The anti-trafficking policy I will be discussing is the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA). The Trafficking Victims Protection Act was the first federal law passed against human trafficking and was enacted in 2000. Under this law, human trafficking includes labor and sex trafficking. This law allowed for the prosecution of traffickers, and the prevention of human trafficking, and offered protection for victims and survivors of human trafficking (Human Trafficking Legislation, n.d.). This law made human trafficking a federal crime which was a grand contribution that had not been made yet by any existing laws since this was the first anti-trafficking law to be enacted.
The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 had many strengths. The TVPA of 2000 was the only law at that time to acknowledge human trafficking and make it a federal offense which demonstrated that traffickers would be penalized harshly when caught. In addition, the TVPA of 2000 established the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons which makes an annual report of the contributions countries make against human trafficking (Human Trafficking Legislation, n.d.). A final strength of this act is that it also established the Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking to ensure that the TVPA of 2000 would be properly enforced (Human Trafficking Legislation, n.d.). The Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking offered compensation for victims and T visas for immigrants. A T visa is given to immigrants who were victims of human trafficking and allows them to receive permanent residence in the United States (Busch-Armendariz et al., 2017).
On the other hand, one main weakness of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 is the lack of funding. Lack of funding may be just one aspect but is detrimental because this affects all the contributions this law attempts to make. According to research from Wooditch et al. (2009), preventative efforts against human trafficking, research, and assessments of anti-trafficking programs receive the least amount of funding (Wooditch et al., 2009). If the TVPA of 2000 works to prevent human trafficking, then these resources should receive adequate funding to execute their goals. Victim service programs are also negatively impacted by this lack of funding which is a large downfall of this policy being that they are supposed to provide adequate services to human trafficking victims and survivors (Wooditch et al., 2009).
Overall, the TVPA of 2000 was important since it was the first comprehensive anti-human trafficking law at the time. It made some great advancements in prosecuting traffickers as well as providing prevention services and protection for victims. Since this law was passed there have been more anti-trafficking laws that have been passed which I am sure improved upon the weakness of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000.
