Thank you, Ms. Jackson Lee and Mr. Biggs, for the opportunity to testify today. Human trafficking is a horrific crime that our society must strive to eradicate. In his update to the National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking last December, President Biden declared his commitment to “keeping the fight to end human trafficking at the forefront of our national security agenda.” Yet at the same time, the President has instigated a historic collapse of border security and immigration enforcement that has actually invited and facilitated human trafficking in numerous forms. Further, the Biden catch and release policies and policies that govern the placement of unaccompanied minors offer an irresistible opportunity for labor and sex trafficking to occur. In addition, loose regulation of guest worker programs, especially the H-2A and H-2B programs, have resulted in numerous major incidents of trafficking and indentured labor. Congress must intervene, not only to shore up the laws where needed, but to insist that President Biden enforce existing laws and improve regulations within his authority to end the border chaos that enables trafficking to flourish.
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