The Travesty of Human Trafficking: A Decade of Failed U.S. Policy (Commentary) (Column‪)‬

Human trafficking has been described as modern-day slavery. Its victims are exploited for labor, including commercial sex. To control their victims, traffickers use force, fraud, or coercion, including techniques such as confinement, beatings, rape, confiscation of documents, debt bondage, false offers of employment, and threats of harm to the victim or the victim's family. Positions in which victims are enslaved include field labor; prostitution, exotic dancing, and pornography; domestic servitude; servile marriage; factory labor and hotel and restaurant labor. In 2000, the United States enacted the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act (P.L. 106-386) (TVPA) to prevent trafficking, protect victims, and prosecute traffickers. The original TVPA focused on international trafficking, including reducing trafficking globally, providing assistance to immigrant victims of trafficking in the United States, and prosecuting traffickers. This policy was a major landmark in human rights legislation; however, its implementation and modification over time have been a travesty. This brief commentary demonstrates this by providing examples of political and ideological biases in the policy; lack of transparency and accountability; and failures of prevention, protection, and prosecution in relation to immigrant victims in the United States.