Opening Blind Eyes to the Truth about Sex-Trafficking in America

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American Thinker

Opening Blind Eyes to the Truth about Sex-Trafficking in America

Some 20 years ago, I was invited to a meeting to discuss "human-trafficking."  Held at the Salvation Army Center on D.C.'s New York Avenue, only 10–15 D.C. policy analysts were invited — feminists, conservatives, evangelicals, politicos — and none of us had previously heard of the term "trafficking."  That meeting, convened by Michael Horowitz, then at the Hudson Institute, opened our eyes to a problem that is now addressed at the national level as well as internationally through cooperation among nations, as a consequence in large measure of the diligent work of those whose eyes were opened that day.

Prior to that meeting, sex-trafficking was seen as something that happened somewhere else; it didn't affect Americans.  Besides, it was an "underground" kind of crime that was isolated and rare.  Through Horowitz's passion, we learned that we had been blind to reality.  With our eyes opened, we had to do something!

I got involved by helping to draft the original Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), lobbying to get it passed, doing the same for subsequent reauthorizations, and providing manpower in the bipartisan coalition that Horowitz spearheaded to provide a foundation for anti-trafficking work that was so effective under the Bush 43 administration and that has flourished dramatically during the Trump administration through the leadership of Ivanka Trump Kushner.