Sheila Jackson Lee: “Madam Speaker, slavery is alive, and I rise to support the underlying bill dealing with domestic trafficking and to…”

“Madam Speaker, slavery is alive, and I rise to support the underlying bill dealing with domestic trafficking and to thank the Senate for getting this over in the hours within which we have to function to make sure that we move this legislation forward. Houston is particularly an epicenter, if you will, for this kind of activity. Being not so far away from the border, we have seen the increase of human trafficking and smuggling grow exponentially, and certainly, we all are familiar with the tragedy that happened in Victoria just a few years ago where we saw the loss of human lives that were being trafficked. So we know there is a constant, steady flow of individuals who are coming, but this is the most dastardly and heinous aspect of it. I am glad my colleagues have already indicated that this is a domestic problem, that even though we can go to Bangladesh and we can go to parts of Africa and other parts of South Asia, we find human trafficking right here in our backyard.”