It is profoundly troubling that the problem of slavery continues into
the new millennium. While we discuss this problem using such terms as trafficking
and worker exploitation, we should make no mistake about it - we are talking
about slavery in its modern manifestations. While some of the schemes and
practices employed by traffickers reflect the sophistication of the modern
world, others are basic and barbaric. Regardless of how sophisticated or
simple trafficking enterprises may be, at bottom they all deny the essential
humanity of the victims and turn them into objects for profit.
The federal government is working to combat this tragic problem. In 1998,
the Attorney General ordered the creation of an interagency task force to
focus on the problem of worker exploitation. The Trafficking in Persons
and Worker Exploitation Task Force (TPWETF) is co-chaired by the Assistant
Attorney General for Civil Rights and the Solicitor of Labor. This effort
has brought a range of investigative and prosecutorial agencies to the table.
U.S. Department of Justice components include the Civil Rights and Criminal
Divisions, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Immigration and
Naturalization Service (INS), U.S. Attorneys' offices, the Office of Policy
Development, the Office for Victims of Crime, and the Violence Against Women
Office. U.S. Department of Labor components include the Office of the Solicitor,
the Wage and Hour Division, and the Women's Bureau. Outside partners include
the U.S. Departments of State and Agriculture, and the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission (EEOC). In addition, the TPWETF has created fifteen
regional task forces, each of which has points of contacts from local U.S.
Attorneys' offices, INS, the FBI, the Department of Labor, EEOC, and state
and local law enforcement. The regional task force approach has allowed
investigators and prosecutors to share information and coordinate their
efforts. We believe that by pooling information, expertise, and resources
and by using all of the legal authority available to these agencies, we
can make a difference.
New Legislation, New Opportunities
The recently enacted Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act
of 2000 established important new tools and resources to combat trafficking
and to provide vital assistance to its victims. An Internet link to the
new legislation can be found at www.usdoj.gov/crt/crim/tpwetf.htm.
The law creates new felony criminal offenses to address slavery and peonage;
sex trafficking in children; and the unlawful confiscation of a victim's
passport or other identification documents. It creates a new "forced labor"
felony that will provide federal law enforcement with the ability to prosecute
the sophisticated forms of nonphysical coercion that traffickers use today
to exploit their victims. And it requires traffickers to pay full restitution
to victims and to forfeit their assets if convicted.
The new law also provides essential services and protections for trafficking
victims. The law makes victims eligible for a broad array of federal benefits,
requires procedures to ensure victims' safety and assistance while in the
government's custody, and creates grants to develop programs to assist trafficking
victims. Moreover, the new law makes such victims eligible for temporary
nonimmigrant visas so that they can remain in the United States to help
law enforcement in the prosecution of traffickers. The new law also requires
that several federal agencies establish public awareness and information
programs about trafficking and the protections that are available to victims.
Traffickers who prey on vulnerable individuals shall be brought to justice,
and victims of trafficking must be treated with dignity and afforded vital
assistance and protection.
The U.S. Departments of Justice and Labor, co-chairs of the Trafficking
in Persons and Worker Exploitation Task Force, have taken the lead in prosecuting
trafficking and worker abuse cases, balancing the special needs of trafficking
victims with swift punishment for traffickers. Some highlights:
- In April 1999, seven defendants were sentenced to jail and ordered to
pay $1 million in restitution for enslaving dozens of Mexican women and
girls, some as young as fourteen, in brothel houses in Florida and the
Carolinas, through beatings, rapes, and threats. The lead defendant was
sentenced to fifteen years incarceration. Federal prosecutors and agents
worked with an immigrant advocacy group to obtain shelter, clothing, and
jobs for the victims, who have legal status and are working in Florida.
- In the spring of 1999, three defendants were convicted of slavery and
immigration violations arising from their enslavement of Mexican and Guatemalan
farmworkers in the agricultural fields of southern Florida through threats
of force. The lead defendant received a sentence of three years incarceration.
The victims received legal status and are working in Florida, where they
participate in a farmworker advocacy group.
- In October 1999, three defendants were convicted for luring ten young
women from their homes in China to Saipan, CNMI, where they were enslaved
in a karaoke bar brothel and forced into prostitution through threats
and beatings. The lead defendant received a sentence of nine years incarceration.
Federal prosecutors and agents helped the victims obtain legal status,
jobs, and housing.
- In January 2000, the Justice Department's Special Counsel for Immigration
Related Unfair Employment Practices, the National Labor Relations Board,
and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission entered into settlement
agreements with a Minnesota hotel, which had unlawfully retaliated against
undocumented workers attempting to unionize. The INS subsequently granted
the undocumented workers deferred action for two years.
- In May 2000, the federal government obtained convictions against four
garment shop operators in Manhattan's Chinatown for lying to Department
of Labor Wage and Hour investigators. The garment manufacturers, who engaged
in widespread wage violations and kept several sets of records so as to
deceive inspectors, were assessed criminal fines, ordered to pay back
wages as restitution, and given probation.
- In the summer of 2000, a Nigerian couple was convicted of slavery and
other offenses for holding a young girl as a domestic servant in their
home in New York City. The defendants were sentenced to eleven years and
twelve years incarceration and ordered to pay their victim over $250,000
in restitution. The victim is living and working in New York.
