Testimony of Wade Horn, Ph.D
Assistant Secretary for the Administration for Children and Families
Department of Health and Human Services
Before the
Committee on International Relations
U.S. House of Representatives
November 29, 2001

 

Mr. Chairman and distinguished members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify on the progress of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in implementing the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000. The Administration is fully committed to implementing this important legislation to fight against trafficking in persons and to protecting and assisting trafficking victims.

Since enactment, HHS has acted quickly in carrying out the vision of the Act, always keeping in mind that behind our paper processes are vulnerable human beings -- who have been subjected to severe physical and emotional coercion. These trafficking victims are usually in desperate need of assistance, and HHS has worked diligently to see that once someone is determined to be a victim, no time is wasted in linking them up with necessary benefits and services.

At the same time, however, HHS is determined to see that victims are given the opportunity to regain their dignity -- by emphasizing benefit programs geared toward building self-sufficiency, rather than dependency. It has been our experience to date that this approach is what most trafficking victims prefer. When victims are empowered to gain back control of their own lives, everyone wins.

As evidenced by this panel, HHS is only one of many federal agencies playing a role in efforts to combat human trafficking. Given the complexity of participating in such a multi-agency endeavor, I am pleased at the progress that has been made and will commit to continuing our efforts to implement the law in conjunction with the other key federal agencies. Before speaking to our progress, however, I would like to provide a brief overview of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act and our Department's role in its implementation.

I. Background

The trafficking of women, children, and men into the sex industry, sweatshop labor, domestic servitude, and migrant agricultural labor is estimated to involve over 700,000 people annually worldwide – and approximately 50,000 annually to the United States alone. To address this atrocity, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act was enacted as part of Public Law 106-386 in October 2000. The Act aims to combat trafficking by increasing law enforcement, ensuring effective punishment of traffickers, protecting victims, and providing Federal and certain State assistance to victims.

The law makes adult victims of severe forms of trafficking, who have been certified by HHS, eligible for certain benefits and services to the same extent as refugees. Victims of severe forms of trafficking who are under 18 years of age also are eligible for these benefits to the same extent as refugees but do not need to be certified.

"Severe forms of trafficking in persons" is defined under the Act to mean: 1) sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act is under 18 years of age; or 2) the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery.

To implement the department’s responsibilities under the Act, Secretary Thompson delegated the authority to conduct certification activities to the ACF Assistant Secretary, my current position, which in turn was re-delegated to the Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR).

I would like to turn now to our efforts to implement this provision.

II. Certification and Victim Assistance

HHS has been actively involved in developing policies and procedures related to certifying individuals who are determined to be victims of a severe form of trafficking, and making victims eligible to access federal and certain state benefits and services to the same extent as refugees.

HHS has developed a systematic approach to the certification of trafficking victims and the facilitation of their access to benefits and services. ORR staff consults on a daily basis with staff at the U.S. Department of Justice, Criminal Section of the Civil Rights Division (CRD), which investigates and prosecutes trafficking cases and refers appropriate cases to ORR for certification.

Once ORR staff receives a referral, the first step is to produce a certification letter, which is provided to victims safely and without breaches of confidentiality. In addition, ORR staff contacts local refugee service providers and other benefit-granting agencies to inquire about appropriate local programs to help the victims. Many victims are in need of psychological counseling, medical assistance and immigration legal advice.

ORR staff also works with the Immigration and Naturalization Service to coordinate access to Employment Authorization Documents. This is a critical component because it allows victims to participate in work programs and, hopefully, to begin work. In turn, working allows victims to move toward self-sufficiency, improved self-esteem and increased stability to allow them to assist with cases against the traffickers. HHS is also coordinating with the State Department. ORR staff recently briefed Ambassador Nancy Ely-Raphel, Director of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking and her staff on the HHS role in implementing this legislation.

Through this regular contact with refugee service providers and other agencies assisting trafficking victims, ORR continues to learn a great deal about the certified trafficking population in the United States today. In FY 2001, ORR issued 196 certification letters to adults and 4 eligibility letters to minors under the age of 18. Since the beginning of fiscal year 2002, 4 more certification letters for adults have been sent.

The majority of victims, 87 percent, are female. Only 26 victims (13 percent) were men. Although the 204 victims came from a variety of countries, a disproportionate number were from Vietnam (87 percent). The Vietnamese victims were all involved in the same case in which garment workers, who believed they were coming to work in a U.S. factory, were held in slavery-like conditions with their freedom of movement restricted and some suffering physical abuse.

Victims also have come from Bangladesh, Brazil, Cameroon, China, India, Mexico, Micronesia and Russia. For example, some of the victims were forced into a form of domestic servitude, forced to stay in the trafficker's house, suffering physical abuse and no compensation for their work. Other victims were forced to work in the sex industry. In many of these cases, traffickers took the victims' immigration documents, restricted victims' freedom of movement, physically abused victims and did not provide payment for work.

Victims are located throughout the United States. In all, Certification/Eligibility letters were sent to benefit-issuing offices in 19 states plus the District of Columbia. Despite the hardships that these victims have suffered, many have been able to successfully participate in the refugee program called the Voluntary Agency Matching Grant Program, a program to help refugees, and now trafficking victims, attain self-sufficiency within four months. The program emphasizes employment, English language training and cultural orientation.

Thirty-four percent of the victims applied for food stamps, while 21 percent applied for Refugee Cash Assistance and 35 percent applied for Refugee Medical Assistance. Less than 1 percent of victims applied for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI).

III. Outreach Activities

In addition to certification and assistance activities, the Act calls for HHS, in collaboration with other designated federal agencies, to establish and carry out programs to increase public awareness about trafficking in persons. To that end, we have been actively involved in outreach efforts aimed at immigrant and refugee communities, non-governmental organizations, voluntary agencies, state and local social service providers, state and local law enforcement, the general public, and other federal and state government officials.

ORR staff facilitated training and gave presentations in a variety of organized forums, reaching out to more than 800 people during FY 2001. The content of these sessions focused on the problem of trafficking, background of the legislation, the roles and responsibilities of HHS within the law, the role of benefit-issuing offices within the HHS certification process, and the benefits and services available to certified/eligible trafficking victims.

ORR staff also participated in an interagency working group that drafted a "trafficking in persons" brochure designed for wide dissemination to non-governmental organizations. The brochure focuses on the needs of trafficking victims and what non-governmental organizations can do to assist them.

IV. Discretionary Grants.

The last implementation activity I would like to address is discretionary grants. In FY 2001, ORR awarded more than $1.25 million in discretionary grant money to eight organizations throughout the United States. The grants provide these non-governmental groups the means to assist certified and/or eligible victims of trafficking in order to enhance their transition from victimization to self-sufficiency. Grant funds may be used for a wide range of services, including case management, temporary housing, special mental health needs (such as trauma counseling), legal assistance referrals, and cultural orientation. In addition, trafficking grant funds may be used to fund other services needed during the time between the date of HHS certification/eligibility letters and the receipt of public benefits and support services.

V. Conclusion

As important as are the steps we have taken so far, we know that there are still an estimated 50,000 victims annually in the United States and over 700,000 worldwide. One of the barriers to victims of trafficking coming forward is the fear that doing so may result in their being deported. It must be remembered that many of these victims are women and children who have been beaten and/or raped. We need to help them understand that coming forward will result not in further victimization, but in their being made safe and provided with help.

To date our efforts have been focused on making the program operational. We are now preparing to ensure that we do a better job of communicating to trafficking victims that we will protect them, and that we will provide them with supportive services. If successful, our model will be important not only for victims in the United States but also for trafficking victims throughout the world.

I want to thank the committee for offering me the opportunity to address HHS’ response to the problem of human trafficking. At this time I’d be glad to address any questions you may have.