All States Should Post the National Human Trafficking Hotline
A legislative victory—and a call to finish what we started
In 2022, America achieved a huge victory in the fight against human trafficking. Congress passed the Human Trafficking Prevention Act of 2022, amending the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000.
This legislation requires the Department of Transportation and Homeland Security to ensure the National Human Trafficking Hotline is visible in every plane, bus, and train restroom across America.
The Trafficking Hotline works with victims to determine what they need to begin to break free and rebuild their lives. This is important because traffickers take consent, choice, and freedom away from victims.
To effectively support survivors is to return to them control over their own lives and choices. When and if victims and survivors choose to involve law enforcement, the Trafficking Hotline supports the process every step of the way.
Critical Protocols:
Some states are already leading the way. Here are examples other states should follow:
Requires facilities such as hotels, inns, and motels to provide informational cards on services available to victims of human trafficking. Information about the national trafficking hotline must be displayed in:
This ensures victims have access to a discreet informational card so they can call the hotline for help at a later time.
Requires all public lodging establishments to:
We've won federal transportation. Some states have tackled hotels. But we're not done.
Hotels are one of the most common settings for sex trafficking.
We should move to require legislators to pass similar state laws, including:
Every bathroom. Every lobby. Every place where a victim might see it and find hope.
We won transportation. Now let's win hotels, apartments, casinos, and everywhere else victims need to see that number.
Call: 1-888-373-7888
Text: 233733 (BEFREE)
"We should continue this momentum on the individual state level to make the hotline more accessible."