National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month is a U.S. nationwide observance held every January to raise awareness of modern slavery and human trafficking and to promote prevention and support for survivors. It was first proclaimed in 2010 by President Barack Obama and has been continued annually by subsequent presidents. The observance is led by the U.S. federal government (through presidential proclamations and agencies like the Departments of State, Justice, and Health and Human Services) and is marked by state and local governments, nonprofits, advocacy groups, and the general public across the United States.
When the President declares a national emergency at the southern border under the National Emergencies Act and related statutes, it unlocks specific legal powers that let the executive branch move faster and use military resources to support border enforcement. In Trump’s 2025 border emergency order, he:
• Invoked the National Emergencies Act and 10 U.S.C. §12302 to let the Secretary of Defense call up military reservists and deploy additional active‑duty and National Guard troops to the border. • Declared that the emergency “requires use of the Armed Forces,” triggering 10 U.S.C. §2808, which allows the Defense Department to redirect military construction funds to build or repair barriers and other infrastructure needed to support the use of the armed forces at the border (for example, finishing sections of the border wall). • Directed the Secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security to “finish the wall” and to operate additional air and surveillance missions near the border, effectively expanding military and DHS operational support to Border Patrol.
In practice, these authorities let the administration shift certain Defense Department money and personnel toward border operations and barrier construction that would normally require specific congressional appropriations or slower, routine processes.
Designating a group as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) under 8 U.S.C. §1189 has several concrete legal and practical effects:
• Material support crimes: It becomes a federal crime (under 18 U.S.C. §2339B) to knowingly provide the group with “material support or resources” (money, training, services, weapons, etc.). This gives prosecutors a powerful tool to charge people who assist the organization in almost any way. • Asset freezing and financial sanctions: U.S. financial institutions must block and report any assets of the designated group that come within U.S. jurisdiction, cutting the group off from the formal U.S. banking system. • Immigration consequences: Members and certain supporters of an FTO are barred from entering the United States and can be removed (deported) if present, because support for a designated terrorist organization is a ground of inadmissibility and deportability under U.S. immigration law. • Broader deterrent and signaling effects: The designation publicly labels the group as a terrorist organization, which can discourage foreign governments, businesses, and individuals from dealing with it and can support allied law‑enforcement cooperation.
If criminal cartels are designated as FTOs, these same tools—terrorism‑style prosecutions, asset freezes, and immigration bars—would apply to those cartels and people linked to them.
The “One Big Beautiful Bill” is H.R. 1, a large budget‑reconciliation law signed by President Trump on July 4, 2025. Among many fiscal provisions, it makes major, long‑term changes to immigration enforcement, DHS, and border policy. Key border‑ and enforcement‑related changes include:
• Massive funding increase for enforcement: Roughly $170–171 billion in new spending over 10 years for immigration and border enforcement at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), especially Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), plus Defense Department support for border operations. • Expanded detention and removal capacity: Significant new funding for ICE detention beds, transportation, and personnel to carry out what the administration describes as large‑scale deportation operations. • Border wall and infrastructure: Dedicated funds and construction authorities to complete hundreds of miles of new or replacement border wall and related infrastructure, building on emergency powers and previous wall projects. • More Border Patrol agents and technology: Additional hiring and overtime for Border Patrol, more surveillance technology, and increased air operations near the border. • Expanded state‑local enforcement partnerships: Funding and incentives to grow ICE’s 287(g) program and other arrangements that let state and local police help identify, detain, and transfer people to ICE for deportation. • Fee increases and benefit restrictions (indirectly affecting enforcement): Higher application fees and new limits on some public benefits and tax credits for non‑citizens, which critics argue are designed to deter immigration and make life harder for mixed‑status families.
The White House and DHS promote these as historic expansions of DHS and ICE and as tools to “permanently secure” the border, while legal and advocacy groups describe the bill as dramatically increasing enforcement powers and detention while reducing due‑process protections and access to services for immigrants.
The Unaccompanied Children Safety Verification Initiative (often called the UAC Safety Verification Initiative) is a national child‑welfare operation created in 2025 to locate unaccompanied migrant children who were released from federal custody to sponsors and to verify that those children are safe.
• Purpose: To conduct welfare checks on tens of thousands of unaccompanied children placed with sponsors—especially where there are signs of risk—to identify abuse, labor or sex trafficking, or unsafe living conditions. • How it works: ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations teams, working through 287(g) agreements, share data with the Department of Health and Human Services (which previously placed many of the children) and with state and local law enforcement. Officers then visit homes or otherwise contact sponsors and children to assess safety, and in some cases arrest sponsors suspected of trafficking or abuse. • Lead agencies: The initiative is led by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), particularly ICE (with support from CBP and other DHS components). It operates “with federal and state partners,” including state and local 287(g) law‑enforcement agencies and child‑welfare officials; HHS is involved through information sharing and its prior role in placing the children.
Supporters portray it as a child‑protection and anti‑trafficking effort; critics argue it effectively turns child‑welfare checks into immigration‑enforcement operations that may frighten families and children.
The TAKE IT DOWN Act and the Trafficking Survivors Relief Act are recent U.S. federal laws aimed at reducing tech‑enabled sexual exploitation and helping criminalized trafficking survivors clear their records.
TAKE IT DOWN Act (Tools to Address Known Exploitation by Immobilizing Technological Deepfakes on Websites and Networks Act): • Makes it a federal crime to create or share sexually explicit images of someone without their consent, including AI‑generated “deepfake” pornography. • Requires online platforms and websites to remove non‑consensual sexual images within a short deadline (generally 48 hours) after a survivor requests removal. • Gives victims a stronger legal basis to demand takedown of images that traffickers or abusers use for sexual exploitation, harassment, or coercion, which can be especially important in sex‑trafficking cases.
Trafficking Survivors Relief Act: • Creates a process in federal law for survivors of human trafficking to seek vacatur (setting aside) of certain non‑violent federal convictions and to clear or expunge related arrest and conviction records, when those offenses were committed as a direct result of being trafficked. • Allows survivors to raise their trafficking victimization as a mitigating factor at sentencing or in post‑conviction relief proceedings if they were forced by traffickers to participate in crimes. • The goal is to reduce the long‑term impact of criminal records that result from a survivor’s exploitation, improving access to jobs, housing, education, and victim services.
Together, these laws aim to both curb online sexual abuse that often overlaps with trafficking and to remove some of the criminal‑record barriers that prevent survivors from rebuilding their lives.
The National Human Trafficking Hotline is a 24/7, confidential service that people in the United States can contact to get help related to human trafficking or to report suspected trafficking.
How it operates: • It can be reached by phone, text, or online chat (historically through Polaris; now operated by Compass Connections under a new HHS grant). • Trained staff and advocates take calls from victims, community members, and law enforcement, assess safety, and connect people with local shelters, legal aid, law enforcement, and other services. • The hotline also collects anonymized data on trafficking cases, which is used in reports and research to understand trafficking patterns.
Who funds it: • The hotline is funded primarily by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), via multi‑year cooperative agreements and grants (for example, a projected $35 million, five‑year grant announced in 2025). • Operators may supplement this with private or philanthropic funds, but the core operations are sustained by federal anti‑trafficking funding.
The article’s mention of “increased funding” refers to expanding this federal support so the hotline can handle more calls and provide faster, better‑resourced responses to trafficking situations.