[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 17]
[House]
[Page 23256]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




   ANNOUNCING PREMIER OF ``HUMAN TRAFFICKING'' ON LIFETIME TV NETWORK

  (Mr. SMITH of New Jersey asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. ``Do you think it is possible when you have 
lost your humanity to ever find it again?''
  So asks Helena, a fictitious but all too real human trafficking 
victim from Prague after describing how she was raped and abused to ICE 
law enforcement agent Kate Morozov, played brilliantly by Academy 
Award-winning actress Mira Sorvino in Lifetime TV Network's mini series 
Human Trafficking, to be aired next week.
  My wife Marie and I have watched the entire trafficking movie last 
night, and we were moved to tears by this extraordinarily accurate 
portrayal of sex slavery from the eyes of victims, and the dedicated 
law enforcement agents trying to effectuate their rescue.
  My wife and I and my staff have been fighting sex trafficking, Mr. 
Speaker, since the late 1990s, when there was utter disbelief about 
whether or not it even existed. Sadly, it does. I would note 
parenthetically that I am the prime sponsor of the Trafficking Victims 
Protection Act of 2000, a comprehensive landmark law that provides for 
prevention, protection or victims, and prosecution and incarceration of 
the traffickers. I also sponsored the TPVA Reauthorization Act of 2003 
as well as pending Legislation--H.R. 972.
  The movie tells the individual stories of exploited young women and 
girls from the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Philippines, Romania, Russia, 
and a 12-year-old girl, an American girl, Annie Gray, who was abducted 
by traffickers in Manila. ICE agent in charge Donald Sutherland joins 
Sorvino in bringing down a powerful but clever sex trafficking boss and 
others who use force, fraud, coercion, and even murder to enslave 
women.
  It is time, Mr. Speaker, that the ignorance, the indifference and 
complicity in human trafficking came to an end. Every year 800,000 
people are trafficked around the world. Millions more are trafficked 
intra-country. And up to 18,000 are trafficked into the U.S. each year. 
Watch this powerful movie next week, Lifetime TV, 9 p.m., Monday and 
Tuesday.

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