Policymakers Are Making Decisions with Fragmented Visibility
A law-enforcement-first strategy forces investigators to confront an industrial-scale criminal economy at the final point of intervention. It asks detectives, task forces, and prosecutors to contain a system built to outpace them.
Even the best investigators cannot scale against a market this large through traditional methods alone. Traffickers exploit speed, anonymity, and fragmented systems faster than agencies can respond.
Effective policy must remove those advantages earlier by connecting intelligence, technology, financial systems, platforms, and law enforcement before victims disappear into the network.
Estimated U.S. trafficking victims dwarf identified cases and federal convictionsLogarithmic scale. Fewer than 1 in 600 likely victims appears in federal convictions.
1,091,000Estimated U.S. victims
11,999NHTH cases identified
1,656Federal prosecutions
1,118Federal convictions
Sources: Walk Free Global Slavery Index 2023; National Human Trafficking Hotline 2024; Bureau of Justice Statistics, Human Trafficking Data Collection Activities 2024 (FY2022 figures).
Law Enforcement Alone Does Not Scale Against Trafficking
A law-enforcement-only approach pushes everything to the last stop in the pipeline, after traffickers have already exploited most of the market. Congress ends up funding the most expensive, least efficient point of intervention.
Even with better tactics, current staffing and resource levels cannot scale traditional enforcement to the true size of the trafficking problem. Without policy changes, appropriations alone will not close the gap.
To be effective, federal policy has to strip traffickers of their early advantages and strengthen coordination across agencies, not just turn up the pressure at the end. That means focusing on communications anonymity and cross-jurisdictional case coordination.
0
Persons prosecuted federally for human trafficking, FY 2022
0
Persons convicted federally for human trafficking, FY 2022
~1.1M
Estimated persons in modern slavery in the United States
Two Federal Actions Can Disrupt Traffickers and Strengthen Investigations
These two actions address both sides of the problem: trafficker anonymity and fragmented case coordination.
1
Close the burner phone loophole
Burner phones give traffickers a low-friction way to communicate and evade attribution. Closing that loophole would reduce anonymity and make recruitment, coordination, and evasion harder.
2
Support voluntary deconfliction
Voluntary deconfliction gives law enforcement a practical way to connect cases across jurisdictions without creating a single national mandate. It reduces duplication, improves coordination, and helps agencies act faster on shared intelligence.
TOGETHER
One action constrains traffickers' operational freedom; the other helps law enforcement detect overlap, connect cases, and act faster. Together they create a stronger disruption effect than either action alone.
Three practical steps Congress can take to reduce trafficker anonymity and improve case coordination.
01
CLOSE THE BURNER LOOPHOLE
Support or sponsor legislation that reduces trafficker anonymity in the communications layer.
02
STRENGTHEN VOLUNTARY DECONFLICTION
Advance legislation, funding, or report language that helps law enforcement connect cases across jurisdictions and reduce duplication.
03
PRIORITIZE SCALABLE COUNTER-TRAFFICKING POLICY
Back measures that improve attribution, strengthen coordination, and scale beyond isolated enforcement actions.
Source: DeliverFund policy recommendations
ABOUT DELIVERFUND
We Exist to Disrupt Traffickers
DeliverFund disrupts human trafficking markets by combining uniquely qualified personnel with the best technologies, and then leveraging them in new ways to reach and rescue victims of human trafficking.
DETECT
Identify trafficking activity and expose hidden networks.
DISRUPT
Interfere with traffickers' operations and reduce their ability to exploit.
DEFEND
Equip law enforcement and partners with intelligence that drives action.
WE EXIST TO DISRUPT TRAFFICKERS.
IN SUMMARY
Congress Can Reduce Trafficker Anonymity and Strengthen Case Coordination
Trafficking networks benefit when communications are hard to trace and investigations remain fragmented.
Congress can narrow those gaps by closing the burner phone loophole and supporting voluntary deconfliction.
These two actions would improve attribution, strengthen coordination, and make enforcement more effective at scale.
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