Trafficking on Indian Reservations
Human trafficking and sexual exploitation of Indian women and girls is a pervasive problem on American Indian reservations. In Minnesota, native women and girls suffer disproportionately from sexual abuse, violence, poverty, and homelessness. These compounding factors result in a clear vulnerability that sex traffickers use to target this population.
Senator Franken is a co-sponsor of the Trafficking Deterrence and Victims Support Act, a bill that would fund six local and state anti-trafficking initiatives around the country. In August 2010, Senator Franken negotiated the inclusion of language in the bill to ensure that recipients of funds have a proven track record of working with tribal law enforcement, and went on to broker the unanimous passage of the bill through the Senate Judiciary Committee.
