The Trafficking Survivors Relief Act Puts Justice Back Where It Belongs

President Donald J. Trump, in his January 6, 2026, address marking National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, reaffirmed the administration’s unwavering commitment to ending modern-day slavery, holding traffickers accountable, and empowering survivors to rebuild their lives. That is why the bipartisan Trafficking Survivors Relief Act, which passed both the House and Senate unanimously, is so important.

Human trafficking is not only one of the most vicious crimes in the world, but also one of the most profitable. Modern-day slavery has become a multibillion-dollar criminal enterprise where the supply and demand are the same thing: human beings. People are bought and sold again and again, not because trafficking is hidden, but because it is high-reward and low-risk. Traffickers too often evade justice. Too frequently, victims cannot find justice.

For eight years, Hollie lived that reality.

“My traffickers stripped me of my freedom, my income, my career, my safety, my family, my reputation, my body, and nearly my life.”

When Hollie finally escaped exploitation, she did not step into freedom. She stepped into a system that failed to recognize her as a victim. Instead of protection, she faced punishment. Instead of justice, she faced criminalization for acts she was forced to commit to survive.

That experience is not unique. It is tragically common.

Traffickers routinely coerce victims into committing crimes, selling sex, transporting drugs, using false identification, or engaging in financial fraud, solely for the trafficker’s benefit. This is known as forced criminality, and it is a well-documented reality of human trafficking. Yet when government systems fail to properly identify victims, survivors are arrested, prosecuted, and left with criminal records that follow them long after they escape.

Those records become invisible shackles.

They block access to jobs, housing, education, and financial stability. They keep survivors trapped in cycles of poverty and vulnerability. And they send a devastating message: that the law holds victims responsible for crimes committed against them.

As Hollie has said, “I did not emerge from exploitation into freedom. I emerged into a system that did not know how to see me, protect me, or distinguish me from the crimes committed against me.”

That is not justice.

Conservatives believe in accountability. However, accountability must be placed where it belongs: on the criminals, not the victims. Traffickers should face the full force of the law. Survivors should not be punished for surviving.

This legislation is not symbolic. It is corrective. Many states have already enacted this type of legislation; however, the federal government has been behind the curve.

The Trafficking Survivors Relief Act creates a clear federal pathway for survivors of human trafficking to vacate and expunge convictions for non-violent crimes that resulted directly from their exploitation. It also establishes an affirmative defense to prevent wrongful convictions before they happen. In doing so, it restores integrity to the justice system by ensuring prosecutors recognize and pursue the true perpetrators of crime.

As the bill’s lead sponsor, Congressman Russell Fry of South Carolina, rightly noted, “It makes sense to give prosecutors tools in their toolbox to go after the true perpetrators of these crimes and not the victims themselves. This is common sense.”

He is right. Survivors should never have carried the legal consequences of their traffickers’ crimes in the first place.

This bill is survivor-informed, shaped by those who understand firsthand how systems fail and how they can be fixed. Survivors know that justice cannot end at initial recovery or prosecution — it must extend into long-term restoration, independence, and self-sufficiency.

Hollie has spent years working with law enforcement to improve victim identification, advising prosecutors and judges on survivor-centered justice, partnering with service providers to ensure help does not end at crisis, and collaborating with financial institutions and policymakers to empower survivors to rebuild their lives.

The Trafficking Survivors Relief Act represents American leadership with moral clarity.

The United States can now become the only country with federal legislation that explicitly recognizes forced criminality and provides survivors a clear legal path to relief from convictions tied to their exploitation. That matters. A just nation protects the innocent, punishes the guilty, and restores those who have been wronged.

This law gives survivors a real second chance — the chance to work, to secure housing, to pursue education, and to fully participate in American life without being haunted by crimes they were forced to commit.

It replaces punishment with accountability.

Justice should heal. Justice should be restored. And justice should never ask survivors to carry the crimes of their traffickers.

With the passage of the Trafficking Survivors Relief Act, America takes an important step toward making that principle the law of the land.

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Mercedes “Mercy” Schlapp is a CPAC Senior Fellow and former senior White House advisor to President Donald Trump, as well as Director of Specialty Media for President George W. Bush. She is a Republican strategist, media commentator, and co-host of CPAC 365 on SiriusXM Patriot and America Uncanceled.

Hollie Nadel is a survivor of human trafficking and a graduate of Ithaca College. In recent years, Nadel has prioritized raising awareness of the reality of human trafficking, serving as a consultant for anti-trafficking organizations. She received her certification from the ACAMS/ Liechtenstein Initiative for Finance Against Slavery and Trafficking, provided survivor support for the Survivor Inclusion Initiative, and is currently working to pass additional anti-trafficking legislation.

The views expressed in this piece are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.