Court records show federal charges running at their slowest pace in years as the Justice Department confronts staffing losses and competing enforcement demands
WASHINGTON — Federal sex-trafficking charges have fallen sharply this year despite President Donald Trump’s pledge to make the fight against human trafficking a major law-enforcement priority, exposing a widening gap between the administration’s public commitments and the pace of federal prosecutions.
The Justice Department charged 73 people with federal sex-trafficking offenses through June, according to court records analyzed by Reuters, about 22% fewer than the average number charged during the first half of the previous three years.
The pace was the lowest for the comparable period since 2010.
The decline does not mean the administration has stopped pursuing trafficking cases. Federal prosecutors continue to bring significant prosecutions around the country, and the Justice Department has launched nationwide enforcement initiatives targeting sexual exploitation.
But interviews conducted by Reuters with current and former federal officials and victims’ advocates point to strains inside the broader enforcement system, including shortages of experienced personnel and the diversion of investigative resources to other administration priorities.
Homeland Security Investigations, one of the principal federal agencies responsible for investigating human trafficking, has also been heavily involved in the administration’s intensified immigration enforcement campaign.
Former prosecutors and advocates told Reuters that those competing demands have reduced the personnel available for complex trafficking investigations, which can require months or years of work and depend heavily on cooperation from victims.
The Justice Department has publicly maintained that combating human trafficking and child exploitation remains a priority.
In June, then-Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche appointed a national coordinator for child exploitation and human trafficking and directed the coordinator to develop an updated department-wide strategy.
The administration can also point to major enforcement actions.
In May, the Justice Department announced that more than 350 suspected child-sex-abuse offenders had been arrested and more than 200 children identified or located during Operation Iron Pursuit, a monthlong nationwide operation involving all 56 FBI field offices and U.S. attorneys’ offices.
Federal prosecutors have separately announced sex-trafficking indictments and convictions in California, Texas, New Jersey, Maine and other jurisdictions in recent months.
Those operations, however, cover a broader range of child sexual exploitation crimes and do not erase the decline in federal sex-trafficking charges reflected in court records.
The distinction is important.
Sex trafficking prosecutions frequently involve victims who have experienced coercion, violence, financial dependency or threats. Building a federal case can depend on establishing trust with victims while investigators assemble evidence capable of proving force, fraud or coercion in court.
Victims’ advocates cited by Reuters said disruptions in federal resources and growing distrust of immigration authorities have made that work more difficult in some cases, particularly when victims themselves lack secure immigration status.
The administration’s immigration policies therefore intersect with its trafficking agenda in ways that are not always straightforward.
Federal law provides immigration protections in certain circumstances for trafficking victims who assist law enforcement. Reuters found that approvals of T visas, which are available to eligible trafficking victims, have also declined.
The figures create a significant test for the administration because Trump has repeatedly presented the fight against human trafficking as part of a broader promise to restore law and order and protect women and children from exploitation.
The Justice Department says its commitment remains intact.
Its own enforcement announcements show that prosecutors and federal agents continue to pursue traffickers and sexual predators across the country.
But the federal charging data point in the opposite direction.
The question for the administration is therefore not whether trafficking cases are still being prosecuted. They clearly are.
It is whether the federal government is committing enough investigative and prosecutorial capacity to produce the broader crackdown Trump promised.
For now, the numbers show that fewer defendants are reaching federal court on sex-trafficking charges, even as the administration says the fight remains a priority.