Transcripts For CSPAN2 Human Trafficking Summit - Attorney General Jeff Sessions 20180202

Thank you, please be seated. Ladies and gentlemen, if we can once more express our appreciation to the joint Armed Forces Color Guard and the vocalist. [applause] it is a real pleasure today to have the opportunity to gather with so many Law Enforcement professionals, Victim Service professionals, business and other partners who work every day to combat Human Trafficking and to make our nation safer, especially for the most vulnerable among us. Collaboration, the exchange of best practices and building returns is what this summit is all about. It is with great pleasure that id like to introduce you the honorable rachel brand, the associate attorney general of the United States. The associate general serves as the third highest in the department of justice and overseas, among other things, many of the departments efforts to combat Human Trafficking. Nominated by President Trump and confirmed by the senate last year, miss brand had an a diverse legal career both in Public Service and outside of government prior to becoming the associate attorney general. During the administration of president george w. Bush she served as white house special assistant to the president and associate counsel to the president. Then from 2005 to 2007, nominated by president bush and confirmed by the senate she served as the assistant attorney general for legal policy. Her duties as assistant ag diverse, she served as the chief policy advisor to the attorney general. She spearheaded confirmations of the chief justice of United States and samuel alito and coordinated the positions on the repatriate act. In 2012, president barack obama nominated here to serve and the privacy Civil Liberties privacy board. Following confirmation by the senate, 20122017 on the board providing among other things, advice and oversight to u. S. Counterterrorism agencies. Outside of the federal government, miss brand has been an associate professor of law at George Mason University Antonin Scalia law school and a lawyer in practice here in washington. We here an at the department are grateful for her work on Human Trafficking issues and many, many other issues. Ladies and gentlemen, the associate attorney general of the United States. [applaus [applause] thank you, patrick and thanks to all of you for joining us today to grapple with what we call a civil rights crisis, Human Trafficking. Others called Human Trafficking modern day slavery because trafficking victims are denied their freedom and forced to live at the mercy of their traffickers and often subjected to horrific physical and psychological abuse. They are treated as commodities. As youll hear throughout the day were tackling it with our Law Enforcement tools, our Financial Resources and our partnerships with state and local Law Enforcement, industry, Service Providers. And last year alone, the doj victims of nearly 500 defendants in sex trafficking. In a single operation last fall we agreed 84 children. We are looking at doj grant funding. Over 47 Million Dollars in 2017. Some of these funds allow Service Providers to help trafficking victims on the long road to recovery. We think that funding those services is not only the right thing to do for the victim, it also supports our prosecutors because a safe and stable victim is more likely to be able to testify against a trafficker. Do js grant funds provide funding for state and local Law Enforcement. In the past its resulted in identification and rescue of real victims, but, of course, it isnt enough for Law Enforcement to be aware of the problem. We need eyes and ears of all of levels and shine the line on Human Trafficking. If anyone from flight attendants to hotel clerks, to e. R. Doctors know the signs of trafficking well rescue for victims bring more to justice. Youll hear from Law Enforcement, Victim Services, and industry. And our hope is by bringing together the Diverse Group well show the practices with each other and help fight Human Trafficking. At department of justice our focus on Human Trafficking would not be possible without the leadership of the top. Im delighted the attorney general and Deputy Attorney general are here today both are continuing to strengthen the efforts. At this time hed like to introduce the attorney general who is our keynote speaker this morning. Attorney general sessions has dedicated his krcareer to publi service. He was the Southern District attorney for alabama and served as the attorney general for that state. After 20 years as a senate he was confirmed as the attorney general of the United States last february. Please help me welcome attorney general jeff sessions. [applaus [applause] good morning and thank you all for being here and thank you, rachel for your kind words and more importantly, for your strong leadership as our third in command of the department, those two are rod and rachel are harvard graduates, theyre experienced lawyers, they are rod had 27 years in the department. Rachels had a number of years in the department previously and so they both represent the kind of quality and leadership that we want in the department. We are focused and proud, really, of the work thats been done over a number of years, maybe over the last ten years. Weve seen an increasing focus on fighting Human Trafficking, and i wanted to thank all of you that have been important leaders in making this a reality. I want to thank the panelists who are here with us, each of you bring a valuable, unique perspective that were going to be able to learn from today, especially i want to thank Andrea Hipwell for showing the courage and strength to share your experience and insight with us. Youre channelling your experiences into something positive that can help others and thats commendable. I also want to thank cory parnell, who is a survivor, for being with us today. And to thank all of those who are here, who have dedicated your lives to helping survivor reclaim their lives and their freedom. Thank you to mary francis, dr. Jordan greenbaum, jeff rogers and so many others who have joined with us today. And thank you to all of the victim assistance organizations and Survivor Advocacy groups who work to bring healing and hope to those who suffered from this terrible crime. We have, also, Congressional Staff here with us. Were proud to have them. Thank you for your attention to this issue. Congress has been supportive, indeed, there appears to be a unique bipartisan interest in this subject, which i would suggest means that we have an opportunity, maybe, in the next few years to do more than weve done in the past. I want to welcome members of the business community, a number who are here, who are taking important steps to prevent trafficking. I want to thank them as well. Dave mccleary of the rotary club. Nicole clifton of ups and davis of facebook and Audra Jenkins of ram stead, north america. And shelly of anthem. Richard perry of delta and brent wilson of cocacola. Good list of people, we appreciate your attention to this issue and i also want to thank secretary Kirstjen Nielsen of Homeland Security ap all of our prosecutors and Law Enforcement officers who are with us today. I will try to be brief, mention a few things and so we can get to some of the leaders who will be talking with us later. My friend curtis hill, attorney general in indiana, erin neelie cox and robert from the Civil Rights Division and United States attorney in texas. I want to thank each of them for their hard work putting traffickers behind bars. Human trafficking is a violent crime. Trafficking victims are often threatened, beaten, drugged, manipulated psychologically in order to make them dependent and keep them captive. Its hard to imagine this kind of cruelty, trafficking remains too common. The fbi estimated at one point this was the Third Largest criminal it i criminality after drugs and counterfeiting. There are signs its changing, thats not uncommon and Law Enforcement has to change with it, thats just the way the world works. From 2010 to 2015, the National Center for missing and exploited children reported a ninefold increase in reports of suspected child sex trafficking, an increase which they think is related to the internet. These numbers should be a wakeup call for all of us. Its easy to overlook the problem because Human Trafficking victims are often hidden in plain sight. Theyre just not on street corners or dark alleys. In hotels where we stay, at truck stops, sold at nightclubs, massage parlors, and theyre for farm work. They have to be looked out for any major event that occurs. Today, thats not enough. We now face the problem of Human Trafficking, traffickers using the internet. Every day in america, criminals use Online Advertisement to sell trafficking victims for sex. The website that hosts the advertisements act with near impunity and im pleased that congress is focused on this problem and congratulate them for working to find a solution to the scourge that is online sex trafficking. This department is taking action against all forms of Human Trafficking. Im proud of what they have accomplished. Weve been aggressively pursuing traffickers and recovering their victims. All 94 of our offices throughout the country have designated Human Trafficking coordinators who have developed customized antitrafficking strategies for each of delays districts. They hope out United States attorneys, and have advanced enforcement strategies, built strong partnerships and making sure that we use our resources as effectively as possible to identify victims and investigate and prosecute traffickers. Stopping trafficking is a priority of each one of our offices. The criminal division, Child Exploitation and affinity session does terrific work to stop those who traffic children for sex. Just a few weeks ago, along with the United States Attorneys Office in the Eastern District of virginia, they secured convictions of two men in virginia for trafficking three underage girls. This section also helps train thousands of prosecutors, investigators, and state, local and Tribal Police throughout the country. The department provides antitrafficking grant funding, as rachel mentioned, to the 85 of law officers in america who serve at the state, local and tribal level, who are not federal officers. We support them and we know their importance. We understand that they bring unique capabilities and on the ground intelligence that most federal agencies just dont have. They are indispensable partners in our efforts and im sure that many of you work with them and have Great Respect for state and local officers, many of them highlight talented and dedicated to this effort. Human trafficking prosecution unit, or htpu, partners with the United States Attorneys Offices to prosecute labor trafficking, sex trafficking of adults, and Trans National sex trafficking. Hcpu leads our act Team Initiative which brings together federal agents and prosecutors in competitively selected districts. U. S. Attorney who is with us today is a valuable member of one of those teams and he will be presenting today on some of the successes he has had in his district, including obtaining substantial restitution for survivors. We also work in partnership with the department of Homeland Security and our partners in mexico through a bilateral, antitrafficking initiative aimed at dismantling Trans National Trafficking Networks because Human Trafficking, of course, is often a Trans National crime. Toda today the day i was sworn in as attorney general, President Trump sent me a memo to dismantle these criminal organizations. It is a high priority of ours. You can be sure that this includes Human Trafficking rings. And this is another reason why we must finally secure our border. Traffickers and coyotes sees our pourous border as something they can see to exploit for profit and they see this all too easily. In meeting and talking with the United States Attorneys Office in minnesota that had a massive case, i think youll hear about today, the amount of money that can be made through this illegal enterprise is far larger, i think, than most people realize. They suggest even larger than drug trafficking. Our Important Partnership with mexico has resulted in the federal prosecutions in this country are more than 50 defendants, multiple cases in georgia, new york, florida and texas. In addition to the numerous prosecutions in mexico of socialed sex offenders. I remember a case several years ago, how two mexican nationals who were trafficking mexican and gut mallen girls in georgia and in my home state of alabama. They convinced them to cross our border into the country, used violence, threats, intimidation, sexual and psychological abuse to control them. Thanks to the hard work of people at this department, one man received a 15year sentence. Another a 22year sentence. Thats good work. That kind of sentencing and those kind of investigations can end one of these organizations. And our efforts are continuing to produce even greater results and under rachels leadership and all of those in the department, we expect to get better in the future. Last year, through our bilateral work with mexico, we secured guilty pleas from eight members of the reyes sex trafficking organization, a trafficking ring that forced young women and girls from mexico and latin america into prostituti prostitution. They did this for a decade. We worked tirelessly with our mexican counterparts to successfully extradite five of the defendants to stand trial in the United States. We appreciate their help in that regard. We sent a clear message that the United States will pursue criminals to the end of the earth in the name of justice. Thanks to the men and women of this department, we need no longer fear this barbaric trafficking ring. Last fall, the fbi and our state and local partners arrested 120 traffickers and recovered 84 miners in a major nationwide operation. One operation. Victims were as young as 12. And just a couple of weeks ago, just ten miles from here, a sex trafficker from Northern Virginia was sentenced to 30 years in prison, his two coconspirators received 10year sentences. In fiscal year 2017 the department of justice secured convictions of nearly 500 traffickers. We brought a Record Number of cases last year, charging more than 550 defendants, some of those are still pending. These cases involved all forms of Human Trafficking. Labor trafficking, sex trafficking, exploiting minors and adults. U. S. Legal guest workers and illegal aliens. Weve seen increases in cases filed, defendants charged and defendants convicted and were going to keep working at it, but when we lock away a trafficker, our work is not over, as you well know. We just dont stop there. You dont stop there. We also fund survivor centered programs that help trafficking victims walk the long road to recovery. Youre going to hear this afternoons panel about how we can make those grants as effective as possible. That is a priority for us. Every dollar needs to receive maximum benefit. So im hopeful that todays summit will help us build on the efforts that ive just described and you will discuss and make us more effective than weve ever been. I hope that it will shine a light on a problem that is all too often kept in the shadows. I want to thank you, once again, for being here, for participating in todays summit. I want to thank you all for your work to protect our communities and ensure that victims and survivors are valued and protected. Thank you all, have a great day. [applaus [applause] thank you, attorney general and thank you to our senior leadership. At this time were going to continue the transition into the first panel and were going to say goodbye to our departmental leadership. Thank you again for joinings here this morning. Thank you. [applaus [applause] ladies and gentlemen, your notes on your program that our first panel will be the Law Enforcement panel. We have a little bit of a set change coming up, so, hang tight for a few minutes and we will get the panel out here and started for you. In the meantime, i hadd like to tell you a little about logistics for the day. There are bathrooms outside the great hall, both to your left and to your right when you exit the great hall. Theres a cafeteria downstairs in the basement. We will make further announcements about that as lunchtime approaches and theres also a coffee shop on the first floor which is basically directly under us, if you step outside of the great hall and walk downstairs,