The Elastic Meaning(s) of Human Trafficking

What is human trafficking? When is an expansive definition of trafficking justifiable? How does trafficking relate to other concepts—like domestic violence, sexual assault, labor exploitation, and prostitution—with which it often overlaps? These questions have become increasingly salient after the U.S. Congress defined the crime of human trafficking in the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 (“TVPA”). Since then, all fifty states have passed legislation with varying definitions of the crime. Congress also has re-entered the field with subsequent legislation, expanding the crime to capture new conduct.As a result of legislative advocacy and judicial interpretation, the legal definition of human trafficking in the United States has now broadened to include a remarkably wide variety of actors and conduct. This is particularly evident in the context of sex trafficking. Buyers of sex, online platforms, and hotels increasingly have been caught in the anti-trafficking crosshairs and targeted with increased criminal and civil liability. In addition, prosecutors, plaintiffs, and legislators have reframed new conduct as trafficking. In some states, for example, almost all commercial sex is now sex trafficking. In other contexts, previously discrete gender-based crimes, such as domestic violence and sexual assault, are categorized as trafficking.This Article examines the historical and continuing expansion of trafficking definitions in the United States with a particular focus on sex trafficking. It posits that the broadening trafficking framework offers solutions to intractable problems that have bedeviled prosecutors and victim-rights advocates since 2000. However, the expansion also poses risks of its own to the rights of victims, defendants, and the continued viability of the trafficking framework. This Article argues that the next wave of reform should involve selective broadening and pruning. It cautions against an overly ambitious future expansion, arguing that it risks endangering the strength and legitimacy of the trafficking concept itself

Diffuse Atomic and Molecular Gas in the Interstellar Medium of M82 toward SN 2014J

We present a comprehensive analysis of interstellar absorption lines seen in moderately-high resolution, high signal-to-noise ratio optical spectra of SN 2014J in M82. Our observations were acquired over the course of six nights, covering the period from ~6 days before to ~30 days after the supernova reached its maximum B-band brightness. We examine complex absorption from Na I, Ca II, K I, Ca I, CH+, CH, and CN, arising primarily from diffuse gas in the interstellar medium (ISM) of M82. We detect Li I absorption over a range in velocity consistent with that exhibited by the strongest Na I and K I components associated with M82; this is the first detection of interstellar Li in a galaxy outside of the Local Group. There are no significant temporal variations in the absorption-line profiles over the 37 days sampled by our observations. The relative abundances of the various interstellar species detected reveal that the ISM of M82 probed by SN 2014J consists of a mixture of diffuse atomic and molecular clouds characterized by a wide range of physical/environmental conditions. Decreasing N(Na I)/N(Ca II) ratios and increasing N(Ca I)/N(K I) ratios with increasing velocity are indicative of reduced depletion in the higher-velocity material. Significant component-to-component scatter in the N(Na I)/N(Ca II) and N(Ca I)/N(Ca II) ratios may be due to variations in the local ionization conditions. An apparent anti-correlation between the N(CH+)/N(CH) and N(Ca I)/N(Ca II) ratios can be understood in terms of an opposite dependence on gas density and radiation field strength, while the overall high CH+ abundance may be indicative of enhanced turbulence in the ISM of M82. The Li abundance also seems to be enhanced in M82, which supports the conclusions of recent gamma-ray emission studies that the cosmic-ray acceleration processes are greatly enhanced in this starburst galaxy.Comment: 32 pages, 6 figures, accepted to ApJ; added table giving single-epoch equivalent widths; improved discussion regarding the lack of temporal variations; improved analysis of the Li I regio

Trafficking and the Shallow State

More than two decades ago, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) established new, robust protections for immigrant victims of trafficking. In particular, Congress created the T visa, a special form of immigration status, to protect immigrant victims from deportation. Despite lofty ambitions, the annual cap of 5,000 T visas has never been reached, with fewer than 1,200 approved each year. In recent years, denial rates also have climbed. For example, in fiscal year 2020, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services denied 42.79% of the T visa applications that the agency adjudicated, compared with just 28.12% in fiscal year 2015. These developments came as former president Donald J. Trump proclaimed a deep commitment to end the “epidemic” of human trafficking and to protect “innocent” victims.Though scholars have critiqued the general protection framework for immigrant victims of trafficking, this Article unearths an understudied problem: the often-unseen role of the “shallow state.” In contrast to the much-discussed “deep state” of career bureaucrats, this Article suggests that low-level administrative actors adjudicating humanitarian immigration cases have subtly worked to undermine protections for immigrant victims of trafficking. This Article demonstrates how administrative actors through a range of tactics, including delay, rejection, and heightened stakes, have contorted the T visa application process to make it more difficult for immigrant victims to navigate. The Article explores how these actions—often diffuse and obscured—have been hard to identify and subject to judicial review. It warns that these bureaucratic tendencies have resulted in declining approval rates with the potential to erode protections for immigrant victims of trafficking for years to come. It, thus, prescribes not only greater attention to such practices but also administrative and judicial remedies

Trafficking to the Rescue?

Since before the dawn of the #MeToo Movement, civil litigators have been confronted with imperfect legal responses to gender-based harms. Some have sought to envision and develop innovative legal strategies. One new, increasingly successful tactic has been the deployment of federal anti-trafficking law in certain cases of domestic violence and sexual assault. In 2017, for example, victims of sexual assault filed federal civil suits under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (“TVPRA”) against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. Plaintiffs argued that the alleged sexual assault conduct amounted to “commercial sex acts” and sex trafficking. Other plaintiffs’ lawyers have similarly invoked trafficking law against a range of defendants, such as fundamentalist leader Warren Jeffs, Olympic Taekwondo coach Jean Lopez, and well-known photographer Bruce Weber. These efforts have largely succeeded, as federal district courts signal broader judicial acceptance of such federal trafficking claims.This Article traces federal human trafficking law from its origins to these recent innovative cases. It then considers how civil litigators are turning to human trafficking statutes to overcome decades-old systemic problems with legal responses to gender-based violence. The Article explores how the TVPRA offers unique, pragmatic advantages for plaintiffs. Yet, this trend involves risks, as the expanding deployment of trafficking statutes may lead to constitutional challenges, disproportionate criminal penalties, and confusion about the meaning of trafficking as a legal concept. This Article examines what these efforts signal about the future of human trafficking law as well as the field of gender-based violence

Empathic Solidarity on the Frontline

Jacqueline Bhabha\u27s important article, The Imperative of Sustaining (Rather Than Destroying) Frontline Empathic Solidarity for Distress Migrants, highlights the pivotal role that frontline communities now play in international migration. Bhabha explores how frontline communities frequently lack the infrastructure, political will, and resources to respond adequately to distress migrants. Yet, she unearths the potential of empathic solidarity to counteract bias and, more optimistically, provide a welcoming and humanizing experience to migrants. Indeed, in this hopeful, ambitious article, Bhabha posits that empathic solidarity can play a significant generative role for migrants\u27 rights

Commentary on Chy Lung v. Freeman

This chapter is a contribution to the forthcoming volume of Rewritten Immigration Opinions to be published by Cambridge University Press. It offers commentary on the rewritten opinion in Chy Lung v. Freeman, 92 U.S. 275 (1875), authored by Professor Stewart Chang. In Chy Lung, the Supreme Court struck down a patently racist and gendered California law, allowing allowed state officials to exclude Chinese women suspected of being “lewd” and “debauched” from the United States. In the decision, Justice Samuel Miller, writing for the unanimous Supreme Court, expressed grave concerns about potential abuses of power by immigration officials, and he ultimately found that the federal government—not states—had the authority to make laws governing immigration and foreign relations. The opinion, however, did little to curtail anti-Chinese bias. In the wake of the decision, Congress passed the Page Act in 1875, permitting immigration officials to exclude Chinese women on similar grounds and anti-Chinese bias informed federal immigration law for decades. This commentary examines the legacy of the Chy Lung decision. It also engages with Professor Chang’s rewritten opinion, one that grounds its analysis in equal protection and due process, to re-envision rights discourse at the border

The New Pornography Wars

The world’s largest online pornography conglomerate, MindGeek, has come under fire for the publishing of “rape videos,” child pornography, and nonconsensual pornography on its website, Pornhub. As in the “pornography wars” of the 1970s and 1980s, lawyers and activists have now turned to civil remedies and filed creative anti-trafficking lawsuits against MindGeek and third parties, like payment processing company, Visa. These lawsuits seek not only to achieve legal accountability for online sex trafficking but also to reframe a broader array of online harms as sex trafficking.This Article explores what these new trafficking lawsuits mean for the future regulation of the online pornography industry and the broader fight against sex trafficking. Redolent of venerable feminist debates, these emerging cases raise new questions about the scope of the First Amendment, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act—which has shielded online platforms from civil liability for content uploaded by third parties—and direct and third-party liability. They open up new avenues for civil damages against online pornography websites and entities that profit from online harms. However, this Article also posits that invoking trafficking statutes can also have harmful implications for civil liberties, internet freedom, and sexual expression. Thus, it offers suggestions for the judicious evolution of trafficking frames in these realms