HR4323-119

What This Bill Does

The Trafficking Survivors Relief Act creates a federal path for trafficking survivors to undo criminal records that resulted from trafficking. It lets eligible survivors seek vacatur of nonviolent federal convictions, expungement of arrest records, sentence reductions for covered prisoners, and confidentiality protections for sealed filings. It also creates a trafficking-based duress defense for future federal prosecutions.

Who Benefits and How

Human trafficking survivors with federal convictions or arrests benefit because they can ask a court to remove records that block employment, housing, education, immigration stability, and public benefits. Survivors facing federal charges benefit from a statutory duress defense when the offense was committed while they were being trafficked.

Legal aid lawyers, criminal defense attorneys, and anti-trafficking service organizations benefit because the bill recognizes their role in documenting trafficking coercion and allows eligible federal grant funds to support post-conviction representation.

Legal services providers, victim service providers, Office of Justice Programs grant recipients, and Office on Violence Against Women grant recipients gain clearer permission to support post-conviction representation for trafficking survivors.

Who Bears the Burden and How

Federal courts must handle sealed motions, hearings, vacatur orders, expungement orders, and sentence-reduction requests. United States Attorneys must respond to motions, report district-level motion data to the Attorney General, and account for trafficking indicators. The Attorney General and GAO must submit implementation and impact reports to Congress.

The Department of Justice, United States Attorneys offices, federal courts, the Government Accountability Office, the Office of Justice Programs, and the Office on Violence Against Women each receive implementation, reporting, grant-administration, or case-processing duties.

Key Provisions

• Creates section 3771A of title 18 for trafficking-survivor vacatur, expungement, sentence reduction, fee waiver, and sealing procedures.
• Allows survivors convicted of level A offenses to seek vacatur when the offense resulted from trafficking.
• Allows expungement of arrest records tied to level A or level B offenses under the bill's criteria.
• Expands federal grant flexibility so legal-representation grants may support post-conviction relief representation.
• Creates a federal trafficking duress defense and preserves post-conviction relief arguments even when the defense was not previously raised.
• Requires United States Attorney, Attorney General, and GAO reports on motions, training, outcomes, and implementation barriers.