Enhancing Detection of Human Trafficking Act

This bill would require the Department of Labor to train selected employees to spot signs of human trafficking during their normal work and to help law enforcement prevent it, with the program starting within 180 days of enactment. It uses the federal definition of “human trafficking” from the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. The training can be in person or online and must be tailored to each job setting, include up‑to‑date information, teach how to identify possible victims and traffickers, and lay out clear steps to refer cases to the Department of Justice and other authorities, working with victim advocates and state and local officials; employees will also review the training after they complete it. When deciding which employees to train, the Secretary must consider the needs of Wage and Hour Division staff working in states with rising levels of oppressive child labor.

Each year, the Department must report how many people were trained, how effective the training was, and how many suspected trafficking cases were referred to law enforcement, along with how those referrals were tracked.

Key points

• Who is affected: Department of Labor employees, especially those in the Wage and Hour Division in states seeing more child labor violations.
• What changes: New, job‑specific training to detect trafficking and a clear process to refer cases to law enforcement and coordinate with victim support groups.
• When: Training program launches within 180 days; annual public reporting follows thereafter.