On Combating Human Trafficking

I wanna start with the Epstein files, which have put a spotlight on child sex trafficking as revelations from that case continue to unfold.

Professor Leary, you've noted recently that public outrage over high-profile cases like Jeffrey Epstein's can sometimes distract from deeper systemic failures in protecting children from sex trafficking.

So can you help situate this moment in the broader context of domestic and global U.S. anti-trafficking efforts? What's the current state of play under this administration on this issue, and how have budget pressures affected U.S.

anti-trafficking efforts at home and abroad?

Great.

Thank you so much, Rachel, for that question, and it's great to be with all of you.

I wanna first say, um, that of course the, the Epstein files, this Epstein case is incredibly important for us to discuss.

Um, these survivors and the advocates who supported them for these years are really, as you said, highlighting a very common feature of trafficking in America and throughout the globe, which is the massive, um, unequal power and really the institutional support on some level of various forms of exploitation of the vulnerable.

That being said, I think we have to be cautious to not, uh, think that a politician's position on the Epstein files is sufficient to describe their position on the issue of sex trafficking.

And in fact, I think that, as you said, it can really be a distraction, all the media attention paying attention to these files and what we're learning about them.

But at the same time, we are seeing really a retrenchment of what you described starting t- in the year two thousand.

Uh, the Palermo Protocol, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, what has occurred in the last twenty-five years has been, in many ways, a great step forward in combating trafficking.

But under this administration, what have we seen? Every department that touches this issue has seen a decline in funding.

And if I could just quickly say, the beauty-- one of the beauties of the Trafficking Protection Act is it is interdepartmental, right? It wasn't just a criminal justice approach.

It wasn't just a, um, a Department of State approach.

But what have we seen? The Department of State has essentially obliterated the Trafficking in Persons office, decreasing its population by about seventy percent.

We've seen, um, no ambassador being named a year into this, uh, administration.

We've seen, um, an office that has historically awarded eighty million dollars in grants.

Those grant funding seem stalled, if existing at all.

The Department of Justice has eliminated the Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit, and we've seen the Department of Civil Rights wi-- uh, decrease its attorneys by about seventy percent as well.

And we've seen, again, a failure to spend ninety million dollars in appropriated services to help victim survivors of human trafficking.

Department of Labor, we see the same thing Happening as well.

As well as even in the Department of Homeland Security, where on the first day of this administration, the mission of, uh, the investigative unit for Homeland Security changed from transnational crimes, of which child exploitation would be one of them, to immigration.

And I think what this unfortunately reflects is an overall lack of understanding of the complexity of these issues, of the experts who are involved in these issues, and of how human trafficking works, and it's been replaced by a simplification that if you're addressing immigration, somehow you can say you're addressing trafficking, and that is obviously not the case as many people on this call know.

So while I think it's important we focus on the Epstein files, all of these other, uh, realities about our anti-trafficking policy need to be acknowledged and hopefully reversed.

I wanna start with the Epstein files, which have put a spotlight on child sex trafficking as revelations from that case continue to unfold.

Professor Leary, you've noted recently that public outrage over high-profile cases like Jeffrey Epstein's can sometimes distract from deeper systemic failures in protecting children from sex trafficking.

So can you help situate this moment in the broader context of domestic and global U.S. anti-trafficking efforts? What's the current state of play under this administration on this issue, and how have budget pressures affected U.S.

anti-trafficking efforts at home and abroad?

Great.

Thank you so much, Rachel, for that question, and it's great to be with all of you.

I wanna first say, um, that of course the, the Epstein files, this Epstein case is incredibly important for us to discuss.

Um, these survivors and the advocates who supported them for these years are really, as you said, highlighting a very common feature of trafficking in America and throughout the globe, which is the massive, um, unequal power and really the institutional support on some level of various forms of exploitation of the vulnerable.

That being said, I think we have to be cautious to not, uh, think that a politician's position on the Epstein files is sufficient to describe their position on the issue of sex trafficking.

And in fact, I think that, as you said, it can really be a distraction, all the media attention paying attention to these files and what we're learning about them.

But at the same time, we are seeing really a retrenchment of what you described starting t- in the year two thousand.

Uh, the Palermo Protocol, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, what has occurred in the last twenty-five years has been, in many ways, a great step forward in combating trafficking.

But under this administration, what have we seen? Every department that touches this issue has seen a decline in funding.

And if I could just quickly say, the beauty-- one of the beauties of the Trafficking Protection Act is it is interdepartmental, right? It wasn't just a criminal justice approach.

It wasn't just a, um, a Department of State approach.

But what have we seen? The Department of State has essentially obliterated the Trafficking in Persons office, decreasing its population by about seventy percent.

We've seen, um, no ambassador being named a year into this, uh, administration.

We've seen, um, an office that has historically awarded eighty million dollars in grants.

Those grant funding seem stalled, if existing at all.

The Department of Justice has eliminated the Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit, and we've seen the Department of Civil Rights wi-- uh, decrease its attorneys by about seventy percent as well.

And we've seen, again, a failure to spend ninety million dollars in appropriated services to help victim survivors of human trafficking.

Department of Labor, we see the same thing Happening as well.

As well as even in the Department of Homeland Security, where on the first day of this administration, the mission of, uh, the investigative unit for Homeland Security changed from transnational crimes, of which child exploitation would be one of them, to immigration.

And I think what this unfortunately reflects is an overall lack of understanding of the complexity of these issues, of the experts who are involved in these issues, and of how human trafficking works, and it's been replaced by a simplification that if you're addressing immigration, somehow you can say you're addressing trafficking, and that is obviously not the case as many people on this call know.

So while I think it's important we focus on the Epstein files, all of these other, uh, realities about our anti-trafficking policy need to be acknowledged and hopefully reversed.