[House Hearing, 117 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


                       THE NEGLECTED EPIDEMIC OF
                     MISSING BIPOC WOMEN AND GIRLS

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

                                 HEARING

                               BEFORE THE

            SUBCOMMITTEE ON CIVIL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES

                                 OF THE

                         COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT
                               AND REFORM

                        HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                    ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS

                             SECOND SESSION

                               __________

                             MARCH 3, 2022

                               __________

                           Serial No. 117-69

                               __________

      Printed for the use of the Committee on Oversight and Reform
      
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]      


                       Available on: govinfo.gov
                         oversight.house.gov or
                             docs.house.gov
                             
                               __________

                    U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE                    
47-067 PDF                 WASHINGTON : 2022                     
          
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                   COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND REFORM

                CAROLYN B. MALONEY, New York, Chairwoman

Eleanor Holmes Norton, District of   James Comer, Kentucky, Ranking 
    Columbia                             Minority Member
Stephen F. Lynch, Massachusetts      Jim Jordan, Ohio
Jim Cooper, Tennessee                Virginia Foxx, North Carolina
Gerald E. Connolly, Virginia         Jody B. Hice, Georgia
Raja Krishnamoorthi, Illinois        Glenn Grothman, Wisconsin
Jamie Raskin, Maryland               Michael Cloud, Texas
Ro Khanna, California                Bob Gibbs, Ohio
Kweisi Mfume, Maryland               Clay Higgins, Louisiana
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York   Ralph Norman, South Carolina
Rashida Tlaib, Michigan              Pete Sessions, Texas
Katie Porter, California             Fred Keller, Pennsylvania
Cori Bush, Missouri                  Andy Biggs, Arizona
Shontel M. Brown, Ohio               Andrew Clyde, Georgia
Danny K. Davis, Illinois             Nancy Mace, South Carolina
Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Florida    Scott Franklin, Florida
Peter Welch, Vermont                 Jake LaTurner, Kansas
Henry C. ``Hank'' Johnson, Jr.,      Pat Fallon, Texas
    Georgia                          Yvette Herrell, New Mexico
John P. Sarbanes, Maryland           Byron Donalds, Florida
Jackie Speier, California            Vacancy
Robin L. Kelly, Illinois
Brenda L. Lawrence, Michigan
Mark DeSaulnier, California
Jimmy Gomez, California
Ayanna Pressley, Massachusetts

                      Russ Anello, Staff Director
               Devon Ombres, Subcommittee Staff Director
                    Amy Stratton, Deputy Chief Clerk

                      Contact Number: 202-225-5051

                  Mark Marin, Minority Staff Director
                                 
                                 ------                                

            Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties

                    Jamie Raskin, Maryland, Chairman
Kweisi Mfume, Maryland               Nancy Mace, South Carolina, 
Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Florida        Ranking Minority Member
Robin Kelly, Illinois                Jim Jordan, Ohio
Ayanna Pressley, Massachusetts       Andy Biggs, Arizona
Eleanor Holmes Norton, District of   Scott Franklin, Florida
    Columbia                         Byron Donalds, Florida
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York   Clay Higgins, Louisiana
Rashida Tlaib, Michigan
Danny K. Davis, Illinois
                         
                         
                         C  O  N  T  E  N  T  S

                              ----------                              
                                                                   Page
Hearing held on March 3, 2022....................................     1

                               Witnesses

Ms. Pamela Foster, Mother of Missing Child
Oral Statement...................................................     7
Ms. Angel Charley, Executive Director, Coalition to Stop Violence 
  Against Native Women
Oral Statement...................................................     9
Ms. Patrice Onwuka (minority witness), Director, Center for 
  Economic Opportunity, Independent Women's Forum
Oral Statement...................................................    10
Mr. John E. Bischoff, III, Vice President, Missing Children 
  Division, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
Oral Statement...................................................    12
Mr. Shawn Wilkinson, Father of Missing Child
Oral Statement...................................................    13
Ms. Natalie Wilson, Co-Founder, Black and Missing Foundation
Oral Statement...................................................    15

Written opening statements and statements for the witnesses are 
  available on the U.S. House of Representatives Document 
  Repository at: docs.house.gov.

                           Index of Documents

                              ----------                              

  * Statement from Tara Sweeney; submitted by Rep. Mace.

Documents are available at: docs.house.gov.

 
                       THE NEGLECTED EPIDEMIC OF
                     MISSING BIPOC WOMEN AND GIRLS

                              ----------                              


                        Thursday, March 3, 2022

                   House of Representatives
                  Committee on Oversight and Reform
           Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
                                                    Washington, DC.
    The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 11:07 a.m., in 
room 2154, Rayburn House Office Building, and via Zoom; Hon. 
Robin Kelly presiding.
    Present: Representatives Maloney, Raskin, Mfume, Kelly, 
Norton, Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib, and Mace.
    Ms. Kelly. [Presiding.] The committee will come to order.
    Without objection, the chair is authorized to declare a 
recess of the committee at any time.
    First, I would like to start by recognizing the chairman of 
the subcommittee, Mr. Raskin, for his opening statement. 
Congressman?
    Mr. Raskin. Thank you so much, Ms. Kelly, and, especially, 
thank you for chairing this hearing as I continue to recover 
from COVID-19. Good morning, everyone. Thanks to our witnesses 
for joining us today. Thanks to all the members for 
participating. Again, I want to thank Representative Kelly for 
her leadership, and I want to thank Representatives Pressley 
and Ocasio-Cortez also for joining in this critical work of 
combating intimate partner violence and advocating for missing 
women and children throughout the country. This is a crisis 
that is hiding in plain sight, and I hope the hearing will help 
us to shine a light on the shocking plague of missing and 
murdered women and girls in communities of color across the 
country.
    In 2020, 100,000 of the quarter million women and girls who 
went missing in the U.S. were black, brown, or indigenous. 
Black women and girls make up just 13 percent of the female 
population in the country but accounted for fully 35 percent of 
all missing women in 2020. This crisis is dire in indigenous 
communities. In South Dakota, 2 of 3 missing persons are Native 
American despite only 1 of 10 South Dakotans being Native 
American. In Montana, Native Americans account for 1 of every 4 
missing persons despite only 1 of 20 Montanans being Native 
American. These numbers don't even reflect the full extent of 
the epidemic. According to the GAO, the total number of missing 
and murdered indigenous women is still unknown. Federal data 
bases do not contain comprehensive nationwide data. The data 
that is collected includes Hispanic and Latino women among 
white women, leaving their numbers also mysterious. Missing 
women from immigrant communities also go unreported and 
uncounted out of fear of deportation.
    The causes driving the disproportionate rates of missing 
women of color are many and complex. Intimate partner violence 
affects nearly half of African American and indigenous women 
compared to 37 percent of white women. Unfortunately, fewer 
than 20 percent of all women who face intimate partner violence 
seek services, which only perpetuates the cycle of violence. 
Sex trafficking also drives these disproportionate numbers. 
Nearly two-thirds of sex trafficking victims in this country 
are black and Latino or Hispanic. The numbers are just as dire 
for native women. In South Dakota, Native-American women and 
girls constitute 40 percent of victims of sex trafficking. 
Native women also face unique dangers: so-called man camps. 
Temporary housing for pipeline and oil industry laborers 
affects indigenous and other marginalized communities in rural 
areas where they are located. Studies have shown that the 
placement of man camps statistically coincide with dramatically 
significant increases in crime. For example, the Fort Berthold 
Reservation saw a 75-percent increase in sexual assaults on 
native women after man camps arose in their region during the 
oil construction boom of the late 2000's. Notably, there was no 
corresponding rise in crime outside of this area.
    Unfortunately, these communities are structurally hamstrung 
in their response to such threats. Tribal law enforcement is 
prohibited from prosecuting non-native individuals who commit 
crimes against their people. Local law enforcement often has 
limited resources, are spread thin, and may be hesitant to 
engage with jurisdictional uncertainty. Federal law enforcement 
has not been able to step into the gaps. They may have a 
geographically limited presence to investigate and prosecute 
serious crimes against native communities. Even so, in 2017, 
U.S. attorneys declined to prosecute over 1 in 3 of their cases 
arising in Indian Country, primarily citing a lack of evidence. 
Jurisdictional wrangling and limited resources often lead to 
significant delays. The first 24 to 48 hours in a missing 
persons case is critical, and poor communication between law 
enforcement agencies can make the difference between life and 
death.
    The neglect shown by the media toward cases involving 
missing and murdered women of color is a primary reason that 
this epidemic remains obscure to the public. Countless families 
in these communities shoulder the burden of a missing loved one 
alone. Countless others shoulder the additional trauma of a law 
enforcement system that discounts their fears and their 
experience. Just one example here: in Wyoming, out of the more 
than 700 indigenous women who have gone missing last 10 years, 
less than 1 in 5 received any media coverage. How is that 
possible?
    So we are here today to render visible this invisible 
crisis in our midst. Congress and the Biden Administration have 
taken some important preliminary steps to clarify the epidemic 
of missing and murdered women of color. Savanna's Act, the 
Ashlynne Mike Amber Alert in Indian Country Act, and the 
Ashanti Alert Act have all been enacted into law. There have 
been executive orders, but we have more work to do. We must act 
to ensure that Federal law enforcement is fully coordinating 
with the Western states that have created missing and murdered 
indigenous women task forces. The Administration needs to 
constitute the Joint Commission on Reducing Violence Against 
Indians. Congress must reauthorize the Violence Against Women 
Act and the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention 
and Protection Act, and fully fund implementation of the 
Ashanti Alert Act. Finally, we must consider the Protect Black 
Women and Girls Act, introduced by my friend and our 
distinguished colleague, Congresswoman Kelly.
    We must work together to confront and address this pressing 
problem. The core function of government is to protect the 
safety and the security of the people. That is the essence of 
the social contract. We must secure and fortify the social 
contract for women of color all across America. I look forward 
to hearing the testimony of our witnesses today, and I yield 
back to you, Ms. Kelly.
    Ms. Kelly. Thank you. And with that, I now recognize the 
distinguished ranking member, Ms. Mace, for an opening 
statement.
    Ms. Mace. Thank you, Chairwoman Kelly, and thank you 
Chairman Raskin as well. You look great, so I am glad to see 
you are doing OK. I thank the chairman for holding today's 
hearing on such an important issue.
    In my hometown of Goose Creek, South Carolina, just over 
two years ago in September, I believe, of 2019, there was a 
huge human trafficking and sex trafficking bust. These kinds of 
issues are happening all over our country unbeknownst to many 
people today, and there are thousands of innocent victims. All 
Americans, especially women and girls, deserve to realize their 
full potential in this country and achieve the American Dream, 
but far too often, violent criminal activities and sex 
trafficking serve to limit opportunities and extinguish their 
livelihood.
    A shockingly high number of women and girls will be the 
victim of tragedies of child abuse, domestic violence, sexual 
assault, or human trafficking during their lifetime. According 
to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, intimate 
partner violence has affected or will affect 1 in 4 women in 
the U.S., and half of all female homicide victims in the U.S. 
are killed by a current or former male intimate partner. In my 
home state of South Carolina, there were almost 60 homicides in 
2021 alone related to domestic violence. According to the South 
Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual 
Assault, the rate in South Carolina is over twice the national 
average for femicide.
    The 1 in 4 number I mentioned previously is only for the 
general population. In fact, there are even a higher proportion 
of survivors of domestic violence among women of color, with 35 
percent of Native-American women estimated to be victimized by 
rape, physical assault, and stalking by an intimate partner in 
their lifetime. In New York City alone, despite only making up 
20 percent of the population, black women were 45 percent of 
domestic violence related to homicide victims. Women and girls 
are also frequently targeted by human traffickers, especially 
by sex traffickers who prey on the most vulnerable.
    These tragedies are particularly acute among women of 
color. For example, despite only making up eight percent of the 
population in South Dakota, Native-American women are 40 
percent of sex trafficking victims in the state. In Louisiana, 
almost half of sex trafficking survivors are black women and 
girls, even though they make up only 19 percent of Louisiana's 
youth population. Nationwide, black women and girls are 
estimated to be about 40 percent of domestic sex trafficking 
victims in the U.S., and it is estimated that there are 
currently between 64,000 and 75,000 missing black women and 
girls in the United States, many of whom have been targeted by 
sex traffickers. These crimes subject victims and their 
communities to great cost. The CDC estimates the total economic 
impact of domestic violence to be somewhere north of $3-and-a-
half trillion, which includes medical services for injuries, 
lost productivity from work, criminal justice costs, and, 
tragically, the personal cost for every victim of domestic 
violence is greater than $100,000 over this women's lifetimes, 
on average.
    This is an important hearing. I look forward to learning 
from the witnesses today about their own experiences with these 
tragedies and what they and their organizations are doing to 
raise awareness of these issues to reduce the vulnerable from 
being targeted, and to ensure that survivors can live the best 
life possible in our country. I am especially interested in 
what policies we should be advocating for to improve access to 
education and economic opportunities for all women to decrease 
their vulnerability and risk for being targeted by criminals. 
All of us deserve to live in a society free from the fear of 
falling victim to violent crimes, and I hope this hearing will 
illustrate how important this issue is today because so many 
Americans are not informed, don't have the data or the 
information, and would never believe this is happening in our 
country today.
    So, I want to thank the chairwoman. I do want to, Madam 
Chair, ask for unanimous consent to enter a statement into the 
record from Tara Sweeney, who is a former assistant secretary 
for Indian Affairs at the U.S. Department of Interior.
    Ms. Kelly. Without objection.
    Ms. Mace. Thank you, and I yield back.
    Ms. Kelly. Thank you, Ranking Member Mace. I now recognize 
the chair of the full Committee on Oversight and Reform, 
Chairwoman Maloney, for an opening statement.
    Chairwoman Maloney. Thank you. Thank you so very much, 
Chairman Raskin and Ranking Member Mace. I commend both of you 
for your leadership in calling attention to this tragic and 
underreported story. Congresswoman Kelly, thank you, too, for 
the leadership role you have played on this issue, and in 
developing this hearing, and literally having other hearings in 
your district on the subject. I also appreciate your 
willingness to fill in as chair this morning.
    Of the more than 250,000 women and girls reported missing 
in 2020, at least 40 percent were women of color. Despite 
making up a much smaller share of the overall U.S. population, 
black, indigenous, and Hispanic women are going missing at 
shockingly high rates, and there is really no data on what 
happened to them. No one knows where they are. It is just a 
shocking, almost unbelievable situation in this country, and we 
are going to have to do a much better job in helping these 
women and really documenting what is happening. They are also 
more likely than white women to fall victim to intimate partner 
violence and other crimes that contribute to missing person 
cases.
    Yet the data available to us today likely understates the 
problem, and there is very little governmental data. It comes 
from not-for-profits, and according to the Government 
Accountability Office, the total number of missing indigenous 
women is unknown due to inadequacies in Federal data bases. 
These data bases also lack any data whatsoever on missing 
Hispanic women who are included with white women in official 
Federal counts. This tells me women of color are likely even 
more disproportionately represented among missing person cases 
than we know, creating a significant blind spot for 
policymakers as we seek solutions to these problems.
    Women of color who go missing or who are victims of crime 
are also not getting the assistance and attention they deserve. 
This is a dire problem in my home of New York City. In 
Brooklyn, Natoya Stephens, a 29-year-old black woman of two, 
has been missing since 2012 after an argument with her fiance. 
Her loved ones are still seeking information on her 
whereabouts. Leanne Marie Hausberg, a 14-year-old girl of 
Native-American descent, also from Brooklyn, has been missing 
since 1999 when she disappeared from her family's apartment. To 
this day, her parents don't have answers about what happened to 
her. And earlier this year, we learned the tragic news that a 
43-year-old Hispanic mother from my district in Queens, Yecely 
Sanchez, was found dead after going missing on New Year's Eve. 
Her four children will now have to grow up without their 
mother.
    I hope to learn more about this through this hearing, about 
how we can do better by these women and the tens of thousands 
of others whose families and loved ones are still seeking 
answers. At the very least, I hope we can identify solutions to 
the data gaps that exist so we can know the true extent of the 
problem. In addition to the demographic information that is 
clearly lacking, there is likely additional data we should be 
routinely collecting and examining. More information on who is 
going missing, the communities they belong to, and what 
happened to them will help us direct the resources and 
attention necessary to better serve women of color who may be 
at risk.
    In closing, I would like to echo President Biden's call 
during the State of the Union Tuesday night for Congress to 
finally send him a bill to reauthorize the Violence Against 
Women Act. The House acted nearly a year ago passing 
reauthorization legislation I co-sponsored on a bipartisan 
vote. Our bill would provide vital services to victims of the 
types of crimes that fuel missing person cases, and it would 
address some of the challenges we will be discussing today. I 
hope it can be signed into law soon. And I think that this 
hearing is a long overdue, and it is hard to believe that so 
many women are missing in our country, unaccounted for, and we 
must do everything to improve the situation.
    I want to thank all of our witnesses for sharing their 
stories and for their work in this area with us today, and I 
yield back. And I wish a speedy recovery of our chairman of the 
subcommittee, Jamie Raskin. He looks healthy and good, but we 
are all praying for you, Jamie, and thank you for your hard 
work in pulling this subcommittee hearing together. I yield 
back.
    Ms. Kelly. Thank you, Madam Chair. First, I would like to 
thank the Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Subcommittee for 
holding this important hearing. I would also like to thank the 
panelists for appearing here to speak on such a critical issue, 
and especially Ms. Foster and Mr. Wilkinson for sharing your 
stories. I know this cannot be easy for you.
    The issue of missing black, brown, and indigenous women and 
girls in America is truly an epidemic and critically important 
to me. Just under a month ago, the Caucus on Black Women and 
Girls hosted a roundtable discussion in my district on this 
very issue. We heard from a number of experts on the topic: 
families of victims and victims themselves. Resources were 
shared and made available for victims, including a toolkit so 
people could keep themselves and their communities safe. We 
heard ideas on how Federal and local agencies could work 
together to improve the reporting and solving of missing 
persons cases and better protect BIPOC women and girls. It was 
a productive conversation, but it was clear that more work 
needs to be done.
    Black women and girls are too often ignored when they go 
missing, and they go missing at a much higher rate than white 
women. Even with these cases being underreported, black women 
made up a little more than one-third of all missing women 
reported last year, which is far higher than the nearly 15 
percent of the population we account for nationally. Human 
trafficking also disproportionately affects black women. The 
congressional Black Caucus Foundation issued a report on human 
trafficking and found that 40 percent of sex trafficking 
victims were black women. All these factors contribute to the 
disproportionate number of missing black women. Unfortunately, 
the same can be said for many other minority populations. These 
shocking numbers are likely lower than reality as crimes 
against black women and BIPOC women in general are 
underreported. It is horrible that these cases do not receive 
more attention.
    The media reporting of these women pales in comparison of 
white women, as in the tragic case of Gabby Petito, which 
received nearly 24-hour coverage until her body was found. You 
could not scroll through Twitter or read the news without 
seeing coverage of the story. Yes, she deserved to have this 
kind of media attention, but so do other women of color. Much 
of this can be contributed to biases toward women of color and 
what Dr. Julia Jordan-Zachery calls hyper-visibility of black 
women. When women of color are talked about in the media, it 
generally perpetuates negative stereotypes, creating a vicious 
cycle where we get less positive media attention. But this is 
not just about media attention. The issue of disproportionate 
missing BIPOC women and girls is one that needs more national 
attention by law enforcement policy as well.
    States, such as Minnesota, have created task forces to 
better coordinate crackdown on the factoring contributions to 
missing BIPOC women and girls. At the Federal level, we need 
better coordination as well. This is why I introduced the 
Protect Black Women and Girls Act. This bipartisan bill would 
establish an interagency task force to examine the conditions 
and experiences of black women and girls in the United States 
and inform policymakers on how we can better respond to this 
epidemic. We must authorize, as you have heard over and over, 
the Violence Against Women Act, which has not been reauthorized 
since 2013 and expired in 2018. The House has done its job, and 
now the Senate must act. Lives are on the line. We need better 
coordination among Federal and state law enforcement, better 
funding to community organizations that report on missing 
persons cases, and support in finding these women.
    I am grateful that the committee is having this hearing and 
bringing light to this issue. I am hoping for a productive 
hearing that will produce solutions to finding our missing 
women and girls.
    Now I would like to introduce our witnesses. Our first 
witness today is Pamela Foster of the Navajo Tribe, the mother 
of a missing child. Then we will hear from Angel Charley, the 
executive director for the Coalition to Stop Violence Against 
Native Women. Then we will hear from Patrice Onwuka, the 
director of the Center for Economic Opportunity at the 
Independent Women's Forum. We will then hear from John 
Bischoff, the vice president of the Missing Children's Division 
at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Then 
we will hear from Shawn Wilkinson of Gaithersburg, Maryland, 
the father of a missing child. Finally, we will hear from 
Natalie Wilson, one of the co-founders for the Black and 
Missing Foundation.
    The witnesses will be unmuted so we can swear them in. If 
you can stand up. Please raise your right hands.
    Do you swear or affirm that the testimony you are about to 
give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, 
so help you God?
    [A chorus of a yes.]
    Ms. Kelly. Thank you. Let the record show that the 
witnesses answered in the affirmative. Thank you.
    And without further objection, your written statements will 
be made part of the record, and you can sit down.
    With that, Ms. Foster, you are now recognized for your 
testimony.
    [No response.]
    Ms. Kelly. You are still muted.
    Ms. Foster. Can you hear me?
    Ms. Kelly. Yes, we can.

      STATEMENT OF PAMELA FOSTER, MOTHER OF MISSING CHILD

    Ms. Foster. Good morning to everybody from the 
subcommittee. I am honored to be here today. My name is Pamela 
Foster, and I am a Navajo from the Navajo Nation.
    On May 2, 2016, my children, Ian Mike and Ashlynne Mike 
were kidnapped at the bus stop after school on the Navajo 
reservation in New Mexico. My children were abducted by a 
stranger and taken deep into the desert miles from home where 
Ian managed to escape, and, to great sadness, Ashlynne was 
brutally assaulted and murdered. With the kidnapping of my 
children and the horrific murder of my daughter, I felt a great 
injustice. It was during the events of the abduction that I 
found out that there were no AMBER Alerts established on the 
Navajo Reservation. There were no 9-1-1's to call or roadway 
digital signs. Tribal law enforcement did not act quickly 
enough, and had poor communication systems, and had little to 
no training on missing persons and child abductions. The lack 
of technology and infrastructure made it difficult to search 
for my children.
    Because I felt there was a slow response from tribal law 
enforcement, I got on social media and reached out to family 
and friends asking them to share my urgent message. My 
community had no training regarding abductions, plus they had 
no idea an abduction had occurred. Myself, family, and friends 
reached out to law enforcement and search and rescue teams off 
reservations and pleaded for their help. Due to jurisdictional 
laws, authorities off reservations were not able to help. They 
had to receive word from tribal police that an abduction had 
occurred. This amplified the strain that we felt. That evening, 
Ian was found by a passerby and taken to law enforcement. After 
what seemed like an eternity, an AMBER Alert was finally issued 
for Ashlynne 12 hours after we made that first call to law 
enforcement, and 12 precious hours were wasted.
    Since the kidnapping of my children, I have found out that 
the first 48 hours after an abduction are the most critical 
times to search and investigate for a missing person. As each 
hour passes, the likelihood that a missing person will be found 
decreases substantially. I began voicing my concerns about the 
problems that I faced during the abduction of my children, and 
I found other tribes were experiencing the same problem as 
Navajo. My daughter's death may have been prevented if there 
was an AMBER Alert system in place at the time of her 
abduction. Prior to the abductions, the Navajo Nation had been 
given the opportunity to implement an AMBER Alert system, and 
they failed to do so.
    I began advocating about the tragedy we experienced and 
vowed to make a difference on Indian Country. I spoke about the 
many crimes that happen to our indigenous people on and off 
Indian Country--kidnapping, sexual assaults, child abuse, 
violence against women and girls. And I also felt the urgency 
to ask our leaders to locate all sexual offenders on 
reservations because many had not registered in the system, and 
their whereabouts were unknown.
    Shortly after, I started a petition, called the AMBER Alert 
in Indian Country Act, to bring protection to indigenous 
families and their children, and with the help of 
representatives from Washington, I was able to pass my bill 
into law. The bill was signed into law on April 13, 2018, and 
renamed Ashlynne Mike AMBER Alert in Indian Country Act. 
Ashlynne's Law amends the PROTECT Act and helps tribes to 
implement their own AMBER Alert systems, and helps tribes with 
education, and training, and technological challenges 
encountered by tribes. We were actively implementing AMBER 
Alert legislation directly into Indian Country when COVID-19 
hit. There are still a lot of reservations which need to 
implement the AMBER Alert system, and hopefully this progress 
will move forward again.
    The dynamics of violence contributing to missing and 
murdered indigenous people is immensely difficult and 
challenging to understand. It is important to bring awareness 
to the challenges that indigenous people face on a daily basis, 
to bring attention to the obstacles that can only be fixed by 
lawmakers like you. I am fortunate I had a large platform to 
share my story because there are thousands of stories that 
don't have the media coverage, and they have been silenced by 
falling through the cracks of the judicial system. I hope my 
story can help make the changes that we desperately need. If it 
means my story helped to save one life, then it was worth 
sharing.
    I thank you today for my testimony, and I hope that we will 
be able to make much-needed changes. Thank you.
    Ms. Kelly. Thank you so much, Ms. Foster. Thank you for 
sharing.
    Ms. Charley, you are now recognized for your testimony.

 STATEMENT OF ANGEL CHARLEY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, COALITION TO 
               STOP VIOLENCE AGAINST NATIVE WOMEN

    Ms. Charley. [Speaking native language] Chair and members 
of the committee. My name is Angel Charley, and I'm from the 
Pueblo of Laguna. I serve as the executive director of the 
Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women. Today, I thank 
you for the opportunity to speak with you about an issue that 
is impacting the lives of too many indigenous peoples: the 
murdered and missing indigenous women crisis, or MMIW.
    Our goal at the Coalition is to build healthy families and 
healthy communities. We do this by enacting social change that 
is grounded in the principles of kinship, healing, 
accountability, and love. Based on these principles, I am here 
to share with you what we believe is at the root of inaction 
that our families face when seeking justice or closure to the 
murder or disappearance of their loved one. It is a system that 
is rooted in the devaluation of indigenous lives since the 
onset of colonization.
    While some progress has been made in attempting to address 
this crisis, what continues to obstruct our ability to access 
the resources and appropriate support is the embedded 
bureaucracy within these well-intended solutions. Families 
across Indian Country remain burdened with the financial cost 
of investigation, search, and rescue. The system responses 
created to date have left these families un-resourced, without 
direction, and lost within the intricacies of tribal, state, 
and Federal bureaucracies.
    Last week, I spoke with a mother from Farmington, New 
Mexico, who was told by investigating detectives not to speak 
publicly about her case, but the only media coverage that keeps 
her daughter a priority requires that she tells her story. 
During Operation Lady Justice listening sessions, a family from 
Shiprock, New Mexico, were forced into silence because they did 
not have internet access, transportation to a hotspot, nor the 
ability to leave their community during lockdown orders. Right 
now, here in Washington, DC, exists an unknown number of 
backlogged, untested, and unprosecuted rape kits from across 
Indian Country. These are untraceable by tribal leadership, 
families, and victims. These cases remain unsolved.
    These examples are too common throughout our communities, 
and it is a failure on the part of the justice system. It is 
the repeated deferred responsibility of those who have sworn to 
protect, declaring complications of jurisdiction or a lack of 
resources. This is keeping our families from having justice, 
but, more importantly, this is keeping them from healing.
    Our organization knows that it is not if a native women 
will experience violence in her lifetime, but it is when. More 
than 85 percent of our women will experience it, more than half 
of it will be sexual violence, yet annually, over a third of 
these cases are declined for prosecution, citing lack of 
evidence. It is the complexity of jurisdiction, the historic 
lack of funding, and systemic racism that continue to fuel the 
crisis of MMIW. The disparate treatment of indigenous women by 
law enforcement and media goes unchecked, and our communities 
experience multiple disappearances: a disappearance from 
family, from community, then by the media, and then in the 
system.
    Our women are 10 times more likely to be murdered, and so 
we continue to ask why. Why are our lives not valued? Why are 
we invisible? What is clear is that our justice is caught in 
the limbo of bureaucracy. This is not an epidemic. This is a 
crisis ongoing through time, created by the very system that 
now seeks to address it. Congress, the Department of Justice, 
and decision-makers throughout Indian Country have the reports 
outlining the violence that we face, yet year after year, we 
fail to follow through with increased funding, expansion of 
service areas, and multi-year commitments to address the root 
causes of these issues. The reauthorization of VAWA remains 
unauthorized where a list of tribal provisions expand oversight 
and, thereby, protection of our women and children. 
Recommendations from government oversight committees linger 
with continued inaction, and the sexual violence created by man 
camps and extractive industries practices continue to cause 
devastating impacts on our communities, adding to this crisis.
    In closing, I would ask the committee to remember this: 
that it is our communities who are left filling in the gaps of 
the system. It is the families and advocates who continue to 
show up against all odds to tell their story, demand 
visibility, and ensure that justice remembers their loved ones. 
Thank you.
    Ms. Kelly. Thank you, Ms. Charley. Ms. Onwuka----
    Ms. Onwuka. Thank you.
    Ms. Kelly [continuing]. You are now recognized for your 
testimony.

  STATEMENT OF PATRICE ONWUKA, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR ECONOMIC 
             OPPORTUNITY, INDEPENDENT WOMEN'S FORUM

    Ms. Onwuka. Thank you, Chairman Raskin, Congresswoman 
Kelly, Ranking Member Mace, and the members of the committee. I 
appreciate you having me here today. My name is Patrice Onwuka, 
and I am a director of the Center for Economic Opportunity at 
Independent Women's Forum. We are a nonprofit committed to 
advancing policies that enhance people's freedoms, 
opportunities, and well-being, and my work is focused primarily 
on women of color. Now, we cannot begin to discuss the 
solutions to economic mobility and freedom when many of our 
daughters, granddaughters, sisters, and students disappear into 
the darkness every year. My heart goes out to my fellow 
panelists whose loved ones are still missing.
    According to missing persons data provided by the NCIC, 
over 540,000 missing cases were open in 2020. They tend to be 
young. About half are female. Black and minority women are 
disproportionately represented, as we have heard today. Just 
over a third are people of color, including black, Asian, and 
Indian. Now, this is noticeably higher than the proportion of 
the larger U.S. population, and among the 37 percent of missing 
women of color, the lion's share tends to be black. Now, 80 
percent of missing person cases were closed because the missing 
person was located by law enforcement, returned home, or the 
file was determined to be invalid. In fact, in 2020, the year 
closed with 89,637 still missing, far too many, but far fewer 
than I think we started this number with. Among these open 
cases, we do still see similar racial trends: 35 percent are 
people of color, not including Hispanics; 31 percent are black; 
17 percent are females of color; and 15 percent are black 
females.
    I pause here just to underscore how important it is to 
recognize that most missing person cases are closed. That 
should give us some perspective but also recognize that there 
is an opportunity for hope. Nevertheless, the disappearance of 
just one child can be devastating to a family and community. I 
think of Asha Degree, a nine-year-old from Shelby, North 
Carolina, who is missing 22 years after her disappearance on 
Valentine's Day in 2000. Today, she'd be 31 years old. But then 
there is Jashyah Moore, a 14-year-old New Jersey girl who 
vanished on October 14 of last year. Luckily, she was found in 
New York City one month later; or a 12-year-old Bronx girl who 
went missing on January 10 of this year and found days later 
doing a Facebook Live on the famous red stairs in Times Square. 
These stories of minority girls who disappear may not have made 
national headlines, but they did make local headlines. By 
acting quickly to report the missing children, law enforcement 
authorities, working with the family and the community, were 
able to track them down and reunite them with their families.
    As we have heard, experts tell us that the first 48 hours 
following the disappearance of a child, or an individual are 
most critical to finding them and returning them home. So it is 
important to explore the role of families, communities, and law 
enforcement, as well as the media in helping to find missing 
persons. You know, we also need to explore what causes young 
adults or juveniles to run away from home to begin with. And by 
the way, missing people tend to be young people who are leaving 
home, very often by choice. The home environment plays a 
significant role here. Juveniles in vulnerable situations may 
perceive that fleeing is their best option, even if it is more 
dangerous. Domestic violence, child abuse, sexual abuse, drug 
addiction, mental illness, and economic hardship can all 
contribute to the destabilization of the home.
    Public policy is important but can only go so far in 
strengthening families. This is where civil society, like 
churches, grassroots organizations that are building human 
capital and empowering individuals to be good parents and 
gainfully employed, productive citizens, can also help. 
Education is a key concern for many reasons. One of the 
negative impacts of the prolonged pandemic lockdowns and school 
closures was that these policies kept more women and girls in 
vulnerable home situations. They fell through the cracks. Any 
discussion of missing, abused, or exploited women and girls 
must also start with the role that good education and in-person 
learning provides. In addition, rising crime across our Nation 
cannot be ignored. More funding for policing can be helpful in 
solving missing person cases and tackling the domestic violence 
that drives young people to leave their homes.
    So finding all missing persons, but especially girls and 
women of color, should be a priority. We can discuss reforms 
needed to VAWA, but let's also engage in solutions that prevent 
people, particularly young people, from disappearing in the 
first place. Thank you, and I look forward to today's 
discussion.
    Ms. Kelly. Thank you for your testimony.
    Mr. Bischoff, you are now recognized for your testimony.

  STATEMENT OF JOHN E. BISCHOFF, III, VICE PRESIDENT, MISSING 
 CHILDREN DIVISION, NATIONAL CENTER FOR MISSING AND EXPLOITED 
                            CHILDREN

    Mr. Bischoff. Good morning, Chairwoman Maloney, Chairman 
Raskin, Ranking Member Mace, Congresswoman Kelly, and members 
of the subcommittee. My name is John Bischoff, and I'm the vice 
president of the Missing Children Division at the National 
Center for Missing and Exploited Children. I'll refer to the 
National Center by our acronym, NCMEC, throughout today's 
hearing. I'm honored to be here today to discuss this crucial 
topic.
    NCMEC data shows us that black, multiracial, and Native-
American children go missing at disproportionate rates in the 
United States, and we are appreciative that the subcommittee is 
calling attention to this issue. We would not be able to 
fulfill our mission without the generous support of Congress, 
and we are grateful for the critical resources we receive to 
carry out our work. Since 1984, NCMEC has relied on many 
public/private partnerships to find missing children, support 
their families, and provide victim-centered services. NCMEC 
offers several core services, which include a 24-by-7 call 
center, case management support, forensic services, analytical 
resources, and peer support for families experiencing a missing 
or exploited child. My written testimony provides a more 
detailed description about many of our core programs, but for 
the sake of time, I'll move on with the topic at hand.
    In recent years, NCMEC has seen an exponential increase in 
cases involving children missing from state care and a 
disproportionate increase in the missing child cases involving 
black, multiracial, and Native-American children. The 
Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act 
requires state agencies to report children missing from state 
care to both law enforcement and to NCMEC. This law was 
essential in compelling states to address a problem that often 
went unnoticed and unaddressed. An analysis of our missing 
child data from 2016 to 2020 shows an increase in overall 
casework by 38 percent. Of that data, 31 percent of the 
children reported missing were black, which is more than double 
their representation in the U.S. population. Ten percent of the 
children reported missing were multiracial, while they 
represent four percent of the U.S. population. An early 
analysis of our 2021 data shows, unfortunately, similar trends: 
the number of missing black children reported to NCMEC 
increased from 31 percent in our four-year analysis to 34 
percent in 2021. Black and multiracial children continue to be 
disproportionately represented in cases of child sex 
trafficking. Black children represent 36 percent, and 
multiracial children represent 12 percent. Representing another 
area of concern, 60 percent of children missing from care were 
girls.
    To address these trends, NCMEC has worked to expand our 
partnerships and resources to better address how cases of 
missing black, indigenous, and native children are reported, 
investigated, and resolved. We always strive to serve as a 
conveyor for collaboration, bringing together representatives 
from civil rights, law enforcement, and child-serving 
communities to discuss the disproportionalities we are seeing 
within our data. Over the past decade, NCMEC has worked to 
engage native, indigenous, and tribal communities to learn how 
we can best support them. From 2009 to 2021, over 3,200 Native-
American children were reported missing to NCMEC. Of these 
children, almost 2,500 were missing from state care, and 56 
percent were female.
    In our experience, cases involving Native-American children 
go unreported for many reasons. Tribal child welfare entities 
do not have the same reporting requirements as state agencies. 
We also acknowledge that the lack of reporting is rooted in a 
distrust of outside organizations based on historical and 
present-day traumas these communities experience. NCMEC 
continues to invest in building partnerships with initiatives 
like hosting the Northeast Tribal Conference on Child 
Victimization with tribal partners and other trial child-
serving organizations. Earlier this year, we created our first-
ever tribal fellowship position to continue to develop and 
maintain meaningful relationships with tribal communities.
    In closing, NCMEC is an organization centered around hope: 
hope that no parent or guardian has to make that dreaded call 
that their child is missing, hope that every missing child will 
be recovered safely. While hope inspires us to improve, it 
takes action to accomplish goals. Action is required to address 
the obstacles our black, Native-American, and indigenous 
children face when they go missing. NCMEC will always take 
action to be the voice for all missing children, especially 
those who are marginalized.
    On behalf of NCMEC, thank you again for the opportunity to 
appear before the subcommittee, and I look forward to your 
questions.
    Ms. Kelly. Thank you. Mr. Wilkinson, you are now recognized 
for your testimony.

     STATEMENT OF SHAWN WILKINSON, FATHER OF MISSING CHILD

    Mr. Wilkinson. My name is Shawn Wilkinson. I thank you for 
the opportunity to speak today.
    My daughter, Akia Eggleston, eight months pregnant, went 
missing in May 2017 and today is still missing. It is with 
great displeasure to speak on such a topic as this. However, 
the magnitude of this specific topic has become a major part of 
our family's being. There is not a day that goes by without 
conversation about our daughter/unborn grandson's ongoing case. 
How do you wrap your mind around the fact of Akia and baby's 
disappearance, domestic violence, and subsequent murder 
investigation in the same breath? From the beginning, the 
family was in awe of the news and had no clue what to do in 
such a matter. Report her missing to the police is the natural 
thing to do, right? Let's have a search party, right? Let's 
report it to the media, right? These are all things you would 
see on a TV show like Law and Order. It is unfortunate that all 
of these things don't work exactly like TV shows.
    The epidemic of missing persons of color is not a new topic 
but one that has been dismissed because society does not care 
about us. This is a trickle effect that has come down through 
this country's history. Only time has brought us to this point 
of actually acknowledging the disparities that exist. As a 
retired veteran of the United States Marine Corps, three tours 
in Iraq, who gave all to my country with every regard to 
protect her with my life, I stand broken at the thought of not 
being able to receive immediate help for my daughter when 
needed. Also, to include that having PTSD further heightens my 
emotional and physical being. This episode has intensified my 
ability not to sleep, like others.
    Support for black, indigenous, or people of color is needed 
now. We are important and deserve the same attention as whites. 
I have exhausted everything that has been asked of me to do, 
and I still feel like nothing has been accomplished. I try to 
understand why her case is so secretive and only want to know 
what happened and where she is. Parents are not supposed to 
live longer than their children, but we are here to see their 
accomplishments in life. That will never happen, and in some 
regards, the justice system took almost five years to figure 
out what we already knew. The ability to communicate with the 
police has been very difficult, to say the least: multiple 
calls with no response for weeks, even up to a month; being on 
hold for countless minutes at a time just to be told the 
detective on the case is not available as he moved to another 
office. Talking to several officers at the police desk and then 
being hung up on just intensifies who picks up the phone next. 
Handing out flyers in the community and beat officers do not 
even know who my daughter is when a local district is less than 
two miles away from her home. Having to write a congressional 
swift to Dutch Ruppersberger, the U.S. representative for 
Maryland's 2d congressional District, was the only way to let 
people know how we were feeling. Through this, this led to 
speaking to the heads of various Baltimore police divisions, 
the FBI, and meeting with the ADA of Baltimore City, which has 
been an experience that will live with us forever. These 
encounters have not been ones that have been good. Again, the 
lack of communication has been very stressful.
    The ability to communicate with those who have the 
authority to provide media coverage was what I thought most 
ridiculous. Calling or emailing every news station in Baltimore 
to get coverage did not get the case attention. It made no 
sense that even after her case was aired on local television in 
Baltimore, it only stayed within the confines of the city. It 
did not get picked up in neighboring counties. It did not get 
state, national, or international coverage. Why is this so? My 
thought only: single black woman with child living in low-
income neighborhood that is known for drugs and other issues 
where the police only know the community for being an area of 
troubled folks who don't care to trust law enforcement anyway. 
The slogan here, ``snitches dig ditches,'' is well known. A 
community that stays to themselves is not how cases get solved.
    Even though within her case an assailant has been arrested, 
if you read the letter written used to arrest the individual, 
it details a timeline of her last days, possibly her resting 
place in a landfill in Virginia that covers acres of land. We 
struggle with not knowing what happened to them, where are 
they, why they can't be found. Will the evidence in this case 
put this person in jail for life? Funding groups that can 
assist in helping black, indigenous, or people of color is more 
important now than ever. External search teams, to include 
dogs, are needed, teams to plaster flyers in local areas are 
needed, and extended community activism on the part of local 
law enforcement needs to be improved and/or developed. 
Education for all is imperative. Moneys toward training 
advocates in the areas of media relations, community relations, 
cultural relations, and family assistance that a national 
standard operating process for missing people be provided 
instead of each level or law enforcement having their own, this 
would be fundamental in the area of media coverage. In the case 
of being proactive, suggested by Akia's aunt, Sanobia Wilson, 
an alert for pregnant women that details their status in case 
of being missing until found.
    I make this comment now that Akia's case is horribly 
unfortunate, but the outcome can be different for the next 
family. Thanks to Black and Missing for their guidance and 
critical understanding of how to get the attention that keeps 
Akia's case in the spotlight of law enforcement, media 
relations, and all levels of local, state, and Federal 
Government. I thank you for the opportunity to speak to you 
today. I yield my time.
    Ms. Kelly. Thank you so much and thank you so much for 
being willing to share your story. Thank you.
    Ms. Wilson, you are now recognized for your testimony.
    Ms. Wilson. OK.

    STATEMENT OF NATALIE WILSON, FOUNDER, BLACK AND MISSING 
                           FOUNDATION

    Ms. Wilson. Good morning, Chairman Raskin and members of 
the Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. I am 
Natalie Wilson, co-founder of the Black and Missing Foundation, 
a nonprofit organization that brings awareness to missing 
people of color across the country, and I'm pleased to provide 
testimony today on the issue of missing women and girls of 
color. My sister-in-law and I started the foundation after 
hearing about the case of Tamika Huston, who disappeared in 
Spartanburg, South Carolina. It was disheartening to us that 
her family struggled to get national media coverage on her 
disappearance, yet another missing woman, Natalee Holloway, was 
dominating the national headlines.
    While missing persons of color made up 40 percent of the 
missing population, their stories were rarely told by the 
media, and their families often struggled to get sufficient law 
enforcement resources to bring their loved one's home. We are 
not naive to believe that every missing person's case will get 
national coverage. However, missing persons of color cases only 
receive seven percent of the national media coverage. And we 
can all name Gabby Petito, Natalee Holloway, Chandra Levy, and 
many other white women who have gone missing, but can any of 
you name a person of color that has garnered national media 
coverage? We want our missing to be household names, too, but 
when we peel back the layers, we find that these families deal 
with several stereotypes that ultimately impact the resources 
and support they receive, and our missing deserve to be treated 
equally.
    The three most common stereotypes for missing people of 
color are the runaway child, the thug or criminal, and the 
undeserving poor. From our interactions with families, we find 
that 9 out of 10 children of color reported missing are 
classified as a runaway by law enforcement, and if you're 
classified as a runaway, you do not get the AMBER Alert or any 
media attention at all. There's no urgency to find them, and 
this stigma further delays the search and steals precious time 
to collect evidence. With missing adults, particularly black 
women and girls, they're often not viewed as victims. This 
stigma hampers efforts to find them because there's a mindset 
that their action or deviant behavior led to their 
disappearance. These individuals are viewed as a burden to 
society and on our tax dollars, and we must not forget they are 
our daughters and mothers. In our nearly 14 years as an 
organization, we have seen firsthand how our Nation has become 
de-sensitized to the plight of missing people of color who come 
from marginalized communities. The perception is when someone 
of color is reported missing, no one will miss them, so why 
dedicate the resources to finding them. Race shouldn't be a 
barrier to media coverage and law enforcement support, and here 
are the challenges and possible opportunities for change.
    The data available is not robust or reliant to paint a full 
picture of the magnitude of the problem. We believe the numbers 
are much higher based on the information below. Missing Latinos 
are being classified as ``white,'' although all the research 
shows that at least 24 percent of them classify themselves as 
Afro-Latina, otherwise identifying as black. No one is keeping 
track of the whereabouts of those who are homeless, in foster 
care, or part of the social services system. In regard to law 
enforcement, there is no uniformity in policies across 
jurisdictions throughout the Nation. Specifically for 
guidelines for reporting a missing person, in some cities there 
is no time-frame limit in reporting the person missing. In 
other localities, it could be as much as 24 to 48 hours, and we 
know that time is of the essence when a person goes missing to 
collect those vital clues and evidence that could help bring 
them home. The classification of runaways should be prohibited. 
When children are reported missing, resources should be 
dedicated to find them.
    And I want to share some examples of the power of media 
coverage. Within 14 minutes of a segment airing on The View, we 
received a tip that led directly to a missing child. And I 
remember a time when a young woman went missing out of St. 
Louis and I called every single news station, and yet there was 
no interest in her story. Media coverage is important because 
it alerts the community that someone is missing, but it also 
adds pressure to law enforcement to add resources to the case, 
which increases the chance of a recovery. And earmarking funds 
for organizations, such as the Black and Missing Foundation, is 
needed to continue support for these families, and we need 
stronger sentencing guidelines for perpetrators of sex 
trafficking. Black girls are sex trafficked at a higher rate. 
They make up 40 percent of sex trafficking victims, and, sadly, 
the perception by sex traffickers is that if you traffic a 
black girl, you get less jail time.
    I will close with some promising news. Last year, HBO 
launched a four-part docu-series that provided an insider's 
look that families of color face as well as the organization in 
getting media coverage and law enforcement assistance and 
resources. The black press has been instrumental in providing 
visibility for our cases. The Black News Channel has a weekly 
missing person series on their platform. We have been invited 
to and have had conversations with some of the top national 
news outlets, and Access Hollywood has launched a monthly 
missing persons series to feature our cases. You know, we need 
to care as a Nation because it takes all of us--law 
enforcement, the media, and the community--to help bring 
awareness to and find our missing.
    Thank you.
    Ms. Kelly. Thank you so much for your testimony.
    I now recognize Chairman Raskin for five minutes for 
questions.
    Mr. Raskin. Madam Chair, thank you so much. I want to thank 
all the witnesses for this extraordinary and riveting 
testimony. And let me start, Ms. Wilson, with you. You made a 
significant point at the end there where you said that media 
coverage can actually drive police resources and the intensity 
of investigation. And you pointed out that there are dramatic 
differences in the media's propensity to cover cases of missing 
women who may be white versus missing women who may be African 
American or other people color. Can you just elaborate on that 
point a little bit and explain how the presence of media 
coverage will drive police resources and the absence of media 
coverage will have a dampening effect on police attention to a 
missing person case?
    Ms. Wilson. Right. So, we have seen that media coverage 
really adds traction to the case where law enforcement, they 
don't want to be embarrassed. They don't want to be called out 
by the community, so they then add resources to the case. I'll 
give you an example. Derrick Butler out of the District of 
Columbia, his sister was missing, and he utilized his media 
contacts. And he, you know, talked to the media quite 
frequently, and this, you know, caused law enforcement to add 
additional resources to the case. But we also have to look at 
law enforcement as the first line or the gatekeepers in getting 
that media coverage. So normally, they are the ones who would 
reach out to the local stations asking them to profile or to 
feature that missing person. So, again, media coverage is very 
vital because it alerts the community that someone is missing, 
and we are not picking on the media or law enforcement. We all 
have a responsibility. But if the community isn't aware that 
someone is missing, then they are not looking for them, and 
they normally hear about these cases through the media. And we 
have been using social media as well because we cannot wait for 
any news cycle, and we need to get this information out 
instantaneously to the best audience.
    Mr. Raskin. Thank you. Thank you for that answer. Ms. 
Foster, thank you for your testimony. I am terribly sorry for 
your loss, and I commend you for your leadership and your 
advocacy. You know, if democracy means anything, it is that the 
lives of all the people, in a moral sense, have to be treated 
equally by the government. And you said something powerful in 
your testimony about how you felt a great sense of injustice 
after your kids were kidnapped and after you lost your 
daughter, and I wonder if you would just expand upon that a 
bit. What ingredients in the legal system and in the political 
atmosphere created a new a sense of injustice about what had 
taken place?
    [No response.]
    Mr. Raskin. Ms. Foster?
    Ms. Foster. There we go. Can you hear me now?
    Mr. Raskin. I got you now, yes.
    Ms. Foster. OK. I felt a great injustice. Because of the 
death of my daughter, I saw that there were different rules 
being on the reservation, then off, and that it took her death 
to start something, and that the commitment for safety on the 
reservation wasn't as strong as I felt that it should be. So 
through that, I felt that there was an injustice because we 
lacked a lot of the infrastructure that people have off of a 
reservation. If my daughter had been abducted and taken off the 
reservation, there would have been a quicker response to start 
searching for her and start an investigation, and the things 
that I needed, the resources that I needed, would have been 
available for her. And, unfortunately, since the events 
happened on the reservation, the resources that I needed 
weren't available for her to start the search.
    Mr. Raskin. Well, thank you for making that really powerful 
point, and you experienced it as an injustice, and it was an 
injustice. And the differential investment of law enforcement 
and police resources in the Native-American communities, on the 
reservations, versus what is taking place outside is a matter 
of basic injustice and justice. And I want to thank you for 
trying to make a bad situation better by converting your pain 
into activism to make sure that future families and parents 
don't go through the nightmare that you have experienced.
    So I want to thank you and all of the witnesses for their 
activism and for their public advocacy today, and I yield back 
to you, Madam Chair.
    Ms. Kelly. Thank you, Chairman Raskin. I would now like to 
recognize the ranking member for five minutes for questions.
    Ms. Mace. Thank you, Chairwoman Kelly. And, first of all, I 
want to thank everyone for their testimony today. Mr. 
Wilkinson, thank you for serving our country. Listening to your 
testimony and Ms. Foster's testimony this morning, as a mom, it 
is very difficult to hear. And I wish everyone in the House of 
Representatives was here today to hear your story, and I wish 
those stories were told to the national press because there is 
great disparity in the national media in how black women and 
girls are covered when they are missing versus not. And this is 
a very educational hearing today, and I wish everybody could 
hear how heartbreaking your stories are of your daughters. So I 
want to say thank you.
    My first question goes to Ms. Onwuka. Can you explain why 
you believe human traffickers and other criminals frequently 
target women of women and girls of color?
    Ms. Onwuka. Thank you for your question, Ranking Member 
Mace. You know, human traffickers, I think, you know, these 
individuals who profit off of the bodies of girls and women, 
they see vulnerable women, particularly black minority women, 
as an easy target. Many of them may be coming from homes, not 
all of them, but maybe there are vulnerabilities in their 
backgrounds. They are coming from places where maybe they 
themselves are either viewing abuse, they are victims of abuse, 
they are exposed to it, they may be raped themselves, and so it 
is easy to profit off of individuals like that. And I think 
that is a fantastic opportunity for our law enforcement and our 
criminal justice system to beef up, as one of the other 
panelists mentioned earlier, the penalties for this kind of 
behavior.
    Ms. Mace. And then in terms of the last two years in the 
COVID-19 pandemic, a lot of schools have shut down. Children 
are at home. Women are at home. Women have had to leave their 
jobs. How has COVID-19 and these sorts of shutdowns affected 
women and girls of color? Has it exacerbated the situation and 
their vulnerabilities? Has it made them a greater target for 
human and sex trafficking because of that?
    Ms. Onwuka. Absolutely. So I teased it a little bit in my 
opening comments, just talking about pandemic-related 
educational and economic disruptions. An interesting study by 
the Council on Criminal Justice found that the imposition of 
lockdowns early in the pandemic--you are talking about March 
and April--led to an eight-percent increase in domestic 
violence. Another study analyzing over 39 children found that 
physical abuse of school-aged kids tripled between March and 
September 2020. What is going on here is that schools are 
opportunities, are places where people who care about our 
children, they can catch a child who is in a vulnerable place. 
And, unfortunately, because of those prolonged, protracted 
school closures--in particular, this is school-aged kids' 
closures because we don't see in some of the data the same 
impact on toddlers, on young kids who are not in public 
schools, for example--but those school-age kids, that is where, 
I think, a lot of them fell between the cracks. There is plenty 
of data and information about the learning loss that we have 
seen, the emotional toll that these pandemic closures have had. 
And so I think it is also interesting that we are seeing the 
impact on children, on women, on vulnerable populations when it 
comes to domestic violence during the pandemic.
    Ms. Mace. How do we reduce victimization of, specifically, 
women and girls of color? How do we move forward and do what is 
right by these victims?
    Ms. Onwuka. It is complex. I have heard that word mentioned 
before. When it comes to those who are experiencing violence, 
No. 1, education. I talked about it earlier. According to the 
CDC, attachment to school is a factor that protects a young 
person against dating violence, for example. So making sure 
that women, young girls, teenagers are going to school, in-
person learning. It is not just about education, as important 
as that it is. It is about ensuring they don't fall through the 
cracks. I mean, I think there is also a role for civil society 
to play. There are organizations, grassroot organizations, that 
are in neighborhoods building strong families, investing time 
being mentors to young people who could potentially, you know, 
not just fall through the cracks, but find themselves in 
criminal enterprises by no choice of their own, sometimes by 
choices of their own thinking that they are leaving for a 
better life. And so civil society plays a role there.
    And I do think that when you talk about law enforcement, 
there has to be a place where our law enforcement has the 
resources, they need to really look for these cases. And it is 
sad that we have so many cases that, I think, law enforcement 
doesn't always take it seriously. But I think if you have 
special domestic violence training where law enforcement agents 
are spending time understanding what is going on in the 
household, there is evidence to suggest that that kind of 
training is helpful in getting some sort of help to victims and 
ensuring that they don't continue to be victimized.
    Ms. Mace. Thank you, and our time is up. I yield back.
    Ms. Kelly. Thank you. I would now like to recognize the 
chair of the full committee, Chairwoman Maloney.
    Chairwoman Maloney. Thank you so much, Robin Kelly. Before 
we can grapple with the epidemic of missing and murdered women 
of color, we need to get our arms around the scope of the 
problem that is currently impossible because of gaps in Federal 
data collection. As I noted my opening statement, existing 
Federal data excludes missing Hispanic and Latino women and 
girls altogether. Mr. Bischoff, your organization has really 
done the best job in collecting data on missing girls by racial 
background, including Hispanic and Latino girls. I would like 
to put a graph of the data you have collected up on the screen.
    [Chart.]
    Chairwoman Maloney. And can you tell us about the epidemic 
of missing girls, what we are not capturing in governmental 
data?
    Mr. Bischoff. Thank you, Congresswoman Maloney. We actually 
do capture Hispanic/Latino information within our data. I know 
that varies across many organizations depending on what they 
are going to collect. We do have that. Just to give you the 
number and back to that chart, about 19.5 percent of our cases 
were Hispanic/Latino. It kind of goes in trend with that chart 
on certainly a population that very much needs services and 
assistance as well. We recognize that through our work. About 
half of our case managers are Spanish speakers. We have 
language line services to communicate in 230 different 
languages, and a majority of our publications are written in 
both English and Spanish to reach out to that community as well 
and engage with our resources.
    Chairwoman Maloney. OK. I want to ask you; do you have any 
data on what happens to these missing girls and women? Do they 
go into sex trafficking? Are they murdered? What happens? Do 
you track what happens or, if someone is found, the outcomes? I 
know you work on it. Do you capture what happens?
    Mr. Bischoff. Yes, ma'am, we do, but, honestly, in our area 
in working with social service children in care, when they are 
recovered, that is one of the gap areas that we constantly are 
working to improve. At times, we don't receive exactly what the 
recovery information was, although our case managers work daily 
to try and receive it because we know that information is 
valuable, valuable for situations like this, valuable to go 
into making the system better. We work to pull that information 
as best we can, but, unfortunately, it is either not provided 
to us always or not available at the time when we are talking 
with social workers at the time the recovery is taking place. 
We do have quite a bit of data in that area, though, when it 
relates to missing, murdered, child sex trafficking. We have 
got an entire team dedicated to the issue of child sex 
trafficking, and they do amazing work, but we are happy to 
have--yes, ma'am?
    Chairwoman Maloney. Mr. Bischoff, what percentage goes into 
sex trafficking? And congratulations on the work that you have 
done. You have filled in gaps where the government has not 
been. How many have gone into sex trafficking would you 
estimate or does your organization believe are sex trafficked, 
and how many are kidnapped?
    Mr. Bischoff. According to our 2021 data, about 1 in 6 were 
likely victims of sex trafficking. When our case managers are 
working the case, they are showing indicators. That is where 
the ``suspected'' comes from. There are indicators saying 
something else is going on here with this child in care. So 1 
in 6, I believe, is the number that you are looking for when it 
comes to child sex trafficking.
    Chairwoman Maloney. And what about kidnapping young people? 
What percentage is kidnapped?
    Mr. Bischoff. So non-family abductions is about one percent 
of our data. What many of us were raised on as far as standing 
on the street corner and being abducted, that still very much 
happens today but certainly not to the degree that it did back 
in the 1980's and 1990's. However, one area that we are 
beginning to very much focus on is online enticement.
    Chairwoman Maloney. Wow.
    Mr. Bischoff. The case may look like----
    Chairwoman Maloney. My time is almost up.
    Mr. Bischoff. I am sorry. Yes, ma'am.
    Chairwoman Maloney. I just want to ask what steps can 
Congress take to help with the data gaps, or do you think your 
group can handle it? And what can we do to protect women and 
girls?
    Mr. Bischoff. The U.S. Congress took an important step with 
the passing of the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening 
Families Act, and, more recently, the Families First Prevention 
Services Act. However, there are gaps. That legislation 
requires a report to us. It doesn't outline the information 
that needs to be provided, such as a photo, or recovery 
information, or ongoing collaboration. Additionally, the need 
for some type of centralized reporting. Thankfully, this is 
already included in the most recent version of the Frederick 
Douglass Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, 
which we had the chance to provide input to. So thank you very 
much for that.
    Chairwoman Maloney. OK. Thank you. I yield back.
    Ms. Kelly. Thank you. And now I will recognize myself for 
five minutes. And, again, I want to thank Ms. Foster and Mr. 
Wilkinson for sharing your stories.
    The Senate has recently announced a compromise to 
reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, which passed the 
House last year. Ms. Charley, I would like to start with you. 
The VAWA reauthorization compromise includes closing 
jurisdictional gaps on tribal lands. What would this mean for 
the communities you help serve?
    Ms. Charley. Thank you for that question. Right now, the 
majority of tribes throughout the United States are not able to 
prosecute non-native offenders. What that means is someone who 
is not tribal can come onto tribal land, commit these crimes, 
and not be held accountable through the tribal judicial system. 
What the new iteration of VAWA does is allow tribes to have 
expansive jurisdiction on some of these issues, including 
trafficking, and stalking, and sexual violence. It is through 
the Violence Against Women Act and the Tribal Law and Order Act 
that we seek justice for our own communities.
    Ms. Kelly. And it also includes housing protection, safe 
housing, and economic security provisions for survivors. So how 
might these provisions help women leave their abusive partners 
before the average 7th attempt to leave?
    Ms. Charley. Sure. So we know that women and victims of 
violence are able to leave their circumstances when they have 
resources, when they are well resourced. So all of these 
provisions within the Violence Against Women Act go to directly 
support our survivors with wraparound services.
    Ms. Kelly. The Ashanti Alert Act was passed in 2018 to 
close the loophole for young persons over the age of 17, young 
missing persons who are too old to have an AMBER Alert issued. 
In the HBO documentary, Black and Missing, there were several 
heartbreaking moments when family members were forced to wait a 
certain amount of time before a missing person alert could go 
out. Sometimes families were told their loved one was not 
covered by existing alert provisions, such as if they are 
classified as a runaway and not a missing person. Ms. Wilson, 
you touched on this in your opening statement. Why is it that 
black girls and other girls of color are more frequently 
classified as runaways than missing persons?
    Ms. Wilson. Thank you for that question. We believe that 
they are classified as runaways because their lives don't seem 
to matter as valuable as others, and we are trying to change 
that narrative. To know that 9 out of 10 young women or girls 
that are reported missing are classified as a runaway is really 
an injustice to them and their families. And because of that, 
they are not getting the AMBER Alert, and they are not getting 
any media coverage at all. And you saw Kennedy High's case in 
the docu-series where she was actually a victim of sex 
trafficking, but law enforcement classified her as a runaway.
    Ms. Kelly. And if you can elaborate on why such alerts are 
crucial to the search for a missing person and what impacts 
their effectiveness.
    Ms. Wilson. OK. Well, time is of the essence. If we can get 
this information out through alerts instantaneously, then the 
public can be involved and be vigilant in searching for the 
missing loved one. As time goes off, valuable clues are lost, 
and it becomes harder and harder to find that missing 
individual.
    Ms. Kelly. Finally, I would like to ask about my Protect 
Black Women and Girls Act. My bill would establish an 
interagency task force that would, first, examine the 
conditions and experiences of black women and girls in 
education, economic development, healthcare, labor and 
employment, housing justice, and civil rights. Second, it would 
promote community-based methods for mitigating and addressing 
harm and ensuring accountability; and third, study societal 
effects on black women and girls. Ms. Wilson, what would you 
hope to see come out of this interagency task force, and where 
do you think it should start?
    Ms. Wilson. Well, it can start in so many places. There are 
so many issues or reasons why people of color reported missing 
are going missing: economics and, you know, housing. There are 
so many systemic issues. I think that we can just pick one 
really and just delve deeper into it, but it is also about 
education and having the resources needed within our community 
so that we can protect those that are most vulnerable.
    Ms. Kelly. Thank you. And, Mr. Bischoff, I would ask you to 
answer as quickly as possible.
    Mr. Bischoff. I am sorry, ma'am. Can you please repeat the 
question one more time?
    Ms. Kelly. What do you hope to see come out of the 
interagency task force, and where do you think it should start?
    Mr. Bischoff. The solving of missing child cases, 
specifically, it all has to deal with collaboration. Any time 
we can have legislation go forward where there is open 
collaboration between the key components to focus on finding 
the missing child, once we accomplish that and we have the 
right people talking, we have good results in the end, most 
often.
    Ms. Kelly. Thank you. My time is up, and I would like to 
recognize Mr. Mfume.
    Mr. Mfume. Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I want to 
thank you also for your work on the bill that you just 
mentioned that is before the U.S. Congress on missing girls and 
women. It is absolutely critical that this legislation gets 
passed, and I appreciate your leadership and your sponsorship 
in that regard. I also want to thank Chairman Raskin. Jamie, 
you know we are all unified in wishing you a quick recovery and 
having you back here again but thank you as the chair of this 
subcommittee for helping to convene us so that we could have 
this discussion today. And, of course, Chairwoman Maloney, 
thank you as chair of the full committee.
    Like everyone else, my heart goes out to the witnesses, to 
those who have testified, to those who have lost family 
members. This whole notion of black, brown, multiracial, 
indigenous girls, women, and children is an issue that I think 
that the American public does not understand the full scope, 
width, and breadth of. We hear about it, we are shocked, it 
haunts us, and then the next day in the news cycle there is 
another story, but not the story about the missing person, a 
story about something else, and we go on. And, again, that 
magnitude and that scope is not particularly captured.
    As a father and a grandfather, I have absolutely no idea, 
Ms. Foster or Mr. Wilkinson, what either of you have gone 
through. You know, we try, as those not affected, to remember 
or to put ourselves in your shoes, and we think we can, but, 
honestly, we really cannot. We have no idea. And for me, it was 
always my worst nightmare watching my own sons grow up, 
believing one day that something could happen to them, or my 
granddaughters, that something could, in fact, happen to them.
    We thought, many of us when we were shocked in 1979 with 
the Atlanta child murders that nothing like this could happen 
in our country. And they weren't just child murders. They were 
children who were missing, also who were not reported. It was a 
horrible set of events like the events that we stumble onto in 
the news every now and then where some deranged person has 
decided to go out onto the streets and to kill women of the 
streets, and to dismember them, and to move on, and many of 
them had multiple victims. And oftentimes we don't find out 
about it until it is too late, way, way down the road. So I 
think those sort of disappearances and those sort of murders 
call our attention, I think, back to why this is so very 
important.
    And, Mr. Wilkinson, in your case, believe me, I first heard 
about this in 2017. I saw the appearance that you did two years 
later on The View with respect to your daughter, Akia. I know 
that four weeks ago, the state's attorney in the city made an 
arrest. Like you, I am wondering also if there is enough 
evidence there for a conviction. And, you know, I don't want to 
say it was a blessing, but it is certainly an opportunity for 
me. I wasn't in the Congress in 2017. As you know, my 
predecessor, Elijah, was here, and I am just glad to be here 
now to be able to followup on this. Years ago, when, as a 
Member of Congress in 1994, we passed the Violence Against 
Women Act, many of us thought after having voted for that, that 
we had taken a giant step forward, and we had. The fact that it 
is still unauthorized or not reauthorized for this year pains 
me, and I think it pains a lot of other people.
    So I do have to say something about the news media here, 
and I don't expect any of you to indict them, but, you know, I 
have real problems with what I don't see in the news. Years 
ago, when I was a kid, there were three stations, you know. If 
you didn't get it there, you didn't get it, but now we that 
have a plethora of stations, dozens and dozens reporting the 
news, and a news cycle. It is not just 9 to 5, but 24 hours. I 
can't for the life of me understand why situations of missing 
women and missing children are not more reported in all of that 
time block than they are now. And I agree with the witnesses 
that that sort of reporting puts pressure back on local 
officials to do all that they can and to use their resources. 
And so if newsrooms, and news directors, and assignment 
editors, and others hear us, the plea today is please use your 
resources to help publicize these cases that are happening all 
over the country against people who are defenseless so that 
your pressure on law enforcement and others, but particularly 
making the public aware, will go a long way to help us getting 
to where we need to be.
    And law enforcement, I believe, like you have said and I am 
going to repeat since I am out of time now, that there has got 
to be a prioritization of cases, that there has got to be a 
shorter response time, that there has got to be an effort, a 
deliberate, intentional effort, in the first 48 hours to use 
all available resources at your disposal to be able to put 
pressure on the perpetrators and to help push us toward solving 
many of these crimes.
    Madam Chair, I would yield back. I didn't have questions, 
but I had a comment, and I appreciate the opportunity to be 
able to express it.
    Ms. Norton. [Presiding.] The gentleman yields back, and 
those were important comments that we needed to hear.
    My question is for Ms. Foster. First, I want to thank you 
so much for your presence at this hearing and to let you know 
that you have all of our sympathies. It is hard for any of us 
to imagine what you have been going through, so I am going to 
ask you some questions about your experience which will 
enlighten us and make us know what we should do. And I ask you 
to answer as much or as little as you feel comfortable with. 
Ms. Foster, what happened when you realized that your daughter 
was missing, especially when you spoke to law enforcement? Did 
they give you any guidance about what you were supposed to do 
as a family member with someone missing? What happened first 
when you realized she was missing, and what was the reaction or 
the guidance of law enforcement?
    Ms. Foster. Well, the first thing that I imagined was 
children missing or kidnapping, in my mind, and it sounds like 
something that you would hear on the news or see in a movie, 
but those headlines in my mind became reality on May 2, 2016. 
And I endured the longest hours of my life waiting, hoping, and 
praying for my children, for their safe return. I was in shock, 
and I reached out to law enforcement, and the communication 
between law enforcement and myself was little to none. And 
trying to get word out that an abduction had occurred became 
difficult because the resources on the reservation were none, 
and so I had to reach out to social media on Facebook and make 
a report or post that my children had been abducted.
    Ms. Norton. It must have been especially hard trying to 
navigate the jurisdictional issues between tribal enforcement 
and local area enforcement. How did that impact your case?
    Ms. Foster. It impacted it a lot because when I needed help 
with the resources, they weren't available for my family on the 
reservation. The Navajo Nation had been given twice the 
opportunity to implement an AMBER Alert system, and they failed 
to do so, so that caused a strain on the search for a quick 
search for my children when we put that first word out to law 
enforcement. I felt like that the commitment for public safety 
on the reservation wasn't there, and I was in a cry for help at 
that time when I needed help and there was none.
    Ms. Norton. Well, now, how did the media treat your case? 
Did Ashlynne get any attention from the media either in print 
or on television?
    Ms. Foster. Yes. I was very grateful for the response that 
I received from social media. Family and friends reached out 
and shared my message, and they reached out to law enforcement 
off reservation. They called 9-1-1. We do have 9-1-1 calls that 
are from law enforcement off reservation that we had an 
emergency and that we needed help, we had missing children. 
Unfortunately, due to jurisdictional laws, outside agencies 
were not able to help us until they received that OK from law 
enforcement on reservation. And, unfortunately, we didn't 
receive that help until 12 hours after the abduction of my 
children.
    Ms. Norton. Finally, have you considered any laws that 
might be changed or added that could have been of assistance to 
you?
    Ms. Foster. At the time, I think when you are a parent and 
this kind of a shock hits you, it is something that we never 
ever hoped that we would have to experience, and myself, like 
many other families, were not prepared for the events that had 
unfolded so suddenly. And I thought of the need for public 
safety, and I felt that I needed to have the justice system 
redone to make it a safer place for our communities. We lacked 
an AMBER Alert on Indian Country, and I voiced my concern and 
started grassroots efforts to get one established. And I just 
felt a great need to voice my concerns for the immediate 
problems that we face on indigenous country that affect our 
women and girls.
    Ms. Norton. Oh my goodness. Thank you for being so open and 
helpful to this committee.
    The next five minutes to Representative Ocasio-Cortez.
    Ms. Ocasio-Cortez. Thank you so much, and thank you to all 
of our witnesses here today for shedding light on such an 
important issue. We have a crisis of missing and murdered 
indigenous and black women in the United States. Today I want 
to discuss part of this crisis that is all too often overlooked 
but whose evidence shows that there is a very meaningful 
connection here: the correlation between fossil fuel extraction 
sites and abductions and murders of indigenous women across the 
United States. We are very lucky to have Ms. Angel Charley here 
with us today to start that conversation.
    Ms. Charley let's start at the top. Can you draw a brief 
and introductory picture of how fossil fuel extraction efforts 
expose indigenous women to physical and often sexual violence? 
Why is it that oil, gas, and fossil fuel extraction sites have 
such a high correlation of violence and abduction against 
native women?
    Ms. Charley. Thank you for that question. The fossil fuel 
industry creates man camps or temporary settlements that often 
exist right outside the borderlands of indigenous communities. 
As I stated earlier, many tribes do not have tribal 
jurisdiction over non-native offenders, which a majority of 
these oil workers are. We know that when these man camps or 
temporary establishments are created, that there is an increase 
in violence and, particularly, sexual violence against our 
native women.
    Ms. Ocasio-Cortez. So when there is an in fossil fuel 
extraction-sites that is placed on a reservation, and those oil 
company workers go to the reservation and have that site, if 
they commit a crime and commit violence against indigenous 
women, you are saying that they essentially escape jurisdiction 
from having a clear path to accountability because of where 
these sites are happening. Is that correct?
    Ms. Charley. That is correct.
    Ms. Ocasio-Cortez. Wow. Ms. Charley, am I right to 
understand that companies building these oil pipelines are 
often ruthless in their resistance against protesters and 
sometimes even encouraging violence against them?
    Ms. Charley. That is correct.
    Ms. Ocasio-Cortez. And we are seeing some of this getting 
backed up with state legislatures, especially after Standing 
Rock and other places, authorizing and almost legalizing the 
use of violence against fossil fuel protesters, correct?
    Ms. Charley. That is correct.
    Ms. Ocasio-Cortez. And is it correct that these companies 
often work directly with local police departments to subdue 
protests in this matter, sometimes going so far as to pay local 
police departments directly for their overtime?
    Ms. Charley. Yes.
    Ms. Ocasio-Cortez. So what we are seeing here is that local 
police departments on fossil fuel extraction-sites that are 
placed strategically on reservations and native lands, those 
fossil fuel companies pay local police departments to protect 
their extraction-sites, even when workers are raping and 
murdering indigenous women?
    Ms. Charley. Yes.
    Ms. Ocasio-Cortez. Can you tell us how this collaboration 
between law enforcement and fossil fuel companies puts 
indigenous women, in particular, at heightened risk of 
abduction and murder?
    Ms. Charley. This is a continuation of state violence 
against indigenous women.
    Ms. Ocasio-Cortez. Thank you, Ms. Charley. I know this is a 
very difficult topic to discuss, and I thank you so much for 
your testimony today, and I think what we see here is that the 
data speaks for itself. Just this February, pipeline workers 
associated with the development of Line 3 were arrested for sex 
trafficking. The ACLU of North Dakota also reported that 411 
missing, murdered, and indigenous people were kidnapped or 
murdered in states affiliated with pipeline projects, and that 
10 percent of these cases occurred in counties where the 
Keystone Pipeline alone is proposed to be built.
    Ms. Charley, in your testimony, you stated that the root 
inaction that families face is the devaluation of indigenous 
lives since the onset of colonization, so I want to end by 
turning it over to you. What would you say is the most 
important thing that can be done now to address the problem of 
missing and murdered indigenous women?
    Ms. Charley. Tribal nations need to be able to fully 
prosecute the crimes which happen in our communities. We need 
VAWA legislation passed. We need extractive industries out of 
our communities. We know that what happens to our land happens 
to our women and happens to our bodies. It is an injustice on 
the part of the U.S. Government to have these institutions 
unregulated in our communities.
    Ms. Ocasio-Cortez. Thank you very much.
    Ms. Norton. Thank you very much for those important 
questions and the responses. I recognize myself for five 
minutes.
    Every person who goes missing is a tragedy, but there is a 
notable difference in the way law enforcement tends to treat 
white women and women of color. This question is for Ms. 
Wilson. Black and brown women are often viewed as somehow 
responsible for their situations while white women are viewed 
as vulnerable victims. For example, disappearances of black and 
brown adults are frequently associated with criminal activity, 
and black and brown kids are seen as runaways. So, Ms. Wilson, 
why, in your view, are black women and girls treated so 
differently by law enforcement, and how does this disparate 
treatment affect black communities? First, why are they treated 
differently, then how does that kind of disparate treatment 
affect black communities and the disproportionate rates we see 
of missing black and brown girls?
    Ms. Wilson. Well, thank you for that question. We notice, 
and we hear this from families all the time, that black and 
brown girls are not seen as victims, and, oftentimes, they are 
adultified. So the perception is that whatever happens to them, 
they deserve it, and because they come from a poor or 
impoverished, marginalized community, that sort of deviant 
behavior is acceptable, and that is what happens there. And the 
Black and Missing Foundation, we are trying to change that 
narrative, that these are mothers, and daughters, and sisters, 
and grandparents that are missing at an alarming rate. And, 
again, classifying a missing person or a child as a runaway, 
you know, no one seems to care because they are getting what 
they deserve because they left home voluntarily, but we really 
need to look at the underlying issues. Why are these children, 
these girls leaving home? What is happening in the home, and, 
ultimately, what are they running away to because we know that 
many of them are lured into sex trafficking.
    Ms. Norton. Oh my. Mr. Wilkinson, you have my sympathies as 
well for the loss of your daughter. I can't say enough about 
that. And I know this is tough, but I would like to ask about 
your experience with law enforcement when she went missing. How 
did law enforcement treat your daughter's case?
    Mr. Wilkinson. From the onset of my daughter's case, it 
seemed to me to be joking, not saying that they were not doing 
their jobs. However, in the unfortunate demise of my daughter, 
her case was not reported until four days later after she was 
expected to have gone missing, which added an additional trauma 
and maybe additional support in finding her.
    Ms. Norton. How come it took four days?
    Mr. Wilkinson. She wasn't reported missing until four days 
after she was suspected of gone missing by her family. She went 
missing on May 3, but she wasn't reported missing until May 7 
because she wasn't able to be contacted, but it wasn't until 
her baby shower when she didn't show up that she was reported 
missing. But then again, and even after she was reported 
missing, the police seemingly didn't get involved until a month 
later when her child--her unborn son is what we believe now--
was not found to be born in any hospital. And that is when the 
Baltimore City Police Department, they actually calculated that 
foul play had been involved in her missing status. So four days 
on top of a month calculated, that 48 hours or 72 reporting 
period was already out the window.
    The lack of judgment, again, as Ms. Wilson has already 
stated, that our loved ones are considered runaways was thrown 
at us as well. So people of color are getting it on both sides 
of the fence, law enforcement and judicial system. And in this 
case, in my daughter's case, a five-year stint to find her, to 
find the person that did this to her, has just exacerbated our 
frustrations.
    Ms. Norton. Thank you, Mr. Wilkinson, for being so open 
with us.
    I recognize Mr. Mfume for five minutes.
    Mr. Mfume. Thank you again, Madam Chair. Mr. Wilkinson, I 
don't want to belabor this. I realize that both with you and 
Ms. Foster, reliving these moments and memories is not the best 
thing, but I have to tell you that I am really deeply troubled 
by the fact that your daughter, Akia--and I want to call her 
name and I hope that others continue to call her name--didn't 
show up for her own baby shower. There is a report that she is 
missing, and law enforcement doesn't take it seriously until 30 
days or so after that because she was pregnant and because 
there was no proof of a baby being born in a hospital in a 
certain radius. Then it became, I am led to believe, something 
that they were involved in. Is that right?
    Mr. Wilkinson. Yes, sir.
    Mr. Mfume. OK. This is why I said earlier that this hearing 
is so very important because we who are here, and those of you 
who are there, and the others who are participating and 
watching, we have got to keep reminding people again of the 
breadth and the scope of this problem in our country. Ms. 
Charley, I would like to ask if you would share with the 
committee any similarities or any differences that your 
coalition has identified in the media's treatment of missing 
indigenous women.
    Ms. Charley. Thank you for that question. In my testimony 
earlier, I shared the experience of a mother who I met with 
last week. Her daughter is actively missing. She is receiving 
phone calls weekly from the investigating detective. What she 
continues to do is get out in public and advocate for herself 
at rallies. It is communities. The missing and murdered 
indigenous women crisis is a grassroots movement, meaning 
people are in the streets marching. They are holding their own 
rallies or pulling together media efforts on our own, and this 
is where the stories are told. Media is not coming to our 
communities and asking these questions. We are seeking these 
opportunities and demanding them.
    Mr. Mfume. Thank you. And Madam Chair, in the time left, I 
would like to ask Mr. Bischoff if he would take a moment to 
comment on this whole issue of family and peer support for 
families that are experiencing missing or exploited children. 
And if you could talk a bit about what the National Center for 
Missing and Exploited Children is doing or offering in that 
regard, I would appreciate it.
    Mr. Bischoff. Yes, sir. Thank you and thank you for the 
question. We have an entire Family Advocacy Division who works 
with the parents, with the family of the missing child, and 
working to ensure that the environment that the child is 
returned home to hopefully safely, hopefully quickly, is 
appropriate and the family is set up for reunification, 
especially in the time of long-term missing child cases. Some 
of our cases that our Family Advocacy Division is working to 
support are, at times, long-term missing children where there 
has been a period of time between the last time the family had 
seen the child and today. So they work with the family to 
ensure that the family has the right things to say and the 
right support services to carry on.
    Another area that we have is our Team Hope, which is a 
group of volunteers, parents who have suffered either formally 
or currently a missing or an exploited child, and they engage 
with the family as well because they can speak on the same 
level. They know the emotions. They know the strains that the 
family is going through, and they can help the family work 
through these emotions, once again, to keep the family together 
because the family is going to be the most important, second to 
the child, to make sure that the child returns to a good 
environment and the family stays together.
    Mr. Mfume. Thank you very much, Mr. Bischoff. Madam Chair, 
I am just sitting here kind of frustrated having served in this 
body for 10 years and then leaving for 24 and coming back and 
seeing that so many of the issues that plagued this Congress in 
this country are still with us and unresolved. So, again, I 
want to commend Chairman Raskin and all the members of this 
subcommittee who are absolutely devoted to trying to find a way 
to make sure that that sort of thing is not replicated or 
duplicated 10, 15, 20 years down the road by pushing this 
Congress to do whatever we can in our power after hearing this 
testimony to make real changes. I yield back. Thank you very 
much.
    Ms. Norton. Thank you, Mr. Mfume, and thank you for that 
historical perspective as well.
    Finally, I want to recognize Mr. Raskin to close out of 
this hearing for his five minutes.
    Mr. Raskin. Well, thank you very much, Congresswoman 
Norton, and, Congressman Mfume, thank you for those very 
stirring and moving words that you just gave us, both on the 
historical perspective, as Ms. Norton says, but also about what 
this means to fathers, and mothers, and families. Mr. 
Wilkinson's testimony is absolutely searing as is Ms. Foster's, 
and it is an excruciating thing to contemplate from the 
standpoint of mothers, and fathers, and brothers, and sisters, 
and other family members.
    But Mr. Mfume reminds us that, you know, this is not like a 
peripheral issue. It is so often treated as kind of a marginal 
thing. It is like a detail, and this is why we have organized 
political society. You know, if you read the social contract 
philosophers, like Hobbes, and Locke, and Rousseau, the whole 
idea is that we enter into a civil society because our bodies, 
our property, our families will be safer and more secure than 
we would be just out in a state of nature. And yet the social 
contract is not working if we are losing hundreds of thousands 
of women and girls every year, and if that has a 
disproportionate effect on minority communities, then it is 
that much more of a rupture of the basic social contract. If 
Mr. Wilkinson is still with us, I just wanted to ask him one 
question, which is, does he see grounds for optimism in terms 
of society, those of us in government, addressing this problem 
meaningfully.
    Mr. Wilkinson. I do. However, my concern is that it is not 
happening fast enough. The resources that are needed are not 
being provided fast enough, that the people on this panel are 
not seeing the results fast enough, that our black and 
indigenous people or women of color are being violated faster 
than the resolution can be presented to it. So yes, but no in 
the same statement.
    Mr. Raskin. All right. Well, we will take that with some 
cautious optimism that things are moving the right direction 
but far too slowly, and we all need to redouble our efforts 
both to galvanize national attention to the problem and then to 
make these legislative changes we have been talking about 
today. I thank you, Ms. Norton--Madam Chair--for filling in 
there, and I thank all of our witnesses today for participating 
in a really important hearing. I yield back.
    Ms. Norton. Well, thank you, Chairman Raskin. All of us are 
hoping for you. You are looking good, so I think that is a good 
sign, at least from here.
    In closing, I want to thank our panelists for their very 
important remarks. They have been very helpful to the 
committee. I want to commend my colleagues for their 
participation and their important questions in this 
conversation.
    With that and without objection, all members will have five 
legislative days within which to submit additional written 
questions for the witnesses to the chair, which will be 
forwarded to the witnesses for their response. I ask our 
witnesses to please respond as quickly as possible.
    Ms. Norton. This hearing is adjourned.
    [Whereupon, at 12:29 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]

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