While the Trump administration claims to prioritize anti-human trafficking work, its actions say otherwise. A series of executive orders and policy changes enacted by the Trump administration have disrupted anti-trafficking research, law enforcement investigations, services for survivors, and diplomatic initiatives or, even more alarmingly, increased vulnerability to trafficking or empowered perpetrators. Multiple anti-trafficking organizations (including Freedom Network USA, the Corporate Accountability Lab, and the Global Association of Human Trafficking Scholars) have responded to these policy changes with concern for trafficking survivors, anti-trafficking researchers, service programs, migrant workers, and other marginalized groups. What policy changes are likely to have the highest impact on the anti-trafficking field, particularly in areas of prevention, research, and victim services? What impacts would we expect to see based on the cumulative effect of these policy changes together? While partisan politics largely dominate American discussions of presidential decisions, the Trump administration is not the first to decrease trafficking survivor access to victim services or to engage in mass deportations and harsher migration control. This session aims to explore the impact of recent policy decisions on anti-trafficking initiatives, while still contextualizing these changes within broader, long-term trends in federal policy. This includes policy impact research on areas that intersect with human trafficking (largely around race, gender, migration, etc.), data collection on changes in funded anti-trafficking programs and research, and an exploration of the response from anti-trafficking organizations and stakeholders. The presenters conclude with specific policy recommendations based on projected impacts and evidence-based policy analysis.
Dr. Glenn Harden is an Assistant Professor in Political Science at Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky. One of his research areas is the transnational diffusion of human trafficking policy. He is a member of the Kentucky Human Trafficking Task Force.
Tatiana Rothchild is a PhD candidate in Political Science at Northeastern University. Her research focuses on human trafficking and exploitation, particularly in areas of state coercion and facilitation, corporate impunity, workers’ rights, and international policy models.