By Danielle E. Gary, MHC-LP, Human Trafficking Subject Matter Expert
Annually, the United States government acknowledges January as National Human Trafficking Prevention Month. The White House’s written acknowledgment summarizes the state of the human trafficking movement, identifies the most pressing causes of human trafficking, and describes changes the government is making to end human trafficking. The 2026 acknowledgement suggests that human trafficking in the United States is fueled by undocumented immigrants and that indiscriminate targeting and deportation of immigrants will end human trafficking. This rhetoric is ill-advised, ill-informed, and counterproductive. In the midst of this harmful rhetoric, the White House announced that the TSRA became law, offering criminal record erasure for survivors who faced criminal charges related to theirs trafficking experience. As it stands, this systemic remedy is a disjointed, unfunded breadcrumb, and a wraparound response is required.
In 2025, the United States witnessed the “largest mass deportation operation in American history.” That mass deportation targeted undocumented immigrants but also impacted citizens who entered our borders legally, contributed to American communities, and helped stimulate the economy. Unimaginably for many, that mass deportation also impacted United States citizens with birthright citizenship. Unjustly targeting immigrant communities is not a worthwhile effort to end human trafficking. Customarily, the impacts of human trafficking affect marginalized communities, like BIPOC, LGBTQ, unhoused, and systems-involved folks in the same vein as it impacts immigrant communities. In the past year, the vein of xenophobia proved to be more interconnected than previously acknowledged. Immigrant communities are not the reason human trafficking exists. Rhetoric that is driven by xenophobia, racism, sexism, homophobia, and classism makes it possible.
Signing the TSRA into law was a notable step forward in the movement to end human trafficking. Remedies to remove unjust criminal charges enable survivors of human trafficking to pursue better employment, housing, and empowerment opportunities. Among other positive impacts, accessing better opportunities decreases the likelihood that survivors will be revictimized. The acknowledgement of this need at the federal level was monumental.
Even with the best intentions in mind the TSRA does not offer a remedy for the fiscal gutting that community-based organizations have endured over the last year. Continuing to defund community-based direct services dismantles an essential link in the chain and makes it even more difficult for survivors of human trafficking to escape their traffickers. To even be able to access the benefits of the TSRA, survivors must have community-based organizations to seek advocacy and representation from. Often, survivors require targeted case management, housing, and low-barrier employment opportunities – all of which require consistent funding. The US Government’s investment in the National Human Trafficking Hotline is moot if it cannot connect survivors to local services. Continued budget cuts will limit the potential impact of the TSRA. One step forward. Two steps back.
Oppression is a slippery slope. There are always communities who sit at the margins. The tighter the margins become, the closer they get to you. Ending trafficking does not require tightening the margins. To end human trafficking, and the systems that perpetuate it, we must invest increasingly more resources in community-based prevention services.
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