THE GOVERNMENT OF the United States fully meets the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. The government continued to demonstrate serious and sustained efforts during the reporting period; therefore the United States remained on Tier 1. These efforts included increasing the number of convictions; increasing the amount of funding for victim services and number of victims served; continuing to seek and incorporate survivor input on human trafficking programs and policies; and launching new public outreach measures to more sectors. Although the government meets the minimum standards, it opened, charged, and prosecuted fewer cases, issued fewer victims trafficking-specific immigration options, and granted fewer foreign national victims of trafficking eligibility to access benefits and services. Anti-trafficking advocates reported alack of sustained effort to address labor trafficking and to strengthen oversight of employment-based and other nonimmigrant visa programs, and continued to report that victim services were not always provided equitably.

PRIORITIZED RECOMMENDATIONS:

Increase investigation and prosecution of labor trafficking cases. • Increase the number of requests by federal law enforcement officials for Continued Presence and conduct targeted training to ensure such officials apply for Continued Presence in a timely manner and in all appropriate circumstances. • Shorten processing times and improve training for adjudicators to reduce obstacles for victims to appropriately obtain trafficking-related immigration benefits. • Proactively identify potential trafficking victims among populations vulnerable to human trafficking. • Increase the number of trafficking investigations and prosecutions. • Seek to ensure immigration enforcement does not hinder human trafficking criminal law enforcement or victim protections. • Increase equitable access to comprehensive victim sendees across the country and improve access to short-term and/ or transitional housing for all victims. • Encourage state, local, and tribal authorities to implement policies not to prosecute victims for the unlawful acts their traffickers compelled them to commit. • Remove the restriction on victim assistance funding for legal representation of victims in vacatur and expungement cases for the unlawful acts their traffickers compelled them to commit, • Mitigate vulnerabilities in employment-based or other nonimmigrant visa programs in the United States, including by increasing oversight of labor recruiters to ensure compliance with federal, state, and local regulations. • Increase training of prosecutors and judges on mandatory forfeiture and restitution for trafficking victims.