| For Immediate Release November 4, 2013 |
Susan Kang Schroeder Chief of Staff Office: 714-347-8408 Cell: 714-292-2718 Farrah Emami
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DISTRICT ATTORNEY SPEAKS OUT AGAINST HUMAN TRAFFICKING AS WITNESS BEFORE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
SANTA ANA – Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas spoke out against human trafficking today during witness testimony before the United States House of Representatives’ Committee on Foreign Affairs. At a field hearing held at California State University, Fullerton, titled, “Regional Perspectives in the Global Fight Against Human Trafficking,” District Attorney Rackauckas addressed congress members Chairman Edward R. Royce, Ranking Member Karen Bass, Texas Representative Randy K. Weber Sr., and California Representatives Alan S. Lowenthal and Dana Rohrabacher.
District Attorney Rackauckas’ testimony is as follows:
Chairman Royce, Ranking Member Bass, and other distinguished members of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, I am Tony Rackauckas and I serve as the elected District Attorney for Orange County, the second largest county in the State. If Orange County were a state, it would be the 30th most populous state in the country. Economically, no other state even comes close to Orange County. The median family income in Orange County is $85,000 and only Maryland comes close at $70,000. Our office files approximately 65,000 cases a year, and our felony conviction rate is over 90 percent.
Thank you for convening this hearing on one of the most significant abuses that is plaguing us locally and globally, as a $32 billion dollar criminal enterprise, second only to narcotics sales in profitability.
Chairman Royce, thank you for your continued leadership in this fight, including the recent introduction of the new bill – H.R. 3344, the Forte Act – The Fraudulent Overseas Recruitment and Trafficking Elimination Act of 2013.
150 years ago, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation and declared that “all persons held as slaves … henceforth shall be free.” Today, 150 years later, we have been given a new mandate by state and national legislation. More than two-thirds of the commercial sex victims in the U.S. are American citizens, while a third of them are trafficked from foreign countries. It is time we abolish modern-day slavery, including the commercial sexual exploitation of women and children.
Human exploitation and trafficking generally comes in two forms –forced labor, which we believe are highly unreported, and the majority in the form of commercial sexual exploitation. Unfortunately, the things that make our County so great and a tourist destination, with the mild weather and the available wealth, make our County one of the circuit stops for these sex traffickers and modern-day slave owners.