We need unity to end human trafficking

As newspaper headlines and television networks rage with coverage of the latest debates on immigration, federal spending and foreign policy challenges, very little attention has been paid to an important bipartisan achievement to fight human trafficking.

Human trafficking is a barbaric industry. Adults, or many times innocent children, are forced or coerced into labor or commercial sex acts. It is without a doubt a modern-day form of slavery.

Right now, almost 25 million people are trapped, performing forced labor worldwide. Women and young girls are believed to make up 70 percent of the total victims. According to the Polaris Project, an international nonprofit group, trafficking has become a $150 billion global enterprise.

Even our own government has identified 139 goods from 75 countries made by forced labor. They include common household items like food, electronics and furniture.

When reading about trafficking, some may think that this is a problem relegated to developing countries or poverty-stricken dictatorships. Sadly, that is not the case. Trafficking victims exist all across America.

In Texas, there are an astounding 300,000 individuals, including nearly 80,000 children, who have directly suffered from human trafficking. Some of their stories have been told in the media, but the public reports do not compare to the agonizing conversations I have had with victims in multiple meetings and roundtables, face-to-face.

I was struck by the horrifying details of what they were forced to go through. Yet, I was also amazed by their strength. For example, there are children in Texas currently in treatment who have been trafficked by their parents. Others are groomed for a year and blackmailed into trafficking by their significant others.

These victims know better than anyone that trafficking is a heinous act, carried out by vicious individuals who prop up a variety of inhumane business practices. We cannot allow this to continue.

Fortunately, we have started taking action. Last month, legislation I introduced was passed with overwhelming bipartisan support in the House of Representatives. And last week, I was proud to stand in the White House and watch the president sign my bill: the Department of Homeland Security Blue Campaign Authorization Act.

This legislation will better equip DHS to partner, educate and coordinate efforts and intelligence sharing on multiple levels. It will provide resources to help deter, detect and mitigate instances of human trafficking in our country.

It will also safeguard victims and help raise public awareness of the threat human trafficking poses to our communities. Nobody deserves to have their life destroyed by monsters who will resort to ruthless tactics to earn cash.

This was an important step, but there is still a lot of work to be done.

In April, I will be hosting a roundtable in Houston with leaders and victims throughout the area to address this issue, discuss how to implement the Blue Campaign Act, and identify the gaps that still remain in combatting human trafficking.

Success in protecting victims is only achievable if we continue to work across the aisle, throughout all levels of government and with businesses and corporations in the private sector. Everybody has a role to play. Lives are at stake.

There are many issues that cause division in Washington. There is certainly no shortage of dysfunction at times. However, putting an end to human trafficking is a cause that can bring a rare sense of unity to our nation’s capital.

Let’s put politics aside and fight with each other, instead of against each other until we put human traffickers out of business once and for all.