A ranking official of the U.S. Interior Department yesterday lashed back at the Fitial administration over human trafficking issue in the Commonwealth.
David B. Cohen, the deputy assistant secretary for insular affairs, said the local government should stop debating statistics and start dealing with the human trafficking problem.
“Rather than debating statistics, let’s all acknowledge the obvious: We have a problem here, and we should all work together to address it. Reasonable people can disagree about whether federalization is the best way to address this problem. We won't be able to address the problem, however, unless we are willing to acknowledge that the problem exists,” Cohen said.
Cohen made this statement after the administration accused him of “[misusing] statistics in concluding the incident of human trafficking in the CNMI was up to 10 times more prevalent than in the United States.
According to the local government, the comparison should have been related to the number of entrants, not the total population. Under this premise, the U.S. figure is six and a half times the CNMI figure, the CNMI government said.
Cohen stood by his argument. “Indeed, my calculation is correct, except that it errs in favor of the CNMI,” he said. “The press release merely attempts to argue that we should be counting total entrants rather than total population. The truth is that you could do it either way, and each way would emphasize a different point.”
He said that the number of human trafficking victims per capita in the CNMI could not simply be ignored.
He added, “The press release claims that the CNMI looks better if you compare victims to entrants rather than comparing victims to total population. That could only be true if the CNMI had a much higher percentage of entrants per capita than the U.S.
“If you combine my approach with the CNMI’s approach, here’s what you end up with: The CNMI chooses to admit a much higher percentage of aliens per capita than the U.S. as a whole, and has a much higher percentage of human trafficking victims than the U.S. as a whole. That’s not the point that they were intending to make,” he said.
Furthermore, Cohen said the CNMI government should fully disclose the basis of its calculation, as he had done.
“If they’re assuming that the 36 female human trafficking victims in the sex trade that were actually served by one particular shelter were the only human trafficking victims in the CNMI, then they’re undercounting CNMI victims. If they're comparing that number to an estimate of all human trafficking victims in the U.S.-men, women and children who are trafficked for all purposes, not just the sex trade-then they’re comparing apples to oranges in a way that masks the true extent of the problem in the CNMI. If they have a more comprehensive estimate of human trafficking victims admitted to the CNMI each year, they should disclose it,” Cohen said.
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