President Joe Biden signed the Counter Human Trafficking Act of 2022 as one of the final legislative acts of the year, officially codifying and expanding the United States Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Center for Countering Human Trafficking (CCHT).
With this update came $14 million for the CCHT to do its job and maintain a staff of at least 45 employees. These employees work to counter human trafficking law enforcement operations, provide victim protection and coordinate the efforts of 16 supporting DHS offices and agencies for a unified approach to the issue.
“This is a seminal moment in our fight against the scourge of human trafficking,” Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said. “With the increased funding and additional personnel dedicated to our leading DHS Center for Countering Human Trafficking, we will advance our work to identify and support victims, conduct operations that hold the traffickers accountable, and strengthen our partnerships with non-governmental organizations. We are grateful for this critical legislation that supports our victim-centered, all-of-society efforts to end human trafficking.”
CCHT depends on subject matter experts to advance criminal investigations of forced labor and sex trafficking. The center also looks to improve how DHS and the nation identify and provide protections for victims, along with promoting training and public awareness of the problem. In the latter regard, the CCHT used the past year to host the first-ever quarterly webinars for law enforcement focused on promoting a temporary immigration designation for victims of trafficking. It also deployed improved victim screen tools and offered training to nearly 6,000 participants while supporting criminal investigations focused on tearing down transnational human trafficking organizations and those benefiting from forced labor abroad.
“The Countering Human Trafficking Act will increase and expand the CCHT’s effectiveness in targeting human traffickers around the globe, protecting victims, and supporting counter-trafficking work throughout DHS,” Cardell Morant, CCHT director, said. “Importantly, it will also facilitate the continued development of the Blue Campaign, the Department’s national human trafficking awareness initiative, designed to educate the American public about the signs of trafficking and the ways in which they can help trafficking victims and help bring suspected traffickers to justice.”
Reportedly, CCHT efforts last year helped secure more than 3,600 arrests and 600 convictions – a more than 50 percent increase in human trafficking arrests and more than 75 percent increase in human trafficking-related convictions over the previous fiscal year. This came the same year as the latest Summit of the Americas, wherein 20 countries signed the Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection, agreeing to collectively work to save lives, combat migrant smuggling and human trafficking, and crack down on affiliated money laundering operations.