On March 15, 2012, Attorney General Eric Holder spoke at the President's Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.
Holder said that he was proud that in 2012 the U.S. charged nearly 120 defendants – a record number – in human trafficking cases. Additionally over the last three years, the U.S. has achieved significant increases in human trafficking prosecutions – including a rise of more than 30 percent in the number of forced labor and adult sex trafficking prosecutions.
In February 2012, the Justice Department launched a Human Trafficking Enhanced Enforcement Initiative in order to take our counter-trafficking enforcement efforts to a new level. As part of the commitment Mr. Holder said he announced the Anti-Trafficking Coordination Team – or “ACTeam” – Initiative, an interagency collaboration among the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, and Labor aimed at streamlining federal criminal investigations and prosecutions of human trafficking offenses. Following a rigorous, competitive, interagency selection process, the Department of Justice launched six Phase I Pilot ACTeams around the country, in Atlanta, El Paso, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Memphis and Miami. Today, these teams are fully operational.
Together federal investigative agencies and federal prosecutors have brought high-impact human trafficking prosecutions.
During the last year, the U.S. government has:
· Dismantled a large, transnational organized criminal enterprise that held Ukrainian victims in forced labor in Philadelphia;
· Brought freedom and dignity to undocumented Central American women, and convicted the traffickers who – with threats and violent abuse – compelled them into forced labor and prostitution in restaurants and bars on Long Island;
· Restored freedom to undocumented Eastern European women, and convicted the trafficker who brutally exploited them in massage parlors in Chicago – and even branded them with tattoos to claim them as his property; and
· Secured a life sentence against a gang member in Virginia for the sex trafficking of victims as young as 12 years old.
By providing grant funding to our state and local law enforcement these partners – and to victim service organizations across the country – the Justice Department also is supporting proactive efforts to stop traffickers, and to help victims heal and rebuild their lives.
For the entire anti-trafficking community, Holder said the DOJ is continuing to provide training and technical assistance. Over the last year, these efforts have included hosting three regional training forums focused on improving collaboration – as well as the development of a training curriculum to help state prosecutors and judges better understand human trafficking crimes.
The DOJ is also taking steps to forge and strengthen partnerships across international borders – which, as the DOJ has seen repeatedly, are essential. Over the last year, by working with Mexican law enforcement authorities, the DOJ dismantled sex trafficking networks operating on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border – bringing freedom to the victims, and securing landmark convictions and substantial sentences against the traffickers in these high-impact bilateral cases.
Clearly, the U.S. government has continued through different administrations its commitment to stopping human trafficking