WASHINGTON, D.C., July 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Congressman Chris Smith (NJ-04) chaired a joint briefing of the Congressional Caucus on Human Trafficking and the Congressional Victims' Rights Caucus last week which featured the unveiling of a new report on sex trafficking of minors in the United States.
"The United States has come far in the fight against this modern day slavery, yet there is still a lot of work to do, particularly regarding the sex trafficking of minors," said Smith, a senior member of the House International Relations Committee, and one of the most outspoken pro-life congressmen. "It is a problem all over the world and the United States is no exception. There are new victims in our country every day."
The National Report on Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking, America's Prostituted Children, commissioned by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and performed by Shared Hope International, details domestic child sex trafficking.
The report assessed four components of domestic minor sex trafficking: identifying the victims; prosecuting the traffickers; combating demand; and providing protection, access to services and shelter for the victims - mostly teenage girls.
Experts estimate that at least 100,000 American minors are victimized in America each year.
In 2000, Smith authored the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, the first federal law specifically enacted to prevent victimization, protect victims and prosecute perpetrators of human trafficking. Smith's TVPA created penalties for traffickers and authorized extensive protections for victims of trafficking, authorizing grants to shelters and rehabilitation programs in the United States.
In his opening remarks at the briefing on Capitol Hill, Smith noted the significant impact U.S. anti-human trafficking legislation has had in locking up traffickers as well as prompting other countries to pass their own laws to combat trafficking and help the victims within their own borders.
But he also pointed to remaining areas of concern that he said "must be addressed with renewed energy and commitment to further safeguard vulnerable populations, especially teenage girls."
Smith urged the attendees and the public to contact their members of Congress and ask them to support federal funding and grants to help expand shelter services for U.S. victims of domestic minor sex trafficking.
"In addition to helping rehabilitate those brought to the US for sex trafficking purposes," Smith said, "our shelters and programs for treatment must have the capacity to help trafficked American teens. If we do not, these teenage victims will return to the street broken, destitute, and particularly vulnerable to being re-trafficked."
Turning to the issue of domestic demand, Smith said that Americans buying commercialized sex "must be sensitized to the harm they cause women and girls and to the fact their money fuels modern day slavery."
"A cultural shift that recognizes the link between commercial sex and the trafficking of women and girls would starve the modern-day slaveholders," said Smith. "If potential buyers knew of the unspeakable lives of servitude and degradation these victims suffer, I think they would think twice before laying down their money."
Smith recently introduced H.R. 1623, the International Megan's law. Similar to the domestic Megan's Law (named after Megan Kanka of New Jersey) which provides for community notification when a sex offender is living in the area, H.R. 1623 would alert officials abroad when U.S. sex offenders intend to travel, and likewise encourage other countries to keep sex offender lists and to notify the U.S. when a known sex offender may be coming to the United States for sex tourism.