Passage of human trafficking bill sends clear message

By David Abramowitz, director, Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking (ATEST) - 03/08/13 03:45 PM ET

Yesterday, hundreds of advocates, survivors, law enforcement officials and lawmakers gathered to witness President Obama sign legislation that will strengthen protection for women threatened by domestic violence, as well as renew the nation’s most important tool to fight modern day slavery, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA).

But this moment didn’t come without political drama. In early February, Sen. Leahy of Vermont, with the support of Sen. Rubio of Florida, added the TVPA reauthorization to the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act (VAWA), with the amendment passing by a resoundingly bipartisan vote of 93-5. And just last week, the House relented and approved the Senate-passed VAWA, including the TVPA reauthorization.

Congress’ reauthorization of the TVPA re-asserts U.S. leadership in the effort to eradicate modern-day slavery at home and around the world. The legislation bolsters the fight against human trafficking in four significant ways: It renews key federal anti-trafficking programs for the next four years; provides for new partnerships with cooperating countries to protect children and prevent trafficking; adds new protections for survivors of modern slavery; and provides prosecutors with new tools to go after the traffickers who exploit others.

One hundred and fifty years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation freeing slaves during the civil war, it’s astonishing that we still face the need to fight slavery. But the fact is that millions of men, women and children are subject to modern slavery each year, including in the United States, and human trafficking is the world’s second largest criminal enterprise, after drug trafficking.

Slavery today looks much different than it did 150 years ago. Illegal everywhere, it is more often underground and masked so well that it is difficult to recognize. But the reality is that construction workers, housekeepers, farm workers and others in low-paying industries are brought to the United States by labor brokers who promised a job, but enslaved them instead.
Traffickers put those individuals into debt bondage, seize travel documents, threaten retribution by law enforcement or immigration authorities, and promise violence against family members if they try to leave.

Sex traffickers also target the vulnerable, using violence, threats and other coercive means to keep victims involved in sex slavery. Sex trafficking can be found in most major U.S. metropolitan areas and along major interstates at truck stops, on city streets, or in escort services, strip clubs, fake massage businesses and other venues.

Hopefully, signing the reauthorization of the TVPA into law is just the first of many second term efforts by President Obama to assert U.S. leadership and establish his legacy as a leader in the fight to end modern slavery.

In September, President Obama pledged his commitment to renewing the TVPA during a highly public speech at the Clinton Global Initiative; some say it was the longest speech on slavery by a U.S. president since the Emancipation Proclamation. The president also announced an executive order to strengthen U.S. efforts to stop human trafficking in government contracting, pledged to provide relevant officials and agencies with training and guidance programs on human trafficking, and promised to expand resources and services for trafficking survivors.?

The Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking (ATEST) issued a report late last year that offered dozens of detailed recommendations the Administration should follow in order to ensure President Obama’s pledge is successfully realized. Key recommendations beyond passage of the TVPA include:
1. Develop a National Action Plan based on a “whole-of-government approach” that coordinates all available resources and tools instead of providing piecemeal solutions to human trafficking;
2. Back up the commitment to fighting human trafficking and modern-day slavery with an FY14 budget request that fully funds critical initiatives;
3. Implement the new Executive Order and related legislation by banning recruiting fees and ensuring that federal contractors do not otherwise inadvertently have slavery in their supply chains; and
4. Partner with willing countries to create innovative, focused and comprehensive approaches to combat human trafficking, forced labor, and other forms of modern-day slavery around the world.
Ending modern slavery will not come with one speech, one executive order, or one signed piece of legislation. It will come if all of us—citizens, civil society, governments, corporations, and the philanthropic community—make it the priority it must be. Then we will be on our way to making sure that each of us is afforded the human dignity we deserve, no matter where we were born or what circumstances we find ourselves in.
Abramowitz is vice president, Policy & Government Relations for Humanity United and director of the Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking (ATEST).

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Presidential Proclamation -- National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, 2013

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

NATIONAL SLAVERY AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING PREVENTION MONTH, 2013

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BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A PROCLAMATION

This month, we rededicate ourselves to stopping one of the greatest human rights abuses of our time. Around the world, millions of men, women, and children are bought, sold, beaten, and abused, locked in compelled service and hidden in darkness. They toil in factories and fields; in brothels and sweatshops; at sea, abroad, and at home. They are the victims of human trafficking -- a crime that amounts to modern-day slavery.

As Americans, we have long rejected such cruelty. We have recognized it as a debasement of our common humanity and an affront to the principles we cherish. And for more than a century, we have made it a national mission to bring slavery and human trafficking to an end.

My Administration has been deeply commited to carrying this legacy forward -- beginning with trafficking that happens on our own shores. We have strengthened protections so all workers know their rights, expanded efforts to identify and serve domestic victims, devoted new resources to dismantling trafficking networks, and put more traffickers behind bars than ever before. In the months ahead, we will continue to take action by empowering investigators and law enforcement with the training they need, and by engaging businesses, advocates, and students in developing cutting-edge tools people can use to stay safe. We will invest in helping trafficking victims rebuild their lives. And as one of the world's largest purchasers of goods and services, the Federal Government will keep leading by example, further strengthening protections to help ensure that American tax dollars never support forced labor.

Our commitment to stopping human trafficking does not end at our borders. As a leader in the global movement to combat this scourge, the United States has renewed sanctions on governments that harbor the worst offenders. We have partnered with groups around the world to help men, women, and children escape their abusers. And recognizing that no country can meet this challenge alone, we have aided others in addressing modern slavery's root causes, and encouraged nations across the globe to pass comprehensive anti-trafficking laws, enforce them rigorously, and care for survivors.

We know the road ahead is long, and change will not come easily. But as we renew our pledge to erase modern forms of slavery from the face of this earth, let us also draw strength from the movements of the past. We recall the words of the Emancipation Proclamation -- that every life saved is "an act of justice," worthy of "the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of an Almighty God." We reflect on the Amendment that wrote abolition into law, the decades of struggle to make its promise real, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that has drawn nations together in the pursuit of equality and justice. These achievements once seemed impossible -- but on this day, let us remember that they were not, and let us press on toward the future we know is possible.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim January 2013 as National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, culminating in the annual celebration of National Freedom Day on February 1. I call upon businesses, organizations, faith-based groups, families, and all Americans to recognize the vital role we can play in ending all forms of slavery and to observe this month with appropriate programs and activities.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this thirty-first day of December, in the year of our Lord two thousand twelve, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-seventh.

BARACK OBAMA

The Presidential Inaugural Committee announces a National Day of Service on January 19, 2013

The Presidential Inaugural Committee announces a National Day of Service on January 19, 2013

Each January, Pete Souza, Chief Official White House Photographer and Director of the White House Photography Office selects his favorite images from the past twelve months, and now, we're sharing them with you.

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Tech at Night: Live from Virginia: Human Trafficking, Cybersecurity

I’m back, having gotten myself and my worldly possessions from southern California to northern Virginia. I also have a backlog of items that I’m never going to cover completely tonight, so some issues are going to wait until Monday. So please, check back Monday. There are things I’d love to cover tonight, but I simply lack the time.

Let’s start with Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) joining up to press Google to do something about the advertising of human trafficking services. Some people are going to have a knee-jerk reaction to this, call it a for-the-children threat to censor. But it’s not. The “child pornography” card gets pulled for all sorts of power grabs, but this isn’t about pictures on the Internet, either of real or made-up people. This is about the actual kidnapping and enslaving of people, including children. That is legitimate cause for action.

And note that Blackburn is would be perfectly happy for Google to do something about it, setting an industry standard, and end the need for government action of any kind. That’s commendable. Because you know what? Industry can act to emulate legislation and do so more effectively than government ever will.

So, how about some cybersecurity?

If we’re going to pass a bill at all, and we probably should given the rise of criminal and anarchist attacks trying to take down all world governments, we need to pass the SECURE IT bills introduced by McCain and co. in the Senate, and by Blackburn and co. in the House. Heightened criminal penalties, lowered barriers to defensive information sharing, and no government power grab. What’s not to like?

Information, not regulation, is the most powerful too in the box for fighting online attacks. Honest people need to be informed of possible attacks by domestic businesses or by foreign entities. SECURE IT tries to help information sharing. That’s what we need.

What we don’t need is to bring DHS in to regulate private industry, which is what Joe Lieberman and Susan Collins want. John McCain, not the staunchest advocate of free markets after his recent Augusta National comments, even sees the glaring problems here when he’s saying “A super-regulator like DHS would impact free-market forces.”

Note an interesting problem here: industries we’re most worried about are already regulated. Utilities, banks, doctors, airports, and others already have government breathing down their necks. If we bring DHS into it, we’re multiplying obligations and creating redundancy. That’s harmful, not helpful. Security requires clarity of design and of purpose. Mistakes come with complexity, and successful attacks are born in mistakes.

Democrat Chris Dodd may want to revive PROTECT IP in the Senate, but as long as the House leadership won’t budge on SOPA, its House counterpart, that’s not happening.

It may be time to Play the Sad Trombone for LightSquared. Losing Sprint had to hurt. A lot.

Tune in Monday for Internet Sales Tax failures, ACU vs Jim DeMint(!), and more that I didn’t cover tonight because I had to go to the grocery store, as I had no food in my new home and wanted to go pick some up before 2am.

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