[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 30 (Thursday, February 15, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H1200-H1201]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    JENNIFER'S STORY OF TRAFFICKING

  (Mr. POE of Texas asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. POE of Texas. Madam Speaker, Jennifer's childhood was violently 
chaotic. By her early twenties, she was living on the streets, begging 
and stealing to survive.
  After a local gang member suspected that she may have stolen his 
money, her life became even more horrific and hellish. The gangster 
beat her mercilessly with a baseball bat until she collapsed, and then 
he and other gang members pistol-whipped her and burned her with 
cigarettes. They tattooed their names all over her body, branding her 
as property. For 6 years, they held her in slavery, forcing her to have 
sex with countless men for money.
  Desperate, Jennifer tried to kill herself, but when the rope broke, 
she resolved to escape. Luckily for Jennifer, she found a shelter and 
was able to rebuild her life. She covered up the traffickers' names 
with flowers and the words ``free yourself.''
  We, as a society, owe it to Jennifer and survivors like her to 
protect them

[[Page H1201]]

and put the slave masters in the jailhouse, where they belong.
  And that is just the way it is.

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