The newly confirmed Director of Homeland Security, has been asked to help lawmakers draft legislation to plug loopholes that allowed human trafficking to take place in American Samoa.
The US Justice Department referred to the Daewoosa Samoa case, where close to 200
Vietnamese and Chinese women worked as slaves at a local garment factory, as one of the worst cases of human trafficking in recent history.
A prostitution racket uncovered in 2007 in the Territory, also highlighted illegal activity profiting from the circumvention of and the lax enforcement of immigration laws.
During the confirmation hearing of the Director of Homeland Security Tualamalesala Mike Sala, Representative Archie Taotasi Soliai asked him to look at what can be done.
"Now as legislators we would depend on you to maybe provide some recommendations or perhaps introduce legislative action to try and prevent all these problems and plug the holes with respect to our immigration issues."
Representative Archie Taotasi Soliai.
