National Conference on Human Traffiking - Office of Justice Programs

Human Trafficking Information

03 October 2006

(Additional funding to cement law enforcement and victims'- services partnerships)

Washington -- The U.S. Department of Justice is intensifying its fight against human trafficking by providing additional funding to build partnerships between law enforcement agencies and victims’-rights organizations in the United States.

U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced on October 3 almost $8 million in additional funding to create 10 new anti-trafficking task forces.

Gonzales explained the objectives of the task forces in a keynote address at the 2006 National Conference on Human Trafficking, taking place in New Orleans, October 3-5.  Conference participants include law enforcement professionals, victims' advocates, nonprofit groups, academics and government employees.

The additional funding, Gonzales said, will help cement partnerships between law enforcement agencies and victims'-services organizations and facilitate the task forces' work of identifying and assisting victims of human trafficking as well as apprehending and prosecuting the perpetrators.

For example, one of the grants will go to the Louisiana Commission on Law Enforcement to work with the state sheriffs' association in fighting trafficking along the Interstate Highway 10 corridor in Louisiana. That corridor, Gonzales said, has become a magnet for human traffickers taking advantage of the labor needs in hurricane-damaged areas of the state.

“The task force,” he said, “will use regional response teams to identify and rescue victims in targeted areas and put a stop to the exploitation and abuse of laborers.”

“In these task forces,” he explained, “service providers and law enforcement rescue victims and help restore their human dignity.”

Gonzales said that partnerships, information-sharing and cooperation “cannot be underestimated when it comes to fighting a crime like human trafficking -- an act that is sinister to the point of feeling overwhelming at times.”

According to the attorney general, an estimated 17,500 people -- mostly women and children -- are forced into prostitution, sweatshops and domestic servitude every year in the United States alone.

But he acknowledged that it is difficult to estimate accurately the number of trafficking victims in the United States or worldwide.

“We do know,” Gonzales said, “that programs funded by the Justice Department have served more than 1,500 victims in the past three years.”

Progress in fighting the criminals, however, is somewhat more easily measured, Gonzales said. For example, since 2001 the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division and U.S. Attorneys' offices have prosecuted more than 300 human trafficking defendants, secured more than 200 convictions and guilty pleas, and opened nearly 650 new investigations, he said.

The U.S. Department of Justice’s “Innocence Lost Initiative,” spearheaded by its Criminal Division, has resulted in 543 arrests and 94 convictions, in both the federal and state courts, of pimps who prey on children, Gonzales said.  There are 16 “Innocence Lost Initiative” task forces around the country and more will be established, the attorney general said.

The Justice Department also has developed a model state law that has been endorsed by the U.S. Senate and sent to state governors and legislative leaders. In 2004, Gonzales said, only four states had laws against trafficking. Today, more than two dozen have enacted tough anti-trafficking laws that reflect the principles of the department's model criminal statute.

Gonzales condemned human trafficking as “a violation of the human body, mind and spirit.”

“The victims of human trafficking are often lured to this country with the promise that they will enjoy the great gifts of liberty,” Gonzales said. “This is an insult to our country, and it is personally disappointing because my own family came here from Mexico to find a better life. The thirst for freedom and opportunity is part of the human spirit and is very strong in this world -- to offer it as a lure for purposes of a crime is unconscionable.”

For more information on U.S. policy, see Human Trafficking.

Information on the 2006 National Conference on Human Trafficking is available on the U.S. Department of Justice’s Web site.