Government The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act

Final Project / Dissertation

Degree: Juris Doctorate Specialized

Major:

Specialization: Constitutional Law

Full Address:

The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act

This paper reviews the rights and protection that a state and federal government official provides to citizens that have been the subject of human trafficking crimes. Citizens need the protection of the police and other law enforcement officials to report human trafficking crimes and to protect and assist those that need their assistance. This paper will seek to explain the definition of human trafficking, how it works, victim support, issues with upholding and implementing legislature and the solutions which can be used to satisfy the public.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Review

Elements of Human Trafficking

Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000

TVPRA (2008)

Mann Act

Travel Act

Alien Smuggling, Harboring and Transportation

United States

New York State's Human Trafficking Law

19 FBI Initiatives

Internationally

United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime

The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons

An Effective Response to Human Trafficking

Victim Safety

Victim Programs

Rescue and Restore

Freedom Network USA

Advocacy

Labor Trafficking is a Women's Rights Issue

Human Trafficking and Worker's Rights

Human Trafficking and Immigrant Rights

Human Trafficking and Domestic Violence

Court Cases

Methodology

Results/Conclusion

References

Introduction

There are several amendments to the United States Constitution that provide governmental officials with the essential tools to protect the people of the United States against human trafficking crimes. Human trafficking crimes are crimes against humanity. They involve the act of enlisting, moving, transferring, harboring or receiving a person by way of the use of force, coercion or other means, for the purpose of exploiting them. Every nation in the world is affected by trafficking, whether as a nation of origin, transit or destination for victims.

The purpose of this project is to inform its readers that human trafficking crimes are becoming more and more recognized as a valid and constitutional way of seeking severe punishment for those who commit them. States all through the United States are beginning to look at their laws as citizens become progressively more involved with the implementation and enactment of human trafficking legislation.

The significance of this project to my field is a vital and viable means to draw awareness to this problem and work as an advocate against it. It is also important to establish help for victims of this crime. I hope to be able to work closely with victim programs to assist in any way possible to help those who have been a victim of this crime. There are current two national organizations that work with these victims the first is the Office for Victims of Crime and the second is the Office on Violence against Women.

Review

Human trafficking, frequently known as modern day slavery is a global phenomenon that involves obtaining or maintaining the labor or services of a person by way of the use of force, fraud, or coercion in infringement of a person's human rights. Making billions of dollars in income every year, human trafficking is one of the world's quickest growing criminal activities, operating on the same scale as the unlawful trade of guns and drugs. Sparked by global financial conditions and increased global mobility, the market for and trade of human beings persists to get bigger quickly.

Those who traffic in humans can sell and resell their product forcing each victim to suffer over and over again. Even though real figures are hard to find out due to the subversive nature of the trade, the U.S. State Department's 2006 Trafficking in Persons Report approximates that up to nine hundred thousand people are trafficked every year globally, with seventeen thousand of these victims trafficked into the United States. These statistics do not include those people who are trafficked inside the border of the United States. It is projected that eight percent of those who are trafficked are women and children.

Our U.S. Constitution provides numerous constitutional amendments that provide governmental agencies with the authority to protect and remedy acts of human trafficking. The due process clause of the Fifth Amendment states that "No person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime...nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation."

The 13th amendment to the U.S. Constitution states that "Neither...

No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."3
Trafficking operations are organized on a variety of levels and scales. They can operate on a small, local scale with one trafficker and one victim where there is little or no connection with other traffickers to a large-scale international business with many different players involved in the trafficking. Larger operations may be a part of a loosely associated trafficking network, or they may be part of organized crime. The commonality among these trafficking operations is that they exploit and enslave human beings for profit through the use of physical and psychological methods of power and control. The methods of control used by traffickers and daily realities for the victims may make it especially challenging for law enforcement official to establish trust with victims. It may be hard to comprehend the actions, reactions and decisions of those subjected to trafficking. Because of the fear and dependency instilled by the traffickers, victims are often reluctant to try and escape. 1

Elements of Human Trafficking

Trafficking in persons has three component elements:

The Act or what is done - recruitment, moving, relocating harbouring or receipt of persons

The Means or how it is done - threat or use of force, compulsion, kidnapping, fraud, trickery, abuse of power or vulnerability, or giving payments or benefits to a person in control of the victim

The Purpose or why it is done - for the purpose of exploitation, which comprises exploiting the prostitution of others, sexual exploitation, forced labour, slavery or similar practices and the removal of organs. 8

This problem is vast, the conditions of trafficking victims horrific, and the damage huge. People are kidnapped and sold by family members or, far more often, enticed by promises of good jobs abroad only to find themselves restrained in brothels or barracks, at the mercy of traffickers who see them as nothing more than sources of income. Young people are seduced into prostitution by pimps who promise them romance, love, or an alluring life, and, once control is established, subject their victims to unyielding exploitation and abuse. Across the globe traffickers force people to beg on the streets, work in mines, harvest crops, or perform sex with innumerable men a day. Victims live and work in unsafe conditions. They are hardly ever paid, and they are frequently raped or beaten. They may be transported across borders into foreign countries where they do not know the language and fear immigration authorities and the police. Or they may be picked up in bus stations or on street corners by young men from local neighborhoods, who offer them protection and help only to brutally betray their trust. Almost all the time, domestic and international victims alike are by force isolated from friends, family, neighborhood, and any possible source of help. 8

Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000

This Act specially criminalized forced labor and sex trafficking, therefore adding these notions to the lexicon of criminal jurisprudence. Even more innovative has been Congress's holistic move toward the crisis of human trafficking. In drafting the Act, Congress addressed three different features of the trafficking problem: (1) deterrence and punishment of traffickers through dynamic and extensive criminal statutes; (2) victim support and rehabilitation by way of the funding of human services for trafficking victims and immigration relief for alien victims; and (3) limiting the flow of trafficking from source nations by conditioning U.S. monetary assistance to foreign nations based on their labors to fight trafficking. With each reauthorization and amendment of the Congress has strengthened and fine tuned its requirements, as well as extended the reach of its criminal statutes. The TVPRA, along with other federal criminal laws such as the Mann Act, Travel Act and alien smuggling statutes, offers a wide range of alternatives for prosecuting human traffickers in federal court. Charging these different offenses in conjunction with each other whenever possible is vital to any successful federal human trafficking prosecution. 5

TVPRA (2008)

"The new and amended criminal provisions of the 2008 TVPRA took effect on December 23, 2008. The core human trafficking offenses which are forced labor and sex trafficking are codified, respectively, at 18 U.S.C. § 1589 and 1591, and provide, in relevant part:

§ 1589. Forced labor

(a) Whoever knowingly…