Durbin Calls For Action To Protect Vulnerable Children From Exploitation, Trafficking In Senate Judiciary Subcommittee Hearing

Durbin Calls For Action To Protect Vulnerable Children From Exploitation, Trafficking In Senate Judiciary Subcommittee Hearing

Durbin: "Children who are trafficked and subject to horrific abuse do not have a political action committee or a big fundraiser. They do not have deep pockets. But they have us. And it's up to us to do everything in our power to protect them."

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, delivered opening remarks in today's Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism hearing entitled "Lost and Exploited: Confronting Child Trafficking and the Failure to Protect America's Most Vulnerable." In his opening remarks, Durbin spoke about the horrific abuses that exploited children face, from human trafficking to online sextortion, and he called on his Senate colleagues to immediately pass the STOP CSAM Act, which was unanimously reported out of the Senate Judiciary Committee last year.

Key quotes:

"Today's hearing highlights a core truth: children who are trafficked and exploited are often invisible until it's too late. In my 25 years serving on the Judiciary Committee, protecting children from trafficking and exploitation has been a bipartisan priority-and a personal priority."

"When I chaired the Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law almost 20 years ago, I held multiple hearings on human and child trafficking, as well as a hearing on protecting child soldiers-a form of child trafficking. Under the leadership of both Chairman Grassley and you, Chairman Hawley, the Senate Judiciary Committee and this Subcommittee have held hearings where we have heard from survivors and experts about how predators exploit legal loopholes and technological gaps."

"These hearings are important. But, as I have long believed, we need legislation, not lamentation. That's why, following my hearings, Congress passed the Human Trafficking Accountability Act and the Child Soldiers Accountability Act."

"And now in the age of online impunity, we need to enact new laws that protect child trafficking victims and survivors and hold perpetrators-and the tech companies that are enablers-accountable. And we must stop the Trump Administration's senseless diversion of government resources from investigating these crimes, protecting victims, and prosecuting perpetrators to support the President's cruel mass deportation campaign."

"There is hope that we can act on a bipartisan basis to do something. Just last week, the Committee advanced the bipartisan James T. Woods Act, which I lead with Chairman Grassley, in honor of a 17-year-old young man, an athlete, and star student, who in 19 hours, succumbed to the urgings of an internet presence that targeted him, like many other predators on Instagram [and pressured him to take his own life]. This bill would revamp key sentencing laws, target violent online criminal networks, prohibit sextortion, and direct the Sentencing Commission to update the CSAM sentencing guidelines."

"Chairman Hawley and I also have reintroduced the bipartisan STOP CSAM Act, which this Committee reported unanimously. Our bill would finally open the courthouse doors to survivors of child exploitation, allowing them to sue companies that promoted or facilitated their exploitation, or that host or store CSAM."

"Too many parents take a deep breath every time their child logs onto a phone, tablet, or video game console. They know the internet has become a hunting ground for predators. Congress should pass our bills in their defense today."

"As we further consider how best to address these threats, I want to recognize a young man in the audience. His name is Jose. His story underscores why identifying and protecting victims of sex trafficking matters so deeply. Like many child trafficking victims, Jose was kicked out of his house and was left vulnerable to sex traffickers who prey on vulnerable children. He was forced to perform sex acts on adults in an illegal massage parlor."

"His trafficker was ultimately caught with another child trafficking victim, as well as CSAM. That investigation led authorities to uncover other victims, including Jose, who bravely testified against his trafficker and grew into the survivor and advocate that he is today. Jose's story reminds us that we must seek accountability from all those involved in sexual abuse and trafficking. I thank him for his courage, and for being here today."

"And we would be remiss in this moment not to recognize the victims of Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirator's horrific abuses. Those victims also deserve justice, and all of their abusers must be held accountable."

"Children who are trafficked and subject to horrific abuse do not have a political action committee or a big fundraiser. They do not have deep pockets. But they have us. And it's up to us to do everything in our power to protect them."

Video of Durbin's opening statement is available here.

Audio of Durbin's opening statement is available here.

Footage of Durbin's opening statement is available here for TV Stations.

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