Fact Sheet - President Donald J. Trump is Fighting to Prevent Human Trafficking at the Southern Border

HUMANITARIAN CRISIS AT THE BORDER: There is a humanitarian crisis at the southern border as human traffickers victimize countless women and children.

• Transnational criminal organizations from Mexico and Central America engage in human trafficking in staggering numbers across our southern border.
• Human traffickers use loopholes in our immigration laws to exploit women and children.
  • More than 30% of women are sexually assaulted on the journey to our southern border.
  • Nearly 70% of migrants traveling north to the United States are victims of violence.
• In FY 2018, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) made 1,588 Human Trafficking arrests and identified 308 victims.
  • Of the 1,588 arrests, 1,543 were for sex trafficking violations.
• Without a wall, our southern border is wide open to human trafficking.

MORAL OBLIGATION: Democrats and Republicans have a moral obligation to build a wall to protect children and women from human trafficking.

• Congress has a moral responsibility to pass legislation that strengthens border security and includes funding for a wall to prevent human trafficking in all forms.
• We need a wall to provide an effective barrier to entry to help decrease kidnapping and human trafficking along the border.
• Despite Democrats' objections, there is proof that walls deter illegal entry.
• Areas with walls have seen a decline in apprehensions of illegal aliens crossing the border.
  • In San Diego, illegal traffic dropped 92% over the past 23 years.
  • In the El Paso sector, illegal traffic dropped 72% in one year and 95% over 22 years.
  • In the Tucson sector, illegal traffic dropped 90% over 15 years.
  • In the Yuma sector, illegal traffic dropped 95% over 9 years.

ADMINISTRATION PRIORITY: President Trump has made stopping human trafficking an Administration priority.

• As one of his first acts as President, he signed an executive order to combat transnational criminal organizations that engage in trafficking and exploit people.
• Last year, the President signed the Abolish Human Trafficking Act (S. 1311) to strengthen programs supporting survivors and resources for combating modern slavery.
• Additionally, the President signed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (S. 1312), establishing new prevention, prosecution, and collaboration initiative to bring human traffickers to justice.
• The President's Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (PITF) is working to prosecute and combat human trafficking at home and abroad.
• Reaffirming this Administration's commitment to ending human trafficking, President Trump proclaimed January 2019 as National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month.
• In January, the President signed the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (S. 1862) that tightens criteria for countries to meet for eliminating trafficking.