President Trump is expected in February to propose a $42 million budget increase to help the federal government expand its ability to fight human trafficking and offer support to its victims, according to a McClatchy report.
The move has been pursued by the president’s daughter and senior White House adviser Ivanka Trump, according to McClatchy.
The proposal will come near the 20th anniversary of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, which officially made human trafficking a federal crime.
Ivanka Trump told the news service in a statement that “President Trump has fought, and will continue to fight, the scourge of human trafficking in this country and abroad, ensuring that survivors can access the services they need.”
The president and his daughter plan to join Attorney General William Barr at an event announcing the measures at the White House on Friday. McClatchy reports that Trump plans to officially submit the proposal to Congress next month.
According to the news service, the number of federally prosecuted trafficking cases has decreased since the Obama White House, while from 2017 to 2018, the number of cases reported to the National Human Trafficking Hotline increased 25 percent. However, the Trump administration says this is not an indication of a rise in trafficking but shows that more people are willing to report trafficking cases.
Both Ivanka Trump and a different White House official told McClatchy that the president’s 2021 budget “provides $70 million to support and enhance the investigative and prosecutorial capacity of the Department of Justice, an increase of $4 million over 2020,” while “an additional $123 million is provided for [Department of Justice] grants programs supporting State and local efforts to combat human trafficking and support victims of human trafficking, an increase of $38 million over 2020.”
A number of notable anti-trafficking organizations have said they will not attend the event on Friday, with one telling The Washington Post that the ceremony is merely a “photo op” and doesn’t represent “reality.”