Made in the USA...Sort Of

The State Department released it's annual Trafficking in Persons report on Monday, ranking how various countries around the world prevent the modern-day slavery of selling men, women, and children for forced labor and commercial sex work. Cambodia was lifted from Tier 3--the bottom ranking, and one that meant that some types of US aid to Cambodia were suspended--to Tier 2 Watchlist, leading to a collective sigh of relief. At the release, Secretary Rice said, "Human traffickers prey on the most vulnerable and turn a commercial profit at the expense of innocent lives. The State Department's efforts to end this evil trade exemplify transformational diplomacy. We work with international partners to secure the freedom of those who are exploited and call on governments to be effective and accountable in prosecuting those who exploit."

But while we're patting our backs for our good work overseas, we've turned a blind eye to sex trafficking and forced labor in our own backyard--the Northern Mariana Islands. This US territory isn't protected by US labor or immigration laws, and is notorious for trafficked sex workers and for factory workers who work for less than minimum wage or in forced labor to produce garments that are then labelled "Made in the USA" and enter the mainland US tax- and tariff-free. For years, Tom DeLay and Jack Abramoff blocked attempts to pass laws to extend US immigration and labor laws to the territory. Let's hope that a recent effort by Democratic leaders to bring this territory's practices in line with US standards can help end our hypocritical approach to the "evil trade".