Resisting The Repression:
When The Alliance of Progressives, Christian and Feminist Fundamentalists
Attempt to Make Prostitution a Federal Crime
January 2008
The material below focuses on one specific aspect of the TVPRA.
Sex worker organizations have objections to many aspects of this legislation as documented extensively on this website.

Contact-Carol Leigh (carol@bayswan.org) 415-751-1659
Trafficking Policy Research Project

HR 7311 passed December 10, 2008

HR 7311 is the final version of the
William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act.
Read the Press Release from Urban Justice Sex Workers Project.


Below is information about the progress of the TVPRA Reauthoirization, passed in December 2008.

July 2008- The Senate Judiciary Committee submitted the Senate version (May 2008) of HR 3887, S. 3061. Follow this link to see this legislation. http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=s110-3061

Brief analysis here: http://www.overcriminalized.com/lu.cfm?PrettyID=4787

Also see: http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2008/05/16/whos-trafficked

The US Department of Justice produced this interesting page:Materials on the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act

 

 

Contents

1. Text of HR 3887

2. Letter from Human Rights Activists- Circulated Janaury 2008

3. Letter to Congressman Lantos- Sent January 2008

4. Model Letter to send to your Senator 4. Model Letter to send to your Senator (Senator's contact info)

5. Details of Amedment in Section 221 (f)-Carol Leigh 5. Details of Amedment in Section 221 (f)-Carol Leigh

6. Washington Post: Anti-Human Trafficking Bill Would Send FBI Agents on Trail of Pimps

7. Concerned Women for America and Fundamentalist Feminists Constructed HR 3887

8. Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women: Collateral Damage

9. Materials on the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (Link)


1. Text of HR3887 linked here

2. Letter to Senate Objecting to HR 3887, Regarding Federalization of Prostitution Crimes

http://multiracial.com/site/content/view/1582/49/

The Honorable Patrick J. Leahy
Chairman
Committee on the Judiciary
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510
The Honorable Joseph Biden
Chairman
Foreign Relations Committee
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510
The Honorable Arlen Specter
Ranking Member
Committee on the Judiciary
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510
The Honorable Richard Lugar
Ranking Member
Foreign Relations Committee
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510
The Honorable Sam Brownback
Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on the Constitution
Senate Committee on the Judiciary
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

January 23, 2008

Dear Chairman Leahy, Chairman Biden, Ranking Member Specter, Ranking Member Lugar and Ranking Member Brownback,


The undersigned anti-trafficking service providers, advocates, scholars, civil and human rights lawyers and other individuals are writing in support of your leadership in the development of a strong bill reauthorizing the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA). We are pleased with the majority of the House bill, H.R. 3887, the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2007. However, we are extremely concerned that several provisions will lead to harmful unintended consequences. We urge you to consider these concerns as you craft the Senate reauthorization bill.


The collective expertise and experience of the signatories to this letter is notable. Many of us have assisted trafficked persons with their legal, social, psychological and family issues; worked on issues of violence against women, participated in the development of the TVPA as well as the UN Trafficking Protocol; written extensively about trafficking and related issues; and opposed slavery and forced labor in all forms within the United States and abroad. As such, we share a profound concern about the desperate situation of immigrants and citizens who are trafficked into and within the U.S. We know that you also have the same concerns and so we would like to share the following thoughts about certain provisions in H.R. 3887.


1. Section 221(f)(1) federalizes all prostitution-related crimes as ‘sex trafficking’
Proposed Section 221(f)(1) of H.R. 3887 would amend the Mann Act, which presently criminalizes the transportation of persons across state lines for the purpose of prostitution. The proposed section, 18 U.S.C. § 2430, would create a new crime of “sex trafficking”,1 which would authorize the Department of Justice (DOJ) to prosecute any individual whose action within a territory or possession, affecting interstate or foreign commerce, induces another to engage in prostitution. In other words, if a person arranges an act of prostitution over the phone, as hundreds of meetings are arranged everyday, DOJ would be pressured by supporters of this new crime to prosecute each of these thousands of cases annually. This proposal is part of an attempt by certain organizations and individuals to make prostitution a federal crime and redefine all prostitution as trafficking, even in the absence of force, fraud, or physical or psychological coercion, the cornerstone of trafficking in persons. Calling all non-trafficking prostitution-related crimes ‘sex trafficking’ would not only lead to confusion but also to the other problems we discuss below. 2


We strongly oppose this unnecessary, confusing and resource draining provision and share the concerns raised by DOJ in a letter to the Honorable John Conyers and the Fraternal Order of Police in a letter to Chairman Leahy and Ranking Member Specter.3


The proposed “sex trafficking” provision would drain Department of Justice resources. The attempt to expand federal jurisdiction over all local and in-state prostitution cases would drain the limited financial and staffing resources of the Civil Rights Section of DOJ and take federal prosecutors, as well as investigators from other federal agencies, away from their core mission of investigating violations of crimes stemming from the Thirteenth Amendment and crimes involving children.


According to DOJ, local law enforcement is responsible for 100,000 arrests per year that are related to prostitution.4 The DOJ itself contends that “due to the high volume of prostitution-related crimes, the federal government lacks the necessary resources and capacity to prosecute these offenses.”5 Furthermore, “it is unnecessary and a diversion from Federal law enforcement’s core anti-trafficking mission.”6


States are better situated to address local prostitution issues. All 50 states already have laws addressing solicitation, pandering and pimping and they address concerns around prostitution that are most appropriate to each locality. The Fraternal Order of Police, representing local law enforcement officers across the country opposes DOJ involvement, stating “it is not clear, or even advisable, that the Federal government become active on these local issues in the absence of evidence that the offenses were committed as part of or in furtherance of a human trafficking operation. To do so is a waste of resources at all levels of government.”7

The proposed “sex trafficking” statute will instantaneously and dramatically increase the estimated and actual number of “trafficking” victims in the U.S. Presently the U.S. government estimates that between 14,500-17,500 foreign-born trafficking victims are brought into the U.S. every year.8 However, if the prosecutions under the proposed new prostitution crime called “sex trafficking” are added to the data on real trafficking cases, the statistics for trafficking would be artificially inflated. The estimated number of prostitution-related arrests is around 100,000 a year and the proposed new law would allow DOJ to prosecute most of those cases when, in fact, it may be that no more than 10% of the cases would involve true trafficking crimes, including internal trafficking cases. However, if DOJ were to prosecute all of the potential prostitution-related cases under the proposed new prostitution crime, then the above statistics indicate that those engaged in prostitution would outnumber true trafficking victims nearly six to one and compete for access to funding, resources programs and every other aspect of assistance to the real trafficked individuals as well as fewer true victims being identified. While we welcome better data collection on trafficking of persons within (as well as into) the United States, we do not support artificial inflation of the data. The inflated data would also impact the U.S. ranking in respect to other countries; it would overnight look as though the United States has the highest number of trafficking victims in the developed world.


2. Section 221(a) removes the real crime of sex trafficking from the list of 13th Amendment Crimes
The real crime of sex trafficking is presently found in 18 U.S.C. §1591, which is in the part of the U.S. Code (Chapter 77 on Peonage, Slavery and Trafficking in Persons) reserved for 13th Amendment crimes. It addresses trafficking into commercial sex acts via force, fraud or coercion, or of a person under 18. Inexplicably, section 221(a) of H.R. 3887 relocates this trafficking offense to the Mann Act (Chapter 117), which, as we discussed above, covers only ordinary prostitution offenses and not any real trafficking crimes. Since the proposed section 221(f)(1) would add a new non-trafficking prostitution offense called “sex trafficking” to the Mann Act, the authors of H.R. 3887 were forced to rename the real sex trafficking offense in an unsuccessful attempt to reduce confusion. Consequently, section 221(a) proposes renaming the real sex trafficking offense as “aggravated sex trafficking.” Not surprisingly, the use of similar terminology to demarcate completely different types of offenses (a 13th Amendment crime and an ordinary crime) within the Mann Act only adds unnecessary confusion. These stark changes to the statute are unnecessary and could undermine trafficking prosecutions.


Separating the real sex trafficking crime from other 13th Amendment crimes weakens 13th Amendment protections against modern-day slavery. Human trafficking, perhaps the most pernicious form of modern-day slavery, occurs when an individual extracts labor or sexual services from other individuals by depriving them of their free will. Accordingly, federal laws aimed at eradicating trafficking, forced labor, slavery, and involuntary servitude prohibit the use of force, fraud or coercion to compel an individual to perform a commercial sex act or any other form of labor or services.


In passing the TVPA, Congress intended to carry out the mandate of the 13th Amendment and address the evils it targets - slavery in all of its forms and practices.9 The 13th Amendment, as the United States Supreme Court has explained, aims to “abolish slavery of whatever name and form and all its badges and incidents; to render impossible any state of bondage; to make labor free, by prohibiting that control by which personal service of one man is disposed of or coerced for another’s benefit”.10 Accordingly, Congress recognized that prostitution per se is not trafficking any more than farm labor or domestic work per se is trafficking. Thus, moving the real sex trafficking crimes from the TVPA into the Mann Act is an ill-disguised attempt to recast all prostitution as trafficking. Congress should support the integrity of the comprehensive TVPA and not remove the real sex trafficking offense from the TVPA, thereby ensuring that the fight against all 13th Amendment prohibitions on slavery, forced labor, involuntary servitude and human trafficking will be prosecuted equally and with due regard for the heinous nature of these crimes.
Removing sex trafficking from the trafficking section of the criminal code will undermine trafficking prosecutions. This proposed section separates labor and sex trafficking in the criminal code, which prevents victims, advocates and law enforcement from understanding the nuances of human trafficking as a whole. Victims of human trafficking also often experience both labor and sex trafficking and by separating these provisions into two different criminal section laws, law enforcement may not view the crimes in their totality. We are concerned that the following will occur: increased focus solely on cases involving prostitution with a decrease on labor exploitation cases; conferences, trainings, outreach conducted on cases involving prostitution to the detriment of labor exploitation cases; decreased ability of attorneys, social service agencies and good samaritans to identify labor exploitation cases; and fewer labor exploited individuals coming forward to seek assistance as a consequence of the focus on prostitution in prosecutions, training and outreach.


3. Section 234 undermines the ability of DOJ to focus on child exploitation cases
The Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section was established to address the problem of child exploitation and its core mission should not be sacrificed. Section 234 renames the “Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section” in the Criminal Division of the DOJ as the “Sexual Exploitation and Obscenity Section” and authorizes this Section to prosecute new federal adult prostitution and adult sex trafficking cases. We are concerned that the proposed redesignation would increase the Section’s workload to include prosecution of adult prostitution and sex-related offenses under the Mann Act and the proposed § 2430. The Section is ill equipped to handle ordinary prostitution related cases, which now number over 100,000 a year.
Congress should respect the ability of state law enforcement officials to continue handling adult prostitution cases and allow the Civil Rights Division to continue prosecuting adult trafficking cases, including adult sex trafficking cases. Congress should support and protect the core mission of the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section by leaving it unchanged so that it can continue to tackle the extremely difficult child abuse and exploitation (including child sex trafficking) cases.


4. Section 214(b) undermines state’s discretion in using Victims of Crime Act funds.
H.R. 3887 adds a new provision - §1404F “Victims of Commercial Sexual Exploitation and other Crimes” -- relating to state use of Victims of Crime Act funds. Under existing law, states have the right to determine how to spend their limited VOCA funds. The proposed language specifically states that people in prostitution are ‘victims’ covered by VOCA. It categorizes all prostitutes as per se victims of a crime, even those working legally in Nevada and individual sex workers who are not alleging victimization. This provision could be interpreted to establish an assumption that this one group has priority over others because people in prostitution would be the only category of persons enumerated as victims in the Act. This approach could harm other crime victims (e.g. domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse, and assault) by providing priority access to limited VOCA funds for all prostitutes even if they have not claimed victimization, is eligible while another group is not eligible. States should continue to have discretion to determine how to spend VOCA funds in a way that meets local priorities and conditions.

Conclusion
Trafficking in persons is a form of modern-day slavery where an individual compels another to provide labor or services through force, fraud or coercion. Consistent with our constitutional obligations as well as those under international law, Congress passed the TVPA to eradicate this practice which deprives individuals of their basic humanity and freedom. Legislation that conflates prostitution with trafficking, asserts federal jurisdiction over ordinary prostitution offenses now handled by local jurisdictions and removes the responsibility for prosecuting prostitution-related trafficking cases from the Civil Rights Division would undermine the fundamental purpose of our trafficking efforts within the United States and abroad. This purpose is reflected in statements made by the late Senator Paul Wellstone, “[trafficking] is one of the brutal aspects of this new global economy. It supplements drug trafficking, except quite often it is more profitable, believe it or not, because the women--girls--are recycled over and over again. We are talking about close to 1 million women and girls, the trafficking of these women and girls for purposes of forced prostitution or forced labor.”11


We urge you to ensure that this important legislation is not undermined.


Sincerely,
Alexandria House
Los Angeles, CA


American Civil Liberties Union
Washington, DC


Asian American Legal Defense and
Education Fund
New York, NY


Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach
San Francisco, CA


Ayuda, Inc
Washington, DC


Susie Baldwin, MD, MPH
Los Angeles County Department of Public Health *
Los Angeles Free Clinic *


Carol Leigh
BAYSWAN
San Francisco, CA


Doug Bandow,
Vice President for Policy,
Citizen Outreach Project.
Springfield, VA


Sr. Mary Kristin Battles SND,
Provincial Superior, California Province,
Sisters of Notre Dame


Best Practices Policy Project


Joy Zarembka, Director


Melanie Orhant, Managing Attorney

Break the Chain Campaign
Washington, DC


Professor Denise Brennan
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Georgetown University


Florrie Burke, Human Trafficking Consultant
Freedom Network Training Institute *
New York, NY


CASA de Maryland
Silver Spring, MD


Center for Health and Gender Equity
Takoma Park, MD


The Center for Women Policy Studies
Washington, DC


Wendy Chapkis
Professor of Sociology and Women &
Gender Studies University of Southern Maine *


Grace Chang
Associate Professor
Women's Studies
UC Santa Barbara *


Sealing Cheng
Wellesley College *


Coalition of Immokalee Workers
Immokalee, FL


Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking
Los Angeles, CA


Desiree Alliance
Henderson, NV


Ann Jordan
Director,
Initiative Against Trafficking in Persons, Global Rights

Human Rights Watch
New York, NY


International Organization for Adolescents (IOFA)
Chicago, IL and Washington, DC


International Rescue Committee
Washington, DC


Kathleen Kim
Associate Professor of Law
Loyola Law School *


Legal Momentum
Washington, DC


Little Tokyo Service Center
Los Angeles, CA


The Lucha Project of
Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center
Miami, FL


Alice M. Miller, JD
Lecturer in Residence
UC Berkeley School of Law *


Mosaic Family Services
Dallas, TX


The Multiracial Activist
Alexandria, VA


Na Loio - Immigrant Rights & Public Interest Legal Center
Honolulu, HI


National Alliance To End Sexual Violence
Washington, DC


National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum
Washington, DC


National Coalition Against Domestic Violence
Washington, DC


National Council for Jewish Women
Washington, DC


National Employment Law Project
New York, NY


National Immigration Forum
Washington, DC


National Immigration Law Center
Washington, DC


Janet Pregler, M.D.
Professor of Clinical Medicine
Director
Iris Cantor-UCLA Women's Health Center


Rocky Mountain Survivors Center
Denver, CO


The Rutherford Institute
Charlottesville, VA


Safe Horizon
New York, NY


Svati Shah, Ph.D.
Visiting Assistant Professor
Wellesley College *


Sex Workers Outreach Project USA
San Francisco, CA


Sex Workers Project of the Urban Justice Center
New York, NY


Tapestri
Atlanta, GA


Paula Tavrow, PhD
Director, Bixby Program in Population and Reproductive Health


UCLA School of Public Health *
Dan Werner
Workers' Rights Law Center of New York, Inc.
New York, NY

* For identification purposes only


cc: The Honorable John Conyers, Jr.
The Honorable Tom Lantos
Attachments (3)
Footnotes
1 The proposed new § 2430 provides that “whoever knowingly, in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce, within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States, or in any territory of the United States, or in any territory or possession of the United States, persuades, induces or entices any individual to engage in prostitution for which any person can be charged with an offense, or attempts to do so, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 10 years or both.”
2 We also object to the proposal in § 224 of the bill for the Attorney General to develop a state ‘model’ trafficking statute that would go beyond trafficking to include prostitution (the new ‘sex trafficking’ provision), thereby confusing slavery and prostitution for state legislators also.
3 See attached Dept. of Justice letter to The Hon. John Conyers at 8-9 (Nov. 9, 1007) (DOJ letter) and Fraternal Order of Police in a letter to Chairman Leahy and Ranking Member Specter at 1 (Dec. 6, 2007) (Fraternal Order letter).
4 See attached DOJ document: “H.R. 3887: The William Wilberforce Trafficking in Persons Reauthorization Act of 2007: Comments Reflecting Managers’ Amendment” (DOJ Comments).
5 DOJ letter at 9.
6 DOJ letter at 9.
7 Fraternal Order letter at 1.
8 “America Will Not Tolerate Slave Traders, Bush Says,” http://usinfo.state.gov/gi/Archive/2004/Jul/19-988082.html 9 22 U.S.C. § 7107(b)(22).
10 Bailey v. Alabama, 219 U.S. 219, 241 (1911) (emphasis added).
11 Congressional Record: July 27, 2000 (Senate), pp. S7788-7789, http://www.immigrationweek.com/immigdaily/News/2000,0731-Trafficking.shtm (emphasis added)

3. Letter to Congressman Lantos

(Note: This law has already passed in the House, so this campaign is not active.)
This is a letter just about this specific issue in the media, but the TVPRA is full of problems. (There are also some potentially better aspects of the proposed law but I find the framework problematic)
l.

Dear Congressman Lantos,
As a concerned citizen from California (San Francisco), I am asking that you eliminate the amendment to the Trafficking Victims Protection Act scheduled for an imminent vote, Section 221 (f)-see below.


This amendment would blur the intentions of the Mann Act and would adversely effect the ability of the FBI to combat real crime in this country, distracting the FBI with the job of monitoring the commercial sex industry.


I am very disappointed that our newly elected Democratic majority has focused on submitting legislation that increases government oversight into our private lives in the guise of helping women. Many experts and academics, as well as our own Government Accountability Office have recognized the diversions and moral panics that have accompanied the current response to trafficking.


We needs initiatives to protect all workers from abuse including migrants, undocumented workers and sex industry workers. Laws that target commercial sex in general are shameful response to the myriad of abuses in our labor markets including slavery and other forms of forced labor.
Section 221 (f) which adds the phrase 'or affects' `and in the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States,' to the Mann Act as below:
(f) Transportation Generally- Section 2422(a) of title 18, United States Code, is amended-- (1) by inserting `or affecting' after `travel in'; and
(2) by inserting `in the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States,' after `foreign commerce,'.
As our own Department of Justice points out (reported in the Washington Post on November 29, 2007), this change "...would expand federal jurisdiction to cover prostitution offenses, which the department calls unnecessary and 'a diversion from Federal law enforcement's core anti-trafficking mission.' " Thank you for your attention.

4. Model Letter for your senator

(Here is Senate Judiciary contact info)

Dear Senator


Like many in this country, I am troubled by the desperate situation of immigrants and citizens who are victims of forced labor in the U.S. and I appreciate your dedication to this issue. As a human rights activist, I am concerned about a number of amendments of the House version of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2007 (HR 3887). I am also especially worried about the safety and well being of individuals who live in the margins of society including sex workers and migrants.


Several aspects of HR 3887 attempt to shift focus to the commercial sex industry in general, rather than trafficking. This robs those who are victims of trafficking from resources and attention to their plight. This also drives the commercial sex industries further underground, exacerbating violence and reducing options.


I urge you to review an extensive report, “Collateral Damage” by Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women, (http://www.gaatw.net) the organization which led the way in the development of the United Nations Trafficking Protocol and other international anti-trafficking legislation. This report emphasizes the critical need for a re-assessment of anti-trafficking initiatives.


Although there are a number of new provisions in HR3887 that will be of assistance to victims of trafficking, several provisions will lead to harmful unintended consequences. I urge you to consider these issues listed below as you craft the Senate reauthorization bill.


Below are a list of my concerns, originally compiled a letter distributed by a number of human rights activists and organizations in the U.S. including: The Center for Women Policy Studies, Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking, Initiative Against Trafficking in Persons, Global Rights, National Council for Jewish Women, National Alliance To End Sexual Violence and many more.


1. Section 221(f)(1) federalizes all prostitution-related crimes as sex trafficking
Proposed Section 221(f)(1) of H.R. 3887 would amend the Mann Act. The proposed section, 18 U.S.C. § 2430, would create a new crime of ‘sex trafficking,’ which would authorize the DOJ to prosecute any individual whose action within a territory or possession, affecting interstate or foreign commerce, induces another to engage in prostitution. In other words, if a person arranges an act of prostitution over the phone, as hundreds of meetings are arranged everyday, DOJ would be pressured by supporters of this new crime to prosecute each of these thousands of cases annually. This proposal is part of an attempt by certain organizations and individuals to make prostitution a federal crime and redefine all prostitution as trafficking, even in the absence of force, fraud, or physical or psychological coercion, the cornerstone of trafficking in persons.


2. Section 221(a) removes the real crime of sex trafficking from the list of 13th Amendment Crimes
The real crime of sex trafficking is presently found in 18 U.S.C. §1591, which is in the part of the U.S. Code (Chapter 77 on Peonage, Slavery and Trafficking in Persons) reserved for 13th Amendment crimes. It addresses trafficking into commercial sex acts via force, fraud or coercion, or of a person under 18. Inexplicably, section 221(a) of H.R. 3887 relocates this trafficking offense to the Mann Act (Chapter 117), which, as we discussed above, covers prostitution offenses which are not crimes of force and coercion. Since the proposed section 221(f)(1) would add a new non-trafficking prostitution offense called ‘sex trafficking’ to the Mann Act, the authors of H.R. 3887 were forced to rename the real sex trafficking offense in an unsuccessful attempt to reduce confusion. Consequently, section 221(a) proposes renaming the real sex trafficking offense as ‘aggravated sex trafficking.’ Not surprisingly, the use of similar terminology to demarcate completely different types of offenses (a 13th Amendment crime and an ordinary crime) within the Mann Act only adds unnecessary confusion. These stark changes to the statute are unnecessary and could undermine prosecutions which involve severe trafficking offenses, as are outlined in the current TVPRA.


Sincerely,
Carol Leigh
Trafficking Policy Research Project
www.bayswan.org/traffick

 

5. Details of Amedment in Section 221 (f)

Carol Leigh (Trafficking Policy Research Project) writes:


I found out from the journalist who wrote the article (below) that the amendment that promoted this media flare up is a small change in the Mann Act. The issue is Section 221 (f). I listed it below. Apparently this is a small change that would fuzzy up the jurisdiction of the FBI to include all sorts of interstate prostitution (although most of us feel they are extremely involved as it stands). The way this became a story is that the Dept. of Justice wrote the committee a letter complaining about this change. I imagine this may be revised due to DOJ resistance.Amendment in new TVPA.


(f) Transportation Generally- Section 2422(a) of title 18, United States Code, is amended--
(1) by inserting `or affecting' after `travel in'; and
(2) by inserting `in the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States,' after
This is the Mann Act, with the change for clarification.
TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 117 > § 2422
§ 2422. Coercion and enticement
(a) Whoever knowingly persuades, induces, entices, or coerces any individual to travel in
adding:
or affecting
interstate or foreign commerce
adding
in the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States
or in any Territory or Possession of the United States, to engage in prostitution, or in any sexual activity for which any person can be charged with a criminal offense, or attempts to do so, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both.


6. Anti-Human Trafficking Bill Would Send FBI Agents on Trail of Pimps
By Jerry Markon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 29, 2007; Page A05


Local vice police officers, who for decades have led the law-enforcement crackdown on prostitution, could soon have unwilling partners: FBI agents.
The Justice Department is fighting legislation that would expand federal law to cover prostitution cases, saying that the move would divert agents from human trafficking crimes. Although local police still would handle the vast majority of cases, Justice officials said the law's passage would force them to bring cases in federal courts as well.

Some anti-trafficking activists and members of Congress say the federal government should be involved in policing prostitution. Prostitution is a social evil, they say, and increased law enforcement can only help the campaign against it.


"It's mind-boggling that the Justice Department would be fighting" the bill, said Dorchen Leidholdt, a founding board member of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, an activist group pushing the change. "They have the power to pick and choose the cases they want to prosecute. They don't have to prosecute local pimps if they don't want to."


The new provision is part of a bill reauthorizing the federal human trafficking statute, which passed Congress in 2000 and helped trigger a worldwide fight against what many consider modern-day slavery. The House Foreign Affairs Committee this month approved the legislation, which has bipartisan support and is expected to be taken up by the full House next week. Its prospects in the Senate are unclear.

The battle against trafficking is a major priority for the Bush administration, which is attacking it with 10 federal agencies reporting to a Cabinet-level task force chaired by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. But there has been heated debate, even among the dozens of organizations fighting trafficking in the United States, over whether prostitutes should be considered trafficking victims.


Federal officials define trafficking as holding someone in a workplace through force, fraud or coercion, elements that are required to prove a trafficking case under federal law, other than in cases involving minors. Trafficking generally takes two forms, forced sex or labor. But some activists argue that all prostitutes, even those not forced to turn tricks, should be defined as trafficking victims and their pimps subject to federal prosecution.


The debate over the bill comes amid broader questions over how many victims are trafficked into the United States. The government estimated in 1999 that about 50,000 slaves were arriving in the country every year. That estimate was revised downward in 2004 to 14,500 to 17,500 a year. Yet since 2000, and despite 42 Justice Department task forces and more than $150 million in federal dollars to find them, about 1,400 people have been certified as human trafficking victims in this country, a tiny fraction of the original estimates.


The House legislation cites the government's current estimate of up to 17,500 victims a year, but the Justice Department, in a Nov. 9 letter to congressional leaders, "questions the reliability" of the numbers. "Such findings, without a full body of evidence, are counter-productive," the letter says.
The letter also expresses opposition to the provision that Justice officials said would expand federal jurisdiction to cover prostitution offenses, which the department calls unnecessary and "a diversion from Federal law enforcement's core anti-trafficking mission." A senior Justice official, who was not authorized to speak for the record, reiterated the department's opposition yesterday.


"Prostitution is abhorrent, but state and local law enforcement officials already do an excellent job fighting it," he said.
Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.) said yesterday that she strongly supports the bill. "We want to crack down on sex trafficking, and DOJ can allocate its resources to go after the most serious cases," she said.


But Jack McDevitt, an associate dean in Northeastern University's College of Criminal Justice, who has studied local law enforcement's response to trafficking, said the Justice Department's concerns are warranted.


"Cases in local prostitution and pimping are better handled by local law enforcement, which have the contacts in the community and are going to find more intelligence about these crimes," he said. "Every major police department in the United States has had a vice unit for the past 50 years."

6. Concerned Women for America and Fundamentalist Feminists Constructed HR 3887

excerpted from
How to End Sex Slavery By Janice Shaw Crouse

Thursday, November 1, 2007

(Note: Janice Shaw Crouse, Ph.D., Senior Fellow at the Beverly LaHaye Institute, the think tank for Concerned Women for America)

"Several of us who are working in a broad left-right coalition against human trafficking became involved in anti-trafficking work over a decade ago when we first learned about this travesty against human beings. We have been committed abolitionists ever since. We worked on the very first Trafficking Victims Protection Act to get the focus on prosecuting those who commit the terrible crime of human trafficking rather than merely on arresting the victims (who are easily replaced and the crime continues). We worked to get provisions in the 2005 bill to end the demand for prostitutes, which I and my colleagues believe is the driving force behind sex trafficking."


"The legislation now under consideration on Capitol Hill ” H.R. 3887, the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2007? ” is a strong bill, but our coalition recommends several critical changes.
Let me put three of those changes in the simplest possible language. I call them the MSM against sex trafficking ” the Mann Act, the Survey and the Model Law:
1. The Mann Act needs to be part of the TVPA, and it should be revised so that it is not necessary to prove that the trafficker made the victim cross state lines. Such a technicality allows too many pimps to go free. Instead, it should be enough that the trafficker's activities affect interstate commerce.?
2. The Biennial Survey authorized in the 2005 TVPA has never been conducted, so we still have no concrete numbers about trafficking victims. That survey needs to be mandated so that the number of victims is known and law enforcement officials understand the extent of the problem.
3. The current Department of Justice Model Law should be withdrawn and its effects remediated. Currently, the law (now taking precedence over laws in 33 states) requires the virtually impossible task of proving force, fraud or coercion before a trafficker can be convicted. Most victims are too scared to testify against their pimp, so when a criminal is shown to have taken money from a prostituted girl or woman and hasn't filed a W2 form, it is obvious that he or she IS a pimp and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Our coalition is making history in its efforts to end the horrible crime of human trafficking. The 2007 TVPRA could make it possible to end the sex trade industry, with the sexual predators punished and victims restored to a bright future. I dream of the day when little girls will be able to play safely without having to look over their shoulders in fear. I dream of the day when vulnerable teenagers and naive and desperate women are no longer targeted by predators who view them as commodities for sexual exploitation."

7. Text of Mann Act

8. Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women: Collateral Damage

9. Senator's Contact Info

Senators Contact Info
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
Also visit the Presidential candidates at:
Barack Obama
http://obama.senate.gov/contact/
Hilary Clinton
clinton.senate.gov/contact


Senate Judiciary Committee
Patrick J. Leahy

CHAIRMAN, D-VERMONT
senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov


Edward M. Kennedy
D-MASSACHUSETTS
kennedy.senate.gov/senator/contact.cfm

Arlen Specter
RANKING MEMBER, R-PENNSYLVANIA
http://specter.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.ContactForm


Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
D-DELAWARE
biden.senate.gov/contact/emailjoe.cfm

Orrin G. Hatch
R-UTAH
hatch.senate.gov/index.cfm?Fuseaction=Offices.Contact


Herb Kohl
D-WISCONSIN
http://kohl.senate.gov/gen_contact.html

Charles E. Grassley
R-IOWA
grassley.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.Home


Dianne Feinstein
D-CALIFORNIA
http://feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContactUs.EmailMe

Jon Kyl
R-ARIZONA
kyl.senate.gov/contact.cfm


Russell D. Feingold
D-WISCONSIN
feingold.senate.gov/contact_opinion.html

Jeff Sessions
R-ALABAMA
sessions.senate.gov/email/contact.cfm


Charles E. Schumer
D-NEW YORK
schumer.senate.gov/SchumerWebsite/contact/webform.cfm

Lindsey Graham
R-SOUTH CAROLINA
lgraham.senate.gov/index.cfm?mode=contact


Richard J. Durbin
D-ILLINOIS
durbin.senate.gov/contact.cfm

John Cornyn
R-TEXAS
cornyn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.Con...
Benjamin L. Cardin
D-MARYLAND
cardin.senate.gov/contact/

Sam Brownback
R-KANSAS
brownback.senate.gov/CMEmailMe.cfm


Sheldon Whitehouse
D-RHODE ISLAND
whitehouse.senate.gov/contact.cfm

Tom Coburn
R-OKLAHOMA
coburn.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.Home