[Senate Hearing 114-883]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]





                                                        S. Hrg. 114-883
 
                HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN THE UNITED STATES:
                         PROTECTING THE VICTIM

=======================================================================

                                HEARING

                               before the

                       COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY
                          UNITED STATES SENATE

                    ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS

                             FIRST SESSION

                               __________

                           FEBRUARY 24, 2015

                               __________

                           Serial No. J-114-3

                               __________

         Printed for the use of the Committee on the Judiciary     
         
         
         
         
         
         
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                       COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY

                  CHARLES E. GRASSLEY, Iowa, Chairman

ORRIN G. HATCH, Utah                 PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont,   
JEFF SESSIONS, Alabama                   Ranking Member
LINDSEY O. GRAHAM, South Carolina
JOHN CORNYN, Texas
MICHAEL S. LEE, Utah
TED CRUZ, Texas
JEFF FLAKE, Arizona
DAVID VITTER, Louisiana
DAVID PERDUE, Georgia
THOM TILLIS, North Carolina

                                     DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California
                                     CHARLES E. SCHUMER, New York
                                     RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois
                                     SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, Rhode Island
                                     AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota
                                     AL FRANKEN, Minnesota
                                     CHRISTOPHER A. COONS, Delaware
                                     RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, Connecticut

            Kolan L. Davis, Chief Counsel and Staff Director
      Kristine Lucius, Democratic Chief Counsel and Staff Director
                            C O N T E N T S

                              ----------                              

                     FEBRUARY 24, 2015, 10:02 A.M.

                    STATEMENTS OF COMMITTEE MEMBERS

                                                                   Page
Grassley, Hon. Charles E., a U.S. Senator from the State of Iowa.     1
    prepared statement...........................................    61
Leahy, Hon. Patrick, a U.S. Senator from the State of Vermont
    prepared statement...........................................    63
Feinstein, Hon. Dianne, a U.S. Senator from the State of 
  California.....................................................     2
Klobuchar, Hon. Amy, a U.S. Senator from the State of Minnesota..     3
Cornyn, Hon. John, a U.S. Senator from the State of Texas........     5
Collins, Hon. Susan M., a U.S. Senator from the State of Maine...     7
    prepared statement...........................................    41
Gillibrand, Hon. Kirsten, a U.S. Senator from the State of New 
  York...........................................................     8
    prepared statement...........................................    48
Ayotte, Hon. Kelly, a U.S. Senator from the State of New 
  Hampshire......................................................     9
Mikulski, Hon. Barbara A., a U.S. Senator from the State of 
  Maryland.......................................................    12

                               WITNESSES

Witness List.....................................................    35
Bigelsen, Jayne, Director of Anti-Human Trafficking Initiatives/
  Co-Director Legal Advocacy Covenant House International, New 
  York City, New York............................................    18
    prepared statement...........................................    36
Ferjak, Michael, Senior Criminal Investigator and Director Human 
  Trafficking and Enforcement Prosecution Initiative, Iowa 
  Department of Justice, Des Moines, Iowa........................    20
    prepared statement...........................................    43
Saar, Malika Saada, Executive Director Human Rights Project for 
  Girls, Washington, DC..........................................    17
    prepared statement...........................................    53
Smith, Holly Austin, Trafficking Survivor and Author of Walking 
  Prey, Richmond, Virginia.......................................    15
    prepared statement...........................................    58

                               QUESTIONS

Questions submitted to Jayne Bigelsen by:
    Senator Franken..............................................    65
Questions submitted to Michael Ferjak by:
    Senator Grassley.............................................    67
Questions submitted to Malika Saada Saar by:
    Senator Grassley.............................................    68
Questions submitted to Holly Austin Smith by:
    Senator Grassley.............................................    69
    Senator Franken..............................................    65

                                ANSWERS

Responses of Jayne Bigelsen to questions submitted by:
    Senator Franken..............................................    70
Responses of Michael Ferjak to questions submitted by:
    Senator Grassley.............................................    73
Responses of Holly Austin Smith to questions submitted by:
    Senator Grassley.............................................    79
    Senator Franken..............................................    77

                MISCELLANEOUS SUBMISSIONS FOR THE RECORD

Submitted by Senator Grassley:

    Human Trafficking--Protecting the Victim Statement for the 
      Record.....................................................   119

Submitted by Senator Leahy:

    Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking (ATEST)..............   125
    Written Statement of David Stacy on Human Trafficking dated 
      February 24, 2015..........................................   126

Submitted by Senator Feinstein:

    American Academy of Pediatrics Letter Combat Human 
      Trafficking Act of 2015....................................    81
    Autumn Burris Written Testimony dated March 3, 2015..........    83
    Combat Human Trafficking, Oakland, California, Alameda County 
      District Attorney Letter dated January 15, 2015............    88
    Combat Human Trafficking, Berkeley City Letter dated December 
      18, 2014...................................................    89
    Covenant House California Letter dated January 20, 2015......    90
    Covenant House support Letter dated February 23, 2015........    91
    County of San Diego Letter dated February 5, 2015............    93
    Testimony of District Attorney Nancy E. O'Malley.............    94
    Faith Alliance Against Slavery and Trafficking Letter dated 
      March 3, 2015..............................................    98
    City of Oakland Letter dated February 13, 2015...............    99
    Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association Letter dated 
      September 16, 2014.........................................   102
    Fraternal Order of Police Letter dated January 28, 2015......   103
    County of Los Angeles Board of Supervisors Letter dated 
      November 25, 2014..........................................   104
    Major Cities Chiefs Association Letter dated January 15, 2015   105
    City of Oakland Letter.......................................   106
    Oakland City Council Resolution Support......................   108
    Human Rights Project for Girls Letter dated November 14, 2015   110
    San Diego County Disgtrict Attorney Letter dated March 2, 
      2015.......................................................   111
    Statement of Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell, dated 
      February 24, 2015..........................................   113
    Listen To Survivors' Letter dated February, 23, 2015.........   116


                        HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN THE



                             UNITED STATES:



                         PROTECTING THE VICTIM

                              ----------                              


                       TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2015

                                       U.S. Senate,
                                Committee on the Judiciary,
                                                     Washington, DC
    The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:02 a.m., in 
Room 226, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Charles E. 
Grassley, Chairman of the Committee, presiding.
    Present: Senators Grassley (presiding), Cornyn, Leahy, 
Feinstein, Schumer, Whitehouse, and Klobuchar.

 OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. CHARLES E. GRASSLEY, A U.S. SENATOR 
                     FROM THE STATE OF IOWA

    Chairman Grassley. The Committee will come to order.
    Before we hear from our colleagues at the panel, I will 
have an opening statement. Senator Feinstein will have an 
opening statement. Senator Klobuchar, sponsor of one of the 
pieces of legislation before the Committee, will speak, and 
then Senator Cornyn will speak, and then we--I will introduce 
the panelists at that point.
    I welcome everybody to today's hearing. Trafficking, which 
involves the buying and selling of human beings to profit from 
their labor or sexual degrading, is a crime with life-
shattering effects for many of the victims.
    Reliable data on the number of human trafficking victims 
within our country's borders is not readily available, but 
there are some things that we know about this form of modern 
day slavery.
    We know, for example, that the United States is a source 
transit and destination country for individuals who are being 
trafficked. We know that human trafficking occurs in every 
State and that it affects both U.S. citizens and non-citizens. 
We know that at least within our country, non-citizens are more 
likely to be found in labor trafficking.
    We know, too, that women and girls may be especially likely 
to be targets of certain forms of trafficking. Experts tell us 
that many of the U.S. citizen victims of sex trafficking are 
teenagers. Up to 100,000 minors are being sexually trafficked 
in the United States each year, according to Polaris Project.
    Through threats or deceit, human traffickers force the most 
vulnerable members of society into servitude to meet the 
demands for cheap labor and sex workers.
    The good news is that we have made some progress in 
combating trafficking since 1994 when one of our hearing 
witnesses was being exploited as a 14-year-old.
    Two decades ago, there were no Federal anti-trafficking 
laws on the books. I am pleased to have played a role in that 
enactment, 15 years ago that was, and it was called the 
Trafficking Victim Protection Act. I voted for that law when it 
was first being debated in Congress in 2000 and I have worked 
with my colleagues on several occasions since then to make sure 
it was extended.
    In addition, today every State has a law outlawing 
trafficking. Numerous States updated their human trafficking 
laws in just the last year. Of course, much work remains to be 
done, particularly to protect our most vulnerable youths from 
traffickers and to curb the demands for sex trafficking.
    According to the nonpartisan Congressional Research 
Service, quote, ``Experts widely agree that any effort to 
reduce the prevalence of child sex trafficking, as well as 
other forms of trafficking, should address not only the supply, 
but also the demand,'' end of quote.
    I hope that our witnesses can shed some light on this 
issue. I also hope to hear from our witnesses about two 
separate bills, S.166 and 178, now pending before this 
Committee. S.178, which I have cosponsored, known as the 
Justice of Victim Trafficking, if enacted, it would ensure that 
additional resources are available to survivors of both sex and 
labor trafficking to aid in their recovery.
    S.178 also would help fight demand for domestic sex 
trafficking by ensuring that any person who is trafficking an 
adult or purchasing a child for sex will be punished under the 
full force of law. It has the endorsement of over 100 
organizations.
    S.166 is entitled Stop Exploitation Through Trafficking. 
This bill recognizes that children trafficked for sex in the 
United States should not be regarded as--as child prostitutes. 
It embraces the principle that there is no such thing as a 
child prostitute.
    I will put the rest of my statement in the record and go to 
Senator Feinstein.

    [The prepared statement of Chairman Grassley appears as a 
submission for the record]

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. DIANNE FEINSTEIN, A U.S. SENATOR FROM 
                    THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

    Senator Feinstein. I thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I 
want to thank you for holding this hearing. This hearing is 
really the result of something that I believe has never 
happened before, and that is that the 20 women Senators, 
Republicans and Democrats, got together and decided to write a 
letter to you and ask for this hearing, and five of us are here 
today.
    I would like to read that letter and read it into the 
record. It is dated February 10. ``We write to respectfully 
request that you hold a hearing on the significant problem of 
sex trafficking in the United States. We have heard 
heartbreaking stories of victims who were abused by their 
trafficker by day and sold to customers multiple times each 
night for profit.''
    As described in the Washington Post, Sondra ran away from 
an abusive foster home at the age of 12. A man found her at a 
bus stop and, quote, ``promised to love and care for her 
forever,'' end quote. Instead he sold her to at least seven men 
each night.
    Then there is Tammy who was kidnapped at the age of 15 on 
her way home from school. She was held captive for 6 months, 
raped, beaten and starved. At night she was sold for sex with 
other men.
    Unfortunately, there are many stories like these. Human 
trafficking today is a $32 billion criminal enterprise, making 
it the second largest criminal industry in the world behind the 
drug trade.
    According to the Department of Justice, 83 percent of sex 
trafficking victims in the United States are American citizens. 
Federal, State and local law enforcement agencies are taking 
steps to combat sex trafficking. For example, between January 
and June of last year, the Federal Bureau of Investigation 
recovered 168 trafficking victims and arrested 281 sex 
traffickers in Operation Cross Country.
    However, there is widespread recognition that the Federal 
Government needs to do more to combat sex trafficking.
    Then it goes on to say a number of us have cosponsored 
legislation. Senator Klobuchar has a bill. Senator Cornyn's 
bill is going to be marked up on Thursday. I have a bill that 
is going to be made part of that bill and have another bill to 
be introduced with Senator Kirk.
    The point is this, that we really need to come together to 
do something about it. This letter is signed by all 20 of us in 
the U.S. Senate. It is a first. We intend to stay together to 
see that we do the very best we can to see that this industry, 
which is so malevolent, is curbed dramatically in our country.
    Shortly, he is not on the program, but Sheriff Jim 
McDonnell, who operates the largest sheriff's department in the 
United States, and that is in Los Angeles County, he runs a 
jail with 17,000 inmates in it, a county jail, and he really 
knows a great deal about what is happening in the West Coast 
with respect to trafficking organizations, will be here.
    I would like to introduce him. He will be seated in the 
audience. He has another meeting somewhere else. I am hopeful 
that we can garner sufficient support from law enforcement all 
across this country to really take some very strong steps to 
put an end to the second largest criminal enterprise now in the 
world.
    I thank you, Mr. Chairman, for responding to us. I very 
much appreciate it.
    Chairman Grassley. I believe that we are going to be able 
to get the two bills that are on the agenda out of committee 
this week.
    It is also my understanding, although I have not had a 
conversation with the Majority Leader, but that he hopes to 
take these bills up shortly.
    I now call on Senator Klobuchar and after her, Senator 
Cornyn.

 OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. AMY KLOBUCHAR, A U.S. SENATOR FROM 
                     THE STATE OF MINNESOTA

    Senator Klobuchar. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Thank 
you to you and your staff for moving the bill that I have with 
Senator Cornyn on the agenda next week, and also to Senator 
Leahy and his staff, as well.
    I thank Senator Feinstein for leading this effort with all 
of the women Senators, Democrats and Republicans, asking for 
this hearing.
    Just to give you a sense, I think sometimes people think 
this is just something that happens on foreign lands. Just this 
last week, a man was arrested in connection with a horrible 
crime. A 12-year-old girl in Rochester, Minnesota simply got a 
text inviting her to a party. She showed up at the location 
with another girl, 12 years old. A man was in the parking lot. 
He got her in the car. He took her up to the Twin Cities, it 
was a McDonald's parking lot, and brought her to a hotel and 
raped her, 12 years old.
    The next day he took her to another hotel, threatening to 
go after her family members, in another city, and she was 
forced to take explicit pictures of herself that were posted on 
Craig's List. She was then raped by two more men that saw the 
post on Craig's List.
    This happened in Rochester, Minnesota just this past year. 
It is a horrible story. She was found. She is back with her 
family, but, of course, her life will never be the same--12 
years old, not old enough to get a driver's license, not old 
enough to go to her high school prom.
    That is what we are talking about here; 83 percent of the 
victims in our country are from our own country. That is why 
Senator Cornyn, in addition to the good bill that he is 
leading, has put together a bill that a version of it has 
already passed the House and has a CBO score of zero, and it 
simply creates incentives from existing pots of money for 
States to enact these safe harbor laws.
    They are called safe harbor laws because they basically 
said a 12-year-old should not be prosecuted for this. A 12-
year-old is a victim, should be able to qualify for job 
services, should be able to go to a shelter, should be able to 
be not prosecuted.
    What we have found in the dozen or so States that are 
already doing this, like Minnesota, is it allows us to put 
together better cases against the bad guys that are running the 
rings.
    We have a 40-year sentence that we got in Minnesota this 
last year against someone that was running one of these sex 
trafficking rings.
    It is not only the right thing to do for the victims and 
the only chance that they are going to have to put their lives 
together again, it is also the right thing to do when it comes 
to putting together these cases against the people running 
these rings.
    This bill is supported by the Conference of State 
Legislatures, the National Center for Missing and Exploited 
Children, the Fraternal Order of Police, Shared Hope 
International, and the National Alliance to End Sexual 
Violence.
    I especially want to thank Samantha Powers, our U.N. 
Ambassador, who has been so helpful on this issue, as well as 
Cindy McCain, the wife of our colleague, John McCain, who went 
with me to Mexico with Senator Heitkamp on a trip focusing on 
the coordination between our countries on sex trafficking.
    This is the third biggest criminal enterprise in the world. 
The only things bigger are the international trafficking of 
drugs and the international trafficking of illegal firearms. 
Then it is sex trafficking. These are 12-year-olds.
    I thank you so much for acknowledging this problem, Senator 
Grassley, and holding this hearing. Thank you, Senator 
Feinstein. And certainly thank you to my colleague, Senator 
Cornyn, who has been such a leader.
    Chairman Grassley. Thank you for your leadership. Now, 
Senator Cornyn, and I thank you for your leadership on the 
other bill.

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN CORNYN, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE 
                         STATE OF TEXAS

    Senator Cornyn. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this 
hearing. I will tell our colleagues who are waiting here to 
speak I will be very brief, but thank you for working with us 
to make it possible for us not only to have this hearing--
Senator Feinstein makes the point that the request of 20 women 
Senators is simply irresistible and it makes things happen in 
the Senate in a positive way.
    I want to thank you for this hearing. As others have said 
and I will repeat, we are here to address one of the most 
terrible crimes that occur in America and across the world 
today, and that is modern day human slavery.
    I am proud to serve as the author and sponsor of the 
Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act, which is comprehensive 
legislation targeted at the ending--at ending the scourge of 
human trafficking and providing comprehensive services to the 
victims of this scourge.
    I appreciate your comments, Mr. Chairman, about how these 
minor children should be regarded, and they should be regarded 
as victims, not as people to be prosecuted for committing 
crimes.
    I particularly want to point out Senators Klobuchar, Wyden 
and Kirk for serving as my lead cosponsors for this bill.
    As we have said, human trafficking is modern day human 
slavery, plain and simple. Many Americans just do not realize 
that it actually exists because it happens out of their sight 
and beyond their experience.
    This disgusting trade in human flesh is happening right 
here in America, in every town and every city as we speak. 
Every day thousands of Americans, men and women, adults and 
children, will wake up to a life of forced prostitution, sexual 
exploitation, and coerced labor.
    Nearly 150 years after the ratification of the Thirteenth 
Amendment abolishing slavery, this scourge is alive and well in 
the United States. I know we are all united in our efforts to 
help law enforcement target the scum who perpetrate these 
crimes and rescue the victims and ensure that they get the 
services and help they need to in order to restore their life 
to some semblance of normalcy. Fortunately, the Thirteenth 
Amendment provides that Congress shall have the power to 
enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
    The Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act would ensure 
that we uphold the promise of our forefathers to abolish 
slavery in the United States now in this new form, particularly 
pernicious, as I say.
    First, this legislation would create a deficit-neutral 
domestic victims' trafficking fund to offer restorative 
services for victims and increase resources for law enforcement 
about $30 million a year minimum.
    This fund would be financed entirely by increasing special 
penalty assessments on Federal sex offenders and other persons 
who fuel the demand for sex slavery in the United States. These 
offenders are among the most affluent in the Federal criminal 
justice system and it is time that they helped pay for the full 
financial costs that their crimes impose upon exploited 
children and sex slaves.
    The Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act would also 
provide law enforcement with additional tools to identify, 
locate and prosecute the purveyors of human trafficking.
    To this end, the legislation would increase the ability of 
State and local law enforcement agencies to obtain wiretaps in 
human trafficking cases so they can efficiently take down the 
broader networks responsible for the crime.
    It would also work to reduce the demand for sexual slavery 
by clarifying that prosecutors can and should target those who 
knowingly purchase illicit sexual activities with exploited 
children and human trafficking victims.
    Finally, this legislation would ensure that more human 
trafficking victims are full compensated for their losses by 
allowing the proceeds of forfeited assets involved in human 
trafficking to go directly to satisfy victim restitution 
orders.
    I am proud that this legislation has the support of nearly 
200 organizations in the victims' advocacy and law enforcement 
communities. The list is obviously too long to go through here, 
but I appreciate the support we have gotten for our efforts.
    I hope my colleagues will all join me not only this week in 
passing this important legislation out of this Committee, but 
also next week when I hope the Majority Leader will take up 
this legislation on the floor of the U.S. Senate.
    Thanks to each of our witnesses for their patience and for 
their caring so much about this important issue.
    Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Chairman Grassley. I will give a short introduction of our 
colleagues that does not do justice to their work in this area 
or a lot of other areas that they are very active in.
    Senator Collins is from Maine. Senator Collins has worked 
to help the most vulnerable youth at the risk--at risk for 
human trafficking by cosponsoring S.178, the Justice for 
Victims of Trafficking Act, a bipartisan measure that will be 
discussed at today's hearing.
    The next witness, Senator Gillibrand of New York. She, too, 
is a cosponsor of both S.166 and S.178. Senator Gillibrand also 
deserves credit for her efforts to develop legislation that 
would curb on-campus sexual assaults at universities across the 
Nation. We plan to jointly introduce campus safety legislation 
in this Congress.
    Our third witness, Senator Ayotte of New Hampshire, a 
former prosecutor, has cosponsored not only S.178, but S.166, 
the Stop Exploitation Through Trafficking Act. 166 also will be 
discussed at our hearing. In 2012, Senator Ayotte also 
cosponsored legislation to extend the Trafficking Victim 
Protection Act.
    The final witness on the panel, Senator Mikulski from 
Maryland, from her position on the Appropriations Committee. 
Senator Mikulski has championed funding to support efforts to 
break up smuggling and trafficking rings.
    I commend my colleagues for coming here today, but more 
importantly, for your efforts over a long period of time in 
this area and so many other areas.
    I look forward to hearing your input. We will start with 
Senator Collins.

  STATEMENT OF HON. SUSAN M. COLLINS, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE 
                         STATE OF MAINE

    Senator Collins. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Senator Feinstein, thank you also for spearheading the 
letter from all 20 of the women Senators that led to this 
hearing today.
    Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for your early leadership.
    All of the women in the Senate share a common concern about 
the horrific problem of human trafficking right here in our 
country. I want to recognize Senator Klobuchar and Senator 
Cornyn for introducing very important legislation to combat 
trafficking.
    No State is immune from the evils of sex trafficking and 
the stories of victims are simply shocking. Just this past 
January, police in Bangor, Maine arrested a man and woman for 
trafficking a 13-year-old girl.
    This child, who had been reported as a missing person, was 
allegedly being sold for sex through ads on the Internet.
    I would like to share with you another story from Maine 
which helps to illustrate both the harrowing experiences faced 
by young victims and the importance of service providers in 
changing the course of their lives.
    In 2013, Preble Street, an organization that operates a 
homeless shelter and teen center in Portland, Maine formed the 
Preble Street Anti-Trafficking Coalition, a group of outreach 
health managers, legal service providers, and with the support 
of a Department of Justice grant, this coalition has brought 
together organizations such as Catholic Charities of Maine, the 
Sexual Assault Response Services of Southern Maine, and the 
U.S. Attorney's Office.
    It is currently working with approximately 50 sex and labor 
trafficking victims whose ages range from 15 to 42. One young 
woman, now 20 years old, had been a familiar face around the 
Preble Street teen center. She was in and out of foster care 
and met other girls who had introduced her to what was known as 
survival sex, a way to trade sex for a place to sleep and other 
basic necessities.
    At age 16, she traded sex for a ride to Boston, where she 
met a man who prostituted her to other men. She was sold to 
other pimps and endured physical abuse and violence for many 
years.
    When she eventually escaped and her traffickers were 
charged by police, she had nowhere to go but to a local 
homeless shelter. In fact, police chiefs, prosecutors and 
service providers in Maine tell me that the lack of aftercare 
services, including a safe place to sleep, is among the 
greatest challenges that victims face.
    Today the Preble Street Coalition is helping this young 
woman and others like her start a new life. She is doing well 
and was able to testify against her trafficker in court, a very 
brave and harrowing experience for a victim.
    It is not surprising that Portland's homeless shelter is a 
critical partner in the fight to end human trafficking. 
Homeless youth in particular are much more likely to fall 
victim to sexual exploitation. In fact, studies tell us that 
approximately 1 in 4 homeless youth are victims of sex 
trafficking or engaged in survival sex and 48 percent of youth 
have done so because they do not have a safe place to stay.
    These statistics are compelling and the stories of the 
young victims, many of whom are among our Nation's homeless, 
are particularly devastating. That is why I have joined Ranking 
Member Leahy in reintroducing the Runaway and Homeless Youth 
and Trafficking Prevention Act, which I also hope this 
Committee will consider.
    It reauthorizes critical services that help prevent 
homeless youth from being trafficked. The street outreach 
program, the basic center programs, the transitional living 
program have helped thousands of young homeless men and women 
meet their immediate needs and provided long-term residential 
services for those who cannot be safely reunited with their 
families.
    Homeless youth need access to safe beds at night and 
services during the day so that they never have to choose 
between selling their bodies and a safe place to sleep.
    Mr. Chairman, I hope this Committee will reauthorize these 
programs which for 40 years have helped to protect some of our 
most vulnerable children.
    I applaud this Committee for your work in shining a light 
on some of the darkest stories imaginable.
    Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

    [The prepared statement of Senator Collins appears as a 
submission for the record]

    Chairman Grassley. Thank you, Senator Collins.
    Now, Senator Gillibrand.

 STATEMENT OF HON. KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE 
                       STATE OF NEW YORK

    Senator Gillibrand. Thank you, Chairman Grassley and 
Senator Feinstein, for your decades of leadership on this 
issue. I am incredibly grateful that I have been invited to 
testify today.
    Obviously, human trafficking is a crime that affects 
thousands of young Americans and families and Congress' focus 
on this epidemic is incredibly important and long overdue.
    We have a number of excellent proposed pieces of 
legislation that have been described by Senator Klobuchar and 
Senator Cornyn and Senator Feinstein and each of those 
proposals focus on the criminal justice part and law and order 
part of the problem, which I think is absolutely necessary and 
important.
    These bills make buying underage victims--those who 
strickly buy the underage victims strictly liable for their 
crimes. They make penalties for traffickers much harsher, and 
they incentivize law enforcement from prosecuting underage 
trafficking victims, and all of these measures I support fully.
    I want to amplify what Senator Collins began to discuss, 
some of the problems that happened before and after that result 
in these young people being trafficked. I want to focus 
specifically on some of the vulnerabilities that lead these 
girls and boys to become trafficked victims and how vulnerable 
they are even when they are able to escape their pimps and 
escape captivity.
    It is a very broad-based problem. In small towns and big 
cities, thousands of young Americans are trafficked each year 
and every single institution that these girls and boys ever 
relied on simply failed them.
    Their families failed to protect them, their school failed 
to protect them, the foster system failed to protect them, and 
our laws are failing to protect them.
    Last week in Rochester, New York, a U.S. Attorney there 
announced the arrest of seven people on trafficking charges. 
Their victims were as young as 14 years old. The U.S. Attorney 
said that the victims in many cases were singled out because 
they were identified as being vulnerable.
    We have a responsibility in Congress to end these crimes 
against the most vulnerable among us. We need better 
institutions to protect runaway and homeless youth from 
stumbling into shelters that will spit them right back out onto 
the street. We need a law that would vacate the criminal 
convictions of trafficked victims, because these girls and boys 
are not criminals, as Senator Klobuchar has so powerfully 
pointed out, and they are not prostitutes.
    They are victims who deserve a chance to lead a fulfilling 
life and we have to protect these young Americans.
    I want to close by telling you the story of just one young 
woman named Ashley, who is here with us today. When Ashley was 
12, she ran away from home and lived on the streets. She went 
into a foster care home, but the trafficker found her and 
started selling her.
    Ashley went out every night and risked a beating if she did 
not take home at least $500. When the police finally found her, 
she was arrested on charges of prostitution and solicitation. 
She was 13 years old.
    For the next 6 years, Ashley bounced between sexual 
predators who continued to traffic her. She ended up in New 
York City with a violent pimp. When Ashley was 19 years old, 
she escaped and was referred by law enforcement to a not-for-
profit group called FAIR Girls, which provides housing and 24/7 
care to young women survivors of sex trafficking.
    Ashley now has a bank account, a little bit of savings, and 
she is enrolled in a community college and is looking for a 
job.
    There are thousands of young men and women exactly like 
Ashley. We must do our job here in Congress to do everything we 
can to help our victims of human trafficking live fulfilling 
lives.
    Thank you.
    Chairman Grassley. Thank you, Senator Gillibrand.
    Now, Senator Ayotte.

 STATEMENT OF HON. KELLY AYOTTE, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE 
                        OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

    Senator Ayotte. I want to thank the Chairman for holding 
this incredibly important hearing and for your leadership on 
this issue.
    I want to thank Senator Feinstein for spearheading the 
effort among the women Senators and also your tremendous 
leadership on this important issue. I am very honored to 
cosponsor not only Senator Klobuchar's bill, but also Senator 
Cornyn's bill. Thank you for your leadership and, frankly, the 
leadership of every member of this Committee.
    I think what this demonstrates is this truly is a 
nonpartisan issue because we all understand that this is 
something that can impact anyone. It is about who we are in the 
United States of America, that we all have to work together to 
end modern day slavery and make sure that there is a zero 
tolerance policy when it comes to trafficking in this country.
    Today's hearing I think is a great example of how not only 
the women Senators can work together on this important issue, 
but all of us can work together to make a real difference for 
victims of trafficking, but also going after those who are 
trafficking and anyone who is benefiting from it.
    I am very glad you are going to take the step of passing 
not only Senator Cornyn's bill, but Senator Klobuchar's bill, 
because those two bills recognize who the real victims are and 
makes sure that those victims are protected and that the 
perpetrators are held accountable.
    This work that is done across the country, I know that 
today you are going to hear from experts and I want to thank 
them for what they do every day both in law enforcement and 
service providers to make a difference in people's lives and 
especially the victims of these--these horrible crimes.
    I am very honored to be here also with this distinguished 
panel, Senator Collins, Senator Gillibrand, Senator Mikulski 
and the work that they have done on this. This work is work 
that I had the privilege of beginning when I was Attorney 
General of the State of New Hampshire, and I saw the challenges 
that law enforcement faced every day in rooting out these 
horrible crimes that unfortunately occur in the shadow.
    One of the things I think that this hearing can do today 
and all of us working together is to take these crimes out of 
the shadow so that the American people understand that this is 
happening in their community, this is happening everywhere.
    During my time as Attorney General and now as a U.S. 
Senator, I have really come to appreciate the important work 
done by those who serve victims in New Hampshire and across 
this country.
    I have had the privilege of working with the New Hampshire 
Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, which works 
tirelessly on behalf of victims of both domestic and sexual 
violence and trafficking throughout my home State of New 
Hampshire.
    Their work, combined with the efforts of local law 
enforcement and also the cooperation of State and Federal law 
enforcement, is a true testament to what is happening at the 
State level and what we can support at the Federal level to 
protect victims and to make our communities safer.
    As has been mentioned by all my colleagues today, we know 
that sex trafficking affects people from all walks of life and 
has far-reaching consequences with long-lasting effects. That 
is why all of these approaches today, not only Senator 
Klobuchar's bill, Senator Cornyn's bill, but I am very honored 
to also support Senator Collins' bill, which she mentioned 
earlier, because we have to get resources and assistance to the 
most vulnerable youth in our communities who are being targeted 
by these criminals.
    I am honored to help Senator Collins and Senator Leahy, the 
Ranking Member on this Committee, help introduce the Runaway 
and Homeless Youth and Trafficking Prevention Act.
    I would join Senator Collins' request that this be a bill 
that this Committee will take up following the important work 
that you are doing today, because this bill certainly is going 
to help runaway and homeless youth who are particularly 
susceptible to trafficking and often targeted and exploited by 
these criminals.
    In New Hampshire, Child and Family Services has 
successfully administered runaway and homeless youth programs 
for nearly 20 years and today offering an estimated 1,500 at-
risk youth in New Hampshire the opportunity for a safer and 
brighter future, and I can assure you that this had made a 
difference in the lives of so many children in New Hampshire, 
to make sure that they are not victims of trafficking, to make 
sure that they have the support to get them out of the 
situation where they are being trafficked.
    Again, we have heard so many stories today and my State, 
like any other State, we all have these stories and they are 
horrific.
    Just last year, in Salem, New Hampshire, police--local 
police, in coordination with special agents from Homeland 
Security, located a 15-year-old runaway from Boston at a motel 
in Salem, New Hampshire.
    Her boyfriend was using the Internet to traffic her for 
sex. She had to see five or six clients a day and this 
continued. The exploitation was horrific, and, unfortunately, I 
wish I could say this was the only story. We all know that this 
is happening every day in America, in every community, whether 
it is an affluent community or it is a community where there 
are more needs for resources. This hits everyone.
    What I have also heard from law enforcement and victim 
service providers in New Hampshire is the direct connection 
between drug trafficking and sex trafficking. In New Hampshire, 
as in many places across the country, we have seen a 
proliferation of heroin, a dramatic increase of heroin sales 
and drug deaths, and law enforcement and victim providers are 
telling me there is a direct connection between heroin and sex 
trafficking and other types of trafficking.
    Make no mistake, we have talked about the criminal 
organizations that are benefiting from trafficking and how much 
money is coming to these organizations. We also know that 
terrorist organizations are being fueled by this trafficking, 
as well.
    This is not only an issue about our safety and security, 
about our quality of life and who--what we stand for, but this 
is also about our national security and why we have to stop 
trafficking in this country and around the world.
    As this Committee moves forward with legislation, our top 
priority always has to be supporting the victims of these 
horrific crimes, making sure that they are treated with dignity 
and respect in the criminal justice system, making sure that 
they have the support in the community so that they can get 
back on their feet and lead quality lives. We also have to 
prioritize prevention efforts so that we can prevent any other 
victim from falling to a trafficker or being put in this 
horrible situation.
    Finally, in terms of law enforcement, as a former 
prosecutor, I know that we have to go after these traffickers 
with everything we have. We have to make examples of them. We 
need people to understand in the community that if you are 
participating in trafficking in any way, that you will be made 
an example of in the community and that you will face the 
harshest punishment possible. We need to ensure that our law 
enforcement agencies at all levels have the resources to combat 
trafficking.
    I want to thank Chairman Grassley for the opportunity to be 
here today. I want to thank Senator Feinstein for your 
incredible leadership on this and for all of you on the 
Committee, particularly Senator Klobuchar, Senator Cornyn, for 
your leadership.
    This is an issue I look forrard to working with all of you 
on and I am very honored to be here today. Thank you for your 
important work.
    Chairman Grassley. Thank you, Senator Ayotte.
    Senator Mikulski.

STATEMENT OF HON. BARBARA A. MIKULSKI, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE 
                       STATE OF MARYLAND

    Senator Mikulski. Thank you very much, Senator Grassley, 
for helping--calling this hearing and inviting us to be at the 
table to talk about this vile and violent issue of human 
trafficking.
    I want to thank you for your leadership in the legislative 
area, but you have always been supportive on this whole issue 
of really attacks on women and children.
    To all the members of the Judiciary Committee, we thank you 
and I know particularly Senators Klobuchar and Cornyn have been 
advancing important legislation, along with Senator Schumer 
and, of course, Senator Leahy.
    The women of the Senate do not have a caucus. We have 
different views on budgets and bottom lines and top lines and 
so on and on other issues. We do try to find common ground 
where we can come together not as a caucus, but as a force; to 
not only make a difference, but to make a change.
    This year we have analyzed kind of where we are and all 20 
of us across the aisle want to work with our appropriate 
committees on the issue of human trafficking.
    We strongly feel that when you treat women, children and 
boys as a commodity and you are willing to sell them as a 
commodity and treat them as a commodity, there is nothing worse 
than that.
    We look at really not only our law enforcement community, 
we look at our wonderful nonprofits and our faith-based 
communities, from the outstanding work of the Evangelical 
Church to our own, and even His Holiness Pope Francis has taken 
a pretty strong stand against this.
    This is a big issue and it requires us to be able to work 
together. That is why we sent that letter to you to ask that 
you--because the Judiciary Committee is really the anchor 
committee to move ideas forward and to be able to work on the 
goal of eliminating human trafficking and to be able to advance 
our issue.
    Many of my colleagues have spoken about the issues. 
According to the State Department, 800,000 individuals are 
trafficked every year across international borders. INTERPOL 
has identified this as a serious crime, because if you sell 
women and children, you will sell anything to anybody under any 
circumstances, and if you track human trafficking, you track 
drugs and you actually track the selling of arms and possibly 
weapons of mass destruction.
    In our own country, up to 300,000 children a year are 
victims of trafficking. The calls to the national hotline are 
really just exploding.
    I am here today to talk out--to reach out to the Committee, 
not only working with Senator Collins, the senior women and all 
of our colleagues, to say let us look at the new legislation, 
which we find so innovative and creative, that is coming forth 
in this Committee, but also that we need to strengthen and fund 
existing programs.
    I say this as the Ranking Member, but I know how strongly 
Senator Cochran feels about how we on the Appropriations 
Committee want to work with the authorizers for CJS to look at 
what we can put in the money in the Federal checkbook to move 
ahead. We want to work arm-in-arm, shoulder-to-shoulder with 
the authorizing committee to do this.
    Last year, working with Senator Shelby on the Subcommittee 
on Commerce and Justice, he and I worked very hard, and I must 
say I had his outstanding concurrence on this, we were able to 
put $42 million in the Federal checkbook for victims of 
trafficking grants that were used at the local level to be able 
to provide counseling, emergency shelters and other tools to 
the NGO's to be able to help people when they are rescued.
    We also work very hard with the FBI, with the Center for 
Missing and Exploited Children, and with our U.S. Attorneys to 
make sure they had tools and resources to do it. It was an 
important step forward, but it cannot be the only step forward.
    To support the FBI investigations, we put in $47 million 
and that goes from the investigations for something like 
Operation Cross Country.
    What was that in June 2014? Through our FBI, they were able 
to rescue close to 200 children that were being forced into 
prostitution and they got 281 pimps off the street. That is 
where our Federal dollars are going. I think the people would 
support this.
    I had the opportunity to meet with the FBI in Maryland and 
with the U.S. Attorney's Office. If they were at the table, as 
I am sure representatives of other field offices, this was the 
field office, and also the U.S. Attorney's Office in my own 
State, they say, you know, Baltimore, Maryland, this is a 
sports town. We have our Super Bowls, we have great games, we 
have this.
    You know what? They are on high alert during these big 
games because that is when the big traffickers come in and they 
use things or they were using things like Craig's List.
    They also say we are a crossroads, we are in the I-95 
corridor. These children and these women are being trafficked 
up and down I-95, which should be a corridor of opportunity and 
commerce and business, but there is a lot of awful, violent, 
despicable business going on. We need to help our local people 
to be able to do that.
    I wanted to join with my colleagues and join with you, 
Senator Grassley, Senator Leahy and the members of the 
Committee. Let us have the authorizers and the appropriators 
really work together.
    Let us go through what needs to be done that is new and 
innovative, but let us also look at what we have and how we 
could build on it. We need the wise counsel and the experience 
of the Judiciary Committee and leaders like yourself who have 
worked on this. We want to work hand-in-hand.
    In behalf of the women of the Senate, but really 
everywhere, we want to thank the good men on this Committee, 
because this is not only a woman's issue, this is a human being 
issue, this is a human rights issue.
    Again, shoulder-to-shoulder, I think we can do something to 
make it safe for our communities and really do important 
international work.
    I thank you for your kindness and your consideration today.
    Chairman Grassley. Thank you, Senator Mikulski.
    I have no questions. Does anybody on the panel have a 
question of the witnesses?
    [No response.]
    Chairman Grassley. Well, then we thank you very much for 
coming and thank you for being patient.
    Would the next--would the next panel please get ready to 
come to the table?
    [Pause]
    Senator Whitehouse. Mr. Chairman.
    Chairman Grassley. Yes.
    Senator Whitehouse. While the next panel is gathering, can 
I just express my appreciation to Senator Klobuchar for 
including in her bill a provision that Senator Sessions and I 
have supported to make sure that it is clear that the U.S. 
Marshals can deploy in the situation in which a child has been 
kidnaped or disappeared, very often to be put into this kind of 
trafficking use.
    Senator Sessions and I are grateful to Senator Klobuchar 
and appreciate very much that our measure is going to be 
included.
    Chairman Grassley. I am going to start to introduce the 
panel. I will introduce all before you give your--your 
testimony.
    Our first witness will--today is Holly Austin Smith, a sex 
trafficking survivor. She was exploited in 1992 at the age of 
14 by a man that she had met at Ocean City, New Jersey. He 
befriended her and after a period of time successfully 
encouraged her to run away to Atlantic City with him, where he 
became her pimp. A day after working the streets, she was 
arrested for prostitution by a police officer who recognized 
her as a minor.
    Our next witness, Malika Saada Saar serves as Executive 
Director of the Human Rights Project for Girls. The Human Right 
Project for Girls is the name of the organization. That is here 
in Washington, DC. She can enlighten us on issues currently 
facing trafficking survivors in this country.
    The third witness, Jayne Bigelsen. Jayne served as legal 
counsel and Director of Anti-Human Trafficking Initiatives at 
Covenant House International in New York City. She works 
closely with vulnerable youth who are at risk of being 
trafficked.
    Our final witness is Mike Ferjak, who serves as Director of 
my State of Iowa's, quote, ``Human Trafficking and Enforcement 
Prosecution Initiative,'' end of quote, a senior criminal 
investigator at the Iowa Department of Justice. Mike will 
testify about law enforcement's efforts to curb domestic 
trafficking within the United States.
    Once again, welcome to all of you and I look forward to 
exploring policy options with our panel.
    At this time, I would also ask consent to introduce into 
the written record additional written statements from several 
other individuals and organizations with interest in this 
issue.
    No objection, and I will start with Ms. Austin Smith.

   STATEMENT OF HOLLY AUSTIN SMITH, TRAFFICKING SURVIVOR AND 
           AUTHOR OF WALKING PREY, RICHMOND, VIRGINIA

    Ms. Smith. Thank you, Chairman Grassley, Senator Leahy and 
other members of the Committee for holding this important 
hearing.
    When I was 14 years old, I was coerced into prostitution by 
a man I had met at a local shopping mall in New Jersey. This 
man exploited a young teen girl who had just graduated middle 
school and was afraid of going into high school, so afraid that 
she agreed to run away from home.
    This man promised a glamorous new life. He told the girl 
she could travel across the country, meet famous people, and 
live in California. What he delivered, however, was very 
different.
    He took the girl to Atlantic City, ordered her to 
prostitute, and intimidated her into cooperation. She was sold 
to the first buyer for $200, a man who told the girl that she 
reminded him of his granddaughter.
    When I was arrested by law enforcement for prostitution, I 
was made to feel like a criminal, like a juvenile delinquent. I 
felt stupid, ashamed and ostracized by society. Days later, 
alone in my bedroom, I felt so abandoned, so forsaken by 
society that I attempted suicide.
    I wish I could travel back in time to tell this young girl 
that in the future, advocates and legislators all across the 
country would be standing up for her, that they would demand 
better protection and services for kids like her. Had there 
been a Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act or Stop 
Exploitation Through Trafficking Act in 1992, perhaps law 
enforcement would have immediately recognized that I was a 
victim, not a criminal.
    Even though these protections were not available to me, 
they can be made available to victims today. With effective and 
well informed legislation and services, victims can heal, 
overcome and achieve their greatest dreams and highest 
potential.
    Without effective support and services, it is very 
difficult for victims to move forward. This is particularly 
true in States implementing safe harbor protections, where law 
enforcement cannot adequately respond without well resourced 
service providers trained to work with child victims of 
commercial sexual exploitation.
    This is why I encourage legislators to include provisions 
that authorize resources for services for all victims of human 
trafficking and child exploitation, girls, boys, men and women. 
This would include creation of programs that focus on 
prevention.
    Nikolaos Al-Khadra is a male advocate from Chicago who 
identifies as a survivor of sex trafficking and commercial 
sexual exploitation. Nik says he was forced into prostitution 
at the age of 17. He had been ordered to leave home after 
accepting his identity as a gay male.
    ``I grew up with a lot of emotional and physical abuse,'' 
Nik wrote to me in a personal e-mail. He describes a home life 
in which is father regularly attempted to, quote, ``beat the 
gay out of him.''
    After leaving home, Nik describes a hellish experience of 
forced drug use and forced prostitution. He says this 
ultimately led him to illegal escort agencies through which he 
was exploited for sex in order to survive.
    He writes, ``There really needs to be more programs for 
LGBTQ youth who become homeless over parents' attitudes toward 
their child's sexuality. I think being beat down mentally all 
throughout my childhood was why I stayed years in the sex 
trade,'' end quote.
    As an advocate, I speak to communities across the country 
and I am often asked by event organizers to address the fact 
that human trafficking happens to all children, including good 
kids from the suburbs.
    This is true. Commercial sexual exploitation, including sex 
trafficking, can and does happen to any child regardless of 
gender, race or family income, but it very often happens to 
those youth who lack support in their homes and communities.
    In response to one recent event, a reporter wrote an 
article about child sex trafficking and the opening line was 
written as follows: ``Human trafficking does not just happen in 
back alleys in big cities, to children and teens that no one 
cares about.'' I am going to repeat that. ``Human trafficking 
does not just happen in back alleys in big cities, to children 
and teens that no one cares about.''
    If that line does not anger you, it should. Any child who 
is being trafficked or otherwise exploited deserves love and 
compassion regardless of that child's gender, sexual identity 
or sexual orientation.
    Whether that child is poor or rich, street smart or book 
smart, homeless or from a middle class home, that child 
deserves victim-centered, trauma-informed services from both 
law enforcement and service providers, as well as compassion 
and understanding from the community.
    If Nik was in the room today, he would tell you that the 
Runaway and Homeless Youth and Trafficking Prevention Act is a 
necessary step toward preventing sex trafficking and protecting 
runaway and homeless youth, and I would agree.
    The National Alliance to End Homelessness estimates that on 
an annual basis, approximately 380 youth under the age of 18 
experience a homelessness episode of longer than 1 week. 
Multiple research studies indicate that, conservatively, 1 in 5 
homeless youth self-identify as LGBTQ.
    In order to create effective anti-trafficking bills, 
solutions and services for victims, I firmly believe that 
legislators and advocates must consult with and seek feedback 
from diverse survivors having diverse experiences.
    This is why I am so pleased that the Justice for Victims of 
Trafficking Act includes provisions of the Human Trafficking 
Survivors Empowerment Act. These provisions will create a 
survivors-led U.S. Advisory Council on Human Trafficking to 
review Federal Government policy and programs on human 
trafficking.
    It is so important that survivors play a role in finding 
the solutions to prevent and end sex and labor trafficking.
    There are many advocates like Nik and myself who 
experienced some form of human trafficking or child 
exploitation. We are eager to share our thoughts and 
perspectives in order to transform our negative experiences 
into positive change.
    Thank you again for holding this hearing and for inviting a 
survivor to share testimony. I look forward to working together 
in the future and standing together for the rights and well 
being of victims across the country and around the globe.
    Thank you.

    [The prepared statement of Ms. Smith appears as a 
submission for the record]

    Chairman Grassley. Thank you, Ms. Austin Smith.
    Now, I call on Ms. Saada Saar.

   STATEMENT OF MALIKA SAADA SAAR, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, HUMAN 
           RIGHTS PROJECTS FOR GIRLS, WASHINGTON, DC

    Ms. Saar. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the 
Committee.
    I am the Executive Director of Rights for Girls, a human 
rights organization focused on gender-based violence in the 
U.S. I want to thank you for giving attention to the crisis of 
domestic child trafficking.
    As a human rights lawyer, I have witnessed how children 
trafficked on American soil have been left behind. There are at 
least 100,000 American children trafficked for sex each year. 
The majority of them are girls who are of middle school age and 
many, if not most of them, are children in our foster care 
system.
    They are girls like Aviva. Aviva was in foster care. At the 
age of 14, a trafficker kidnaped her. He held Aviva hostage for 
almost a year. During that time, she was sold to at least 10 
different men a night.
    Aviva was purchased and raped so many times a day that she 
said she did not understand what the point was of putting on 
her underwear. She felt that she had lost being human. She said 
she did not understand how adult men wanted to buy her body 
when she was still only a child.
    When law enforcement found Aviva, she was not treated as a 
victim of crime. She was arrested for prostitution at the age 
of 15.
    Too often, American children bought and sold for sex are 
not contemplated as victims of trafficking. They are instead 
considered child prostitutes. Every year, more than 1,000 
children are arrested for prostitution even though most of 
these children are not of the legal age to consent to sex.
    That is why the Stop Exploitation Through Trafficking Act 
is so critical. This bill moves us away from criminalization 
and emphasizes the need for services and not jails for victims, 
because they are not child prostitutes, because there is no 
such thing as a child prostitute, because what happened to 
Aviva and to other children who are being bought and sold for 
sex has nothing to do with vice or prostitution.
    This is child rape. In any other context, what a john does 
when he purchases a girl would be construed as statutory rape 
or sexual assault of a minor.
    There ought to be no difference between raping a child and 
paying to rape a child. Yet there is. There is a culture of 
impunity for raping children when that act is paid for.
    Buyers of sex with underage girls are rarely arrested. They 
are politely referred to as johns and if they are arrested at 
all, it is usually for misdemeanor solicitation.
    We have ended impunity for the traffickers who sell 
children's bodies as property. Now, we must end impunity for 
the buyers.
    This is why we need the Justice for Victims of Trafficking 
Act, also known as the JVTA, and the Combat Human Trafficking 
Act. Both bills clarify the language of Section 1591 to remove 
all doubt as to its criminal applicability to buyers of child 
sex.
    The JVTA also increases the investigative capability of law 
enforcement to go after buyers and it provides funding for 
services for child victims.
    Over 20 years ago, the domestic violence movement made 
clear that when a man hit his wife, it was not simply a 
personal dispute or a private matter. It was an act of violence 
that had to be named and for which the perpetrator had to be 
held accountable.
    We must do the same thing with child sex trafficking. It is 
what we owe Aviva. We owe it to Aviva and other children 
trafficked to make clear to them that the abuse they have 
suffered is no different or more tolerable than other forms of 
sexual abuse of minors.
    We owe it to Aviva and the girls still left behind to hold 
accountable those who have purchased them and raped them and to 
create for these girls who are mighty and strong and yet so 
hurt opportunities for them to heal and to live out their full 
potential.
    Thank you.

    [The prepared statement of Ms. Saar appears as a submission 
for the record]

    Chairman Grassley. Thank you very much.
    I go to Ms. Bigelsen.

STATEMENT OF JAYNE BIGELSEN, DIRECTOR OF ANTI-HUMAN TRAFFICKING 
  INITIATIVES AND CO-DIRECTOR, LEGAL ADVOCACY, COVENANT HOUSE 
               INTERNATIONAL, NEW YORK, NEW YORK

    Ms. Bigelsen. Good afternoon. First, on behalf of Kevin 
Ryan, the leader of Covenant House International, I would like 
to thank Chairman Grassley, Senator Leahy and the entire 
Committee for your leadership in the fight against trafficking.
    I would also like to add a special thanks to Senator 
Klobuchar who visited our trafficking program for trafficked 
girls in Mexico City, and Senator Feinstein for her years of 
tireless advocacy for children served by Covenant House 
California.
    Covenant House was founded in 1972 with a simple profound 
mission to help homeless kids escape the street. We serve more 
than 56,000 young people per year had have shelters in 27 
cities.
    The majority of our resources are raised privately from 
more than 700,000 donors each year, but Federal and State 
Governments are important partners in our movement.
    I am going to focus my testimony on the intersection 
between trafficking and youth homelessness, because that is 
what is at the core of what we do and who I see in my office 
every day.
    Please know that all of the other bills being discussed 
today, especially the Combat Human Trafficking Act, which 
addresses demand, which is key to eradicating sex trafficking, 
as well as bills that deal with restitution and services by 
Senator Cornyn and bills on advertising and safe harbor have 
our full support and are absolutely essential in fighting this 
tragedy.
    I personally work in the Covenant House South right near 
Times Square. 350 young people mostly between the ages of 16 
and 20 call this place home each night.
    One of the young people I worked with was named Kay. Kay 
explained to me how she was 5 years old when what she now knows 
her mother dressed her in provocative clothing and told her 
that they were going to play a game of dress-up. Her mother 
then let a man sexually abuse her.
    That continued throughout Kay's childhood, before she ran 
away directly into the arms of a pimp. That pimp threatened to 
kill her, would not let her go to school, and would not let her 
talk to relatives.
    Kay eventually escaped and made it to Covenant House. More 
needs to be done to help kids like Kay. As a Nation, we are 
starting to make progress, although still more needs to be done 
in trafficking prosecution and services for survivors.
    Honestly, we have largely failed to address prevention. To 
prevent trafficking, we must understand the connection between 
homelessness and human trafficking.
    While it is true that any one of our children could be a 
victim of human trafficking, as many people said today, we know 
that the pimps target the most vulnerable among us--homeless 
children and children from foster care who don't have any 
families to protect them or look for them.
    To prevent trafficking, we need to reduce the supply of 
homeless young people. We, therefore, are urging the passage of 
the Runaway and Homeless Youth and Trafficking Prevention Act 
so that we can help young people before they fall into the 
hands of vicious predators who prey on homeless youth, on 
teenagers aging out of the foster care system without families, 
and on young people who feel alone and desperate on the streets 
of America.
    To get a better sense of the numbers, our research team 
worked with Fordham University to interview close to 200 of our 
youth at Covenant House New York. Suddenly we found that almost 
15 percent had experiences that fit the Federal definition of 
trafficking and another 10 percent engaged in survival sex, 
which meant that they traded their basic needs for food and 
shelter.
    LGBTQ youth were at even higher risk. All four of the 
transgender youth that I spoke with explained how they were 
kicked out of their homes, had nowhere to go, and that no one 
would hire them for anything but sex work.
    When I asked the survivors what could have prevented these 
experiences, their answers were clear--a safe place to stay, 
someone who cared about them, and job skills that could get 
them out of the life of stripping and prostitution.
    On a daily basis, young people avoid traffickers by making 
it to youth shelters filled with trauma-informed care and 
comprehensive services, some of whom receive Federal runaway 
and homeless youth funds. Unfortunately, these shelters are 
full.
    A Federal study in October found that 53 percent of 
homeless kids cannot find places to sleep because the shelters 
are full and the pimps take full advantage of the fact that the 
shelters are full. They offer free pizza, pretend affection and 
a place to stay, before luring them in and forcing them into 
prostitution.
    If a homeless youth cannot access services, there will be a 
trafficker lying in wait to enslave them.
    On the other hand, young people who find their way to youth 
shelters will have access to services that work. In 2013, 94 
percent of young people who stayed in B6 center programs and 88 
percent of youth in transitional living programs exited into a 
safe environment.
    Clearly, combating youth homelessness is tantamount to 
preventing human trafficking. We will never win this war 
against human trafficking within our borders unless we first 
win the war to end youth homelessness.
    Thank you.

    [The prepared statement of Ms. Bigelsen appears as a 
submission for the record]

    Chairman Grassley. Thank you very much.
    I call on my fellow Iowan, Mr. Ferjak.

 STATEMENT OF MICHAEL FERJAK, SENIOR CRIMINAL INVESTIGATOR AND 
    DIRECTOR, HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND ENFORCEMENT PROSECUTION 
    INITIATIVE, IOWA DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, DES MOINES, IOWA

    Mr. Ferjak. Good morning. I want to express my great 
appreciation to the Committee Chairman for inviting me to share 
Iowa's experience in responding to human trafficking. I would 
also like to extend that same appreciation to Senator Feinstein 
for her passion and leadership on this issue.
    Today you have heard from a courageous sex trafficking 
survivor and two highly qualified experts, one from Washington, 
DC, the other from New York City, both making huge differences 
in the lives of girls and women every day. I am humbled to be 
in their company.
    I learned early in my career as an officer that listening 
and believing the victim is a must. Their wisdom--is of our 
greatest of attention because it was received through a 
crucible of absolute despair. If we will only listen to the 
victims, they will show us how to best serve them and to best 
fight effectively against those who have harmed them. I am 
indebted and appreciative to the experts for providing a 
guiding light for us to follow.
    I am from Des Moines, Iowa, a place not normally associated 
with national discussions about crime and victims. We both--
have both just like any other place in the country.
    Over the course of more than 3.5 decades, I have 
investigated all manner of crime, listened to victims, and 
gained a great deal of experience. I have worked on unique 
assignments where I have learned firsthand about the care and 
hopelessness victims endure while their bodies are sold to fill 
the pockets of their captors.
    The undeniable truth is that trafficking is in Iowa just as 
it is in every other State in our country. It is in our small 
towns and our big cities and our children, young women and men 
are suffering unimaginable cruelties, even as we sit here today 
talking about it.
    Trafficking is a hard fact that some will simply deny, 
others will dismiss saying the occurrence is minimal or 
isolated and not worthy of our attention or cost, and still 
others say we are just calling prostitution by another name.
    As long as that denial and dismissal exists, it will stand 
in the way of a committed and aggressive response against this 
horrible crime and will condemn the victims to an existence as 
a slave.
    In early 2012, Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller attended a 
meeting of the National Association of Attorneys General, where 
the topic of human trafficking was addressed. During the course 
of that meeting, General Miller spoke with survivors of human 
trafficking and after hearing their stories realized that the 
issue was not only appalling, but that the time for talking 
about it had passed and that it must be attacked head on.
    Returning to Iowa, he immediately set about creating a plan 
to address human trafficking in Iowa. It was during this time 
that I met a survivor, a young woman named Brittany. As I 
listened to her, I soon realized that like so many other 
officers, I had likely met many other trafficking victims in my 
career, but did not recognize them as such at the time and did 
not help them in the way they needed to be helped.
    I know my failure caused them to continue living in a hell 
that I cannot begin to imagine and it steels my resolve to do 
all that is possible so that no officer ever lets this happen 
anywhere again.
    I wish to provide the Committee with a DVD entitled 
Anywhere--Any Kid Anywhere, which presents Brittany's story 
along with the story of two other Iowa girls.
    As we began working with human trafficking, we learned that 
reactions of disbelief to the victims' stories are common and 
that sometimes it was even the reason officers, prosecutors, 
service providers and others may not have taken the victim 
seriously and not investigated the matter more aggressively.
    Admittedly, the victim's story may indeed sound beyond the 
line of reality, but that depends largely on whose experience 
you are comparing it to--yours or the victim's?
    This response is unfortunately not completely unexpected 
given that a national study done in 2008 indicated that 75 
percent of law enforcement at all levels did not believe that 
human trafficking was taking place in their jurisdiction. I 
would not expect the answer to be markedly different today.
    In December 2012, the Attorney General finalized his 
response and created the Human Trafficking Enforcement and 
Prosecution Initiative in Iowa, HTEPI, for short. I have 
provided the Committee with the mission statement and 
objectives of the HTEPI.
    When the Attorney General gave me this assignment, he 
charged me to make Iowa the most hostile place in the country 
for human trafficking, so hostile that they would rather go 
around than go through. With the help of many dedicated Iowans, 
that is exactly what we set out to do.
    At this time, I would like to introduce the Committee to my 
chief partners here with me today. First, I would like to 
introduce Ms. Terry Hernandez, Executive Director of the 
Chrysalis Foundation, a nonprofit organization doing amazing 
work with girls and young women by funding and providing after 
school programs for girls who may be at risk and leadership 
development training, life skill building, and career 
development opportunities for young women of the Des Moines 
metro area.
    The Committee has received several pieces of information 
from Ms. Hernandez.
    Next, it is my pleasure to introduce to the Committee 
Captain Curt Henderson of the Iowa State Patrol. Captain 
Henderson is here representing the Iowa Department of Public 
Safety and its Commissioner, Dr. Roxann Ryan.
    Captain Henderson is the primary law enforcement trainer 
for the HTEPI and he is responsible for bringing the Texas 
Department of Public Safety to Iowa to teach our State Patrol 
and Division of Criminal Investigation, their roadside 
interdiction program called Interdiction for the Protection of 
Children.
    The honorable Committee member from Texas here today can be 
very proud of your State's leadership and human trafficking--
leadership and training in human trafficking across the 
country.
    As we began the task of learning what trafficking looks 
like in Iowa, it became apparent that two things were true. It 
has been present for many years and, second, law enforcement 
was not trained to identify and investigate it.
    As we looked for information about law enforcement 
responses to trafficking, I was made aware of the work of the 
Sisters of St. Francis in Rochester, Minnesota because of their 
work with trafficking victims.
    I contacted them and they were gracious enough to set up a 
meeting with the Rochester police detectives, prosecutors from 
the Olmsted County Attorney's office, including the county 
attorney himself, and a representative from a victim service 
organization called Mission 21. That meeting lasted a full day 
and we left armed with very good ideas and very good protocols.
    I was later invited by the Olmsted County attorney to a 
conference in Alexandria, Minnesota that was the kickoff for 
the Minnesota safe harbor law. That event proved to be a great 
training and networking opportunity.
    The honorable Committee member from Minnesota, I want to 
offer my thanks and appreciation for your State's assistance 
and support.
    Since 2012, the HTEPI has presented more than 324 non-law 
enforcement professional education programs, specific law 
enforcement training sessions, and committee awareness meetings 
with over 18,000 people attending. This is in addition to our 
education preventing partners across the State.
    We have continued to examine the various components of how 
trafficking works, we determined the need to work with 
commercial transportation interests in Iowa to effectively 
address human trafficking. I approached Chief Dave Lorenzen of 
the Iowa Department of Transportation Motor Vehicle Enforcement 
Division and requested assistance.
    Some of the contributions they have made include active 
involvement in the education effort, providing training on 
human trafficking indicators and reporting protocols, hosting a 
very successful coalition-building event between commercial 
trucking firms in Iowa and law enforcement to talk face-to-
face, and making it a requirement for every person receiving a 
commercial driver's license, a CDL in the State of Iowa, you 
must complete the Truckers Against Trafficking education 
program in order to obtain that license.
    The challenges facing law enforcement as it becomes more 
familiar with human trafficking are many, but in my opinion, 
the most critical is changing the way trafficking is discussed 
and understood by law enforcement and the public. We must 
dispel the myth of choice and replace it with the truth of how 
victims are controlled. We must talk about prostituted people 
and not prostitutes.
    We must stop thinking a 14-year-old can actually choose to 
become a prostitute and do it on their own, because that is 
simply not possible. We must see the victims as they are and 
not what the trafficker has forced upon them.
    I would like to close by offering a few comments concerning 
the legislation now pending before this Committee. As I have 
just stated, the critical task before law enforcement is the 
matter of treating--is a matter of treating a victim like a 
criminal.
    The legislation offered by Senator Klobuchar----
    Chairman Grassley. Can I ask you to summarize your last 
couple comments on the legislation?
    Mr. Ferjak. Yes, Senator. It brings a laser focus to this. 
The Safe Harbor Act is exactly what is needed to make the 
transition that we are talking about here today.
    The legislation offered by Senator Cornyn would offer law 
enforcement, victim services and community awareness efforts 
significant assistance by providing the much needed funding for 
task force and victim services. The funding identified is what 
every State is struggling to obtain and the uses of those funds 
are critical to the success of any trafficking effort.
    Thank you.

    [The prepared statement of Mr. Ferjak appears as a 
submission for the record]

    Chairman Grassley. Thank you very much.
    I am going to call on Senator Leahy, the Ranking Member of 
the Committee, for any comments or questions that he wants to 
ask before we ask questions.
    Senator Leahy. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to thank you 
for holding this hearing. I had urged the hearing, but I think 
more importantly, Senator Feinstein and Senator Klobuchar and 
every woman in the Senate.
    I mention that because it is rare that we see bipartisan 
things of every single Senator, Republican or Democrat, and 
urged this hearing. And the hearing underscores how important 
it is that we address sex trafficking in a really comprehensive 
way.
    I would urge Senators to read, as I did, the gripping 
testimony of Ms. Smith and Ms. Saar, Ms. Bigelsen and Mr. 
Ferjak.
    I am a parent and a grandparent and I read that and it 
just--and a former prosecutor--and I thought I had heard 
everything. This brought even more. I will put my whole 
statement in the record, but we have got to stop this 
devastating crime from happening in the first place.
    You have got to stop it from happening. We can react after 
the fact, but you have got to stop it. For the sake of the 
lives of these children, we have to stop it earlier.
    I am going to offer the bipartisan Runaway and Homeless 
Youth and Trafficking Prevention Act when we consider 
trafficking legislation later this week. Ms. Bigelsen knows 
that.
    Again, I thank you. Of course, we have to act if we find 
out that it has happened, but think how much more we would 
accomplish if we stopped it from happening in the first place.
    Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

    [The prepared statement of Senator Leahy appears as a 
submission for the record]

    Chairman Grassley. I thank you very much.
    I am going to start out with Senator Feinstein so I can 
step out a minute. I have questions, and then we will go 
according to the rules of the Senate on the order.
    Senator Feinstein. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I 
thank Senator Leahy for asking me to sit in for this.
    I would like to acknowledge the presence of Sheriff Jim 
McDonnell from Los Angeles. He is, I guess, the second largest 
law enforcement officer in America next to New York City. Is 
that fair to say? And runs a huge operation.
    I have had a chance to talk with him on the subject and he 
has also put a statement in for the record, and I would like to 
just quickly read one part of that statement.
    ``It is my sense that today's street gangs have become more 
sophisticated about how they make their money. While they may 
be committing fewer murders or narcotic-related violent crimes, 
they have moved into human trafficking in a major way. Rather 
than sell narcotics, today's gang member has learned that he 
can run a stable of women to make money for him day after day 
while taking very few risks himself. While some may believe 
that the individuals being sold are working by choice, we now 
know that most are victims or runaways, often as young as 12 
years old.''
    I think the people that have represented the victims here 
have done an excellent job. What has occurred to me is that we 
have seen this huge institution develop in America without much 
said about it.
    I have learned, for example, that you can run a Website and 
be protected by the Communications Decency Act and people pay 
you essentially to solicit customers. I am just wondering if we 
should not put an end to that.
    Mr. Ferjak, do you have any comment on that subject? 
Particularly, one is Backpage.
    Mr. Ferjak. I do, Senator, and I agree with you that some 
of these sites, most all of these sites exploit and contribute 
to the exploitation of victims.
    It is an ongoing debate within the law enforcement 
community as to the value of these sites in terms of their 
intelligence that they offer to law enforcement to track and to 
obtain data as far as how these people conduct their operations 
and where they are going to do it and all sorts of things.
    I am in agreement that there needs to be greater control. I 
just ask us to move cautiously so that we do not remove one of 
the best tools that law enforcement currently has available to 
it as we do so.
    Senator Feinstein. Right. What you are saying is using it 
as intelligence.
    Mr. Ferjak. Correct.
    Senator Feinstein. Ms. Bigelsen, do you have a view on 
this?
    Ms. Bigelsen. I do, Senator Feinstein. In particular, I 
have personally worked with several young people to get their 
pictures off of Backpage, horrified that their pictures were on 
Backpage.
    I feel very strongly that this needs to stop. I can say 
that in my experience, I have never seen a young person or 
anyone that I have worked with sell themselves on Backpage. It 
is always the pimp or the trafficker who is selling them on 
Backpage.
    We have a situation where someone else is making the money 
and selling youth on these Websites.
    We ask--The bill gives protection if you ask for ID. We ask 
for ID in this country for cigarettes, we ask for ID for 
alcohol, but we are not asking ID for the selling of sex of 
children.
    Senator Feinstein. Just to discuss this for a minute. I 
think this is very important because I do not know how you 
would get at the size of this industry without getting at the 
purveyor and the john. I mean, any man that purchases a 12-
year-old girl, in my view, ought to go to prison. It is that 
simple. That is not what the American society is all about.
    You ruin this girl's life most likely and as I think one of 
you has described, it is much like rape. It is hour after hour 
and it is day after day. Any man that makes this purchase ought 
to be arrested and ought to be prosecuted and those who purvey 
this in terms of the Internet by accepting dollars for 
presenting girls which can be bought, it ought to be stopped.
    Those are two big issues for this Committee. It is much 
easier to give out money, to do this or have a group. But if 
you are going to stop an industry, you have to stop it where it 
makes its money.
    I am concerned about--Sheriff McDonnell, when I met with 
him, told me about some of the gangs in Los Angeles that are 
participating in this and how--how they function, and that has 
got to be stopped. You have got to break up that gang. You have 
got to arrest them.
    I think three of you pointed out that it is the victim that 
generally gets arrested. In my view, that is the problem we 
have as a Committee. How do we break apart this industry and 
how do we also, at the same time, support the victim?
    As long as you have people being able to purvey and not be 
penalized for it, it seems to me you cannot stop the industry.
    Does anybody have a comment on that? Ms. Saar?
    Ms. Saar. So--I, along with other advocates in this room, 
helped to lead the takedown of Craig's List sex ads and we 
watched those ads migrate from Craig's List to Backpage.
    Part of what we need to do is make the connection between 
why so many individuals feel comfortable going on these 
Websites and purchasing girls.
    Senator Feinstein. But it is anonymous.
    Ms. Saar. There is a culture of impunity. They are not 
afraid of purchasing a child because we are not arresting and 
prosecuting buyers of children. We do not arrest them for 
statutory rape. We do not put them on the sex offender 
registry.
    If we started to criminalize buyers, and I mean criminalize 
in terms of statutory rape, Section 1591, we would not see the 
demand that is fueling the child sex market.
    There is a connection here also with the gangs. When you 
look at why the gangs have started selling girls instead of 
meth, it is because it is less risky. There is not a culture of 
crime and punishment around buying girls.
    So because of that, it makes sense that the traffickers 
have repurposed the drug routes to sell girls. It is less risky 
for them to do that.
    If we create a culture of punishment for buying children 
for sex, we will not see the gangs make those same decisions 
and we will see a difference in the way these platforms are 
being used to sell children and purchase them.
    Senator Feinstein. Thank you. I think you have been very 
eloquent and very correct, and that is where I am. I am going 
to be looking for a vehicle to do just that.
    I think this thing has gone on long enough. It needs to be 
stopped and you have to curb the demand and we have learned 
that with drugs and it is the same thing here.
    Thank you very much.
    Thanks, Mr. Chairman.
    Chairman Grassley. Thank you. I am going to start with Ms. 
Austin Smith. I would like to have you talk about your 
experiences with arrest as a victim of sex trafficking and how 
it is that child sex trafficking victims in the United States 
continue to be arrested for prostitution.
    Ms. Austin Smith. I know that there are a lot of laws being 
passed in different States to prevent children from being 
arrested for prostitution. I am not familiar with all of the 
laws, so I am not--I'm not 100 percent sure which ones are 
lacking and which ones are the best.
    I think that it is important that we recognize children as 
victims and not criminals. I just think it is important to have 
those services in place so that a child does not return to--so 
that a child does not escape juvenile detention, but then just 
be returned to an exploitative situation or be returned to an 
abusive or neglectful situation from which they had run in the 
first place.
    I think it is important to balance laws that recognize 
children as victims, but also to have services in place.
    Chairman Grassley. Mr. Ferjak, how has the traditional 
approach to law enforcement contact with trafficking victims 
changed over time and what training resources are needed to 
further reinforce the idea that prostitution is not a 
victimless crime?
    Mr. Ferjak. The realization that I alluded to in my opening 
comments as far as how many law enforcement officers come into 
contact with victims of trafficking, but fail to recognize 
them, is slowly changing to a very intensive education process 
that is part by the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as by 
local and State law enforcement in Iowa and other places. And 
that is the key to changing the entire dynamic that we are 
talking about here today.
    One of the things that officers sometimes feel is that this 
child needs to be removed from the situation as quickly as 
possible and sometimes that option is only in the option of 
arrest. In Iowa, we are constantly talking about this and the 
realization is that there is also a long line between arrest 
and any prosecution.
    Last year, the Iowa legislature passed a change in our 
trafficking statute that allows minors to be diverted from the 
criminal justice system into a service-oriented type of program 
under what is called a Child in Need of Assistance Petition.
    Every county attorney, who are the charging--charging 
authorities in our State, has the ability to do this in each 
case.
    Chairman Grassley. I want to talk to Ms. Saar. You have 
talked a lot about those who buy sex from minors and the adult 
trafficking victims. Is there any sort of profile of the 
typical purchaser and has any research been done to help us 
understand what would most likely be done to deter the 
activity?
    Ms. SAAR. Thank you for the question. It is an important 
one. The research that Michael Shively has done, as well as the 
Urban Institute, has surfaced that in the majority of 
situations, the buyers tend to be middle class, married, white 
professionals. We know that often we do not see those 
individuals criminalized.
    I think we now have to rethink who is the criminal in these 
situations. The trafficker is the criminal. The buyer is the 
criminal. The child is not.
    We know from the Nordic model that when we go after demand, 
when we criminalize the purchasing of children for sex, that it 
does, in fact, have an impact on trafficking.
    In the Nordic model, the approach was the criminalization 
of buyers who buy both children and adults, and the consequence 
of that was we did, in fact, see a change, a shift in the 
number of individuals who are being bought and sold for sex. We 
saw a change in levels of trafficking to such extent that we 
now see more countries in Europe, as well as in New Zealand, in 
India, in South America looking at how they can replicate the 
Nordic model.
    I think we today ought to take that same look in trying to 
go after demand and criminalize finally the purchase of 
children for sex.
    Chairman Grassley. I am going to call on Senator Klobuchar.
    Senator Klobuchar. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Thank 
you again, Senator Feinstein.
    Thank you for the moving testimony from all of the 
witnesses.
    Ms. Smith, one of the things we have encountered in trying 
to get these bills passed and talking to people in the 
community is something I referenced in my opening statement, 
that people do not actually believe it is happening. They 
don't--think it is something where people in foreign lands are 
put on boats, which does happen, we know, and brought over to 
America.
    What do you have to say to those people?
    Ms.  Austin Smith. I think that there needs to be more 
awareness in communities that this is happening in States all 
across the country. I also think there really needs to be 
programs in schools to educate youth that they--that this is a 
real thing happening in America and that many times young 
teenagers are the targets of traffickers.
    Had I known that in 1992, maybe I would have been better 
warned about who the person was that I was talking to. But I 
present all across the country and that is one of the most 
common questions that I get.
    How common is this really? How often is this really 
happening? There are no hard statistics for me to fall back on, 
but because I get that question so often, I started to create a 
list.
    I spend my Saturday mornings looking through Google and 
finding recent cases and I have started to list them one after 
another, and there are so many cases out there across the 
country that I have trouble keeping up with it.
    Senator Klobuchar. Okay. Thank you so much. I know you and 
I were at the Polaris gathering when they released their state-
by-State report and that kind of gets at one of the questions 
that the Chairman was asking about what is happening around the 
country.
    I think there are about a dozen States now that have the 
safe harbor law. There are another dozen or so that are working 
on it. And I really appreciate you bringing that out.
    Nicholas Kristof and his wife, Sheryl WuDunn, put an 
amazing book together called Half the Sky and one of the things 
they talked about was trying to call public attention to this 
issue by getting the barbarism of it out there, and, in fact, 
they talked about how Britain abolished slavery before any 
country did by actually getting the information out that it was 
about their abolitionists, about their passion, but it was also 
about what they called the meticulously amassed evidence of 
barbarity. The human beings packed into the holds of slave 
ships, the stink, the diseases, the corpses, the bloody 
manacles. And I share this belief.
    Mr. Ferjak, you, in your own testimony, talked about 
getting this crime out of the fact that it is actually right 
now hidden in plain sight and how do you get it out there so 
people understand.
    Mr. Ferjak. Thank you, Senator. I could not agree more with 
you as far as making it common knowledge for the citizens of 
the country is certainly going to help us stop and deter it.
    It is still a mystery to most people when you go and talk 
to them about human trafficking. They do not understand the 
realities that it is here. They do not understand the reality 
of what happens to these victims, the horrible things.
    We had just last month in Iowa a young woman abducted and 
taken to Virginia. She was trafficked online. They branded her 
in the middle of her back with a piece of metal. They cut the 
bottom of her feet so she could not run.
    These are the things that the average citizen does not 
understand or does not realize or does not hear. I believe if 
they did, there would be a cry that we have never heard before 
in this country to stop trafficking.
    Senator Klobuchar. Right. We have--and Senator Cornyn's and 
my safe harbor bill, we have in there a national sex 
trafficking strategy.
    Can you just quickly talk about how that would be helpful 
in terms of coordinating law enforcement efforts? Because we 
actually do not have that right now.
    Mr. Ferjak. You are absolutely correct. Senator Cornyn's 
bill would go a long way in correcting that deficit.
    Senator Klobuchar. That--We were both lead authors of each 
other's bills, but this particular sex trafficking strategy is 
in our safe harbor bill, the one I am leading, but yes.
    Mr. Ferjak. Coordination is required because we do not have 
the assets, the resources to just operate on your own. There 
has to be a coordinated effect because traffickers move in a 
very coordinated, effective way. We have to do the same. We 
have to understand how they operate.
    Intelligence, the things that this type of legislation will 
be able to provide funding for intelligence operations, 
coordination of a task force, establishment of additional task 
forces, all of which will go toward the end goal obviously of 
stopping trafficking.
    Senator Klobuchar. Ms. Bigelsen, you talked about how 
Senator Cornyn's bill was helpful in terms of getting funding 
for shelters. Could you just give us an example of how it can 
turn someone's life away--around when they have a place to go 
and they do not get put back into the cycle?
    Ms. Bigelsen. Absolutely. First, though, I wanted to 
address the issue of the numbers. I hear from a lot of people 
who do not believe that this happens here. But if we are seeing 
somewhere between 15 to 25 percent of our young people and we 
see 3,000 young people a year, that is about 700 young people 
and that is in one building, one shelter, one city. It is 
absolutely happening here.
    I spend so much of my time just trying to find beds. So if 
it was not happening here, I wouldn't--why do I need to spend 
so much of my time calling around the country to find a bed?
    But back to your question, absolutely. These programs save 
lives. Not only the beds, but on job and education training is 
really key. I have spoken to people about both exiting 
trafficking and how it could have helped prevent it.
    For example, a young woman told me that how she ended up 
being trafficked was because she was homeless, did not have an 
address to put on the job application, did not have a high 
school diploma. The only place that would hire her was a strip 
club and that led to one of the clients kidnaping her. Right?
    If she had a program, if she had a bed, if she had job 
training, if she had a GED class, that would not have happened 
to her.
    Then on the other end, trafficking survivors that I speak 
with so want to put those experiences behind them, but they 
look at me and they say, ``Ms. Jayne, what am I going to do 
now? Sex work is my only resume. It is the only thing I know 
how to do.'' So there needs to be funding.
    Senator Klobuchar. Thank you. I just want to acknowledge 
Ms. Saada Saar's work. We were together recently at the lunch 
of the No Such Thing Campaign with Cindy McCain and Senator 
Portman and I really appreciate your work. I was going to ask 
about public-private partnerships, but my time is done and I 
will do that on the record. So thank you.
    Ms. Saar. Thank you for your work.
    Chairman Grassley. Senator Whitehouse.
    Senator Whitehouse. Thank you. This has been a really great 
hearing and I appreciate the witnesses.
    I would like to ask each of you to reflect a little bit 
about the prospect for civil justice being brought more to bear 
in this arena and I would like to ask you not just to respond 
now, but if you think about it, to send something in for the 
record so that you have got a little bit more chance to think 
about it.
    It strikes me that these victims, the girls, are some of 
the most disempowered people anywhere and you have to feel a 
certain sense of empowerment to take a step in the civil 
justice system on your own behalf. If they are young enough, 
they are not even legally competent. You need guardians ad 
litem and things like that.
    I am reminded of the good work of the Southern Poverty Law 
Center years ago. Nobody could do anything about the Ku Klux 
Klan. They had a First Amendment right to do or think whatever 
awful things they wanted. They were marching through Skokie, 
Illinois and the Southern Poverty Law Center went after them 
under the civil law, sued them, got a huge damages award, took 
their headquarters, sold it, distributed the money to people 
who had been harmed.
    It strikes me that there may be some kind of a model here 
if you could figure out how you could pull these victims 
together as plaintiffs and then go after Backpage. I would love 
to be the attorney doing the civil discovery with a court 
subpoena into all the back papers and memos and materials in 
Backpage and see what they really know about what is going on.
    There have got to be hotel owners who are keenly aware of 
what these rooms are being used for. You would have to be an 
idiot not to see it. Great. Nice civil case against the hotel 
owners and now the hotel is owned by the victims and not the 
owners.
    A, does that make any sense to try to make the civil 
justice system work better for these victims? B, given their 
disempowerment, given their youth, given their--how scattered 
they are across the country, what would be the best tools to 
allow that kind of process to go forward, of course, in 
addition to law enforcement and all the others? This would not 
be an alternative to putting these folks in jail, but it sure 
as heck would add some pressure once a couple of hotels got 
stole--grabbed and legally given to the victims and if Backpage 
were facing very significant litigation. That, to me, seems 
like a good thing.
    Ms. Austin Smith. Is that something that would fall under 
the proposed domestic trafficking victims' fund under the 
Victims of Trafficking Act? Is that seeking civil, through 
civil lawsuits, seeking funding from buyers and traffickers?
    Senator Whitehouse. As I understand it, that would allow 
for that to take place, but kind of as an adjunct to a criminal 
prosecution. You would then have a civil action against the 
perpetrator, the pimp or the rapist, for want of a better word, 
I think that is probably the accurate word to use here.
    I do not know that that--and I would be interested in your 
thoughts. Does that provide the kind of a basis to pull people 
together into a significant action where they can go after the 
site, the Website, the parts of the economy that are complicit 
in this crime?
    Ms. Austin Smith. I would not understand all the logistics 
behind that because I am not a lawyer, but that makes sense to 
me.
    Something that I wrote in my written testimony was had 
there been domestic trafficking victims' funds that victims 
could pull from for services, then my healing process might 
have been a lot easier, a lot faster. My whole transition might 
have been easier had there been funding for services.
    Our insurance--after I was recovered, I did wind up going 
into a hospital, but our insurance only covered it for 20 days 
and that was not long enough for me. I left not understanding 
that it was not my fault, what had happened to me was not my 
fault.
    Senator Whitehouse. Well, I am suggesting kind of two parts 
to the benefit. One is that it would create resources to help 
the victims, but it is also a sanction when hotel owners who 
are letting this happen lose their hotels and when Website 
owners who are allowing their Websites to be used for this 
purpose lose their Websites and their revenues, that is a value 
in and of itself apart from the restoration and protection of 
the victims.
    I think my time has expired. I am afraid I am going to have 
to ask the remainder of you, if you have thoughts, to please 
put them in writing into the record for the hearing and I would 
love to read them and find out.
    Thank you.
    Chairman Grassley. Senator Blumenthal.
    Senator Blumenthal. Thanks, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for 
having this hearing on a very, very important topic. I am co-
Chairman along with Senator Portman of Ohio of the Human 
Trafficking Caucus, which has done a fair amount of work in 
this area, aiming principally at the international problems of 
human trafficking.
    Let me ask the witnesses whether you see a link between 
those two aspects of human trafficking, the international 
perhaps fostering, promoting, supporting human trafficking in 
this country and what steps you would recommend to address it.
    Ms. Saar. I would like to answer your question from the 
perspective of the victim. Right--so Ruchira Gupta, who is an 
amazing abolitionist and leader of the anti-trafficking 
movement in India, talks about how in India it is the last girl 
who is targeted to be bought and sold, the last girl.
    I would say to you that the same is true here; that in this 
country, as in India, as in Cambodia, as in Thailand, it is the 
last girl who is the most vulnerable, the girl who has been 
abused in foster care, the girl who has gone through multiple 
placements in foster care, the girl who is the runaway, the 
girl who is involved in juvenile justice. She is the girl who 
is targeted by the traffickers. She is the last girl.
    There is a reason why we do not see her, because we do not 
see our most vulnerable girls, and yet they are the ones who 
are being bought and sold in this country as they are 
internationally. I think the other connection is that there is 
a challenge that we have in the U.S. and internationally to 
continue the work of tackling trafficking from now a demand 
perspective.
    We have done very good work in the U.S. and internationally 
in criminalizing the trafficking of human bodies. There is more 
work that has to be done here and internationally in going 
after demand.
    I think that there are the shared narratives of who is the 
victim and the work that remains to be done in order to really 
change what is playing out.
    If we talk about this issue as modern day slavery and we 
recognize that just like slavery before, this is international, 
this is borderless, during the last abolitionist movement, we 
did not make distinctions between those who sold slaves and 
those who bought slaves, and I think the same has to be true; 
that as an abolitionist movement here and internationally, we 
cannot make distinctions between those who buy slaves and those 
who sell slaves.
    Senator Blumenthal. Do you think that the present laws in 
the United States are better than those that exist abroad or, 
to put it differently, are there countries that are doing 
better that we might use as our models?
    Ms. Saar. I am going to actually answer both of what you 
asked, right because we do have better laws in this country. We 
have sexual assault of a minor. We have statutory rape. We have 
Section 1591. The work has to be in using those laws, 
especially our sexual assault laws, to go after buyers.
    The second part of what you offered in terms of where are 
we seeing good examples is the Nordic model, so what has been 
done in Sweden and in Norway in terms of criminalizing demand, 
and they have seen a reduction in trafficking since they went 
after demand.
    Again, there is an opportunity, an example of how we can 
stop this crisis in the numbers that we see of children being 
bought and sold by going after demand, because we have seen the 
success of that with the Nordic model and we have all the laws 
we need to go after demand, because these individuals are, in 
fact, sex offenders. They are not johns. What they do is 
criminal and they have to be held accountable for that.
    Senator Blumenthal. We have laws that can be applied to the 
demand side. They simply have to be enforced. What I hear you 
saying is that what is required is not new laws, but better 
enforcement.
    Ms. Saar. Also, we need to clarify that one of the most 
important Federal tools we have to go after trafficking is 
Section 1591 and that is why the JVTA is so important.
    We must make sure, we must clarify all doubt as to whether 
or not Section 1591 can be used toward both the traffickers and 
the buyers. It must be applied to the buyers, as well. And at 
the State level, we also have all the laws we need to go after 
buyers as sex offenders.
    Senator Blumenthal. Thank you. Thanks, Mr. Chairman.
    Chairman Grassley. I have one more question and then I am 
going to submit questions, about four or five questions to 
answer in writing, if you would.
    To you, Ms. Saada Saar, what do you say to the assertion 
that buyers do not know their victims are underage?
    Ms. Saar. I guess the story that haunts me the most and 
motivates my response to that is a girl we know in California 
who was 14 years old, was being trafficked and told every 
single man who had purchased her that she was only a kid and to 
take her to the police station, and not one individual did.
    I do not believe that we should make excuses for the 
situation. We do not make those excuses around statutory rape. 
There is absolutely no reason to make excuses when the rape is 
being paid for.
    It is so important to hear the words of children who have 
gone through the situation. I think this is one of the few 
issues where so many of us tell the stories of the girls, 
because we have not listened to the experiences of children who 
are being bought and sold.
    If we have a child-centered, victim-centered approach to 
trafficking, that we do not make excuses for individuals who 
say they did not know the age of the victim, because we hear 
the stories of the victims themselves who talk about what they 
were subject to, who talk about how their bodies were not even 
mature.
    How--when they talked, they talked about Disney princesses 
with voices that clearly were not adult voices.
    It is important to honor that lived experience. It is 
important to be child-centered and victim-centered and not 
entrench and normalize these excuses that the perpetrators 
simply did not know the age of the victim.
    Chairman Grassley. I am ready to adjourn the meeting. I 
thank all of you for participating very much. We are going to 
move forward on Thursday with these bills that are on here and 
there are other bills that are pending that we will give 
consideration to later on.
    Thank you all very much. The meeting is adjourned.
    [Whereupon, at 11:54 a.m., the hearing was concluded.]

                            A P P E N D I X

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