“Traffickers identify vulnerable targets–often children who are already living in difficult circumstances or come from broken homes. They then engage in calculated campaigns to win the trust of these vulnerable children and lure them into their orbit. After the child has been trapped, he or she is brought into a lifestyle whose horrors are difficult to adequately describe. These children are forced into a life of prostitution, their innocence repeatedly and brutally violated hundreds or thousands of times in a year. They are controlled by a combination of sexual, physical, and psychological abuse at the hands of their traffickers. Many of them become hooked on drugs as well thanks to their captors, who see drug dependence as a useful means of control”, said Senator Thune.
On March 10, 2015 Senator John Thune gave a speech before the US Senate which addressed the problem of child sex trafficking inside the United States. What he said was absolutely shocking:
“Mr. President, every year millions of human beings around the world are forced into slave labor and sold for sex. This includes a large number of children. While these crimes are especially prevalent in countries where prosecution of trafficking is lax or essentially nonexistent, the truth is that human trafficking occurs in every country, including right here in the United States. Every year thousands of Americans–most frequently women and children–are trafficked within the borders of the United States.
A large number of the victims are children who are bought and sold to feed the twisted desires of sexual predators. That is a key phrase, “bought and sold,” because to the criminals who prey on these children, that is what it is about–buying and selling. It is a business. That is right–the sexual exploitation and brutalization of children, some of them not yet teenagers, is a business to the traffickers who ensnare them, and many of them get rich off of the horror these children endure.
Traffickers identify vulnerable targets–often children who are already living in difficult circumstances or come from broken homes. They then engage in calculated campaigns to win the trust of these vulnerable children and lure them into their orbit. After the child has been trapped, he or she is brought into a lifestyle whose horrors are difficult to adequately describe. These children are forced into a life of prostitution, their innocence repeatedly and brutally violated hundreds or thousands of times in a year. They are controlled by a combination of sexual, physical, and psychological abuse at the hands of their traffickers. Many of them become hooked on drugs as well thanks to their captors, who see drug dependence as a useful means of control.
Some children never escape from this life. They end up dead before they have even left their childhood behind, the victim of a dangerous encounter with a sexual predator or too violent a beating at the hands of a pimp. Those children who do escape can take years or decades to recover from the trauma. Post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and lasting physical injuries are just some of the challenges victims can face as they attempt to rebuild their lives. Some never recover.
All of this is nothing more than a business to the traffickers, who enrich themselves off the violation of the innocent. I am reminded of the verse in the Gospels “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world but forfeit his soul?”
If there is any crime against which the human person revolts, it is the sexual brutalization of children. It is well known that even hardened criminals despise those who have hurt children in this way. Going after those who traffic in children should be a priority for local, State, and Federal law enforcement agencies.
This week we are considering the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act, a bill put together by my colleague, the senior Senator from Texas. I cosponsored this legislation because I believe it provides a number of important tools to strengthen our efforts to eradicate trafficking in this country and to help its victims.
This legislation would give law enforcement additional resources for targeting traffickers, including increased access to wiretaps for State and local task forces conducting human trafficking and child pornography investigations, authorization for programs targeting child exploitation, and offering law enforcement training for returning veterans who want to focus on combating human trafficking.
A large portion of the bill is focused on providing assistance to victims as they seek to regain their lives. Among the bill’s many victim-related provisions are, first, a deficit-neutral domestic trafficking victims fund to increase the Federal support available to trafficking victims, financed by increased penalties for those convicted of trafficking-related crimes; second, a new block grant program to help State and local governments expand the resources they offer to trafficking victims and strengthen their law enforcement efforts; third, a provision written by my colleague from South Dakota, Representative Kristi Noem, that would help expand the extremely limited housing available to recovering underaged trafficking victims; fourth, a notification requirement to ensure that trafficking victims are told of any plea bargains or deferred prosecution agreements in their case; fifth, a provision to give victims of child pornography access to the same services available to trafficking victims by classifying child pornography production as a type of human trafficking; and sixth, a human trafficking advisory council made up of trafficking survivors to make recommendations to the Federal Government.
This legislation has been endorsed by some of the leading organizations in the fight against human trafficking, including the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Shared Hope International, Rights4Girls, and the National Association to Protect Children. It is also supported by a bipartisan majority here in the Senate, and I am looking forward to passing it in the very near future.
The sooner we get these tools in the hands of law enforcement, the better. If we succeed in anything as a society, it should be in protecting the innocent. I hope this legislation will help advance the fight against trafficking in this country and help promote the healing of human trafficking’s many victims.
I yield the floor.”
Source: Congressional Record
See video: Going After Traffickers Must Be a Priority https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkPfm-x3DNk