Chris Smith: “Do you think it is possible when you have lost your humanity to ever find it again?'' So asks Helena, a fictitious but…”

“Do you think it is possible when you have lost your humanity to ever find it again?'' So asks Helena, a fictitious but all too real human trafficking victim from Prague after describing how she was raped and abused to ICE law enforcement agent Kate Morozov, played brilliantly by Academy Award-winning actress Mira Sorvino in Lifetime TV Network's mini series Human Trafficking, to be aired next week. My wife Marie and I have watched the entire trafficking movie last night, and we were moved to tears by this extraordinarily accurate portrayal of sex slavery from the eyes of victims, and the dedicated law enforcement agents trying to effectuate their rescue. My wife and I and my staff have been fighting sex trafficking, Mr. Speaker, since the late 1990s, when there was utter disbelief about whether or not it even existed. Sadly, it does. I would note parenthetically that I am the prime sponsor of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, a comprehensive landmark law that provides for prevention, protection or victims, and prosecution and incarceration of the traffickers. I also sponsored the TPVA Reauthorization Act of 2003 as well as pending Legislation--H.R. 972. The movie tells the individual stories of exploited young women and girls from the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Philippines, Romania, Russia, and a 12-year-old girl, an American girl, Annie Gray, who was abducted by traffickers in Manila.…”