The President’s Interagency Task Force
The President’s Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking (PITF) is a Cabinet-level entity created by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA) to coordinate federal efforts to combat trafficking in persons. The PITF meets annually and is chaired by the Secretary of State. At this year’s meeting, held on February 1, 2011, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton highlighted, among other things, the need to identify the victims of human trafficking and help restore them to participation in society. She, along with the other PITF members, also outlined ways in which they can make measured progress within their own departments and agencies, as well as collectively through interagency cooperation. Participants included the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, the Attorney General, the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Labor, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Director of National Intelligence, the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and senior representatives from the Department of Education and the Office of Management and Budget.
Senior Policy Operating Group
The TVPA as amended in 2003 also established the Senior Policy Operating Group (SPOG), which consists of senior officials designated as representatives of the PITF members. The SPOG coordinates interagency policy, grants, research, and planning issues involving international trafficking in persons and the implementation of the TVPA. The SPOG meets quarterly and is chaired by Ambassador-at-Large Luis CdeBaca who also leads the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons at the U.S. Department of State. In 2010, the SPOG expanded to include three new agencies: the Department of Agriculture, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Department of the Interior.
The SPOG’s three standing committees address Research & Data, Grantmaking, and Public Affairs. In 2010, the Department of Homeland Security and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission also co-chaired a temporary working group on government-wide implementation of the Federal Acquisition Regulation to combat modern slavery and its contributing factors, which include the demand for commercial sex.
Throughout 2010, the SPOG continually discussed implementation of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008, identifying areas of coordination and providing updates on individual agency progress. The SPOG coordinated participation of member agencies in gathering information and analysis for the first ranking and country narrative for the United States in the 2010 Trafficking in Persons Report. SPOG representatives regularly reported on accomplishments and initiatives, including conferences, trainings, research and reports, grants and programs, statistics, information campaigns, and the work of other trafficking-related interagency working groups. The SPOG also surveyed all member agencies for trainings currently conducted and is developing a platform to share training resources, thereby increasing efficiency and collaboration. Additionally, the relevant SPOG member agencies continued the practice of circulating anti-trafficking grant solicitations and commenting on proposed grant and technical assistance awards as well as contracts, ensuring that government funding and strategy is coordinated and non-duplicative.
The accomplishments of the Obama Administration on combating trafficking in persons as of February 2011 are detailed in this document http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/reports/2011/167260.htm.
Department of State Department of State (DOS): DOS represents the United States in the global fight to combat human trafficking by engaging with foreign governments, international and inter-governmental organizations, and civil society to develop and implement effective strategies for confronting this form of modern slavery. This occurs through bilateral and multilateral diplomacy, targeted foreign assistance, public outreach, and specific projects on trafficking in persons. The Department chairs the PITF and SPOG, as described above. The Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons produces the annual Trafficking in Persons Report, which assesses the strengths and weaknesses of foreign governments’ efforts to address human trafficking and serves as the U.S. government’s principal diplomatic tool to promote anti-trafficking reforms. The Report also spotlights the forms that modern slavery takes around the world and encourages partnerships with civil society. The office also funds international anti-trafficking programs, taking into account the assessments of individual countries as set out in the annual TIP Report. The Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) funds international anti-trafficking programs, as well as the Return, Reintegration, and Family Reunification Program for Victims of Trafficking. In addition, global programs funded by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL) promote worker rights and address labor violations, including trafficking in persons. The Department’s security and law enforcement arm, the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, plays an essential role investigating human trafficking crimes in collaboration with other law enforcement entities. The Office of Global Women’s Issues (S/GWI), led by Ambassador-at-Large Melanne Verveer, works for the political, economic, and social empowerment of women. Integral to this work is a focus on responding to and preventing violence against women, which contributes to efforts to prevent human trafficking. The Department’s consular officers also have an important role and are trained in combating trafficking in persons at U.S. embassies and consulates worldwide, in particular in issuing employment- or education-based nonimmigrant visas.
Department of Defense (DoD): DoD endeavors to ensure that the U.S. military, its civilian employees, and its contractors are aware of and adopt the zero tolerance policy on human trafficking. A demand reduction campaign helps make contractors, government personnel, and military members aware of common signs of human trafficking and provides a hotline number to report suspected incidents. The awareness campaign is reinforced by the requirement for all military and civilian members of the Department to take annual trafficking awareness training. DoD’s subordinate organizations are further required to report on completion of their personnel’s annual training. Public service announcements on labor and sex trafficking are in effect. DoD routinely holds conferences and workshops to further educate personnel and explore innovative measures to combat TIP.
Department of Justice (DOJ): The Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit, a specialized anti-trafficking unit of DOJ’s Civil Rights Division's Criminal Section, prosecutes traffickers in partnership with U.S. Attorneys’ Offices nationwide. The cases are investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation or the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well as other federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies. Its national complaint line is 1-888-428-7581. The Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section prosecutes cases of child sex trafficking and child sex tourism. The Criminal Division’s Overseas Prosecutorial Development, Assistance and Training program provides anti-trafficking training and technical assistance to law enforcement internationally. The Bureau of Justice Assistance funds 38 anti-trafficking task forces comprised of local, state, and federal law enforcement as well as nongovernmental victim service providers. The Office of Victims of Crime funds nongovernmental organizations to provide services to U.S. citizen victims and foreign victims prior to certification by the Department of Health and Human Services. Significant research is conducted by the National Institute of Justice and the Bureau of Justice Statistics. DOJ also produces the Attorney General’s Annual Report to Congress on U.S. Government Activities to Combat Trafficking in Persons.
Department of Agriculture (USDA): The USDA established a Consultative Group to Eliminate the Use of Child Labor and Forced Labor in Imported Agricultural Products, pursuant to Section 3205 of the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008. The group represents a diverse set of government, private sector, academic, and nongovernmental organization entities, and has been charged with developing and making recommendations to the Secretary of Agriculture regarding guidelines to reduce the likelihood that agricultural products imported into the United States are produced with the use of child or forced labor. Within one year after receiving these recommendations, the Secretary is required to finalize the guidelines and release them for public comment.
Department of Labor (DOL): DOL’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) carries out civil law enforcement in the nation’s workplaces and its field investigators are often the first government authorities to detect exploitive labor practices. WHD coordinates with other law enforcement agencies to ensure restitution on behalf of victims of trafficking. To enhance this coordination, WHD is part of the Anti-Human Trafficking Coordination Team (ACTeam) pilot program that is being developed by the Federal Enforcement Working Group on trafficking (headed by the Department of Justice). WHD has responsibility for certifying U-Visas per the TVPA and has established protocols for certification based on five qualifying criminal activities – involuntary servitude, peonage, trafficking, obstruction of justice and witness tampering – when it detects them in the process of investigating a violation of an employment law under its jurisdiction, such as minimum wage or overtime. DOL’s Employment and Training Administration offers job search, placement and counseling services, and vocational skills training to trafficking victims. Additionally, DOL’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) awards grants to implement programs to combat exploitive child labor around the globe. Many of these programs have direct service, awareness raising, and policy activities to address child trafficking as one of the worst forms of child labor. ILAB publishes three reports on child labor and/or forced labor in countries worldwide, including the "List of Goods Produced by Child or Forced Labor" required by the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2005 (TVPRA list), which informs the public about 128 goods from 70 countries that DOL has reason to believe are produced by forced labor, child labor, or both in violation of international standards. DOL uses the TVPRA list and other reports as tools to communicate the urgent need for effective action by governments, private sector actors, and others to address these problems.
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS): HHS leads the Rescue & Restore Victims of Human Trafficking public awareness campaign, funds organizations to conduct outreach to foreign and U.S. citizen victims, funds comprehensive case management and support services for foreign victims in the United States, and certifies foreign victims of a severe form of trafficking in persons to be eligible to receive Federal benefits and services to the same extent as refugees. A range of programs also assist youth at-risk of trafficking, including the Runaway and Homeless Youth Program. HHS also funds the National Human Trafficking Resource Center that provides a nationwide 24/7 hotline at 1-888-3737-888.
Department of Education (ED): ED’s Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools uses the Web, listservs, and trainings to raise awareness both to prevent trafficking of children and to increase victim identification of trafficked children in schools. Trafficking often involves school-age children—particularly those not living with their parents—who are vulnerable to coerced labor exploitation, domestic servitude, or commercial sexual exploitation. Traffickers target minor victims through telephone chat-lines, social networking websites, on the streets, in malls, as well as by using girls to recruit other girls at school and in after-school programs. The Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools develops and disseminates materials about preventing human trafficking, such as "Human Trafficking of Children in the United States: A Fact Sheet for Schools." The Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools develops and disseminates materials about preventing human trafficking, such as "Human Trafficking of Children in the United States: A Fact Sheet for Schools" and the Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools Web site (http://rems.ed.gov/index.php?page=resources_Additional§ion=1i§ion=1i1)."
Department of Homeland Security (DHS): DHS consists of more than 20 component agencies and offices, including both law enforcement entities and the nation’s immigration services. In 2010, DHS launched the Blue Campaign – a first-of-its-kind campaign to coordinate and enhance the Department’s anti-human trafficking efforts. The Blue Campaign—which includes 17 DHS components, such as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center—harnesses and leverages the varied authorities and resources of the Department to deter human trafficking by increasing awareness, protecting victims, and contributing to a robust criminal justice response. As the largest investigative agency within DHS, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) conducts domestic and international investigations of human trafficking, child sex tourism, and forced child labor. Since the passage of the PROTECT Act of 2003, HSI has focused investigative resources on investigating U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents that travel abroad to engage in illicit sexual activity with minors. Worldwide, HSI conducts law enforcement training and public awareness campaigns, such as Hidden in Plain Sight, as part of its outreach efforts. HSI also provides trafficking victims with short-term immigration relief, manages the HSI Victim Assistance Program, and operates a 24-hour hotline to report potential trafficking activity at 1-866-DHS-2-ICE. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) grants immigration relief to trafficking victims, while also conducting training for nongovernmental organizations and law enforcement. USCIS officers are trained to identify potential trafficking victims and to notify law enforcement personnel upon encountering such individuals. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) conducts public campaigns, such as No Te Engañes, to raise awareness among potential victims and vulnerable communities. CBP also screens unaccompanied alien children to identify human trafficking victims. The U.S. Coast Guard routinely conducts maritime operations independently and with other federal law enforcement agencies and international partners to combat illegal migration, including human trafficking. The Federal Law Enforcement Training Center provides human trafficking training to federal, state, local, campus, and tribal law enforcement officers throughout the United States. Additionally, human trafficking courses are delivered at several of the International Law Enforcement Academies including the academy in Gaborone, Botswana, which is managed by the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center. DHS is the chair of the Human Smuggling and Trafficking Center steering group in coordination with the Department of Justice and Department of State. The Center provides a mechanism to bring together federal agency representatives from the policy, law enforcement, intelligence, and diplomatic areas to work together on a full time basis to achieve increased effectiveness, and to convert intelligence into effective law enforcement and other action. For more information, please visit the DHS Blue Campaign webpage or the DHS Blue Campaign Facebook page.
Agency for International Development (USAID): USAID funds international programs that prevent trafficking, protect and assist victims, and support prosecutions through training for police and criminal justice personnel. USAID reinforces successful anti-trafficking initiatives by funding programs that support economic development, child protection, women’s empowerment, good governance, education, health, and human rights. USAID supports individual country assessments of the scope and nature of trafficking and the efforts of government, civil society, and international organization to combat it.
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC or Commission): The EEOC investigates, attempts to informally resolve, and litigates charges alleging discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, religion, age, disability, and genetic information. In appropriate cases, therefore, the EEOC is able to secure civil remedies (e.g., monetary and equitable relief) for trafficking victims. In 2010, the EEOC participated for the first time in both the PITF and SPOG meetings as a full partner. On January 19, 2011, the Commission conducted a public meeting entitled on the Agency's Role in fighting human trafficking and forced labor (http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/meetings/1-19-11/transcript.cfm ). The EEOC has committed to active participation in order to identify additional labor trafficking cases through its 53 offices nationwide.
