PBS News Hour

JOHN YANG: The intense focus on President Trump's handling of the files from the Jeffrey Epstein criminal investigation has renewed attention on the problem of sex trafficking in the United States and around the world.

; 25 years ago, Congress mandated that the State Department have an office tracking the scope of human trafficking and working to combat it.

According to that office, of the 25 million-plus victims globally in 2023, just 134,000 victims worldwide.

That led to more than 18,000 prosecutions.

Last week, the Trump administration drastically cut that office's staff.

Here's how the deputy secretary of state for management and resources explained the decision.

MICHAEL RIGAS, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State: For too long, single-issue offices have mushroomed in number and influence, often distorting our foreign policy objectives to serve their specific interests, slowing down the department's ability to function.

JOHN YANG: For more on all of this, we turn to Cindy Dyer, who during the Biden administration was the State Department's ambassador at large to monitor and combat trafficking in persons.

Madam Ambassador, your reach was global, but let's talk about the United States.

How big a problem, how widespread is this problem in the United States?

CINDY DYER, Former U.S. Ambassador-At-Large to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons: Human trafficking is a huge problem in the United States, both sex trafficking and labor trafficking.

And it is a problem that we share with other countries too, which is why the work of the Trafficking in Persons Office is so critical.

JOHN YANG: Talk about the problem globally as well.

CINDY DYER: Our records for the -- 2023 show that more than 10,000 victims, both domestic victims and foreign national victims, received services from DOJ-funded grants.

And so that's more than 10,000 individual victims receiving services.

And we know that there are many more victims who never access services or who never self-identify.

JOHN YANG: And the term trafficking covers a broad range of activities.

It's not just what I think people imagine from television shows and movies.

Talk a little bit about that.

What's the range of things that fall under that?

CINDY DYER: In the United States, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act says that severe forms of trafficking include exploitation in forced labor and exploitation in commercial sexual exploitation or sex trafficking.

In the United States, we see both types of victims.

Of those victims who received services from Department of Justice monies, we know that 69 percent were victims of sex trafficking, 19 percent were victims of labor trafficking, and, importantly, 7 percent were victims of both types of trafficking.

JOHN YANG: Labor trafficking, what does that look like?

CINDY DYER: That is when a person is forced through forced fraud or coercion to engage in labor that they don't voluntarily consent to do.

And so it can include many things, and it can include being forced to work in a plant and not being paid, or it can also be, importantly, forced criminality, forced to engage in a crime that you did not want to do.

JOHN YANG: You heard the current deputy secretary of state for management and resources explaining why.

He said -- this is being cut.

He said these single-issue offices have mushroomed, he said, and they have gone beyond the intent and served other purposes.

What do you say to that?

CINDY DYER: Well, I would say that this single issue office was created by a mandate from Congress.

The Trafficking Victims Protection Act, which has been a bipartisan piece of legislation in place for 25 years, mandated the creation of this single-issue office.

And it has received broad bipartisan support for 25 years.

And I think it's important to note that the reason Congress created this office is because Americans demanded that the United States do something.

They don't see this as a fringe issue.

Americans do not want children being sexually exploited.

Americans do not want to purchase goods made with slave labor.

And American companies definitely do not want to compete with companies who don't have to pay their workers.

So that's why Congress created the office.

And it was created as a single-issue office because, without the office, these topics would not receive the attention that the American people want.

JOHN YANG: The administration also says that other parts of the State Department could do this.

It doesn't have to be centralized here.

What do you say to that?

CINDY DYER: I would say that the Trafficking Victims Protection Act outlines very specific duties that the Trafficking in Persons Office must do.

They are complicated.

They are legally convoluted.

And they require the attention of people who are experts in this issue.

One of the things that we have to do is to every year publish a report that analyzes government efforts to combat trafficking in persons in 188 different countries.

Plus, we are required to represent the United States and make sure that the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act is being implemented, that - - the Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force.

These are things that require specialized expertise.

JOHN YANG: What do you think are the effects of these cuts that the Trump administration has made on the issue and also on people who are being trafficked?

CINDY DYER: These cuts will make it impossible for the staff at the Trafficking in Persons Office to comply with their statutorily mandated obligations.

With the staffing levels that are left, there is no way they can comply with what Congress is requiring them to do.

That includes releasing the Trafficking in Persons Report, but it also includes overseeing foreign assistance, such as our child protection compacts, which we work with other countries to implement to make sure that children are safe from sexual exploitation and forced labor.

The office simply cannot do those statutory obligations at the current staffing levels.

JOHN YANG: So what's going to happen to people who are being trafficked in the conditions you are just speaking about?

CINDY DYER: There will not be as many services available for victims of human trafficking in other parts of the world, in countries where we had been providing support.

I think that you will also see a reduction in prosecutions of traffickers, which does not make -- which does not help the situation here in the United States, because we know that this is a crime that transcends barriers.

So there will be -- it will be hard.

It will be hard for victims, and it will be hard for those who are trying to hold perpetrators accountable.

JOHN YANG: Former Ambassador-at-Large Cindy Dyer, thank you very much.

CINDY DYER: Thank you.