Attorney General Merrick B. Garland Delivers Remarks at the President’s Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons

Remarks as Prepared for Delivery

Thank you, Tony. And good afternoon, everyone.

We are all familiar with the horrors of human trafficking.

But I want to begin by highlighting just a few stories that capture the urgency of our work together.

Last year, the Justice Department secured a 35-year sentence and an order to pay nearly $1 million in restitution against an individual in Louisiana who used sexual abuse, violence, withholding of food, and other forms of abuse to compel multiple minors to work for his business.

The Department secured the sentences of a mother and son, for 30 and six years respectively, and an order to pay over $840,000 in restitution, for luring vulnerable victims from Mexico — some as young as 16 — and compelling them into commercial sex at the mother’s bar.

And the Department secured a sentence of six life terms in federal prison and an order to pay $68,000 in restitution against an individual who forced women struggling with homelessness or substance use disorders to engage in commercial sex.

These cases represent a small fraction of the work we have done to combat trafficking crimes and pursue justice for the victims.

Since our last meeting, the Justice Department has continued our work to implement our National Strategy to Combat Human Trafficking.

That has included bringing human trafficking prosecutions across the country. During the last year, the Justice Department secured almost 300 convictions of defendants on both sex trafficking and labor trafficking charges.

The Attorney General’s Advisory Committee of U.S. Attorneys also convened a Human Trafficking Working Group to guide all 94 U.S. Attorneys in combating human trafficking in their respective Districts.

The FBI established a specialized anti-trafficking team in its Crimes Against Children and Human Trafficking Unit to disseminate victim-centered, trauma-informed expertise to FBI’s 56 Field Offices.

The Civil Rights Division’s Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit led the interagency Forced Labor Initiative Steering Group in detecting, investigating, and prosecuting forced labor, with a focus on forced child labor crimes.

Last summer, the Department released its National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction which covers child sex trafficking and complements the National Strategy to Combat Human Trafficking.

And through the Department’s Office for Victims of Crime we issued over $95 million in grant funding for direct victim services and legal assistance, and for specialized training and technical assistance on the needs of labor trafficking victims.

In the year ahead, we plan to expand on this work across components and across the country.

The perpetrators of human trafficking prey on vulnerable people for profit. In so doing, they attempt to undermine not only victims' sense of safety, but their dignity.

The Justice Department will continue to use every tool we have to combat human trafficking and to vindicate the rights of victims and survivors.

We look forward to continuing to work alongside each of you in that effort.