[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 20 (Tuesday, January 30, 2018)]
[House]
[Page H688]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                GIVE HUMAN TRAFFICKING SURVIVORS RELIEF

  (Ms. GABBARD asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Ms. GABBARD. Madam Speaker, too often when we think about human 
trafficking as a tragedy, we think about it as something that goes on 
in someone else's country, in some other place other than our home.
  Most people are surprised to find out that thousands of men, women, 
and children right here in the United States are enslaved by human 
trafficking every year. In my home State of Hawaii, an estimated 1,500 
to 2,500 victims are impacted each year with girls as young as 10 and 
11 years old recruited and kidnapped from malls, beaches, and schools.
  So as we work to confront and stop perpetrators of human trafficking, 
we also need to change the way that we treat survivors of this heinous 
crime. Because even after the horrors that these individuals go through 
of rape, physical abuse, kidnapping, and so much more, these survivors 
are too often charged as criminals themselves, thrown in jail, and 
shackled with a criminal record that follows them wherever they go.
  We need to end this cycle of criminalization and give survivors an 
opportunity to heal and move on with their lives by passing the 
Trafficking Survivors Relief Act.
  Madam Speaker, as Human Trafficking Awareness Month comes to a close, 
I urge my colleagues to join me, to pass this important legislation and 
empower change for those who need it the most

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