Original Source: USA Today
By David M. Jackson
A coalition called Generation Freedom has found an issue that unites Democratic and Republican campaigns even in this fractious campaign year: The need to fight human trafficking and slavery.
The campaigns of Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump and John Kasich have all lent support to the organization's call to step up anti-trafficking efforts in the United States and across the globe.
"Human trafficking is one of the most rampant and yet under addressed human rights issues in our time," said Brian Gallagher, president and CEO of United Way Worldwide and a member of the Generation Freedom coalition.
Noting that there are more than 20 million victims of human trafficking around the world, Gallagher said "that means that there are people trapped in slavery today at an all-time high in human history."
Generation Freedom, a coalition of some 70 organizations, is pressuring presidential campaigns to commit to more federal funding to fight the scourge, with Gallagher arguing that "we are punching way below our weight in terms of funding against this issue."
Their call is ambitious — Generation Freedom said the federal government spends $150 million a year to combat human trafficking They want an increase to $3 billion a year, saying that would be just 10% of the annual drug trafficking budget.
The Bernie Sanders campaign said in a statement that "it’s time for the wealthiest country in the world to invest in the eradication of slavery. Everyone deserves the very basic right of freedom, and the fact that we are talking about slavery in 2016 is appalling."
Jennifer Klein, senior adviser on women's and girl's issues with the Clinton campaign, said a President Clinton would "work with Congress to ensure that our resources meet the scope and scale of the challenge — and since this is a bipartisan issue, real progress is possible. "
During a recent conference call, surrogates for the Trump and Kasich campaigns also pledged support for the idea, though they and other campaigns did not discuss budget specifics.
Ohio state Sen. Larry Obhof, a Kasich supporter, said his candidate has tackled the trafficking issue as governor of Ohio. He added, "human trafficking doesn’t care whether you’re a Republican or Democrat or which state you’re from or which political candidate you support, it’s a scourge on the society."
Sam Clovis of the Trump campaign cited the need to focus on laws that exist and tighten the nation's borders.
"We have to be able to enforce the laws that we have in this land and also to secure our borders and to control the trafficking that comes across our borders, into our ports, into our airports," he said.