Despite historic progress in securing the border under the Trump administration, human trafficking remains a global crisis. However, strengthened state and local partnerships — combined with decisive action from the administration — have driven meaningful progress since last year.On any given day, an estimated 27.6 million people are victims of trafficking worldwide. In the United States, the full scale of the crisis remains difficult to measure, as these crimes often occur in underground or illicit markets. Still, estimates indicate that between 14,000 and 17,000 foreign nationals are trafficked into the country each year, while more than 1 million victims are trafficked within the U.S. annually.New research published by the America First Policy Institute’s America Combats Trafficking initiative demonstrates that Trump’s Labor Department is targeting illegal labor and work visa abuse at record levels, eclipsing the previous administration’s DOL by orders of magnitude.
It raises the question: Why wasn’t the Biden administration enforcing child and illegal immigrant labor violations?The answer is simple and revealing. This failure to hold employers accountable was one of the many ways mass illegal immigration and human trafficking on a global scale were enabled. The difference couldn’t be starker: The current administration is holding employers who exploit illegal and child labor accountable, while the previous administration turned a blind eye to those horrors.Without a doubt, the Biden administration’s open-border policies exacerbated and facilitated this crisis, with little to no media oversight. America’s border crisis under Biden’s policies will be felt for years to come.Let’s dig into the new research.One way the federal government combats trafficking is by levying financial penalties against employers who violate child labor, illegal labor, and other labor laws. And make no mistake: Profit motive is a primary driver of human trafficking.The DOL has sharply increased monetary penalties issued to employers who employ illegal immigrants and violate federal labor laws. According to the report, “low-wage industries, where illegal labor violations are common, saw some of the biggest jumps,” with penalties in those sectors rising by 65%.Migrant workers unload frozen fish from a boat at a fish market in Samut Sakhon Province, west of Bangkok, on Friday, June 20, 2014. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
