Prepared Remarks of Grace Chung Becker, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Civil Rights Division,
Before the Senate Subcommittee Committee on Human Rights and the Law

           Good afternoon, Chairman Durbin and Senator Coburn.  It is an honor and a privilege to appear before the Committee today. 

           For decades, the Civil Rights Division has been charged with enforcing statutes prohibiting slavery, involuntary servitude, and peonage. 

           Human trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery that touches virtually every community in America—urban or rural; affluent or poor.  This is a crime that can occur anywhere, any time, and against any vulnerable person.  Traffickers prey on United States citizens and foreigners.  They use force, fraud and coercion against prostitutes, domestic servants, factory machinists, and migrant farm laborers.  Victims have included college students coerced into commercial sex in Atlanta, homeless men forced to work as farm laborers in Florida, and individuals with hearing impairments forced to peddle sign language cards on a New York City subway. 

           Human trafficking is a priority of the President and the Attorney General, and I am pleased to report that the Civil Rights Division has adopted an aggressive strategy to fight this invidious crime.  The Attorney General recently announced the formation of the Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit in the Criminal Section of the Civil Rights Division.

           The Unit consists of an elite cadre of expert prosecutors who will provide investigative and prosecutorial assistance as well as coordination.  This Unit is necessary because we are seeing more complex cases involving multiple jurisdictions, multiple law enforcement agencies, and financial or organized crimes.  The Unit also serves as a resource for training, outreach, and policy development. 

           The Unit works closely with prosecutors within the Section, as well as with U.S. Attorneys Offices and Human Trafficking Task Forces around the country.  These task forces reflect the Civil Rights Division’s victim-centered approach.  They are comprised of members from federal, state and local law enforcement, and representatives from non-governmental organizations who provide much-needed services to restore the victims of this terrible crime.  We work together to ensure the victims’ safety and housing, to see that their medical and psychiatric needs are taken care of, and—for our foreign victims—to cooperate in normalizing their immigration status. 

           This victim-centered approach works.  In conjunction with the U.S. Attorneys Offices, the Civil Rights Division has increased by 600% the number of human trafficking cases filed in court in the last six years.  From 2001 to today, we have initiated about 725 investigations.  Last year, we received one of the highest sentences—50 years for each of the two lead defendants—in a sex trafficking case in New York.  We also received one of the highest orders of restitution—over $900,000—in a labor trafficking prosecution in Milwaukee.

           Just to give you one example.  This girl was nine years old—the age of my daughter—when her parents sold her into servitude in Egypt.  When she was 12, she was brought to the United States and forced to work as a domestic servant in Orange County, California.  She was forced to cook for a family of seven, clean the entire house, and babysit the younger children.  Meanwhile, the young girl could eat only leftovers and was forced to live in the garage.  The defendant controlled the child, who could not speak English, by taking her passport, assaulting her, and forbidding her to have friends or go to school.  The defendants also threatened to report her older sister to the police in Egypt for previously stealing from the defendants if the victim left their employ.  The defendants are now imprisoned and will likely be deported to Egypt after serving their sentence.  They have paid $78,000 in restitution.  By contrast, the victim is now studying in high school and can use her restitution money to achieve her dreams of going to college.

           But there is much more work to be done.  That is why I support the President’s request for an additional $1.7 million for the Civil Rights Division.  As the Civil Rights Division turns 50 years old, it remains committed to supporting the values of our nation, including the liberty promised by the Thirteenth Amendment to our Constitution.  

           Thank you.