Categoría El Respeto como Virtud Cívica

Federal Efforts to Eliminate Sex Trafficking and Assist Trafficking Victims Statement of Maggie Wynne

Director, Division of Anti-Trafficking in Persons U.S. Department of Health and Human Services before the United States Commission on Civil Rights April 13, 2012

Chairman Castro, Vice Chairman Thernstrom, and Commissioners, my name is Maggie Wynne and I am the Director of the Division of Anti-Trafficking in Persons (ATIP) in the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) within the Administration for Children and Families (HHS), an agency in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). I appreciate the opportunity to provide you a description of HHS’ work to identify and assist victims of human trafficking, including sex trafficking.

TVPA Requirements

HHS is required by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA), as amended, to conduct the following activities:

Provide certification of adult foreign victims of trafficking and determine the eligibility of child foreign victims, making them eligible for benefits and services under any Federal or State program to the same extent as an alien admitted to the United States as a refugee; Participate in the President’s Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking (PITF) and the Senior Policy Operating Group (SPOG);

Establish and carry out programs to increase public awareness of the dangers of trafficking and the protections that are available for victims of trafficking;

Consult and cooperate with the Department of Justice when it conducts a biennial conference addressing trafficking in persons and commercial sex acts that occur in the United States; and

Train appropriate HHS personnel in identifying victims of severe forms of trafficking and providing for the protection of such victims, and provide training to State and local officials to improve the identification and protection of such victims.

In addition, HHS is authorized to provide services to assist potential victims of trafficking in achieving certification and to assist minor dependent children of victims of severe forms of trafficking in persons or potential victims of trafficking.

The Secretary of HHS delegated responsibility for certification, eligibility determinations, and public awareness activities to the Assistant Secretary for Children and Families who further delegated them to the Director of ORR.

Victim Assistance and Services Certification and Eligibility

The most important role that HHS has is the first responsibility listed. Through formal and informal interagency agreements, HHS, DOJ and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) coordinate to ensure that, when law enforcement has identified an alien in the United States who is victim of trafficking, ORR receives the necessary information to provide that victim access to benefits and services. When ORR receives a notification from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) that it has made a bona fide T visa determination or granted T nonimmigrant status to a victim of trafficking, we have the information we need to issue a Certification Letter or an Eligibility Letter, which are the means by which we notify adult and child victims, respectively, of their eligibility to access the benefits and services they may need to recover from their experience and rebuild their lives in the United States.

Similarly, when the Law Enforcement Parole Unit within U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)/Homeland Security Investigations notifies us that it has granted continued presence (CP) to a victim of trafficking who is assisting a law enforcement investigation, ORR can act to get that victim connected to needed health care and social services.

The benefits and services available to foreign victims of trafficking are the same ones available to refugees who arrive with the hope of finding employment, education, and a new life in America. And these, in turn, are largely the same ones available to U.S. citizens and most lawful permanent residents. The benefit programs, many of which are time-limited, include the following:

Temporary Assistance for Needy Family (TANF), Supplemental Security Income (SSI), or - for those who are ineligible for these programs – Refugee Cash Assistance;

Medicaid, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), or - for those who are ineligible for these programs – Refugee Medical Assistance;

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly the food stamp program; Refugee Social Services and Targeted Assistance;

Matching Grant Program;

Public Housing Program or Tenant-Based Vouchers; Title IV Federal Student Financial Aid; and

One-Stop Career Center services or Job Corps.

Unaccompanied child victims may be eligible for the Unaccompanied Refugee Minors (URM) Program, which provides specialized, culturally appropriate foster care or other licensed-care settings according to children’s individual needs.

There are also many Federal and State health, nutrition, and social service programs that do not consider a potential recipient’s immigration status a condition for eligibility.

ORR Trafficking Victim Assistance Program

In addition, ORR funds the National Human Trafficking Victim Assistance Program, which supports comprehensive case management services to foreign victims of trafficking and potential victims seeking certification in any location in the United States. The three grantees provide case management to assist victims of trafficking to become certified, and other necessary services after certification, through a network of sub-awardees throughout the country.

These grants ensure the provision of case management, referrals, and emergency assistance (such as food, clothing, and shelter) to victims of human trafficking and certain family members. They help them gain access to housing, employability services, mental health screening and therapy, medical care, and some legal services, enabling them to live free of violence and exploitation. Victim Identification and Public Awareness

Rescue & RestoreCampaign

ATIP leads the HHS Rescue & Restore Victims of Human Trafficking public awareness campaign, which established Rescue and Restore coalitions in 24 cities, regions and States. These community action groups, which have grown in number over the years, are comprised of nongovernmental organization (NGO) leaders, academics, students, law enforcement agents, and other key stakeholders who are committed to addressing the problem of human trafficking in their own communities.

ATIP offers free materials to Rescue and Restore coalitions and other campaign partners to assist them in their education and awareness-raising activities. With the tag line of “Look Beneath the Surface,” these posters, brochures, videos, and pocket assessment cards encourage intermediaries who encounter victims of trafficking to recognize clues and ask the right questions because they may be the only outsiders with the chance to reach out and help victims.

Materials and other information are available for download or order on our website at www.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking.

Rescue and Restore Regional Program

The Rescue and Restore Regional Program serves as the focal point for regional public awareness campaign activities and intensification of local outreach to identify victims of human trafficking. Each of the 11 ATIP-funded Rescue and Restore Regional partners oversees and builds the capacity of a local anti-trafficking network, sub-awarding 60 percent of grant funds to grassroots organizations that identify and work with victims. By acting as a focal point for regional anti-trafficking efforts,Rescue and Restore Regional partners encourage a cohesive and collaborative approach in the fight against modern-day slavery.

National Human Trafficking Resource Center

The National Human Trafficking Resource Center (NHTRC) is a national, toll-free hotline for the human trafficking field in the United States and is reached by calling 1-888-3737-888 or [email protected]. The NHTRC operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, every day of the year. The NHTRC works to improve the national response to protect victims of human trafficking by providing callers with a range of comprehensive services, including crisis intervention, urgent and non-urgent referrals, tip reporting, and comprehensive anti-trafficking resources and technical assistance for the anti-trafficking field and those who wish to get involved. The NHTRC maintains a national database of organizations and individuals working in the anti-trafficking field, as well as a library of available anti-trafficking resources and materials. Training

In addition to the training provided by our grantees, HHS directly provides training to its own staff, state and local officials, and entities receiving HHS funding.

ATIP hosts several Web-based trainings each year, including the following trainings related to sex trafficking during the last two fiscal years:

“Reducing Demand for Commercial Sex,” by San Francisco-based anti-trafficking organization Standing Against Global Exploitation Project (SAGE);

“How to Assist American Indian Sex Trafficking Victims,” by the Executive Director of the Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center;

“Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking: How to Identify and Respond to America’s Prostituted Youth,” by Shared Hope International; and

“Runaway and Homeless Youth Programs: Resources for Conducting Outreach and Providing Services to Trafficked Children and Youth,” by the ACF Family and Youth

Services Bureau (FYSB) and the Runaway and Homeless Youth Training and Technical Assistance Center (RHYTTAC).

Participants included social service providers, federal and local law enforcement, academic researchers, state officials, and representatives from international entities.

In addition, each of the 10 ACF Regional Offices throughout the United States has established an Anti-Trafficking Point of Contact. The objective of this partnership with ATIP is to increase the integration of trafficking-related trainings within existing regional health and human service programs, and to build the capacity of communities to assist trafficking victims. Many of the Regional Offices have hosted internal or public human trafficking trainings or events, and are often represented on local Rescue and Restore coalitions or DOJ anti-trafficking task forces. As one example, in FY 2011, the ACF Region V office joined the Illinois Rescue and Restore Coalition to host a Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation (CAASE) “Train the Trainer” seminar on youth prevention curriculum “Empowering Young Men to End Sexual Exploitation.”

The HHS Indian Health Service (IHS) provided two internal presentations on human trafficking among Native populations: the first to the staff of the IHS Office of Clinical Preventive Services (OCPS), which included clinicians and policy makers in IHS; and the second as part of the IHS Chief Medical Officer’s Rounds, with availability to those medical providers within all of IHS that could join the WebEx.

In September 2010, two work groups within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) — the Violence against Women Workgroup (of the Division of Violence Prevention) and the CDC-wide Health and Human Rights Workgroup — sponsored a day-long symposium entitled “A Symposium on Human Trafficking: The Role of Public Health.” The symposium, attended by over 100 CDC staff, provided a foundational overview of the issue of human trafficking in the U.S. — particularly sex trafficking — and served as a forum for exploring the public health implications of human trafficking; research and data collection on human trafficking; current responses to human trafficking; and the potential role of the public health sector in the prevention of human trafficking.

Through these and other opportunities, HHS is expanding the capacity of potential intermediaries throughout the country to understand better trafficking in persons and how they can assist persons who have been or may be exploited in commercial sex or forced labor.

Bridgette Carr, Professor and Director, Human Trafficking Clinic, University