HYDE-SMITH, BLACKBURN RENEW EFFORT TO COMBAT HUMAN TRAFFICKING, PARTICULARLY AMONG CHILDREN
Several Bills Reintroduced to Highlight National Human Trafficking Awareness Month
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) on Thursday joined U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) to reintroduce a series of bills to combat human trafficking, including the SAVE Girls Act.
The measures were offered in advance of National Human Trafficking Awareness Day on Saturday and as part of the designation of January as National Human Trafficking Awareness Month. The legislative effort is a continuation by Hyde-Smith and Blackburn to counter the human trafficking surge encouraged by flawed Biden administration immigration and border security policies.
“I’ve seen firsthand the trauma and suffering experienced by young girls trafficked across our southern border. The open border policies of the past four years have only increased opportunities for young women and girls to fall prey to human traffickers. The SAVE Girls Act would dedicate new resources to help states, communities, and organizations to protect these vulnerable youth from the terrors of child trafficking,” said Hyde-Smith, who serves on the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee.
“Human trafficking is a vile crime, and we need to do everything in our power to deter criminals and trafficking rings from preying on innocent men, women, and children,” Blackburn said. “These bills would establish a national human trafficking database, authorize additional funding to prevent trafficking, combat child recycling at the border, and prevent traffickers from smuggling children across the border by requiring a DNA test to determine the relationship of accompanying children.”
The Stopping the Abuse, Victimization, and Exploitation of Girls (SAVE Girls) Act (S.48): Provides states, local governments, and non-profits with the vital resources they need to put an end to the trafficking of young women and girls. The primary focus of the SAVE Girls Act is to prevent the smuggling of girls across the border, as well as to prevent girls who have already been smuggled into the United States from becoming or remaining victims of trafficking.
In 2023, more than 200 victims of human trafficking, including 91 cases involving minors, were reported in Mississippi, most involving sex trafficking. The U.S. State Department estimates that between 14,500 and 17,500 individuals are trafficked within the United States annually, disproportionately affecting girls. One in every three victims of human trafficking is a child—usually a female child.
Hyde-Smith is also an original cosponsor of the End Child Trafficking Now Act (S.52), which would require DNA tests to determine the relationship between illegal immigrants coming across the border and any accompanying children.
“The End Child Trafficking Now Act would undo Biden administration negligence in allowing children to be smuggled across the border by sex traffickers, drug cartels, gang members and worse. We want to restore DNA familial testing to protect vulnerable children by substantiating claims of familial relations by asylum seekers,” Hyde-Smith explained.
Finally, Hyde-Smith re-upped her support for the Preventing the Recycling of Immigrants is Necessary for Trafficking Suspension (PRINTS) Act (S.53). This bill would give U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) the authority to fingerprint non-citizens under the age of 14 to combat human trafficking and child recycling.
“Too often the Biden administration turned a blind eye to the perils its policies created for minor children at our southern border, including fingerprinting these children. Our legislation would restore authority for federal border officials to fingerprint noncitizen youth to help combat trafficking and child recycling by traffickers,” Hyde-Smith said.
Among other things, the PRINTS Act would remove the U.S. Attorney General’s authority to waive fingerprinting requirements for those illegally crossing the southern border and require the U.S. Department of Human Services to publicly report the number of apprehensions in a given month involving child traffickers who falsely claimed that an accompanying child was a relative.
Hyde-Smith, Blackburn, U.S. Senator Katie Britt (R-Ala.), and others have railed against Biden administration policies that have encouraged human and drug trafficking across the southern border.
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