February 25, 2015
WASHINGTON, D.C. – At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on protecting victims in Washington D.C. yesterday, Senator Gillibrand, who is a co-sponsor of several pieces of human trafficking legislation, talked about a series of recent human trafficking arrests in Monroe County. “Last week, in Rochester, New York, the US Attorney there announced the arrest of seven people on trafficking charges. Their victims were as young as 14 years old. The US Attorney said that “the victims in many cases were singled out because they were identified as being vulnerable.”
“We have a responsibility in Congress to end these crimes against our children. We need better institutions…to protect runaway and homeless youth from stumbling into shelters that will spit them right back out onto the street. We need a law that would vacate the criminal convictions of trafficking victims because these girls and boys are not criminals, and they are not prostitutes. They are victims who deserve a chance to lead a fulfilling life.”
