The Current
Advocacy News + Updates
TOP STORY
This spring, advocates across the nation rallied together to speak up for the 40 million people trapped in slavery (Global Slavery Index, 2018). As a movement, thousands of you leveraged the power of digital tools to raise your voices to your members of Congress through tweets, emails and online petitions. Together, we urged Congress to ensure that the State Department’s Program to End Modern Slavery and the Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Office are fully funded in the 2020 appropriations bill. Here is a breakdown of the momentum you’ve built:
One of the most touching client stories Ive heard since joining IJM involves a six-year-old girl who had been sexual assaulted in Manila. It was my colleague Sean Littons first week on the job in a brand new IJM office in the Philippines when a social service provider brought the child and a case file folder to him and told Sean that the judge was hearing the case that very day. Sean had little time to do more than scan the folder and speak briefly with the child, who would have to provide testimony in the case. When he talked to the victim, his heart sank. The child had a developmental disability and had difficulty concentrating. He entered the courtroom with the child and her social worker with little hope that she would be able to provide compelling testimony about the violence she had suffered.
Last Thursday, the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) was passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee by a vote of 12-6!
We are excited that this critical legislation will now move forward for a full Senate vote, but theres still more work to be done. Senators Coburn (OK), Cornyn (TX), Lee (UT), Sessions (AL), Graham (SC), and Kyl (AZ) each voted against passing the TVPRA out of committee. Its critical that these members hear from anti-slavery advocates in their states before the bill is voted on by the full Senate.
How you can help:
If you live in Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, Alabama, South Carolina, or Arizona, please call your Senator and politely express your disappointment that they did not support the TVPRA in committee and your hope that they will support the bill when it reaches the Senate floor.
On a chilly December day in 2009, my friend David and I crammed into a taxi and made our way through the DC streets to Capitol Hill. To say that I felt butterflies would be an understatement. We were minutes away from an appointment at Georgia Senator Johnny Isaksons office, and I still had no idea what I was going to say.
Our aim was to ask the Senator to help introduce the Child Protection Compact Act, and I was frantically trying to come up with something persuasive to convey.