In some instances, traffickers lure women with the promise of earning money overseas as dancers, maids, factory workers, sales clerks, or models. Traffickers then use tactics including rape, starvation, torture, extreme physical brutality and psychological abuse to force victims to work under slavery-like conditions as prostitutes, in sweatshops, or as domestic servants. Prosecutors have to piece together cases against traffickers based on the offenses involved in the scheme. This doesn't always add up to penalties that fit the seriousness of this crime. My bill criminalizes all forms of trafficking in the United States and establishes penalties for traffickers up to life imprisonment.
Poverty drives the trafficking industry.
Traffickers prey on women and girls who lack education or can't find work in their home countries. The other is to help countries prevent trafficking, protect victims, and enforce their own anti-trafficking laws. Specifically, the bill criminalizes trafficking in human beings in the United States and stiffens penalties against traffickers, up to life imprisonment. The legislation expands a range of existing services to meet the needs of domestic trafficking victims and establishes a humanitarian, non-immigrant visa classification for domestic victims who assist with prosecutions in the United States. The Secretary of State and Administrator for AID also are required to take steps to support foreign countries in their efforts to protect and re-integrate trafficking victims.