COVID-19 puts more children at risk of exploitation
By Rep. Chris Smith
Today—October 28th—marks
20th anniversary of the Trafficking
Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000—the
comprehensive, historic law that I authored to aggressively combat sex and
labor trafficking both within the United States and around the world.
The TVPA created a new,
well-funded whole-of-government
domestic and international strategy and established numerous new
programs to Protect victims, Prosecute traffickers and to
the extent possible,Prevent human trafficking in the first place.
WASHINGTON, DC— Rep. Chris Smith joined President Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, Advisor to the President Ivanka Trump, Attorney General William Barr, and other congressional and State Department officials at the White House today to mark the 20th year since enactment of Smith’s landmark Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA, Public Law 106-386). Read the rest of this entry »
Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted financier pedophile, will learned today if he will remain incarcerated pending the outcome of his trail on charges of Sex Trafficking Conspiracy and Sex Trafficking.
MMM asked Smith to comment on the Epstein indictment and the TVPA’s impact on prosecuting human trafficking.
“Nearly 20 years ago, I wrote the Trafficking Victims Protection Act which is being used in the Epstein prosecution, to give law enforcement better tools to prosecute, convict and jail human traffickers—and to help rescue and protect victims, who are mostly women and children,” said Smith who also authored four subsequent laws reauthorizing, strengthening and expanding America’s anti-human trafficking programs.
Allison Mack of the TV series “Smallville,” and former Middletown Police Officer James Keenan are facing justice for their alleged human trafficking crimes thanks to a law conceived, championed and passed into law through the leadership and tenacity of Congressman Chris Smith.
Smith’s landmark Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (PL 106-386) is the law being enforced in the recent high-profile indictment of a trafficking ring in New York that involved Mack and the indictment of Keenan on child sex trafficking charges.
“This law, the TVPA, sends a message to traffickers of the gravity of their offense,” Rep. Smith, co-chair of the Congressional Human Trafficking Caucus, stated.
