Ivanka Trump confirms $42M budget increase to support human trafficking victims
There are no demographic limitations to human trafficking, which exploits society's most vulnerable populations like women and children, the first daughter said.
Adviser to the president Ivanka Trump, Attorney General William Barr and others on Friday discussed ways to combat human trafficking at the White House Summit on Human Trafficking.
The first daughter confirmed a Wednesday report during the summit that President Trump will soon be proposing a $42 million budget increase for 2021 to support victims and efforts to prosecute criminals who take part in human trafficking.
"We are resolved, and we are relentless in the fight to hold perpetrators accountable and restore dignity for victims," the first daughter said during the summit. "This administration has fought and will continue to fight this crime and ensure that survivors can access the services they need."
Human trafficking is "believed to be" one of the largest-scale crimes in the world, with "24.9 million people" trapped by human traffickers who make more than "$150 billion" in annual profit for the industry, Ivanka Trump said, adding that there are no demographic limitations to human trafficking, which exploits society's most vulnerable populations like women and children.
"I signed nine pieces of legislation into law that directly prevent human trafficking, and we're just getting started," President Trump said.
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The first daughter also brought up the fact that President Trump has signed various anti-trafficking bills throughout his term in office, including the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2017, The Abolish Human Trafficking Act of 2017, the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act of 2018 and the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2017.
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She then introduced a human trafficking survivor, Jessica Hamlet, whom she met during a trip to visit the nonprofit women's advocacy organization WellSpring Women's Academy in Atlanta, Georgia. Hamlet related her story to the crowd, which involved being introduced to drugs and exploitation at the ages of 8 and 12.
"My life didn't start out looking very hopeful," she said. "I was born into a situation that set me up to fail. At the age of 8, I was introduced to drugs, and at the age of 12, I was exploited. ... I thought this was just the way that life was supposed to be until about five years ago" when she was discovered by WellSpring and taken in for recovery.
"The people there loved and accepted me in such a way that I thought I was being set up," Hamlet said, adding, "Five years ago, I had no hope. ... Today, I'm filled with hope."
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She then thanked Ivanka Trump for helping her "be here today" and gave her a hug.
The president also signed an executive order Friday that will establish a "one-stop-shop" website "for the public to be able to go and see all of the federal government's resources on human trafficking," as well as improved "methodologies to determine prevalence in the United States."
The EO will also ask for proposed "legislative and executive actions that [can] be taken to address and detect real-time sharing of child sexual images online" so they can be eliminated, White House Domestic Policy Council Director Joe Grogan said during a Friday press call.
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