For more than a decade, fighting slavery has been a unified effort by both the democrats and republicans in the U.S. government. The Trafficking Victims Protection Act, considered to be the cornerstone of anti-slavery legislation, passed into law in 2000. It was a groundbreaking law—the first federal legislation that tackled the issue of modern-day slavery in a comprehensive way.
Since then, the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) has been routinely renewed every three years.
This year, however, the law was not reauthorized.
The Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking (ATEST)—a coalition of U.S.-based anti-slavery organizations, which Free the Slaves is a part of—sent a letter to the congressional leadership urging the passage of the TVPRA. Here’s an excerpt:
For well over a decade, the work to combat modern-day slavery and human trafficking has been an example of Congress’s ability to put partisanship aside in the interest of tackling a difficult and seemingly intractable problem. That willingness to be thoughtful, practical, and balanced in approach has proven successful in this work, and made tremendous contributions to the fight against this heinous crime. Unfortunately, these recent political developments jeopardize this pragmatic balance in favor of a partisan confrontation that undermines the achievement of our joint goal of ending modern-day slavery in the United States and around the world.
Read our letter in its entirely here.
Last year, ATEST ran this ad in Politico, Washington Post and Roll Call, urging the renewal of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act.
