Congress To U.S. Attorney General: Do More To Fight Sex Trafficking

Washington, D.C. – Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) has joined Rep. Kristi Noem (R-SD) and 42 of other Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle in calling on U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to do more to crackdown on Web sites like Backpage.com that are helping facilitate sex trafficking in the United States.

 

In a strongly worded letter to Holder dated March 11, the group said the Department of Justice (DOJ) needs to “get serious” about dealing with Web sites like Backpage.com and asked the attorney general to respond by the end of the month on how DOJ will take legal action against Backpage.com or provide Congress with concrete recommendations for any legislation needed to deal with the issue.     

 

“Every year, tens of thousands of children are victims of sex trafficking in the United States,” the letter said.  “Not coincidentally, Backpage.com makes millions of dollars in profit annually from the fees charged for online advertisements, including essentially unchecked advertising of children for sex services.” 

 

Wolf, who has a long record of working to raise awareness about sex trafficking in the United States, has written the attorney general several times over the past two years seeking help on the issue.  At a Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations subcommittee hearing on trafficking last month, Wolf said many of his letters have gone unanswered and the responses he did receive failed to address his concern with respect to Backpage.com. 

 

“I have even urged, without effect, Attorney General Holder to publicly call out Backpage.com and similar sites to at least add an element of shame in the public square,” Wolf said at the hearing, which featured a victim of sex trafficking as well as Fairfax County Police Detective who has been on the front lines in the fight against trafficking.  “The attorney general is failing.”

 

Noem recently convened an anti-trafficking forum in South Dakota and has emerged as a leader on this issue in Congress, having been appointed to the Majority Leader’s anti-trafficking taskforce. 

 

A number of provisions aimed at combating sex trafficking – including language directing the Justice Department to aggressively target Web sites that facilitate trafficking – are in the 2014 Omnibus spending bill recently signed into law, according to Wolf, who chairs the CJS subcommittee.

 

The measure also directs the FBI to increase the amount of resources dedicated to human trafficking, improve coordination with other law enforcement agencies to better address trafficking and regularly report to Congress on what it is doing to fight trafficking. 

 

U.S. Attorneys also are expected to maintain their human trafficking task forces and to continue to undertake proactive investigations, including investigations of persons or entities facilitating trafficking in persons through the use of classified advertising on the Internet.  In addition, the Justice Department must continue its outreach in the form of public notices with regard to the prevalence of human trafficking activities and report to the CJS subcommittee on its efforts. 

 

In addition to the language on trafficking, the bill also provides $417 million for the Office of Violence Against Women, which is higher than both the FY 2013 level and the president’s 2014 budget request. 

 

Below is the complete text of the letter: