Bondage Breaking

Bill boosts fight against sex and labor trafficking.

Calling human trafficking “a perverse form of evil,” President Bush signed a bill in January that gives law-enforcement officials more tools to combat human traffickers operating in the United States and abroad-an estimated $9 billion industry. The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2005 also increases resources and aid for the victims of sex and labor trafficking.

“We have to get angry enough at the slavers and pimps to shut them down,” said bill sponsor Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J. “This is modern-day slavery, and some of it is going on in our own backyards.”

The law amends and expands the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, also sponsored by Smith and Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan. That bill authorized refugee-type benefits for trafficking victims and tightened domestic trafficking laws.

The 2005 bill provides $361 million over the next two years to fight international and domestic trafficking. Bill language authored by Rep. Deborah Pryce, R-Ohio, establishes a pilot program through the Department of Health and Human Services (hhs) for residential treatment facilities for juvenile trafficking victims. It further authorizes $50 million for grants to state and local law enforcement to prosecute human traffickers and criminals who pay for sex in the United States, in an effort to battle demand.

“This is where there was a major gap in U.S. trafficking efforts,” said Joe Mettimano, senior policy adviser for World Vision. The Christian ngo has teamed with the State Department and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to sponsor an aggressive ad campaign targeted at Americans traveling abroad. The ads, run in destination countries, U.S. airports, and on United Airlines in-flight videos, warn travelers that they will be prosecuted in the United States for engaging in sex with children overseas. World Vision’s program received a $500,000 start-up grant from the State Department and last year collected $1 million from hhs to expand the program to Brazil and Mexico.

The Justice Department estimates that between 14,500 and 17,500 foreign nationals are trafficked into the United States every year. The largest numbers come from East Asia and the Pacific, Latin America, and Europe. In 2004, the Justice Department reported to Congress that “the number of U.S. citizens trafficked within the country each year is even higher, with an estimated 200,000 American children at risk for trafficking into the sex industry.”

“Traffickers go to bus depots and look for girls on the run,” Smith said.

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices have prosecuted 287 traffickers since 2001. As of January, there were 221 open trafficking investigations.

“We’ve only scratched the surface,” said department spokesman Eric Holland, “but this [law] is a great tool to find these victims and bring the perpetrators to justice.”

Copyright © 2006 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Related Elsewhere:

The text of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2005 is available from the Library of Congress.

The President’s statement upon signing the act is available from the White House.

HumanTraficking.org has another statement by the president about the act.

News elsewhere includes:

Feds help victims of ‘modern-day slavery’ | Vednita Carter was slightly taken aback by President Bush’s appearance this week at a bill signing in Washington, D.C. (Pioneer Press, Minn. Jan 16, 2006)

Abolishing modern day slave trade | In September 2003, President George W. Bush started something of a sexual revolution. (Napa Valley Register, Calif. Jan. 17, 2006)

Working Together | Fighting the sex-trafficking menace. (Donna M. Hughes, National Review Online, Jan. 26, 2006)

Also in this issue

The CT archives are a rich treasure of biblical wisdom and insight from our past. Some things we would say differently today, and some stances we've changed. But overall, we're amazed at how relevant so much of this content is. We trust that you'll find it a helpful resource.

Cover Story

Missions Incredible

Spong, the Measure of All Things

Living with Tares

Answering Life's Big Questions

God by the Numbers

Evening Prayer

The Almost Formerly Important

A Costly Devotion

A Corrupt Salvation

Winning the Oral Majority

Orality at Home

Christianity Unique Among Religions

Fictionalizing Jesus

All in the Family

Messianics for Evangelicals

Religion and Reconstruction

A Wind that Swirls Everywhere

Too Inclusive

More Money, Less Liberty

Domain Game: Can Jews for Jesus Win Its Google Suit?

Editorial

Loose Cult Talk

News

Christianity Today News Briefs

News

Passages

Grace as a License for Sin

Lives of Quiet Turbulence

Loving the Storm-Drenched

Mission 'Plane of the Future'

The Art of Abortion Politics

Editorial

The Lessons of Jabez

Senator Sam Brownback

News

Go Figure

Prophecy and Politics

Honoring Pioneers

Word and Deed, Again and Again

Costly Complaints

Walking the Talk After Tsunami

For God's Sake

A Delicate Hospitality

The Truth About Deceit

View issue

Our Latest

News

Space Force Hymn Lifts Prayer to the Heavens

Southern Baptist chaplain says God prompted him to write song for the newest branch of the US military. 

Beijing, Let My Daughter Come Home

Power Without Integrity Destroys Us

Evangelicals helped elect Trump. Can evangelicals also hold him accountable?

The Bulletin

Sultan of Swing

The Bulletin addresses the election of Donald Trump.

What Another Trump Presidency Means To Evangelicals Around the World

Christian leaders from Nepal to Turkey greet the US election results with joy, grief, and indifference.

Our Faith’s Future Depends on Discipleship

The Lausanne Movement’s State of the Great Commission report details where and how Christianity is growing. 

News

Trump’s Promised Mass Deportations Put Immigrant Churches on Edge

Some of the president-elect’s proposals seem unlikely, but he has threatened to remove millions of both undocumented and legal immigrants.

God Is Faithful in Triumph and Despair

I voted for Kamala Harris and mourn her loss. But I want to keep politics in its proper place, subordinate to Jesus.

Apple PodcastsDown ArrowDown ArrowDown Arrowarrow_left_altLeft ArrowLeft ArrowRight ArrowRight ArrowRight Arrowarrow_up_altUp ArrowUp ArrowAvailable at Amazoncaret-downCloseCloseEmailEmailExpandExpandExternalExternalFacebookfacebook-squareGiftGiftGooglegoogleGoogle KeephamburgerInstagraminstagram-squareLinkLinklinkedin-squareListenListenListenChristianity TodayCT Creative Studio Logologo_orgMegaphoneMenuMenupausePinterestPlayPlayPocketPodcastRSSRSSSaveSaveSaveSearchSearchsearchSpotifyStitcherTelegramTable of ContentsTable of Contentstwitter-squareWhatsAppXYouTubeYouTube