ABSTRACT
The El Paso Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force operated between March 2005 and April 2009 to integrate and coordinate local and national resources to combat human trafficking and provide immediate and long-term services to victims. The first comprehensive federal law in the United States to protect victims of trafficking and to prosecute their traffickersthe Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) was enacted in October 2000. At the national level, a Network for Emergency Trafficking Services (NETS) was initiated in March 2005, by the Office of Victims of Crime of the US Department of Justice (DOJ). El Paso, Texas, was designated a Target Site in the Network for Emergency Trafficking Services (NETS) for the Western Region. El Paso's Anti- Human Trafficking Program ended in April 2009 because funding was predicated upon a social service organization and a local law enforcement agency working in partnership, and no local law enforcement agency opted to seek DOJ funding to continue the program.
