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Orphanage Trafficking Prevention and Protection Act
To expand the definition of ``severe forms of trafficking in persons'' to include the recruitment, harboring, transportation, transfer, or receipt of orphaned, abandoned, or minors living in public or private residential facilities, and for other purposes.
Summary
This bill expands the federal definition of "severe forms of trafficking in persons" under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act to explicitly include the trafficking of orphaned, abandoned, and children in residential care facilities. Currently, U.S. law does not specifically recognize "orphanage trafficking"—when children are trafficked into orphanages for exploitation and profit—as a severe form of trafficking. The bill adds this as a distinct category when children are recruited, harbored, transported, or received by means of fraud, coercion, or force for purposes of exploitation, forced labor, or sexual abuse. This change is intended to strengthen legal tools for prosecuting traffickers and protecting vulnerable children in institutional care.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
3 cosponsors
Money behind the sponsor
Top reported contributors to Christopher H. Smith’s campaign committee (2024 cycle) — who funds the bill’s sponsor, not a claim about this bill. Data from FEC.
- WINDMILL HEALTH PRODUCTS $6,600
- ZAIS GROUP, LLC $6,600
- BLUFF POINT ASSOCIATES $6,600
- HILL & COMPANY $6,600
- SAKER SHOP RITE $6,600
Organizations whose employees gave the most — itemized individual contributions grouped by the donor’s reported employer (FEC Schedule A). Full finance for Christopher H. Smith → · Outside spending →
Actions (2)
- Jul 23, 2025 Referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. · house
- Jul 23, 2025 Introduced in House
Similar bills (6)
Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.
Text versions (1)
Bills are re-published as they move (Introduced → Reported → Engrossed → Enrolled …). Each stage below is a separate text; pick two to see what changed. Data from Congress.gov.
Full text
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
July 23, 2025
Mr. Smith of New Jersey (for himself, Mr. Mfume, and Ms. Salazar) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs
A BILL
To expand the definition of “severe forms of trafficking in persons” to include the recruitment, harboring, transportation, transfer, or receipt of orphaned, abandoned, or minors living in public or private residential facilities, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Orphanage Trafficking Prevention and Protection Act”.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) Orphaned, abandoned, and children living in public or private residential facilities, including institutions, children’s homes, orphanages, boarding schools, or group homes, are among the populations most vulnerable to trafficking in persons worldwide. According to the United States Department of State, children without parental care are at significantly higher risk of being trafficked for labor, sexual exploitation, forced begging, and other illegal purposes.
(2) An estimated 5,400,000 children live in institutional care globally, many of whom are not true orphans but are separated from their families due to poverty, disability, or family breakdown.
(3) Traffickers often target these children under the guise of education, caregiving, or adoption.
(4) The Department of State’s 2024 Trafficking in Persons Report notes that “orphanage trafficking”—the recruitment of children into residential care for the purpose of exploitation and profit—occurs in multiple countries and is increasingly linked to international travel, and volun-tourism.
(5) The Department of State’s 2019 and 2024 Trafficking in Persons Reports have identified patterns in which children are trafficked into orphanages to attract donations and international volunteers, with reports of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse in such institutions.
(6) In some cases, children are fraudulently labeled as orphans and trafficked through inter-country adoption channels, undermining legitimate adoption systems and violating the Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption, done at the Hague on May 29, 1993.
(7) Despite these documented abuses, current United States law does not explicitly recognize orphanage trafficking as a severe form of trafficking in persons, which, accordingly, may hinder efforts to prosecute perpetrators, protect victims, and condition foreign assistance.
(8) Clarifying that the trafficking of orphaned, abandoned, or children living in public or private residential facilities, including institutions, children’s homes, orphanages, boarding schools, or group homes, constitutes a severe form of trafficking in persons under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 7101 et seq.) is necessary to protect these children, enhance accountability, and strengthen United States anti-trafficking efforts.
SEC. 3. MODIFICATION TO DEFINITION OF SEVERE FORMS OF TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS.
Paragraph (11) of section 103 of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 7102) is amended—
(1) in subparagraph (A), by striking “; or” at the end and inserting a semicolon;
(2) in subparagraph (B), by striking the period at the end and inserting “; or”; and
(3) by adding at the end the following new subparagraph:
“(C) the recruitment, harboring, transportation, transfer, or receipt of orphaned, abandoned, or persons living in public or private residential facilities who have not attained 18 years of age, by means of fraud, coercion, force, or abuse of a position of vulnerability, for the purpose of exploitation and profit, forced labor, involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, slavery, child labor, or sex trafficking.”. <all>
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