U.S. to Crack Down on Human Trafficking, Ashcroft Says
By Kevin Murphy
Originally published in The Kansas City Star, March 27, 2001
WASHINGTON — Using a new federal law and two additional prosecutors, the Justice Department will aggressively investigate cases of people being forced into sexual or employment servitude, Attorney General John Ashcroft said Tuesday.
Ashcroft cited a State Department estimate that 50,000 women and children were brought into America each year from Asia, Mexico and elsewhere and held against their will for prostitution and slave labor in "human trafficking" enterprises.
"We want to send a very clear signal that this is intolerable, that involuntary servitude and slavery and illegal sweatshops (are) not what the United States stands for," Ashcroft said at a news conference.
As a U.S. senator from Missouri, Ashcroft voted for the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act, which increases prison terms and restitution, sets up a system for easier reporting of crimes and gives shelter and other aid to victims. Sen. Sam Brownback, a Kansas Republican, was a lead sponsor of the bill.
To enforce the act two new lawyer positions will be added in the Civil Rights Division, Ashcroft said, though he said he did not know how much new money would be involved. A National Worker Exploitation Complaint Line (1-888-428-7581) has been established to report violations.
Ashcroft cited several recent arrests, pleas and convictions in cases in which people had been smuggled into America, forced to work in fields or factories, or pressed into prostitution under threats of harm to them or to their families back in their home countries.
An estimated 700,000 people are victims overseas. Ashcroft said that the Justice Department had no authority in those cases, but that the act Congress passed was intended to work with other countries on ways they could crack down on the problem.
On other issues, Ashcroft said:
The death penalty was possible for former FBI agent Robert Hanssen, charged with spying for Russia. Ashcroft said an "assessment of the national interest" would govern whether the death penalty or a plea bargain, which might lead to other valuable information, would be appropriate.
The FBI, in addition to initiating periodic polygraph tests of FBI personnel beginning today, would conduct audits to determine whether individuals had access to information for which they had no real use and no right to obtain.
He had asked for a plan from the Bureau of Prisons on how to respond to requests from families of victims of the Oklahoma City bombing to witness the May execution of Timothy McVeigh. Their "feelings and needs" will be weighed along with the interests of justice, he said.
Also Tuesday, Ashcroft told The Associated Press that there was no immediate plan to replace Mary Jo White, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, who is investigating President Bill Clinton's pardon of Marc Rich and terrorist bombing cases involving Osama bin Laden of Saudi Arabia. Eventually, White and all the other 93 U.S. attorneys appointed by Clinton are expected to be replaced.
