Fund the DOJ to fight trafficking

Today, Attorney General Loretta Lynch will testify before the Senate Appropriations Committee about the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) budget and priorities for the coming year. The DOJ budget negotiations represent a key opportunity for Congress to ensure that combating human trafficking is a top priority.

This week I’ve found myself empathizing with Ben Affleck, who recently tried to hide the fact that his ancestor was involved in the transatlantic slave trade. On a cold and dreary day last winter, my dad, a board member of the Arlington Historical Society, came across disturbing information about our family.

{mosads}Nicholas Febrey, my great-great-great-great grandfather, owned 600 acres in what’s now Arlington. I’ve long known him as a hero in the Civil War, allowing the Union Army to operate a central hospital out of his home. Now I also know he owned seven slaves in 1850. That number dropped to five in 1860, as it appears he transferred two to his son, John (married to Mary Frances Ball, whom Ballston is named for).

Like Affleck, I had an impulse not to talk about it and hope that no one ever found out—that is, until my father’s forthcoming book about Arlington during the civil war is published. But I soon came to the same realization that Affleck eventually did: I’m not responsible for the good things or the bad things that my ancestors did. I am, however, responsible for what I do.

Slavery is a crime not only of America’s past but our present. There are an estimated 21 million slaves globally today, a number at least double the estimated number taken from Africa during the transatlantic slave trade. It is the fastest-growing criminal enterprise in the world.

While it is essential we continue to invest in victim services, we must also significantly increase the risks to traffickers so that every victim rescued is not merely replaced with a new one. Most perpetrators of this crime operate with relative impunity. The State Department’s most recent annual Trafficking in Persons report states that fewer than 9,500 human trafficking—or modern day slavery—cases were prosecuted worldwide in 2013, resulting in fewer than 6,000 reported convictions.

During today’s hearing, Congress should press Attorney General Lynch to invest in programs that increase the risks for perpetrators by increasing prosecutions. Victim testimony is often critical to a successful conviction and the DOJ should continue to take a victim-centered approach.

The agency must also work with state and local jurisdictions and with civil society to enhance collaboration. Collaborative task forces are where this coordination happens, enabling law enforcement to go after traffickers while supporting victims. There are currently only thirteen task forces, down from forty-two over the past ten years.  The Office of Justice Programs (OJP) needs to maintain its FY2015 funding levels to support these crucial task forces.

Despite a 56 percent increase in cases over the past five years, the DOJ Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit has been flat funded since 2010. Given the complexity of human trafficking cases, this specialized unit is critical to successful convictions. Congress needs to fund it adequately.

For the sake of our nation’s future, we cannot stand idly by in the midst of modern slavery. Putting these exploiters out of business and bringing them to justice is not only a moral obligation but a national imperative, key to our most basic priority of providing liberty and justice for all. Failing to reverse the risk-reward equation for all enablers within the network of human trafficking will leave us struggling to slow this growing illicit industry. We need to end this practice once and for all. 

Febrey is senior associate of Human Rights First’s Campaign to Disrupt the Business of Human Trafficking.