WASHINGTON -- While releasing the 2021 Trafficking in Persons Report last Thursday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken noted that “we’ve got to acknowledge our own shortcomings.” To its credit, the TIP Report does just that, with a detailed description of how the United States...
Author: Terry FitzPatrick
Recommendations to Congress for Reauthorization of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act
Human trafficking continues to be one of the most important challenges of our time. More than 20 years after Congress first passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), traffickers continue to exploit an estimated 25 million people in forced labor around the world, earning over...
ATEST Briefs Congress on Opportunities for Action
Members of the Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking and leaders from the Congressional Human Trafficking Caucus and the Senate Caucus to End Human Trafficking gathered this week for a virtual briefing and discussion about initiatives to combat human trafficking during the 117th...
Trafficking Survivors Should Not Pay Income Tax When They Win in Court
The Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking supports a simple but necessary change to America’s federal tax code. The “Human Trafficking Survivor Tax Relief Act” (S. 895) would exempt from federal income taxes any restitution or civil damage awards that survivors receive. This...
ATEST Calls on Senate to make Significant Changes to Farm Workforce Modernization Act
WASHINGTON -- The Farm Workforce Modernization Act (FWMA, H.R. 1603), as currently constituted, strikes an unacceptable compromise between the pathway to citizenship that all farmworkers deserve, and expansion of an H-2A visa program marked by abuses ranging from gender discrimination...
ATEST Supports California Bill AB364 to Strengthen Regulation of Foreign Labor Recruiters
March 24, 2021 Senator Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee California State Capitol Sacramento, CA 95814 Senator Members of the Senate Committee Labor and Industrial Relations California State Capitol, Sacramento, CA 95814 RE: AB 364 (Rodriquez) – SUPPORT Dear...
ATEST Recommends 10 Ways ILAB Can Improve List of Goods Tainted by Forced or Child Labor
March 3, 2021 Matthew Fraterman Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking (OCFT) Department of Labor International Labor Affairs Bureau Dear Mr. Fraterman: Thank you for the opportunity to submit comments and recommendations regarding the Department of...
ATEST 2020 Advocacy Report
A Summary of ATEST’s 2020 Activities and a Forecast of 2021 Election and Transition The 2020 campaign and election provided an important pivot point for the anti-trafficking movement. ATEST focused on promoting fact-based discourse on human...
ATEST Releases Five Policy Briefs to Biden-Harris Transition Team
ATEST has submitted five in-depth policy briefs to the Biden-Harris transition team, each with detailed recommendations that outline how different federal agencies can work together for a whole-of-government approach on key areas of combating human trafficking. The five briefs...
ATEST Provides Preliminary Comments on USAID C-TIP Policy Revision
ATEST today provided brief comments to USAID today about the rewrite of its Counter-Trafficking in Persons Policy. ATEST urges more thorough stakeholder engagement and a longer period for public comment, but submitted preliminary thoughts before today's deadline to ennsure the agency...