Home > 106th Congressional Bills > H.R. 3244 (ih) To combat trafficking of persons, especially into the sex trade, [Introduced in House] ...H.R. 3244 (ih) To combat trafficking of persons, especially into the sex trade, [Introduced in House] ...
H.R.3244
One Hundred Sixth Congress
of the
United States of America
AT THE SECOND SESSION
Begun and held at the City of Washington on Monday,
the twenty-fourth day of January, two thousand
An Act
To combat trafficking in persons, especially into the sex trade,
slavery, and involuntary servitude, to reauthorize certain Federal
programs to prevent violence against women, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Victims of Trafficking and Violence
Protection Act of 2000''.
SEC. 2. ORGANIZATION OF ACT INTO DIVISIONS; TABLE OF CONTENTS.
(a) Divisions.--This Act is organized into three divisions, as
follows:
(1) Division a.--Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000.
(2) Division b.--Violence Against Women Act of 2000.
(3) Division c.--Miscellaneous Provisions.
(b) Table of Contents.--The table of contents for this Act is as
follows:
Sec.1.Short title.
Sec.2.Organization of Act into divisions; table of contents.
DIVISION A--TRAFFICKING VICTIMS PROTECTION ACT OF 2000
Sec.101.Short title.
Sec.102.Purposes and findings.
Sec.103.Definitions.
Sec.104.Annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices.
Sec.105.Interagency Task Force To Monitor and Combat Trafficking.
Sec.106.Prevention of trafficking.
Sec.107.Protection and assistance for victims of trafficking.
Sec.108.Minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.
Sec.109.Assistance to foreign countries to meet minimum standards.
Sec.110.Actions against governments failing to meet minimum standards.
Sec.111.Actions against significant traffickers in persons.
Sec.112.Strengthening prosecution and punishment of traffickers.
Sec.113.Authorizations of appropriations.
DIVISION B--VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN ACT OF 2000
Sec.1001.Short title.
Sec.1002.Definitions.
Sec.1003.Accountability and oversight.
TITLE I--STRENGTHENING LAW ENFORCEMENT TO REDUCE VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
Sec.1101.Full faith and credit enforcement of protection orders.
Sec.1102.Role of courts.
Sec.1103.Reauthorization of STOP grants.
Sec.1104.Reauthorization of grants to encourage arrest policies.
Sec.1105.Reauthorization of rural domestic violence and child abuse
enforcement grants.
Sec.1106.National stalker and domestic violence reduction.
Sec.1107.Amendments to domestic violence and stalking offenses.
Sec.1108.School and campus security.
Sec.1109.Dating violence.
TITLE II--STRENGTHENING SERVICES TO VICTIMS OF VIOLENCE
Sec.1201.Legal assistance for victims.
Sec.1202.Shelter services for battered women and children.
Sec.1203.Transitional housing assistance for victims of domestic
violence.
Sec.1204.National domestic violence hotline.
Sec.1205.Federal victims counselors.
Sec.1206.Study of State laws regarding insurance discrimination against
victims of violence against women.
Sec.1207.Study of workplace effects from violence against women.
Sec.1208.Study of unemployment compensation for victims of violence
against women.
Sec.1209.Enhancing protections for older and disabled women from
domestic
violence and sexual assault.
TITLE III--LIMITING THE EFFECTS OF VIOLENCE ON CHILDREN
Sec.1301.Safe havens for children pilot program.
Sec.1302.Reauthorization of victims of child abuse programs.
Sec.1303.Report on effects of parental kidnapping laws in domestic
violence cases.
TITLE IV--STRENGTHENING EDUCATION AND TRAINING TO COMBAT VIOLENCE
AGAINST WOMEN
Sec.1401.Rape prevention and education.
Sec.1402.Education and training to end violence against and abuse of
women with disabilities.
Sec.1403.Community initiatives.
Sec.1404.Development of research agenda identified by the Violence
Against Women Act of 1994.
Sec.1405.Standards, practice, and training for sexual assault forensic
examinations.
Sec.1406.Education and training for judges and court personnel.
Sec.1407.Domestic Violence Task Force.
TITLE V--BATTERED IMMIGRANT WOMEN
Sec.1501.Short title.
Sec.1502.Findings and purposes.
Sec.1503.Improved access to immigration protections of the Violence
Against Women Act of 1994 for battered immigrant women.
Sec.1504.Improved access to cancellation of removal and suspension of
deportation under the Violence Against Women Act of 1994.
Sec.1505.Offering equal access to immigration protections of the
Violence Against Women Act of 1994 for all qualified battered
immigrant self-petitioners.
Sec.1506.Restoring immigration protections under the Violence Against
Women Act of 1994.
Sec.1507.Remedying problems with implementation of the immigration
provisions of the Violence Against Women Act of 1994.
Sec.1508.Technical correction to qualified alien definition for battered
immigrants.
Sec.1509.Access to Cuban Adjustment Act for battered immigrant spouses
and
children.
Sec.1510.Access to the Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief
Act for battered spouses and children.
Sec.1511.Access to the Haitian Refugee Fairness Act of 1998 for battered
spouses and children.
Sec.1512.Access to services and legal representation for battered
immigrants.
Sec.1513.Protection for certain crime victims including victims of
crimes against women.
TITLE VI--MISCELLANEOUS
Sec.1601.Notice requirements for sexually violent offenders.
Sec.1602.Teen suicide prevention study.
Sec.1603.Decade of pain control and research.
DIVISION C--MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS
Sec.2001.Aimee's law.
Sec.2002.Payment of anti-terrorism judgments.
Sec.2003.Aid to victims of terrorism.
Sec.2004.Twenty-first amendment enforcement.
DIVISION A--TRAFFICKING VICTIMS PROTECTION ACT OF 2000
SEC. 101. SHORT TITLE.
This division may be cited as the ``Trafficking Victims Protection
Act of 2000''.
SEC. 102. PURPOSES AND FINDINGS.
(a) Purposes.--The purposes of this division are to combat
trafficking in persons, a contemporary manifestation of slavery whose
victims are predominantly women and children, to ensure just and
effective punishment of traffickers, and to protect their victims.
(b) Findings.--Congress finds that:
(1) As the 21st century begins, the degrading institution of
slavery continues throughout the world. Trafficking in persons is a
modern form of slavery, and it is the largest manifestation of
slavery today. At least 700,000 persons annually, primarily women
and children, are trafficked within or across international
borders. Approximately 50,000 women and children are trafficked
into the United States each year.
(2) Many of these persons are trafficked into the international
sex trade, often by force, fraud, or coercion. The sex industry has
rapidly expanded over the past several decades. It involves sexual
exploitation of persons, predominantly women and girls, involving
activities related to prostitution, pornography, sex tourism, and
other commercial sexual services. The low status of women in many
parts of the world has contributed to a burgeoning of the
trafficking industry.
(3) Trafficking in persons is not limited to the sex industry.
This growing transnational crime also includes forced labor and
involves significant violations of labor, public health, and human
rights standards worldwide.
(4) Traffickers primarily target women and girls, who are
disproportionately affected by poverty, the lack of access to
education, chronic unemployment, discrimination, and the lack of
economic opportunities in countries of origin. Traffickers lure
women and girls into their networks through false promises of
decent working conditions at relatively good pay as nannies, maids,
dancers, factory workers, restaurant workers, sales clerks, or
models. Traffickers also buy children from poor families and sell
them into prostitution or into various types of forced or bonded
labor.
(5) Traffickers often transport victims from their home
communities to unfamiliar destinations, including foreign countries
away from family and friends, religious institutions, and other
sources of protection and support, leaving the victims defenseless
and vulnerable.
(6) Victims are often forced through physical violence to
engage in sex acts or perform slavery-like labor. Such force
includes rape and other forms of sexual abuse, torture, starvation,
imprisonment, threats, psychological abuse, and coercion.
(7) Traffickers often make representations to their victims
that physical harm may occur to them or others should the victim
escape or attempt to escape. Such representations can have the same
coercive effects on victims as direct threats to inflict such harm.
(8) Trafficking in persons is increasingly perpetrated by
organized, sophisticated criminal enterprises. Such trafficking is
the fastest growing source of profits for organized criminal
enterprises worldwide. Profits from the trafficking industry
contribute to the expansion of organized crime in the United States
and worldwide. Trafficking in persons is often aided by official
corruption in countries of origin, transit, and destination,
thereby threatening the rule of law.
(9) Trafficking includes all the elements of the crime of
forcible rape when it involves the involuntary participation of
another person in sex acts by means of fraud, force, or coercion.
(10) Trafficking also involves violations of other laws,
including labor and immigration codes and laws against kidnapping,
slavery, false imprisonment, assault, battery, pandering, fraud,
and extortion.
(11) Trafficking exposes victims to serious health risks. Women
and children trafficked in the sex industry are exposed to deadly
diseases, including HIV and AIDS. Trafficking victims are sometimes
worked or physically brutalized to death.
(12) Trafficking in persons substantially affects interstate
and foreign commerce. Trafficking for such purposes as involuntary
servitude, peonage, and other forms of forced labor has an impact
on the nationwide employment network and labor market. Within the
context of slavery, servitude, and labor or services which are
obtained or maintained through coercive conduct that amounts to a
condition of servitude, victims are subjected to a range of
violations.
(13) Involuntary servitude statutes are intended to reach cases
in which persons are held in a condition of servitude through
nonviolent coercion. In United States v. Kozminski, 487 U.S. 931
(1988), the Supreme Court found that section 1584 of title 18,
United States Code, should be narrowly interpreted, absent a
definition of involuntary servitude by Congress. As a result, that
section was interpreted to criminalize only servitude that is
brought about through use or threatened use of physical or legal
coercion, and to exclude other conduct that can have the same
purpose and effect.
(14) Existing legislation and law enforcement in the United
States and other countries are inadequate to deter trafficking and
bring traffickers to justice, failing to reflect the gravity of the
offenses involved. No comprehensive law exists in the United States
that penalizes the range of offenses involved in the trafficking
scheme. Instead, even the most brutal instances of trafficking in
the sex industry are often punished under laws that also apply to
lesser offenses, so that traffickers typically escape deserved
punishment.
(15) In the United States, the seriousness of this crime and
its components is not reflected in current sentencing guidelines,
resulting in weak penalties for convicted traffickers.
(16) In some countries, enforcement against traffickers is also
hindered by official indifference, by corruption, and sometimes
even by official participation in trafficking.
(17) Existing laws often fail to protect victims of
trafficking, and because victims are often illegal immigrants in
the destination country, they are repeatedly punished more harshly
than the traffickers themselves.
(18) Additionally, adequate services and facilities do not
exist to meet victims' needs regarding health care, housing,
education, and legal assistance, which safely reintegrate
trafficking victims into their home countries.
(19) Victims of severe forms of trafficking should not be
inappropriately incarcerated, fined, or otherwise penalized solely
for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked,
such as using false documents, entering the country without
documentation, or working without documentation.
(20) Because victims of trafficking are frequently unfamiliar
with the laws, cultures, and languages of the countries into which
they have been trafficked, because they are often subjected to
coercion and intimidation including physical detention and debt
bondage, and because they often fear retribution and forcible
removal to countries in which they will face retribution or other
hardship, these victims often find it difficult or impossible to
report the crimes committed against them or to assist in the
investigation and prosecution of such crimes.
(21) Trafficking of persons is an evil requiring concerted and
vigorous action by countries of origin, transit or destination, and
by international organizations.
(22) One of the founding documents of the United States, the
Declaration of Independence, recognizes the inherent dignity and
worth of all people. It states that all men are created equal and
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
rights. The right to be free from slavery and involuntary servitude
is among those unalienable rights. Acknowledging this fact, the
United States outlawed slavery and involuntary servitude in 1865,
recognizing them as evil institutions that must be abolished.
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