A bill cracking down on international human trafficking authored by U.S. Rep. Tom Lantos, D-San Mateo, passed both houses of Congress and is awaiting the president’s signature.
The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act passed the Senate unanimously Wednesday night, similarly to its unanimous passage by the House in mid-December. The bill now goes to the president’s desk for final approval.
"[T]he United States will not tolerate human trafficking, this scourge that has enslaved thousands of men, women and children, forcing them into war, labor and the sex trade against their will. This is a human rights violation of extraordinary magnitude,” Lantos said in a press release announcing the passage.
Lantos is the principle Democratic co-author along with U.S. Rep. Christopher Smith, R-NJ.
The bill provided for increased focus on labor trafficking, launches an initiative about child soldiers, establishes new federal-state partnerships and funds U.S. anti-trafficking programs.
Each year, 15,000 to 20,000 people are sent to the United States in a state of near or actual slavery, according to U.S. Justice Department reports.
In California, the state Legislature recently adopted a bill creating a new state felony for trafficking and providing protection to trafficking victims.
"California’s leadership on the issue is critical,” Lantos said in the press release.
"We need to understand that those who are subject to trafficking are not criminals but are victims suffering from one of the most devastating practices that leaves them in shock,” he said in the press release.
Earlier this year, San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris helped break up a a Bay Area-based trafficking ring, with 27 suspects arrested and more than 100 victims freed.
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