Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ)—an international leader in the fight against human trafficking and the author of five comprehensive laws to combat modern-day slavery—today issued the following statement leading up to World Day Against Trafficking in Persons on July 30th:

            “Tragically, on any given day, 27.6 million people across the world are enslaved in forced labor or sex trafficking.

            This heinous crime—which exploits, enslaves and attacks the dignity of the human person—has no place in our society.

            While much progress has been made to combat it, more needs to be done. We must do everything we can to stop the normalization of the abuse and exploitation of people for profit.

            More than twenty years ago, the US Congress approved and the President signed historic legislation that I wrote—the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA)—a comprehensive  whole-of-government initiative to combat sex and labor trafficking in the United States and around the world.

            The TVPA created a bold landmark domestic and international anti-human trafficking strategy and established numerous new programs to protect victims, prosecute traffickers and to the extent possible, prevent human trafficking in the first place—the three Ps.

            Though it is hard to believe now, my legislation—which was bipartisan—was met with a wall of skepticism and opposition—dismissed by many as a solution in search of a problem. For most people at that time—including lawmakers—the term trafficking applied almost exclusively to drugs and weapons, not human beings.

            Reports of vulnerable persons—especially women and children—being reduced to commodities for sale were often met with surprise, incredulity, or indifference.

            With tremendous bipartisan unity, we overcame the naysayers.

            As we continue our work, we have added a special focus on human trafficking at our border—especially involving children.

            According to US Customs and Border Protection, at least 345,000 children have crossed the United States border unaccompanied since early 2021.

            The Department of Health and Human Services—which is responsible for the well-being of these migrant children through repatriation or placement in safe homes —has lost contact with as many as 85,000 of these children after placing them with sponsors in the United States.

            In the near future, I will be introducing new legislation drafted in collaboration with Eduardo Verastegui—the producer of ‘Sound of Freedom’ and Roger Severino of The Heritage Foundation—to require the federal government to report on efforts to locate, establish contact with, conduct wellness checks on, and investigate any suspicion of human trafficking related to the approximately 85,000 unaccompanied minors who were released from federal government custody and with whom subsequent contact has been lost.

            On May 14, 2015,  Tim Ballard, whose story is brilliantly told in the film—testified at my human rights committee.

            He told us how he had served for 12 years as a special agent for the Department of Homeland Security’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and the Sex Tourism Jump Team and worked as an undercover operative infiltrating organizations at home and abroad that were abusing and trafficking children.

            Tim told us, however, that he often felt ‘helpless by the fact that the vast majority of the child victims that we would find fell outside the purview of the United States…Unless I could tie a US traveler to the case, I would not be able to rescue the children.’

            That’s when he decided to create Operation Underground Railroad—an extraordinarily effective organization that has been involved in over 4,000 operations, impacted over 7,000 lives and have been involved in over 6,500 arrests.

            Tim’s heroic lifesaving work rescuing children from the extreme cruelty of sex trafficking— almost always at great physical risk to himself and his colleagues—is the stuff of legends.

            It will take each and every one of us to end this modern-day slavery—we must each be aware, educated, and act to prevent this crime, protect victims, and prosecute traffickers.”

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