[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 116 (Wednesday, July 23, 2014)]
[House]
[Pages H6727-H6730]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
HUMAN TRAFFICKING DETECTION ACT OF 2014
Mrs. BROOKS of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and
pass the bill (H.R. 5116) to direct the Secretary of Homeland Security
to train Department of Homeland Security personnel how to effectively
deter, detect, disrupt, and prevent human trafficking during the course
of their primary roles and responsibilities, and for other purposes.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 5116
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Human Trafficking Detection
Act of 2014''.
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) Department.--The term ``Department'' means the
Department of Homeland Security.
(2) Human trafficking.--The term ``human trafficking''
means an act or practice described in paragraph (9) or (10)
of section 103 of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of
2000 (22 U.S.C. 7102).
(3) Secretary.--The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary
of Homeland Security.
SEC. 3. TRAINING FOR DEPARTMENT PERSONNEL TO IDENTIFY HUMAN
TRAFFICKING.
(a) In General.--Not later than 180 days after the date of
enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall implement a
program to--
(1) train and periodically retrain relevant Transportation
Security Administration, U.S. Customs and Border Protection,
and other Department personnel that the Secretary considers
appropriate, how to effectively deter, detect, and disrupt
human trafficking, and, where appropriate, interdict a
suspected perpetrator of human trafficking, during the course
of their primary roles and responsibilities; and
(2) ensure that the personnel referred to in paragraph (1)
regularly receive current information on matters related to
the detection of human trafficking, including information
that becomes available outside of the Department's initial or
periodic retraining schedule, to the extent relevant to their
official duties and consistent with applicable information
and privacy laws.
(b) Training Described.--The training referred to in
subsection (a) may be conducted through in-class or virtual
learning capabilities, and shall include--
(1) methods for identifying suspected victims of human
trafficking and, where appropriate, perpetrators of human
trafficking;
(2) for appropriate personnel, methods to approach a
suspected victim of human trafficking, where appropriate, in
a manner that is sensitive to the suspected victim and is not
likely to alert a suspected perpetrator of human trafficking;
(3) training that is most appropriate for a particular
location or environment in which the personnel receiving such
training perform their official duties;
(4) other topics determined by the Secretary to be
appropriate; and
(5) a post-training evaluation for personnel receiving the
training.
(c) Training Curriculum Review.--The Secretary shall
annually reassess the training program established under
subsection (a) to ensure it is consistent with current
techniques, patterns, and trends associated with human
trafficking.
SEC. 4. CERTIFICATION AND REPORT TO CONGRESS.
(a) Certification.--Not later than one year after the date
of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall certify to
the appropriate congressional committees that all personnel
referred to in section 3(a) have successfully completed the
training required under that section.
(b) Report to Congress.--Not later than one year after the
date of the enactment of this Act and annually thereafter,
the Secretary shall report to the appropriate congressional
committees the overall effectiveness of the program required
by this Act, the number of cases reported by Department
personnel in which human trafficking was suspected and, of
those cases, the number of cases that were confirmed cases of
such trafficking.
SEC. 5. ASSISTANCE TO NON-FEDERAL ENTITIES.
The Secretary may provide training curricula to any State,
local, or tribal government or private organization to assist
such entity in establishing its program of training to
identify human trafficking, upon request from such entity.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentlewoman from
Indiana (Mrs. Brooks) and the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Loretta
Sanchez) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Indiana.
General Leave
Mrs. BROOKS of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all
Members have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their
remarks and include any extraneous material on the bill under
consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentlewoman from Indiana?
There was no objection.
Mrs. BROOKS of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I
may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 5116, the Human
Trafficking Detection Act of 2014, sponsored by the gentleman from
North Carolina (Mr. Meadows).
This bill requires the Department of Homeland Security to implement a
human trafficking awareness training program for Customs and Border
Protection, Transportation Security Administration, and other DHS
personnel which is tailored to their professional roles and
responsibilities.
Additionally, it directs the Secretary of Homeland Security to
annually assess and update training, as needed, based on current human
trafficking trends and then report to Congress on the number of
suspected and confirmed trafficking cases reported by DHS officials.
Lastly, it authorizes DHS to provide training curricula to non-
Federal entities that request assistance in setting up their own
programs. The Committee on Homeland Security expects that this bill
will primarily codify already existing training programs within the
Department, thereby having little or no implementation costs.
Mr. Speaker, DHS plays a critical role in combating human trafficking
which has, unfortunately, become one of the most profitable forms of
transnational crime in the world, amounting to a $32 billion per year
industry.
Trafficked individuals are often forced into prostitution and labor,
and an estimated 100,000 U.S. children are victims of trafficking each
year. This modern-day form of slavery is a heinous stain on our
society.
Moreover, CBP personnel are often the first to come into contact with
unaccompanied minors crossing the border, which we are seeing on a
daily basis now. It has become a significant humanitarian crisis that
must be addressed.
While these children are crossing under a variety of circumstances,
it is imperative that DHS personnel encountering them are adequately
trained to detect potential victims of trafficking and respond most
appropriately.
As a member of the Committee on Homeland Security and chair of the
Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Communications, I
believe it is critical that we continue to equip Department of Homeland
Security personnel with up-to-date training and the tools to detect and
counter this growing challenge, including Federal Emergency Management
Agency, FEMA, employees and others who often are working on the front
lines with local communities, and
[[Page H6728]]
we know they are working on the front lines of the southern border as
we speak.
{time} 1930
H.R. 5116 would not only strengthen and codify training requirements
for DHS, but it would also provide Congress with a clearer picture of
the effectiveness of the training, as well as the number of suspected
and confirmed instances of human trafficking reported by DHS officials.
Finally, this bill will encourage partnerships between DHS, State,
local, and tribal governments, as well as private organizations, to set
up additional training programs, raise broader awareness, and further
enable these entities to become a force multiplier in human trafficking
detection and prevention efforts.
I commend Congressman Meadows for introducing this bill, as well as
the chairman of the full committee, Mr. McCall, the chairman of the
Subcommittee on Transportation Security, Mr. Hudson, and the ranking
member of the subcommittee and the ranking member, who is here in the
Chamber today, for the fact that we are working on this in a bipartisan
way. I appreciate their continued attention to this critical issue.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 5116, and I reserve
the balance of my time.
Ms. LORETTA SANCHEZ of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong
support of H.R. 5116, the Human Trafficking Detection Act of 2014, and
I yield myself as much time as I may consume.
This whole issue of human trafficking is one, in my 18 years in the
Congress, that I have been working significantly on. I sit on the
Homeland Security Committee, and one of the things that we were able to
do many years ago was to direct funds actually into my area, into
Orange County, California, to work on a collaboration of State
agencies, police officers, and the Federal Government, and we funded
this to make one of the first task forces on human trafficking in our
Nation. Originally, there were six, and we were one of six. Now they
are, I think, in the double digits.
So we have learned a lot. We have learned a lot about human
trafficking. We have learned that there are some countries that are
initiation or supply countries. There are some that just transit these
young people, these children, these women. We have also learned that
there are destination countries or demand countries, and, of course,
the United States is one of the largest demand countries. We are also a
transit country because we take our own children from one State and put
them in the other States. We are also a supply country because we use
our own children in this human trafficking process, these terrible
people who do this. They are really just, most of the time, about
making money any way they can.
So what we know is that there are many children being trafficked
across our State lines, but also across our borders. They come in
through our airports. They come in through boats in Miami and my State
of California, and, yes, they pour across our borders just as we see
the humanitarian crisis that my colleague mentioned earlier.
So some of the people who first see these young children, for
example, or these women who are being trafficked are going to be our
Customs people. They are going to be our Border Patrol. As you can
imagine, depending on the circumstance, they have got a lot of other
things going on in their mind. They are trying to stem people from
coming across. They are trying to figure out whether these people have
drugs in their stuff, and so they may not notice what you can notice,
and that is the trafficking of people, because in order to traffic that
person, you have got to have the trafficker coming along with them.
So, if we train them, if we give them the tools, our Department of
Homeland Security, our Customs, our Border Patrol people, our transport
people will have a better idea and will be able to see almost
immediately, which is what I have learned to do through this task force
that we have. The signs are always there. It is do we know, do we have
something in our mind that can show us what is happening?
Now, the Department of Homeland Security has obviously tried, but
they have got a lot of things that they have got to work with. So by
actually doing and increasing the awareness and increasing the training
of our frontline employees, we will do a better job. We will do a
better job of stopping this trafficking.
I thank the other side for working with us to ensure that this bill
moves forward and becomes law to give that additional training that I
believe our Department of Homeland Security employees need and want.
With that, I will reserve the balance of my time.
Mrs. BROOKS of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, I yield as much time as he may
consume to the distinguished gentleman from North Carolina (Mr.
Meadows), the sponsor of the legislation.
Mr. MEADOWS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the gentlewoman from
Indiana for her leadership on this particular issue and for her time
and her eloquent remarks in introducing this particular piece of
legislation.
I would also like to thank the gentlewoman from California who is
leading from the other side of the aisle. Much is made of headlines
where the dysfunction of Washington, D.C., is in every newspaper on how
things do not work, and yet a few hundred feet away from me is a
gentlewoman from California representing a constituency many, many
miles away from my home State of North Carolina. So today we are not
only reaching across the aisle, but we are reaching across the country
from California to North Carolina, because human trafficking affects us
all.
I was first made aware of this by my daughter who was 15 years old
when she did a report on human trafficking. I thought it was one of
those things that was not a big deal until she informed me that it was
in our backyard. It was in our neighborhoods. It was in our
communities. Right now, some estimated 23 million people are
trafficked, are caught up in human trafficking. And to give you a
perspective of that, that equals a number that is very close to another
slavery that we know as a horrific blight on our Nation and our world--
the African slave trade. Today we have more people caught up in modern-
day slavery than at the height of that particular time, yet somehow we
continue to not address it. So hopefully on our watch, Mr. Speaker, we
will address that.
Mr. Speaker, I want to provide a little bit of the context of this
particular bill. The genesis of it came from a hearing. Many times we
have hearings over and over, Mr. Speaker. Some people say, well, why do
you continue to have those hearings?
We had some Delta Airline flight attendants who came in to a hearing.
They were talking about the effort that they went through, on a
voluntary basis, to set up a program to train their flight attendants
and, ultimately, now all of their customer service representatives who
see people on a day-by-day basis, they trained them to recognize those
that are being trafficked. Yet they did this on their own. So from
that, we felt like it would be a good idea to not only partner with
them, but to provide that same type of training for the Federal workers
that get to see these people at our borders, in our airports, and
places across our Nation.
I want to thank Chairman McCaul, Chairman Hudson, Mr. O'Rourke, and
the entire Homeland Security Committee staff for their hard work on
working on this bill to make it not only one that hopefully will be a
useful tool, but also one that will make a difference. It is estimated
that there is no additional cost for providing this training, and yet
the benefits will be great.
Tens of thousands of people are trafficked through the United States
every year, 80 percent of whom are exploited sexually, two-thirds of
them women, but more accurately, most of them little girls.
We must stand together in a bipartisan way, and I thank my colleague
across the aisle for working with us and her leadership on this. But if
we are successful--well, the word should not be ``if.'' When we are
successful, Mr. Speaker, we will have saved thousands of lives, and we
will have changed thousands of lives. So it is with great humility that
I ask my colleagues to come together and support this piece of
legislation.
Ms. LORETTA SANCHEZ of California. Mr. Speaker, I have no more
[[Page H6729]]
speakers. If the gentlewoman from Indiana has no more speakers, then I
am prepared to close.
Mr. Speaker, first of all, I would like to applaud Representative
Meadows for introducing what I think is a very important piece of
legislation in a bipartisan manner, and I am thankful that he cares
enough and that he has a daughter who wrote a report.
These people who are trafficked live amongst us. In particular, they
live in areas where there is lots of diversity, where there are lots of
people going about doing their business, in crowded areas a lot.
Trafficked, you are right, they are exploited for sexual purposes,
about 70 percent of them; but the other 30 percent are used in homes in
domestic servitude not even getting, sometimes, to sleep in a bed of
the very house where they are worked as a slave, sleeping on the floor
and getting the crumbs off the table. We have seen that. We have seen
that in Orange County, California, in one of the richest areas of the
Nation. In one of the nicest homes this was happening with a little
Egyptian girl who was there who had been trafficked in by a family.
If it is not domestic and it is not sexual, then it is sweatshops
where people literally have their passports and their papers taken away
and they are working 18 or 19 hours a day, not being paid and barely
being fed. So they are all around us.
Americans have to open up their eyes. We have to see it in our
neighborhoods, and, of course, we have to stop them as they bring them
from other countries. That is why I believe that our Nation's screeners
and our Customs officers serve as the eyes and the ears on the front
line of our ports of entry and exit from the United States. If they are
properly trained, then they will see it, and they can help stop it.
Lastly, I am very grateful that tonight we have had a series of bills
with respect to human trafficking. I just want to remind my colleagues
that this humanitarian crisis we see on our southern border, that many
of those children also have faced what we are talking about tonight;
and, in order to stop it, we have to be as generous as possible with
those young people to restart their lives.
With that, Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to say ``yes'' to this
bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.
Mrs. BROOKS of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, as I close, this bill, which
will ensure that valuable human trafficking awareness training is
provided to DHS employees, and that is so very important, the
gentlewoman from California reminded me that when I was United States
attorney between 2001 and 2007, we started one of the human trafficking
task forces in Indianapolis.
At that time, human trafficking was not really a concept that law
enforcement really understood, and so trafficking task forces did start
up in this country. They have grown, and we have put a lot of resources
at the local and State level educating law enforcement, nonprofit
groups, and neighborhood groups to understand what human trafficking
is.
{time} 1845
I think what this bill does is it strengthens for the Federal
employees, the Department of Homeland Security employees, their
training so that they, as the gentlewoman from California mentioned,
they who have so many responsibilities, whether they are coming through
our ports, whether they are coming through our airports, whether they
are coming through our borders, they need the same type of training, if
not enhanced training, than what they already have. And providing DHS
employees with the tools to identify and appropriately respond to the
potential victims of human trafficking will only serve as a force
multiplier as we work to combat this terrible crime. I urge all Members
to join me in supporting this legislation.
I yield back the balance of my time.
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, as a senior member of the Judiciary and
Homeland Security Committees, I rise in strong support of H.R. 5116,
``Human Trafficking Detection Act of 2014.''
I support this bipartisan legislation which ensures that
Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Customs and Border
Protection (CBP), and other Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
personnel the Secretary deems appropriate are trained to effectively
detect, intercept, and disrupt human trafficking in a manner relevant
to their professional roles and responsibilities.
As the ranking member on the House Committee on Homeland Security's
Subcommittee on Border and Maritime Security, I would like to take this
opportunity to thank the men and women of the U.S. Customs and Border
Protection agency who do yeoman work on the front lines in combating
human trafficking and rescuing its victims.
Mr. Speaker, worldwide there are at least 20.9 million adults and
children human trafficking victims living as forced low-wage workers
and exploited as objects of sexual pleasure; and 1.4 million persons
are victims of national and transnational sex trafficking.
I have long advocated declaring unconditional war on human
trafficking and I am pleased that the Homeland Security Committee is
taking a leading role in this effort.
The legislation before us will result in a significant enhancement of
DHS's capability to combat human trafficking and does so in a way that
allows the department necessary flexibility in providing training.
Departmental personnel may be trained in-class or through virtual,
computer-based learning programs. In either case, the training provided
will include methods for:
1. identifying specific indicators of human trafficking victims and
perpetrators; and
2. where appropriate, approaching victims of trafficking in a manner
that is sensitive to the potential victim and includes steps to avoid
alerting potential perpetrators of human trafficking.
The legislation requires the Secretary to certify to the relevant
committees that all described personnel have received the training, as
well as submit a report to the committees on the overall effectiveness
of the program, as well as the number of reported cases by DHS
personnel and which of those cases were confirmed cases of human
trafficking no later than one year after enactment.
Mr. Speaker, trafficking in humans, and especially domestic child
trafficking, has no place in a civilized society. Those who engage in
this illicit trade should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the
law.
Approximately 600,000 and 800,000 victims are moved across
international borders every year and subjected to compelled service and
millions more are enslaved domestically within their own countries.
Mr. Speaker, Texas has one of the longest international borders in
the world, a 1254 mile border it shares with Mexico, our good neighbor
to the South.
Texas also has a major federal highway Interstate I-10 which
traverses the Southern United States from the state of Florida to the
state of California.
Human trafficking is a problem for the United States because the U.S.
State Department estimates that approximately 17,500 foreign nationals
are trafficked into the United States, the largest number of people
trafficked into the United States come from East Asia and the Pacific
and the next highest numbers coming from Latin America and Europe.
I support H.R. 5116 because it is another important tool in the
national arsenal to combat and eradicate the scourge of human
trafficking.
I urge all of my colleagues to join me in supporting passage of H.R.
5116.
Mr. McCAUL. Mr. Speaker, I strongly support H.R. 5116, The Human
Trafficking Detection Act of 2014.
I am proud to be an original cosponsor of this important, bipartisan
legislation, which will ensure that DHS personnel continue to receive
the training they need to detect and disrupt human trafficking.
As Chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security, I recently
convened a field hearing in Houston to examine the issue of human
trafficking. At the hearing, the Committee heard compelling and
disturbing testimony on how human trafficking is destroying the lives
of vulnerable populations across the globe, including here in the
United States.
Simply put, human trafficking is a despicable crime, and it must be
stopped. I believe this bill is an excellent step towards that goal.
The Human Trafficking Detecting Act of 2014 would ensure that U.S.
Customs and Border Protection, Transportation Security Administration,
and other Department of Homeland Security personnel are trained to
effectively detect, and to the extent appropriate, intercept and
disrupt trafficking in persons during the course of their normal roles
and responsibilities. Not only would this legislation require effective
training, it would also ensure that these employees are regularly
provided with the most current trends and information on human
trafficking and are adequately equipped to counter this growing
problem.
While the men and women at DHS carry out their everyday work, many of
them are well-positioned to spot traffickers who may try to exploit our
nation's transportation systems to move their victims, both from
overseas and within our borders.
[[Page H6730]]
H.R. 5116 also ensures that Congress has insight into the level of
success of the training being provided, and that the Department's State
and local partners have full access to training curricula to establish
their own trafficking awareness programs.
I applaud Mr. Meadows for introducing this legislation, and I urge
all of my colleagues to vote yes on this common-sense measure.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentlewoman from Indiana (Mrs. Brooks) that the House suspend the rules
and pass the bill, H.R. 5116.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________