Lee Focused on Human Trafficking and Border Crisis

WASHINGTON—The Floridian sat down with Representative Laurel Lee (R-FL) to discuss various pieces of legislation that the U.S. House of Representatives was currently negotiating, including the congresswoman's Human Trafficking Hotline Enhancement Act, and how it ties into the ongoing border crisis.

Rep. Lee stated the bill, which she introduced in April with Rep. Kathy Castor (D) came after a bipartisan group of attorneys generals' report indicated multiple tips called into the National Human Trafficking Hotline did not go to law enforcement in time.

As such, Rep. Lee stated that  Enhancement Act will "ensure that the hotline takes any of the tips it gets and get them into the hands of law enforcement who can investigate any of these allegations of potential human trafficking."

Rep. Lee briefly described examples of where trafficking could take place and its participants, such as hotels, schools, or simply residential areas.

"This could be a hotel owner, a truck driver, a neighbor, a teacher, anywhere you see something that looks like it could be human trafficking activity," Rep. Lee stated.

Additionally, Lee called human trafficking "one of the tragic results of our failure to secure our southern border," saying House Republicans are seeking every means to secure it, most notably the Secure the Border Act introduced by Representative Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL), which passed the House in May.

"Human trafficking is one of the tragic results of our failure to secure the southern border. House Republicans have been working very hard to identify all of the security and criminal challenges associated with having an insecure border and create policies to ensure we are addressing it. We passed the most comprehensive border bill in many years that was designed to get America back to a place of enforcing our laws and keeping our border secure," Lee continued.

Having witnessed the border crisis firsthand during the House Homeland Security Committee's field hearing in March, Lee said anyone who has personally seen it "would recognize what a crisis this is," and that "every community in America has turned into a border community."

"I believe anyone who went to the southern border and actually saw what is going on there would recognize what a crisis this is. Every community in America has turned into a border community, and this is a subject that should not be a partisan issue. We should all share the goal of securing our southern border," Lee added.

Finally, when asked if she supported deploying the military to battle the cartels as several Florida Republicans have suggested, Lee seemed more cautious, saying, "There is no question that we need to allocate additional resources, focus, and law enforcement efforts to securing our southern border."

"There is no question that we need to allocate additional resources, focus, and law enforcement efforts to securing our southern border. One of the things House Republicans emphasized is the need to be sure we equip and fund Border Patrol agents who are down at the southern border, doing this important work. They need to have both the personnel and supplies that they need to do their jobs effectively and safely. Use of military force is something that we would have to very carefully consider given the facts and circumstances that develop as we go forward," Lee concluded.