To: Senator Mikulski and Sen. Benjamin Cardin (MD-1)
TELL SENATOR MIKULSKI TO HELP PROTECT CHILD TRAFFICKING VICTIMS!
Child welfare agencies are not identifying and appropriately responding to the needs of children at-risk of sex and labor trafficking and child trafficking victims already within their systems.
Senator Mikulski, co-sponsor the child welfare bill and help ensure the protection of sex and labor trafficked children!
Why is this important?
Did you know that every day vulnerable children slip through the safety net that’s supposed to catch them?
Keisha entered the child welfare system as an infant and bounced around foster families for years. At 12 years old, she was raped and forced into prostitution. At age 17, Keisha was arrested, detained, and labeled a juvenile delinquent (1).
Keisha is not a criminal. She is a victim of human trafficking. The child welfare system should have identified her before law enforcement sent her to jail. Due to severe lack of capacity and training, the social workers in charge of her well-being failed to intervene. The system that was supposed to protect her left her traumatized instead.
Keisha is not alone. There’s substantial evidence that child trafficking victims usually have involvement with the child welfare system either before or during their exploitation (2). In Maryland, nearly 30% of cases referencing human trafficking involve minors (3). Child welfare agencies across the country are not identifying or providing for the needs of children - some already within their systems - that are vulnerable to sex and labor trafficking.
You can change this reality. U.S. Senators are considering passing legislation to fix this injustice. But they need your help. Senator Mikulski can help ensure that child welfare agencies take action to protect these children.
The child welfare bill will improve child welfare agencies’ ability to identify and protect more vulnerable children. That’s why we need Senator Mikulski to support the Strengthening the Child Welfare Response to Human Trafficking Act of 2013 (S.1823).
Sources:
1. Ima Matul, Child Welfare System Must Work Better to Help Stop Trafficking of Children | Commentary, ROLL CALL (Jan. 23, 2014), http://www.rollcall.com/news/child_welfare_system_must_work_better_to_help_stop_trafficking_of_children-230345-1.html?pg=1.
2. A New York State study showed that 85% of child trafficking victims had prior involvement with the child welfare system. Frances Gragg, Ian Petta, Haidee Bernstein, Karla Eisen, & Liz Quinn, New York Prevalence Study of Commercially Sexually Exploited Children, Prepared for: New York State Office of Children and Family Services, Apr. 18, 2007.
3. National Human Trafficking Resource Center (NHTRC) Data Breakdown, Maryland State Report 1/1/2013 – 12/31/2013, available at: https://na4.salesforce.com/sfc/p/300000006E4S/a/600000004UwS/OJQI0uqWB.DsXVTWOclL1ws2ZLst2DQ5ZtqZQkFq95Q=.