Alison Siskin

Specialist in Immigration Policy

Liana Sun Wyler

Analyst in International Crime and Narcotics

December 23, 2010

SUMMARY

TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS (TIP) for the purposes of exploitation is believed to be one of the most prolific areas of international criminal activity and is of significant concern to the United States and the international community. According to Department of State estimates, roughly 800,000 people are trafficked across borders each year. If trafficking within countries is included in the total world figures, official U.S. estimates indicate that some 2 to 4 million people are trafficked annually. As many as 17,500 people are believed to be trafficked into the United States each year and some have estimated that 100,000 U.S. citizen (USC) children are victims of trafficking within the United States..

Since enactment of the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA, P.L. 106—386), the Administration and Congress have aimed to address TIP by authorizing new programs and reauthorizing existing ones, appropriating funds, creating new criminal laws, and conducting oversight on the effectiveness and implications of U.S. anti-TIP policy. Most recently, the TVPA was reauthorized through FY2011 in the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthonzation Act of 2008 (P.L. 110—457). Obligations for global and domestic antiTIP programs, not including operations and law enforcement investigations, totaled approximately $103.5 million in FY2009.

Activity on combating TIP may continue into the 112th Congress, particularly related to efforts to reauthorize the TVPA. Ongoing international policy issues include how to measure the effectiveness of the U.S. and international responses to TIP, including the State Department's annual TIP rankings and the use of unilateral sanctions; and how to prevent known sex offenders from engaging in child sex tourism. Domestic issues that may arise include whether there is equal treatment of all victims—both foreign nationals and U.S. citizens, as well as victims of labor and sex trafficking; and whether current law and services are adequate to deal with the emerging issue of domestic minor sex trafficking (i.e., the prostitution of children in the United States). Other issues are whether to include all forms of prostitution (i.e., children and adults) in the definition of TIP, and whether sufficient efforts are applied to addressing all forms of TIP, including not only sexual exploitation, but also forced labor and child soldiers.