Stop Exploitation Through Trafficking Act of 2014

Floor Speech

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Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of Representative Paulsen's important bill, H.R. 3610, which should have passed long ago, that encourages States to provide safe harbor laws that treat trafficked minors as victims, which they are--and provides services, support, counseling, and job training, rather than leading them into incarceration. It is the pimps and traffickers who should be put behind bars.

This important bill can help rescue more children from this shameful and shadowy underworld and lead them out of harm's way.

When I first started working in this area with the distinguished former member, Deborah Price, we were holding a hearing and listening to the stories of young women of how they were entrapped, stolen, beaten, tricked, and drugged into sex slavery. Deborah leaned over to me and said, Carolyn, as a former judge, I used to convict young girls as prostitutes. I never stopped to ask them, as we are today, how did this happen to you? How did you get into this trouble that is destroying your life and your health?

And that is what this bill is going to do. It will provide a safe harbor so that young people will be treated as young people. A trafficker is a criminal, a john is a child abuser, a pimp is someone who should be behind bars.

This starts to shift the focus away from the young, exploited people and harming them further with incarceration, protecting them and shifting more towards who is causing the problem: the demand side.

This is a tremendously important bill. We should put more traffickers where they belong--behind bars.

This change is long overdue. I look forward to working towards passing this in the House and the Senate.

I thank the leadership of both Houses, Leaders Pelosi and Cantor, all the authors, and everyone who has worked on these important bills.

I urge a ``yes'' vote.

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