On Friday, President Trump is expected to attend a White House summit organized by his daughter Ivanka on human trafficking, an issue he frequently invokes as a top priority. But some of the country’s most prominent anti-trafficking organizations and advocates won’t be there. They have decided to boycott the event.
The group includes Polaris, the nonprofit organization that runs the national human-trafficking hotline, and the leader of Freedom Network USA, the country’s largest anti-trafficking coalition. Their decision comes after months of anguish over what they describe as an act of public deception. They say that although the president frequently invokes human trafficking, his administration is actively endangering a significant portion of trafficking victims: immigrants.
“We have such a chasm between rhetoric and reality,” said Martina Vandenberg, founder of the Human Trafficking Legal Center, a network of attorneys who take on trafficking cases. “This administration is undermining protections carefully built for trafficking victims over two decades.” Continue reading.