Article US justice department halts funding for human-trafficking survivors
Article US justice department halts funding for human-trafficking survivors
Dec 22 2025, 7:18 PM
Quote:More than 100 organizations that support victims of human trafficking have lost funding since October, leaving thousands of survivors at risk, a Guardian investigation has found.
Anti-trafficking advocates say the US Department of Justice’s failure to spend nearly $90m appropriated by Congress is impeding law-enforcement investigations and exposing survivors to homelessness and the risk of deportation, jail time or re-exploitation.
This is the latest in a series of Guardian investigative reports, which in September revealed that the Trump administration had rolled back efforts to combat human trafficking across the federal government. That retreat has far-reaching implications beyond those related to the release of the investigative files related to the late Jeffrey Epstein...
Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate judiciary committee, told the Guardian the Trump administration’s failure to release the funds fits a pattern of diverting “important resources from combating crimes”. Instead, the administration was using “that money for their single-minded immigration enforcement agenda, which has included arresting immigrant survivors attempting to report crimes to the police”.
For Hare, who is now pursuing an associate degree in human services at Santa Fe Community College, the Trump administration’s failure to spend the money represents “an abuse of power that mirrors what traffickers do”, putting survivors in a position where they have “nowhere to turn for help”.
“For some of these survivors, the only support they have is these non-profits,” she said. “You’re getting the same response from the government as you are from the person who exploited you: ‘You don’t matter, we don’t care about you.’”
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Quote:More than 100 organizations that support victims of human trafficking have lost funding since October, leaving thousands of survivors at risk, a Guardian investigation has found.
Anti-trafficking advocates say the US Department of Justice’s failure to spend nearly $90m appropriated by Congress is impeding law-enforcement investigations and exposing survivors to homelessness and the risk of deportation, jail time or re-exploitation.
This is the latest in a series of Guardian investigative reports, which in September revealed that the Trump administration had rolled back efforts to combat human trafficking across the federal government. That retreat has far-reaching implications beyond those related to the release of the investigative files related to the late Jeffrey Epstein...
Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate judiciary committee, told the Guardian the Trump administration’s failure to release the funds fits a pattern of diverting “important resources from combating crimes”. Instead, the administration was using “that money for their single-minded immigration enforcement agenda, which has included arresting immigrant survivors attempting to report crimes to the police”.
For Hare, who is now pursuing an associate degree in human services at Santa Fe Community College, the Trump administration’s failure to spend the money represents “an abuse of power that mirrors what traffickers do”, putting survivors in a position where they have “nowhere to turn for help”.
“For some of these survivors, the only support they have is these non-profits,” she said. “You’re getting the same response from the government as you are from the person who exploited you: ‘You don’t matter, we don’t care about you.’”