WASHINGTON -- President Bush signed a bill Tuesday
to combat human trafficking, saying thousands of teenagers and young girls are brought
to the United States each year and "forced to submit to unspeakable
evil." The bill renewed the Trafficking Victims Protection
Act of 2000, the first comprehensive federal law for prosecution of
traffickers. The Justice Department reported late last year that it had
prosecuted 277 traffickers since 2001 and obtained convictions in every case.
An estimated 75 percent of the prosecutions involved sex trafficking. Victims have been found in brothels, bars,
sweatshops, clandestine factories, restaurants, massage parlors and even
private homes where women and girls are kept in servitude.
"It takes a perverse form of evil to exploit
and hurt those vulnerable members of society," Bush said. ___ The bill is H.R. 972ä The Associated Press
Tuesday, January 10, 2006; 3:04 PM
President Bush pauses during remarks about the Trafficking
Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2005 on Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2006 in
Washington. From left are: Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice, Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., and Bush. (AP Photo/Evan
Vucci) (Evan Vucci - AP)
