President Obama has nominated Lou De baca as the next “anti-human trafficking Czar” and we are doing what we can to help ensure he is confirmed.

Throughout his service to the U.S. Government, Mr. de Baca has played a valuable role advising, directing, and enforcing the federal anti-trafficking policies.  During his tenure as lead prosecutor, Mr. de Baca saw the conviction of more than 100 traffickers and liberated more than 600 victims, records unchallenged in a post-reconstruction era.

As one of the first governmental anti-slavery and anti-trafficking advocates, Mr. de Baca began working on the issue of human trafficking in the mid-1990s, first pioneering the use of servitude statutes to prosecute exploitative pimps for violating their victims’ rights.  During the Clinton Administration he helped convene the first national interagency working group on human trafficking and spearheaded the Justice Department’s efforts to update slavery statutes, which resulted in the passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000.

The Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons requires a leader who has an extensive background and knowledge of this issue, along with the ability to cooperate with a diverse constituency, multiple government agencies, and direct a variety of programs.  Mr. de Baca’s experience securing traffickers’ convictions, liberating victims, and directing policy has had a substantial impact on the United States success in confronting trafficking.

Mr. de Baca needs your suppor!  Sign our online petition to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to support his confirmation!