WHEREAS, President Obama has proclaimed January 2011 National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention month; and
     WHEREAS, The United States Department of Health and Human Services and the United States Department of Justice estimates that between 14,500 and 17,500 people are trafficked into the United States each year, with 50 percent of those being children; and
     WHEREAS, Of the people trafficked internationally, an estimated 46 percent of those are for the purpose of prostitution, 27 percent for domestic servitude, 10 percent to work in agriculture, and 5 percent to work in factories; and
     WHEREAS, Human trafficking is not only an international problem with persons being smuggled into the United States or having received false promises about the work they will do, but also a domestic one that devastates the lives of women, children, and men in our own communities through labor and sex trafficking activities, often involving the commercial sexual abuse of minors; and
     WHEREAS, Early awareness of this problem in Washington state came about because federal experts determined Seattle to be one of the ten human trafficking hotspots with people being smuggled into Seattle's ports in containerships from Asia for labor, and the high-profile murders of "mail-order brides" (Suzanna Remata Blackwell and Anastasia King) and the enforced servitude of another (Helen Clemente); and
     WHEREAS, Washington state has been in the forefront, nationally, in the fight against human trafficking since 2001 under the leadership of former State Representative Velma Veloria working with community organizations, such as the Asian & Pacific Islander Women & Family Safety Center, in convening a conference on human trafficking with the University of Washington Women's Center, and, in 2002, leading the efforts in creating in statute the nation's first state task force against the trafficking of persons, and in 2003 in creating the crime of trafficking, the first in the United States; and
     WHEREAS, In every legislative session since, funding has been made available and/or trafficking laws have been strengthened by specifying penalties for violations of the criminal trafficking statute; regulating the mail-order bride industry; establishing protocols for providing services to victims of trafficking; providing funds to be used in providing legal aid to undocumented immigrants who are victims of sexual assault, domestic violence, or human trafficking; restricting sex tourism; adding victims of trafficking to the Secretary of State's address confidentiality program; creating and strengthening penalties for a new criminal category for the commercial sexual abuse of a minor and for providing training for law enforcement officers through the Criminal Justice Training Commission; requiring domestic employers and international labor brokers to disclose federal and state labor laws to employees and requiring dissemination of information on trafficking to health care providers; and in authorizing antitrafficking posters to be placed in state highway rest stops; and     
     WHEREAS, Former Congresswoman Linda Smith, founder and President of Shared Hope International, is a strong advocate against human trafficking and the commercial sexual abuse of minors and leads the Protected Innocence Initiative, which utilizes a holistic strategy to promote zero tolerance for child sex trafficking; and
     WHEREAS, Rani and Trong Hong, founders of the Tronie Foundation, were victims of sex trafficking, whose courage to tell their stories has raised awareness of issues of human trafficking in the United States Congress and in legislative bodies around the world, and who opened the state's first shelter for trafficking victims; and
     WHEREAS, Human traffickers use many physical and psychological techniques to control their victims, including the use of violence or threats of violence against the victim or the victim's family, isolation from the public, isolation from the victim's family and religious or ethnic communities, language and cultural barriers, shame, control of the victim's possessions, confiscation of passports and other identification documents, and threats of arrest, deportation, or imprisonment if the victim attempts to reach out for assistance or leave; and
     WHEREAS, Thursday, January 13, 2011, was Washington Antitrafficking Engagement Day, an event to raise awareness and encourage advocacy on the issue of human trafficking at the Washington State Legislature;
     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, That the Washington State Senate recognize those people and organizations that fight daily against the scourge of human trafficking, and encourage others to observe the National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention month with appropriate ceremonies and activities to combat human trafficking; and
     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That copies of this resolution be immediately transmitted by the Secretary of the Senate to former Representative Velma Veloria; the Asian & Pacific Islander Women & Family Safety Center; the Department of Commerce's Office of Crime Victims Advocacy; Dr. Sutapa Basu, Executive Director of the University of Washington Center for Research on Women; the Washington Advisory Committee on Trafficking (WashACT); former State Senator Linda Smith and Shared Hope International; Attorney General Rob McKenna who convened summits in combating human trafficking in Washington; Seattle Against Slavery; the Refugee Women's Alliance; New Horizons Ministries; the City of Seattle Division of Violence & Sexual Assault Prevention; the Not for Sale Campaign; The Polaris Project; the Washington Anti-Trafficking Response Network; the National Human Trafficking Resource Center; Rani Hong with the Tronie Foundation; Soroptomists International; and the Seattle Bridge Program.