Tremendous changes in the field. Almost onntirely women and girls in the sex sector, we now realize trafficking is a phenomenon that also includes men, women, and children in a wider range across every daily lives. On farms,ake place along the supply chain that involves the clothing we wear. It can take place in homes with elderly and disabled and in public homes with the treatment of teachers from abroad. Just as we understand the depth and breadth of the problem has evolved, so has the treatment. It is not eradicated solely through prosecutorial efforts but we also have to tend to the root cause of the problem. This includes the lack of economic and educational where individuals migrate under precarious conditions in the hopes of finding a means for basic economic survival. Or in the countries like united ortes, lack of retaliation cares and filters. This confluence of factors has contributed to the Current Situation where an estimated 20. 9 Million People around the world are trafficked or are in labor. This has inspired a deep and evergrowing commitment on the behalf of governments, ngos, organizations, philanthropies, and or organizations and people like yourselves. I had the great privilege of moderating a discussion with two of the leading voices. For today is i will briefly introduce our speakers and spend about 30 minutes prompted by a series of questions i have prepared and advance and cleared with our speakers and then we will open up to questions from the audience and concluding statements from the speakers. To introduce senator high camp. She is the first female senator elected. H dakota she has become a leader in the fight against Human Trafficking, bells inning the alarm the senate on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and 2013 and she now serves as ranking member. She cosponsored and helped pass an act which president obama signed into law that helps secure stricter punishments for traffickers. Stricterad bills for laws nationwide to make sure victims are treated as victims not criminal. To hold the owner of backpage. Com accountable for refusing to testify on his companys refusal to provide holduards, she voted to him in contempt of congress, the first on the senate has done so when 20 years. [applause] earlier this year, the senator challenged leadership of back page for its leadership in the role of Human Trafficking when the u. S. Senate committee on Homeland Security and Permanent Committee on investigations released a report finding the company knowingly facilitated online sex trafficking. Act to makeuced an sure Health Care Workers have the training they need to help identify and protect victims facing and will keep fighting to vulnerable domost not fall prey to these crimes. She is working to build a Strong Network of support and has and engaged Community Leaders and Law Enforcement into the fight against these crimes with training. To introduceased mrs. Cindy mccain. Mrs. Mccain has spent her life fighting on behalf of women and children and has been a strong leader in the fight against Human Trafficking. Privateworked across forpublic lines and both democratic and republican othertees and the organizations that work to eradicate Human Trafficking. She has worked in london, kenyon, congo, somebody a, and the ivory coast. She is the cochair on the trafficking advisory councils. She is trying to reduce trafficking in arizona, drug the United States, and throughout the world as well as looking to improve the lives of victims of Human Trafficking. Several partnerships have been formed with antitrafficking organization solving various aspects of the problem. She has worked to shed a light on the different facets of everyday life affected by Human Trafficking. She addresses Human Trafficking at the International Level by heading to the front lines with the most vulnerable populations subject to Human Trafficking. On the shorelines of turkey, she worked to educate refugees on the signs of Human Trafficking and how to avoid falling prey to human traffickers. She has traveled to learn more about the issues and ways to fight this heinous crime. And holds anoards undergraduate degree in education and masters in special education from usc and is a member of the school of Education Board of counselors. She passionately fights to stop Human Trafficking and helps people Work Together to stop this crime against humanity. [applause] i want going to lead off with a question to both of you. How did you first get involved in the trafficking field . Ms. Mccain the first time i ever saw Human Trafficking i did not know what it was. We have a daughter in bangladesh so i was out trying to find some material for her. Kolkatasy with that and is a very vibrant, exciting you know, all the noise. Everything going on designing and inside. As i went to go pay the gentleman that on the kiosk, i could kind of hear this floor. Ing from below the noise, things being moved around the end i asked him what it was and he said, it is just my family. Floorboards. Ow the very plausible and possible in a place like this but what i want to lay the money on the counter kind of down into good see a little bit between the floorboards and slats, but not enough. I know i looked at at least three sets of little eyes. All girls, not all his that is for sure. What i did was, i did not do anything. I did not know what i was looking at. What wasuld not fathom going on, so i walked out of that he asked. Nice airplane home. Went back to my lovely home with my lovely family and did not do anything but what it did do was barman to find out what it was. This has was spur me on to find out what it was. To find out a way we can stop this stuff. It is horrible. You can turn something bad into something good and i am just grateful that i have the experience and can actually be in a position to do something now. For me, imd former attorney general for north dakota and one of the reasons i ran in 1992 was at the time the domestic state androgram in my other places across the country was in the Public Health arena, it was not considered a terminal justice issue. In 1992, we were attacking this as a family problem. There was an ongoing tension between Law Enforcement and the advocates. If you ever want to see when people say you will never get people to get along that have that much animosity toward each other, you should look at the seamless work that Law Enforcement and many, many states and the mystic violence advocates are doing today to combat Domestic Violence. That was my frame of reference. When i ran for the United States andte in 2012, i went visited all my Law Enforcement friends and we started talking about because it was a time of tremendous growth. They said, heidi we have never seen this level of prostitution before. We dont have time to investigate it. We are investigating a salts in bars. Murders. Thefts. We dont have time to investigate prostitution but we see it everywhere. I got to picking about that and what it actually meant in north dakota and like cindy, rethinking what that meant and what that was in started learning about what that was and what goes on when people by other human beings so they can resell them to other human beings and when they capture and sellent them so they can re them to others. First the problem is miners. Is minors. Roblem what we do with people who purchase children. People who engage in the sex trade as johns as a poster child predators and pedophiles. We have a whole language around prostitution that does not with the heinous nature of this crime. To give you an idea to begin to of this discussion about how we as a society ought to look at commercial sex, we begin a discussion about what the laws say and how we should change the laws. My first interest came as a result of what i was seeing with indigenous women. Made of american women who escaped the life and warren recovery in places like indianapolis that has a Recovery Center that is incredible. The stories they would tell about being sold by their cousins, their families, for sex or money and literally thrown away. When you look at the dynamics of Domestic Violence and trafficking, the one thing that is a constant is the devaluing of that person. A you want to get someone in position where you can abuse them in a family relationship, you devalue them first. When you want to take a child who already is probably susceptible, you devalue that child. That is why what we need to talk about goes to the runway and program. Youth i think there are a lot of people involved to think this is like Laura Ingalls wilder bounding through the prairie and some dark force boosts her up and carries her way to this evil place. I am not saying that does not happen and there are a lot of victims that fit that profile. But a lot are kids are been thrown away. Kids who have run away. Its who are vulnerable on the street probably engaging in survival sex at some point which devalues them and then they take the next step. We have to begin looking at this issue differently. These same way we morphed from thinking this was a family problem and a problem of Public Health in Domestic Violence, we have to start being very serious as a society and directing the victimization that happens in commercial sex. And we took about underage minors because that seems to be the entry point. All of the women ive met in the life or who are in this life began as minors. Ando draw that harsh line say, because youre 18yearsold and no longer have that protection we want for girls, is not right. We have a lot to do in terms of cultural change but it has to begin by changing the dynamic like we did in the mystic violence and begin to be very audience and begin to be very honest about how complacent we are as a society and begin to turn away from this whole problem of human slavery, particularly human sex slavery. Picking up on this point about child victims, one of the most troubling i have come traffickinge human a couple yearsrt ago that found through enormous Research Across the country that in only 36 of trafficking prosecutions did prosecutors actually ask for restitution to victims. Now, that is a mandatory requirement. Prosecutors are supposed to ask for restitution and that is important to find aftercare and the trauma and needs of other victims after trafficking. 36 is the request only even made. I am wondering if you might speak to why that is and what you think we could do about that problem . I will add the least likely to receive restitution was found to be child victims of sex trafficking. Number one, getting a child first of all getting a child into court to testify against a trafficker is a monumental feat. Most of the time, they run. Once they get in, do they have to face them to testify against them or are they allowed to video testify . That is an issue right now in arizona. There are a number of factors so getting to the point of restitution is a long road. I completely agree with you but until we can actually educate prosecutors we are not going to get anywhere on this and we are going to continue to see low anders and less prosecutors prosecutions and kid sued disappear as a result of that. Cake when i was attorney general i started a special unit in my office. You can imagine. When i was attorney general i started a special unit in my office. Are prosecutors in fargo, in grand port, major cities wellequipped to handle that kind of prosecution. But if it happens in slope county or you know, these counties that are sparsely populated with a parttime prosecutor or states attorney it is difficult to develop the expertise to do these cases and on child Sexual Assault, cases where you say that is not trafficking, absolutely that is trafficking. Sexual worse trauma fan assault that is not involve repeated behaviors. If you look at it, we need to have a whole different look on how we address prosecution and address victimization in the courtroom. Require continued and ongoing training for prosecutors for stop for judges. Because frequently judges will of grant leniency and terms videotape. They will say, you have a right accuser. Nt your these are challenges and any kind of child Sexual Assault prosecution. People just do not want to live through this experience again and that is what it requires. We need highly trained prosecutors and specialized units in states like mine that are equipped and trained to handle these kinds of investigations and prosecutions. You could have the best prosecutor in the world but the investigation is going to be awfully hard to prove up as assault. , which where our bills require screening and hospitals, comes into focus. We recently on the back page hearing, we heard from a number of mothers whose children had been trafficked. The challenges that they had. I asked the simple question, i asked, what would you like to see done that would have changed outcomes for your child and both of them said, better training in emergency rooms. They felt their children had been that was a point of intervention. Then when they actually showed up for the investigative forensic exam, no one knew how to do a forensic exam that involved a trafficked victim. It was not what you would expect in a Sexual Assault case, it was much more complicated and so we need to do we need to get the resources to develop the best actresses like we did in Domestic Violence prosecutions where we went ahead and prosecution without victim testimony. Frequently in Domestic Violence, prosecution happens because frequently the victim will recant to because of the power relationship they are in. So, we have to have trained units. When we train those units, they are not going to question that formula that you ask for restitution. It would be interesting, i asked the professor about how much of that is actually paid. Of the restitution that is ordered. Having the judgment is one thing, the ability to be paid and execute on that judgment is another huge challenge. Like i said, this is going to take really specialized units and states, especially like mine but all across the country. The states that have been the most successful are states that have these units. Minneapolis is a great example. They have great investigators in great prosecutors. Its not like you have to reinvent the wheel. I think that we should be doing more to build that capacity within the prosecutorial world, it will go a long way. Thank you. I want to continue on the prosecution line and ask about the disparities in the number prosecutions pursued for sex trafficking versus labor trafficking. So just to throw out some statistics both globally and in the United States. In the United States in 2015, only nine out of 957 prosecutions initiated were of labor trafficking. Globally, out of 18930 prosecutions, only 857 prosecutions were of labor trafficking. I wonder if you might speak to how we might be able to promote proactive investigations of labor trafficking cases around the world and here in the United States . You ask a good question. This is a problem across the country. Labor trafficking is grossly underreported. For many reasons, primarily the most is that the companies are actually using traffic labor i know they are using traffic labor are not going to report anything. There are not going to report to the supplychain entities this is going on. Theres another portion of this, the Mccain Institute has a project that is beginning in texas on this issue. Working with prosecutors and educating prosecutors on the issue. It is convoluted many times, not all labor traffic victims are illegal. Many of them are legal within the United States. So making our prosecutors understand the depth of the issue, what it is, what to do, all of the things that you and i know sitting here, but many prosecutors particularly in Rural Counties do not know. Or they do not believe it is even going on. Also making sure that in the larger perspective of this, making sure companies who are sourcing the fruits and vegetables of the textiles, or whatever it may be, are doing Due Diligence on the supply chain. This is something i would like to see the United States to take on officially and make Companies Accountable for what is going on within their supply chains to the best of their ability. Understand that there are going to be some problems that they probably cannot find her wont find. Everyone has to play a part in this. I no longer, and i think heidi agrees with me, except the fact that a company just doesnt know. Theres too many resources out there. From that aspect i think its very important. Before hand it off to heidi, where we are working in texas, the prosecutors in that part of the state simply said to us, it doesnt exist, its not a problem here. Texas. So we are starting at ground zero in many places on this issue. I give credit to the dhs department of Homeland Security who began a blue campaign. Its in its early stages but when their trainers got to talk about local prosecutors they dont restrict it to sex trafficking. They talk about labor trafficking in domestic health. What to look for, how to spot it. Think the beginning stages to build an awareness that this actually happens. We have modernday slavery in our country. There are people who are enslaved to our marginalized, who go to work every day and earn not to a dime. So its like sex trafficking. When we began this discussion Western North dakota, i remember going to a meeting and cindy was there with me in a little town. We got around the table and we were talking about the problem and Community Leaders were there. You can kind of see them roll their eyes because they probably wouldve if i were there but they thought we were exaggerating this and it was just yakking until the chief of police said, today, back pages there are 20 advertisements for commercial sex in the city. It was like dead silence in that room. The reality of that had to be recognized. We have a massive labor shortage in my state. During the oil boom, if anyone of you who thinks there wasnt labor trafficking, there wasnt modernday slavery, i think wed be too naive. Not one report of it. So frequently it is done by the guy running the hotel desperately needs people to perform janitorial services. They cant find the workforce to hire directly, they contract, they dont look much beyond that contract. So what is really happening there. Are those people actually getting paid and getting paid fairly . Another time when you have a big explosion of work the investigators actually showing up the labor investigators, to find out whats going on. We need better training to identify this problem. We need better training for prosecutors to prosecute the problem. We think anywhere from 20 anywhere from 20 million to Million People in the world are currently enslaved. Anyone here who believes none of these people are in our country, you are wrong. Because we are a very vibrant economy. Just as people will look for a market first sex trafficking. People will look for market for sex trafficking. People will look for market for labor trafficking. It is not on purpose. How many of you saw story about a note in a purse . A couple of you. This is happened i guess occasionally where someone buys a purse at a big box store, opens it up and theres a note, this note happen to be written in chinese. This woman took it to someone who is a translator who then translated it. The note said i am imprisoned, we dont know she was in prison or for his prison labor or she was imprisoned. But she was clearly crying out for help for anyone who bought that purse. So it should not take someone writing a note in a purse to ask people. I happened to have a meeting that week with the company, will not say who it was. They were very receptive. They would really like to know in the supplychain cousin mightve been three steps removed. When we are the largest economy of the world purchasing these goods and services i think we have a greater obligation to make sure that the people producing these are not slaves. We can leverage that economic strength that we have for a very good purpose which is ending slavery in our world. To take on the fact that trafficking occurs right here in our borders, i wanted to raise an issue that came up at a recent conference. It was a conference that brought together hundreds of advocates working, direct Service Providers who were with trafficked people. There is a theme that came across during the conference which was a very deep concern about the impact that heightened Immigration Enforcement could have on trafficking victims coming forward to report abuse. As you said, and i am so glad you clarified for the audience that many trafficked persons are here in the United States, in documented status. We do have a lot of on document of people who are trafficked here in the United States. I am wondering what we might be able to do or what we ought to do about trafficked to persons who are undocumented who, now because of a heightened Immigration Enforcement may be all the more wary of interacting with Government Agencies to report the abuse they are suffering. I will take this one. This power relationship has created a real vulnerability in trafficking. It was bad before, i mean you have already the stories of things that have happened in the fields were somebody who is a supervisor feels like they can just take a moment out of the field, rape her and then center back to work in the same morning. So this was happening before we had this heightened awareness within the community that there will be additional Enforcement Actions taken. I believe personally it has, in fact, may people who were incredibly vulnerable, even more vulnerable. How we need to address that, i think is going to be with a lot of education and awareness about what happens with vulnerable people. It also requires that people who wear the label of citizens begin to speak out. I know we can get into a discussion about sanctuary cities, we can get into a discussion about zones of protection that would not result in deportation with reports. We need to figure that piece out. It is not an American Value to let that happen in our country. It is not an American Value. When people can act with impunity because they have no fear of retribution, no fear of prosecution, we only add to the vulnerability. So, i dont know if i have the answer but i am very concerned as the question would suggest, you are, that this has in fact created a greater opportunity for really bad people to do do really bad things. I see two things in this. Number one, of the Litigious Society that we live in now has driven so many people to say, i dont want to get involved. I dont know what could happen so count me out. That has to change. This issue has to be one that you engage in. If we are ever going to stop it. Secondly, this is also a cry to be able to further educate, train, and make aware our local Law Enforcement, the guys were on the ground come across this. Trafficked victims are handled differently, but as your point, we are going to have to do something that will enable these people to number one, not be trafficked to and number two, if they are trafficked to come forward not so frightened. I dont know what that is. That is a job for my husband and heidi. [laughter] mrs. Mccain it is. It is one thing that you, as i hope activists, humanitarians, lawyers, whatever your future lies ahead for you, this is up to. This is your time. We are in a perfect storm on this issue now. It is incumbent on all of us to get involved on a daily basis. Thank you. So we have reached the point in the program or we open up the form to questions from the audience. I believe there may be a microphone, or maybe we can have our questioners stand up and identify yourself please. We can also repeat the question. So anybody who is interested. Go ahead, right here in front. Hello. Im from Northern California and im very aware of what is going on in san francisco. Kamala harris, she had made her First Priority and immigration issue. Of course she is former attorney general. So, i wanted to ask you, the lesson that you said, because of discrimination in you know the enforcement today, most victims were undocumented would never report of rapes that are going on. Is that, my question is does that reinforce issue you bring up . Because they go out and report the rape then they get deported. That is the situation the senator was saying as a former attorney general. I really respect the work that senator harris is doing. Shes a great addition issues on our committee, our Homeland Security committee and raising these issues every day. What i would tell you is that anytime you have people who are diminished empower, clearly someone who is working, picking tomatoes and then undocumented, is someone who is marginalize. You are going to create a vulnerability. If you do not give them the power to step up without endangering their own self, you will create a very toxic environment for continuing the kind of abuse that we know happens every day in america. We need to figure this out. I cannot tell you what we need to do, but we need to make sure the department of Homeland Security is engaged in and understands the challenges of these families. A great example recently there is a discussion about whether women who presented at the border for Central America fleeing the murder capital of the world, right, the murder of the countries of the world, who would be or would have their baby taken away from them if they came to the border. As a deterrent, or a some way to prevent them from even coming. We received a lot of letters and we raised this issue with secretary kelly when he appear before committee and he committed to us that he wouldnt. This is again, another area that we should be raising with the leadership of the department of Homeland Security saying, how do you balance this . Just allowing this to continue and to give open season on people who are vulnerable to be victims of crime and then making them fearful for even reporting that. How do we solve that problem . I think we need to have that discussion with the department of Homeland Security as they are pursuing their policies. And the public needs to know this occurs and they need to weigh in. I do not think there is anyone i know north dakota for things that a woman, even if she is undocumented and raped, that she should not have access to justice. And that is really what were were talking about. Deterrence can work up to a point, but if there is no deterrent, if theres no prosecution, if there is no opportunity for intervention by authority, then we have a condition that is greatly exacerbated going forward. My pledge to you is the next time i talk to your senator who i like a lot, and talk about this issue and whether we can reason with the department of Homeland Security. About to the right. The be great. Hello. I actually work in agriculture in minnesota. Both of you come from very heavy agricultural states. I do a lot of work on supplanted chains. Its probably not a surprise to that we dont really talk about Human Trafficking as we should. The question to both of you is what can private companies have a lot of Supplier Power do to create the right incentive to start addressing the problem, and with a caveat of not scaring people. Sometimes the pressure comes down and it creates the wrong behavior. But positive things that we can do to help with what youre addressing. As i said before, our senators and congressmen offering incentives for companies to do just that, do the right thing at the wrong thing. There are plenty of tools out there for companies to be able to Research Supply chains and be able to research what is going on. There is also ngos that will do it for them and report back to them. In my opinion, take a hard line on this. In my opinion, in this day and age, theres no reason for company to say i do not know how to do this, i cant do it. I dont buy that at all. In the case that heidi just raced about the chinese letter inside the purse, that happened in arizona. Unfortunately for the company involved, they hit blood state that is really hard on this issue. So i note our governors after them right now. This has opened up a lot of different issues. It is too bad we have to have an example, that somebody has made a mistake in others it example. There should be no example. As far as incentives, heidi can maybe answer that better than i can about what kind of incentives you would offer that is what you would do. I think, first off, cindy is so modest, she really is. She convenes at the sedona form where really the attendees look like the fortune 100. I reviewed at the sedona forearm she tells all of the ceos what they need to be doing to stop trafficking in the world. So, she is being very and that is kind of a shot out, that kind of, we are watching you, this could in fact affect how people perceive your business, this is in fact your brand and you do not want your brand to be associated with trafficking. Dont underestimate the bully pulpit and what it means when he shined a big light on it and people say, ok that is not something that i want to be part of. I think the best thing we can do is continue to push through Corporate Governance structures, saying this is, first off a value. That is a value of our corporation that we are not going to profit off of slave labor. And we are going to do everything to prevent that. That is probably not something we will legislate, but that is something we will ask repeatedly. Hopefully, again, never underestimate especially in the new era of social media. Never underestimate the power of being a citizen and demanding. No one wouldve known about this purse globally or nationally if it had not been one of those twitter or facebook posts. That pretty much went viral and everybody now says we want something done about it. When we see it it is so important that we say. We say something. Sometimes we do not want to look at it. We dont want to get involved as cindy said. If we really are committed as fellow human beings, we did not eradicate slavery in 1864 slavery exists today and we have to be willing to speak out against it and call it out when we see it. I think that is an important thing to do. How about on the side . Hello. Thank you both for coming here today and for being such wonderful advocates for this very important issue. I work with antitrafficking group at new york university. We continuously face the challenge of conveying the importance of the issue to others. A lot of people feel distant to it until really recognize how big of an issue it is in our country. I was wondering with local activists were in a park cause what advice you have for young people and people in general were trying to advocate for this cause and spread awareness work . Im such a believer in the power people who have a mission and across to really engage. I think we are building an army against slavery and hopefully expanding it for the world. We are making it socially unacceptable. I will tell you that when you look at the example of Domestic Violence, have we eradicated Domestic Violence in the country . Absolutely not. But we have greatly diminish the numbers. That is because we as a society, more than anything, increased prosecutions, increased awareness, all of that. We as a society said that is not a family problem, that is a crime and we are going to see a prosecutor. This is how you recognize the issue. This is how you recognize what is going on. This is why you need to be the advocate for that family. What i would say to you is that there are tons of great organizations that you can get involved in both globally and locally. There are tons of great workers out there who are doing incredible work. A lot of opportunities to engage very broadly in this effort. But, i would say that it is really important that you become educated about what it is. For instance, i think a lot of people get involved in the maybe the victim goes back and you think, why did i do that . You know what, you cannot give up on her. If you give up on her you are giving up on everybody comes behind her. So that is a constant frustration whether its Domestic Violence or a lot of people who feel marginalized, who now have been thrown away and have may be found at least some structure in their life and living this life. We have to be vigilant. We have to stick up for victims no matter what. That is not always easy, i will tell you that. I have a sister who basically runs the Runway Program in north dakota. She does incredible outreach work. Her job is to get kids off the street before they are recognized as vulnerable and in the like. Some of the toughest client she are clients who has no trust left. So that Recovery Process is so difficult and we have to stay in the fight. May i also say, this issue of Human Trafficking is not a sexy issue. I am not comparing it to, but just to give you an idea of the environment or lets keep our rivers clean, are all of those things. Those are understandably cognitive issues you can get behind without much education on it. Human trafficking is a different deal. There is a huge yuck factor when you talk about it. Especially when he talked about the customers involved in it. You want to see people these are necessary issues. Youre talking about a basic human rights issue. You talk about human life and the ability to live free. This is america. That is what we should be doing here. So, dont give up. In fact, get mad. I tell people that all of the time. Dont just take it, get mad. We should be mad about this. That somebody would abuse our children or adults in any fashion such as this. So, dont give up, we need you. Thank you very much for highlighting just how far we have come with addressing this issue, and underscoring how much further we have to go. My question is about the role of corruption in developing countries and whether or not corruption, both at the highest levels of government but also an lawenforcement, how does that hinder the ability for the United States to collaborate with them to effectively address this issue . For also developing countries to work with one another to take a very hard, serious look at the role that corruption plays in fostering Human Trafficking. Thank you. I was just going to mention that we have something called the millennial challenge corporation, are you familiar with that . This is an effort to avoid providing additional dollars to corrupt government so that it would just go to the government and not to people. This is a tough balancing act. Governments are corrupted they fall off the list of governments that can be assisted with american aid or american intervention, and makes the population even more vulnerable. So, we have to make sure that we are working in governments if were going to solve any kind of problem with violence. We have a great friend, Howard Buffett who has a foundation, he works with tony blair whose philanthropic efforts are all about eliminating corruption from governments, building institutional governments that can better respond, and better react to challenges in their own countries. So, i think that we have to look at that governance piece. Frequently no amount of good intervention can help if the government itself is corrupt. I agree with your premise. But, we have to work to build governments. Talk about hard work, that is incredibly hard work. A the area i focus a lot on is Central America. Cindy and i took a trip to mexico and el salvador, mexico is where we met with officials where we are at the beginning of that discussion where the have a special unit within the Attorney Generals Office in mexico that deals with violence against women and kind of that new idea that changes the culture of the government that this is unacceptable. So, it takes respecting people where they are, but also nudging them to understand that there is a universal morality. I was with a friend this weekend and were talking about selling children in a country, i want to tell her story. She said one of the americans is working on environmental issue says that is just what happens in this country. So his goal was to save the animals and he was willing to overlook the selling of children children. We have to say, there is a universal morality. We should all be bound by that universal morality and we have an obligation when we see horrible things as citizens of the world, to say those are horrible. We have to have government governments we can work with to change those outcomes and provide that protection. We just talked about how difficult it is for this government to protect, our government, the best government in the world in my opinion, to protect the most vulnerable. So, you cannot do one without the other. I would say that there is a lot of really good philanthropic efforts to build capacity, to eliminate impunity and corruption in government so that we can in fact a better job protecting people. Do not think that we have ignored the government piece. I can briefly say that because there is corruption in a country, no matter what country does, that is no reason to give up on the country. This is a slow slog. On this issue. A lot ofissues. But i truly believe with the pieces were talking about that we can really make a difference on this issue. But, again i understand your frustration with corruption. First, i want to say thank you so much for the work that you do. It is really important work and it is also hard work. My question i have tonight has to do with, i feel it is a little controversy about when he talk about sex trafficking i was wondering if you could touch on the difference between sexual exploitation, and forced sex work and i say this lightly, and voluntary sex work. Because, i think there is a difference and i know it is hard to differentiate. But within the field they think there is an idea that is perpetuated that women cannot be sexual at all. I know that is controversial. I would love to hear what you have to say. This is what i would say. The premises that there is people who are voluntarily engaging in commercial sex and isnt this their right, isnt this their choice. I think if you sat down and really had a long conversation with most women who are in this life, they did not begin believing they had a choice. I think it is out of necessity, it is out of what has happened earlier, the trauma they experienced early on. I dont really accept the premise, and not saying its impossible for anyone to make that choice themselves, not saying that. I think we have a debate about whether that should be a societal crime or whether that is the choice that people make that we should not interfere with. I will tell you that in my experience, that is a very small sliver. Some of the most jaded people i know are cops. They see everything. So, i had the head of the bureau of criminal investigation in north dakota tell me how he got sensitized to this issue. He talked about this big rash of prostitution in north dakota, prostitution. He would sit down and just curious and Start Talking to these women who have been arrested. What was their life. Every person had a story of victimization early on. Every person had a story that this would not have been there life goal in any way, shape, or form. That they were in fact coerced either with drugs, or what happens when people are sold until the life. So, i dont want to be disrespectful to you, im not saying it could never happen, but i am telling you that is a small slice of the problem we have. I struggle with it. Its interesting because i think after we shut down back pages they got a lot of letters cannot make a living because of you. So she heard the reaction that you were talking about. I just think that we have to be eyes wide open about this. It is one of the toughest issues that we confronts which is, tell me the difference between prostitution which people have in their mind, and trafficking. Let me tell you, there are cases there clear and there might be cases that are clear, but there is a lot of intervening examples that blur that distinction. In my mind, i am way over here. I think there is very little of that voluntary stuff and i think there is a lot of life history that goes with being in this life. I encountered legalization of prostitution, the issue when the super bowl came to arizona in 2014. We made a huge effort as the state to help stop trafficking, to be alert and vigilant in what we do if we find it. The bunny ranch people from las vegas decided to park themselves in arizona follow me around. A new encounter for those the bunny ranch is a prostitution thats legal within the city limits of las vegas. This is a place that does just that. The bunny ranch people wanted me to hear their argument on why we should legalize prostitution. To legalize prostitution and why this is a good thing. I never sat down with them because i dont by their argument. Number two i agree with heidi. Most people dont enter into this because they want to. They are hurt in some way. This is not a sexualization of women, this is a crime. So, in my opinion and i know you struggle with it and its very evident that you do, those are some issues you should look at in regards to whether or not its the right thing to do or whether we should consider prostitution legal in some way or another. Thank you so much. My name is matthew, im from colorado. I serve a bit of a followup, could you give a little personal story of what you have heard for have somebody actually enters the trade or someone how actually becomes a victim. For example my parents are farmers in colorado, we participate in the hb program but i cannot imagine not paying our farm help because they would not be there the next day. So in my mind i would just like to know, how does this play out . Let me talk about sex trafficking because i did the example of the evil forces and im not saying that doesnt happen. Typically what happens is a kid runs away. A kid is hungry and cold and someone says look, im going to take care of you, come and live with me. The kid probably is talked into survival sex which is, if you want to stay here, now youre my boyfriend, now youre my guy and then pretty soon its time we need a little cash or little something, you need to do this for our family. You need to do this for us. And then pretty much getting into the life. If they meet with resistance theres usually drugs and alcohol, other kinds of cursive coercive ways to get into the life. Then they are in a whole culture. The culture is really i wish some of the traffic victims are here to explain to how you become number one and number two. There is a pecking order among the women who are trafficked by typically one man. So how that, and then, and this is another reason why this is so complicated, the time comes and you need more girls, they send the girls out, the victims out to recruit. Typically go to where runaways hangout, where marginal people hangout say, why dont you come with me, youre hungry, youre on the street. That is why that intervention is so important for runaway and homeless youth. They are so vulnerable to this whole pattern of attraction. When we were in mexico what we would hear, so it is different wherever you are. But in mexico there is a section of farm communities where the guy from town would show up and he would have a nice car, the nice clothes, he would tell the woman, the girl, i love you, tell the parents that theyre going to take her home to meet her father and mother and live in a big house, and boom, she is in the life in mexico. What we heard when we said how can we prevent this they said these women need to come back and tell their stories about how they were coursed and tricked into this life. So it varies and the methods vary, the one thing that the experts will tell you is that, any display of vulnerability they know how to pick their victims. They know what its going to take to control their victims. It goes back to what i was saying about power relationships. When you take someone down, a lot of victims of trafficking have been Sexual Assault victims at home. They are running away from a very bad situation at home. They have already been marginalized. So, just really to understand the dynamic and suffering all of that trauma makes recovery so much harder. Because, the trust level, it is to build any level of trust and then to feel like you have lost. I n many ways, you feel like youve lost your family because of the dynamic that is then built up around this culture. At the end of the day, we have to be able to recognize that we have to say, look, were not going to punish you because you have experienced the worst victimization outside of loss of life that anyone can experience in america. I believe that. I believe being sold into sex slavery has to be the worst victimization anyone can undergo. I agree. I also think that so many of these kids are part of the child protective services. The foster care system, this is an area the country is going to have to deal with in a major way, not just for trafficking but in general. We have an entire generation of kids coming through this that are being not only illserved, but not served and simply disappearing and falling to the cracks. That is Something Else that we as local and state governments will have to deal with. And reporting of foster children have runaway and all of that. The National Center for missing and exploited children are doing great work on tracking were coming up on the end of our time. I wanted to give you last words to impart last words of wisdom for our audience. First of all, thank you very much for coming tonight. Thank you to the volunteers that help make this easy for us tonight. Most importantly, i would like to leave you with one thing. If you can do one thing having walked out of here that can affect the life of a child, this is the area to do it in. You will save it a light. We are 10 years away from where people are with Domestic Violence right now, but people are talking about it. I encourage every one of you if you could pick any area of Human Trafficking in this area, take it. We need everybody in this. Gentlemen, i will look at you straighten your eye. I can talk till i am blue in the face of about what it is to be a rapist. Pedophile, child but mentomen, you can play a vital role in stopping this. I encourage you to get involved in it. Will deal with the symptoms from this cancer for a long time. So if we think, how do we protect and help the victims, i would like you to think about how do we create a more resilient population to avoid victimization. Had we not diminish human beings . We have been working on the childhood trauma project. Early intervention with children who been traumatized. Making sure they get treatment for their trauma. I am a big believer that a lot of issues that we have, pervasive poverty, emotional abuse, it disruption in the family, a call addiction, all of the Adverse Childhood Experiences lead to a lower resiliency for our children. So the best thing is to avoid childhood trauma but the second best is treatment of childhood recognized. Gets in so early on, making sure that we listen to kids and we believe kids when they say bad things are happening to them in their home and that we build a more resilient populations of that no matter what evil comes along people can fight back. Oneonone but they need help right now. But we hope to continue to grow to prevent Human Trafficking in humanfetime and to stop slavery of thank you very much for having me and having cindy. [applause] announcer cspans washington journal, live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Coming up wednesday morning, washington correspondent for the daily beast discusses resistance against the donald trump residency. Then Gop Health Care and tax reform policy. In Washington Post pentagon correspondent talks about the increase of u. S. Troops in afghanistan. He should you what shes been washington journal live at 7 00 a. M. Eastern wednesday morning. Join the discussion. To experience a fulfilling, purposeful life, one thing you are going to have to do is this live a large life. Own story. Your and, therefore free to imagine and experience what it means to be human. Responsibility in our time as others have had in theirs. Not to be prisoners of history, but to shape history. Our responsibility is to fill the role of pathfinder. Holding fast to your compass of values. Faith, honesty, loyalty, patriotism, and generosity. Announcer just a few past commencement speeches from the Video Library and again this year watch commencement speeches 20, 27, 29, memorial day, and june 3 on cspan and cspan. Org. Announcer sunday on q a, the comparisons between President Donald Trump and andrew jackson. Our guest in his book on andrew jackson. I do not think he represents the positive values that jackson representative. He certainly represents some of the negative values that jackson represented but i think i would tell President Trump that if he wants to be like into jackson, quit nationhood in front of his own personhood, in front of his own family, it and own. Of his director james comey inspired by trump. The president made his announcement in a press release yesterday afternoon. Mr. Comey learned from news reports he at been fired while addressing employees in los angeles, according to the times. Television screens in the began flashing the news while he spoke. Then fbi issued a correction to james comeys testimony on the handling of emails. Those comments were made by him last week at a Senate Hearing will stop the next, we show you