The House on September 14 approved, by voice vote, a motion to instruct conferees on the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (H.R. 3244). The motion, offered by Rep. Mel Watt (D-NC), would instruct House conferees to accede to a Senate-passed provision that would allow survivors of trafficking to obtain visas to remain in the United States.
The House passed its version of the bill on May 9 by voice vote, while the Senate passed its version by unanimous consent on July 27. Both bills would allow the Immigration and Naturalization Service to provide temporary U.S. citizenship to survivors of international trafficking through the issuance of a newly-created “T” visa category. Under both bills, survivors of international trafficking who cooperate with U.S. law enforcement or who face extreme hardship if deported from the United States would qualify for the visa. However, the House-passed bill would cap the number of “T” visas at 5,000 each year. The Senate-passed bill does not include a cap.
“I strongly object to the 5,000 per year cap on the trafficking of victim visas imposed by the majority. The majority has not been able to cite a single bit of evidence in the hearing or in the mark-up to support a cap of 5,000,” argued Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA). She cited a recent report by the Central Intelligence Agency that demonstrated the 5,000 cap would be too low.
Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) disagreed, saying, “The bipartisan authors of this bill gave us this number of 5,000 when estimating the size of the victim group. In fact, at one point, the estimated size of victims was 1,500, so 5,000 is a very, very generous level.”
