The Foreign Service Journal, October 2018

18 OCTOBER 2018 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL human trafficking, and the Secretary of State chairs the President’s Interagency Task Force on trafficking in per- sons. The report also covers the department’s annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report. According to the CRS report, issues of concern to Congress “may include monitoring the use of anti-trafficking funds by the executive branch, examining links between human trafficking with other transnational issues, including labor and procurement practices, and considering legislation to reauthorize the [Trafficking Victims Pro- tection Act of 2000].” When the State Department released the 2018 Trafficking in Persons Report on June 28, it got a bit more attention than usual in the U.S. press. At the time, the Trump admin- istration was struggling to defend its decision to arrest refugee families trying to enter the United States at our southern borders, forcibly separating children from their parents. Media outlets such as The New York Times, CNN and Foreign Policy all picked up on a section of the report that read, in part: “Removal of a child from the family should only be considered as a temporary last resort. Studies have found that both private and government-run residential institutions for children, or places such as orphanages and psychiat- ric wards that do not offer a family-based setting, cannot replicate the emotional companionship and attention found in family environments that are prerequi- sites to healthy cognitive development.” The government failed to meet a court-ordered July 12 deadline to reunite all children under age 5 with their parents. n This edition of Talking Points was com- piled by Donna Gorman, Shawn Dorman and Susan Maitra.