Protecting victims of human trafficking - the TVPA and where the focus should really be

The U.S. Congress is poised to vote on repealing  a provision of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) that had provided legal protection for unaccompanied minor children from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. The provision was by no means an amnesty for unaccompanied kids, many of whom were eventually returned home: it simply gave unaccompanied children the chance to appear before an immigration judge, instead of being summarily excluded at the border. The policy was an appropriate response to the very real possibility that kids crossing the border without parents could be trafficking victims, or vulnerable to trafficking.