[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 4 (Monday, January 8, 2018)]
[House]
[Page H8]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1915
                           SHAME TRAFFICKERS

  (Mr. POE of Texas asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, the deviants of the slave trade 
operate all around us. Human trafficking occurs in our country, our 
States, and in our cities.
  January, Human Trafficking Awareness Month, seeks to bring light to 
this scourge against humanity: nothing more than modern-day slavery.
  We must not only remain vigilant but must go after the buyers and 
sellers in the sex trafficking trade. This is one of them right here.
  That is why I have introduced, along with Carolyn Maloney, the Shame 
Act, to expose the identity of convicted traffickers and buyers of 
human beings.
  The Shame Act allows judges to publish the names and photographs of 
convicted traffickers and buyers in public places, such as on 
billboards.
  Mr. Speaker, as a judge in Texas, I successfully used shame 
punishment. It worked. Dubbed ``poetic justice'' by the media, I 
learned that the last thing criminals want are their faces exposed to 
the public.
  Traffickers and buyers must know they cannot hide behind their 
dastardly crimes. It is time to send a message loud and clear about 
human trafficking: not in our cities, not in our States, not in our 
Nation, not anymore.
  And that is just the way it is.

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