Trump says he cares about migrant trafficking. His policy tells a different story.

FRIDAY’S WHITE HOUSE summit on human trafficking, marking the 20th anniversary of landmark legislation intended to protect victims, is a master class in political cynicism. Take an unimaginably vulnerable population, pretend to champion their cause on humanitarian grounds, and meanwhile, in the real world, subject them to a minefield of new monetary, bureaucratic and legal risks, up to and including deportation. That’s the Trump administration’s approach to the trafficking of noncitizens exploited for sex and labor in the United States.

President Trump has made the cause of migrant trafficking victims a go-to rhetorical device in his arsenal of justifications for building a border wall; never mind that most exploited migrants enter the country with valid visas through legal ports of entry, according to their advocates. His daughter and aide, Ivanka Trump, has presented herself as the administration’s leading patron of such victims, writing op-eds, touring shelters and making statements on their behalf. To hear the president and Ms. Trump tell it, migrant trafficking victims have never had more forceful advocates in the White House.

The facts of administration policy tell a far different story. Continue reading.