to use things like the ethical 

framework that I mentioned that we created to provide a blueprint 

for labor recruiters to show that they followed these rules, that is 

where the rubber hits the road, will there be true enforcement of 

that? Because people are really identifying the steps that need to 

be taken. 

There are good recruiters, there are too many bad recruiters, and 

there has to be a way to recognize the good from the bad and make 

sure that there is accountability within these Federal contracts for 

that, because if it is happening on our U.S. military bases and with 

our Embassies and others, you can imagine what is happening in 

the private sector, the world over. 

Mr. CONNOLLY. Exactly. 

Mr. MACDONALD. Routine practice. 

Mr. CONNOLLY. Let me just say, at least starting with our contractors, our view was in our legislation there will be zero tolerance, and you will not turn a blind eye. And if these are subcontractors working for you, you will enforce these standards, and 

you will debar. 

60

When we asked how many were prosecuted, we heard testimony 

about thousands and thousands and thousands of human beings 

who had had their autonomy ripped from them. And when we said, 

‘‘Well, how many have been prosecuted? How many contractors or 

subcontractors have been prosecuted?’’ It was a handful. How many 

have been debarred? And I believe I am correct; it was zero. Unacceptable. 

So we clearly need groups such as yours and yours, Mr. Myles, 

to be being the watchdogs to make sure that that enforcement is 

real, and that there is transparency because there are lots of us 

here who are more than willing to partner with you to make sure 

that—we first start by holding ourselves accountable. 

Mr. KNABE. Congressman, if I could just interject, you know, it 

is amazing at the transportation level on transportation projects 

across this country that there are all of these debarment kinds of 

situations in place. And they are prosecuted, you know, and to deal 

with an issue like human trafficking——

Mr. CONNOLLY. Exactly. 

Mr. KNABE [continuing]. They should absolutely have the same 

things in place. If you look at the template of most of the transportation legislation that comes out of the Federal Government, and 

the structure that is set up for debarment, it could just transfer 

over as it relates to human trafficking and the whole supply chain. 

Mr. MYLES. And the only point I would make briefly is just to 

all of those contractors, as these regulations come out, make sure 

that the workers are given hotlines and complaint mechanisms to 

call. And so imagine the workers working for some of those defense 

contractors. Did they know a hotline to call when they were in that 

situation? Probably not. Or the workers that are working on some 

other contract or subcontract, do they know a hotline to call? Probably not. 

What you can do through the regulatory process is mandate certain complaint mechanisms that those companies, if you contract 

with the Federal Government, part of the requirement of contracting with the Federal Government is you need to tell your 

workers about a complaint mechanism, and here is a hotline to 

call. When those workers know those hotlines to call, they will call 

in a whistleblower-type fashion. So that is one component of this, 

just to make sure the worker’s voice is heard, too. 

Mr. CONNOLLY. Mr. Chairman, my time is up. I do want to be 

very clear, however, when we are talking about the contractors and 

subcontractors, we are talking about some bad apples. The overwhelming majority, obviously, of contractors and subcontractors 

would never turn a blind eye to this kind of a phenomenon. 

But, unfortunately, the further away we get from our own shores 

in contracting for remote facilities, you have to rely on sometimes 

other companies that may not be as committed passionately to this, 

and that is where our enforcement mechanisms really come into 

play. 

I thank the chair. 

Chairman ROYCE. Thank you, Mr. Connolly. 

We, again, say to Mr. MacDonald, Mr. Myles, Supervisor Don 

Knabe, thank you very much for your testimony here today. 

61

You know, today the eyes of our country are riveted by the welcome rescue of three young women abducted and detained for over 

a decade in a Cleveland home. As we rejoice at their rescue, this 

hearing today, this testimony today, underscores the sad reality 

that millions of other girls around this world and, indeed, right 

here in our own communities and our own counties, many are 

being robbed of their youth as silent victims of forced sexual exploitation. 

You have all highlighted important local and private anti-trafficking initiatives that we can help get behind. But I think our 

pledge on this committee is that we will remain diligent in keeping 

the State Department honest in pressing foreign nations to join us 

in fighting this modern-day slavery. 

I thank you, again, and we stand adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 12:19 p.m., the committee was adjourned.] 

(63)

A P P E N D I X 

MATERIAL SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING RECORD

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80798n.eps

FlJLL COMMITTEE HEARING NOTICE 

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

WASHINGTON, DC 20515-6128 

Edward R. Royce (R-CA), Chairman 

May 7, 2013 

TO: MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

You are respectfully requested to attend an OPEN hearing of the Committee on Foreign 

Affairs, to be held in Room 2172 of the House Office Building (and available live on 

the Committee website 

DATE: 

TIME: 

SUBJECT: 

Trafficking 

WITNESSES: 

The Committee on 

Tuesday, May 7, 2013 

10:00 a.m 

Local and Private Sector Initiatives to Combat International Human 

Mr. Don Knabe 

Supervisor, Fourth District 

Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors 

Mr. Bradley Myles 

Executive Director and Chief Executive Otlicer 

Polaris Project 

Shawn MacDonald, Ph.D. 

Director of Programs and Research 

Verite 

By Direction of the Chairman 

seeks /fl make 11.1' /oClhlws dccesslhle If) 
65


80798m-1.eps

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

MINUTES OF FULL COMMITTEE HEARING 

Da)' __ ~T,-,u",e",s",d=a"-y_~Date ___ ",05",/i-,,(}-,,7/,-,1-,,3 ___ Room ___ 2,,,1,,-7"'2'----__ _ 

Starting Time 10:08 a.m. Ending Time 12:18 p.m. 

Recesses i~ ( __ to __ ) f-to __ ) f-to __ ) f-to __ ) f-to __ ) ( __ to-----.J I 

Presiding Member(s) 

Chairman Ed Royce, Rep. Ros-Lehtinen 

Check all of the following that apply: 

Open Session []] 

Executive (closed) Session D Televised []] 

TITLE OF HEARING: 

Electronically Recorded (taped)[]] 

Stenographic Record []] 

L()cal and Private Sector Initiatives to Combat International Human Trafficking 

COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT: 

See Attached Sheet 

NON-COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT: 

HEARING WITNESSES: Same as meeting notice attached? YcsD NoD 

at "no ", please list below and include title, agency, department, or organization.) 

STATEMENTS FOR THE RECORD: (List any statements submitted!or the record.) 

SFR - C()nn()lly 

TIME SCHEDULED TO RECONVENE ___ _ 

or 

TIME ADJOURNED 12:18 p.m. 
66

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80798m-2.eps

Present 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

"Local and Private Sector Initiatives to Combat International Human Trafficking" 

May 7,2013 

Member Present Member 

Edward R Royce, CA X EliotL Engel, NY 

Christopher R. Smith, NJ Eni F.R. Faleomavaega, AS 

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, FL X Brad Sherman, CA 

Dana RohrabacheL CA Gregory W. Meeks, NY 

Steve Chabot OH X Albia Sires, NJ 

Joe Wilson, SC X Gerald E. Connolly, VA 

Michael T McCauL TX 111eodore E. Deutch, FL 

Ted Poc, TX Brian Higgins, NY 

Matt Salmon, AZ X Karen Bass, CA 

Tom Marino, PA William Keating, MA 

Jeff Duncan, SC X David Cicilline, RI 

Adam Kinzinger, IL Alan Grayson, FL 

Mo Brooks, AL X Juan Vargas, CA 

Tom Cotton, AR Bradlev S. Schneider, IL 

Paul Cook, CA X Joseph P. Kennedy Ill, MA 

George Holding, NC X Ami Bera, CA 

Randy K Weber, Sf.. TX X Alan S Lowenthal, CA 

Scott Perry, PA Grace Meng, NY 

Steve Stockman, TX X Lois FrankeL FL 

Ron DeSantis, FL X Tulsi Gabbard, HI 

Trey RadeL FL X Joaquin Castro, TX 

Doug Collins, GA 

Mark Meadows, NC 

Ted S, Yoho, FL 

Luke Messer, TN 
67


80798d-1.eps

The Honorable Gerald E. Connolly (VA-11) 

HCFA Full Committee Hearing: Local and Private Sector Initiatives to Combat International 

Human Trafficking 

Tuesday,S/7/20l3 

lOam 

Thank you, Chairman Royce, for holding this hearing on initiatives to combat human trafficking. 

Late last week, several news outlets reported on a federal investigation in McLean, Virginia, 

where two Philippine nationals may have been held in domestic servitude. The house in which 

they were found is located on "a quiet, wooded lane of stately homes that ends in a cul-desac," according to one news story-a reminder that human trafficking is not relegated to a 

specific type of country or neighborhood.' 

Trafficking violates the most fundamental right we have as human beings-personal autonomy. 

According to the most recent Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report from the State Department, 

"The United States is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and childrenboth U.S. citizens and foreign nationals - subjected to forced labor, debt bondage, involuntary 

servitude, and sex trafficking.,,2 

Northern Virginia and the Washington Capital Region are home to numerous organizations 

dedicated to eliminating the heinous practice of human trafficking. Besides the recent McLean 

story, there was a June 2010 article in a Richmond-based magazine describing the prevalence of 

human trafficking activity in Richmond. The article detailed a 2006 FBI case that involved 

Korean women "being used in brothels from Rhode Island to Virginia.,,3 Similarly, there were 

reports in The Washington Past in 2006 about massage parlors being used as fronts for 

prostitution rings in Northern Virginia. Policymakers often discuss this issue at a national level, 

but these incidents and others in communities across the country highlight that prevention, 

enforcement, and victim support ought to be a partnership at all levels of government. 

The other committee on which I serve has also been active in fighting against human trafficking. 

As Ranking Member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee that 

oversees federal procurement policy, I joined then-Chairman Lankford in holding a series of 

oversight hearings investigating the abuse of foreign nationals employed by government 

contractors. Our hearings revealed certain bad actors with contracts under the Department of 

Defense, State, and other federal agencies, were engaging in serious human rights abuses, 

including seizing workers' passports to trap them at a work site, lying about compensation, 

engaging in sexual abuse, and keeping workers in a state of indentured servitude. 

I was pleased to work with Chairman Lankford to introduce and pass the bipartisan End 

Trafficking in Government Contracting Act, which seeks to end the abhorrent and unacceptable 

1 Clarence Williams, "Federal authorities investigate McLean home after allegations af human trafficking," The 

Washington Past, May 2 2013, http://articies.washingtollposUom/2013·05·02!local/38981874 1 homeland· 

112012 Trafficking in Persons Reportll United States State Department, 359. 

3 Peter Galuszka The New Slavery Style Magazine (June 2010). 
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80798d-2.eps

The Honorable Gerald E. Connolly (VA-11) 

practice of human trafficking by certain U.S. contractors operating overseas. Specifically, this 

law enhances and expands on President Obama's Executive Order on Human Trafficking by: 

Requiring every contract to have a clause allowing contract termination in the event of 

human trafficking and appropriate penalties for contractors who engage in trafficking. 

Listing indices of trafficking, such as revocation of passports and high recruiting fees, 

which require agency investigations and corrective action. 

Requiring large overseas contracts to have compliance plans to prevent trafficking. 

Requiring agency investigation of trafficking complaints or evidence of trafficking. 

Expanding fraud in foreign labor contracting penalties to work performed outside of the 

US on federal contracts. 

By enacting the End Trafficking in Government Contracting Act, Congress made significant 

progress in ensuring our Nation's federal contracting laws are strong enough to enforce our 

deepest held values. 

The myriad causes of human trafficking cannot be addressed overnight. The commoditization of 

men, women, and children for profit is a vexing challenge, but one that we must solve. 

Oftentimes, victims of trafficking have few financial resources. Sometimes they are misled with 

promises of a job in a restaurant and then sexually exploited. Other times, they are perpetual 

indentured servants. Moreover, as victim advocates point out, the tendency to treat trafficking 

victims as criminals does not help the situation. Neither does the fact that in many countries, 

local law enforcement authorities are working with traffickers. Another challenge is that those 

who are trafficked often fade into obscurity, becoming anonymous slaves with little chance to 

escape. This is why it is so difficult to pinpoint exact trafficking numbers. 

For more than ten years, the United States has actively fought human trafficking through 

provisions laid out in the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act but we are only 

beginning to combat this problem. I look forward to today's testimony to hear how we can all 

work together to eliminate human trafficking. 

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