U.S. Attorney Kenneth A. Polite announced today that, as part of more than $44 million in grant funding to combat human trafficking, the Justice Department awarded $1.5 million to the Eastern District of Louisiana to support law enforcement efforts and victim services for the next three years.
The list of this year’s grantees include:
Covenant House New Orleans $900,000
Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office $600,000
“Human traffickers prey on some of the most vulnerable members of our society, and their crimes - which are nothing short of modern-day slavery - have no place in this country," said Attorney General Lynch. “These grants - administered by the Office of Justice Programs’ Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) and the National Institute of Justice - will fund efforts across the country to fight human trafficking, to provide services for survivors and to expand research going forward."
“These grant awards will help continue our District’s fight against human trafficking," stated U.S. Attorney Polite. “I congratulate Jim Kelly and Sheriff Newell Normand for their work in this area. They are among a group of community leaders who are dedicated to eliminating modern-day slavery here in Southeast Louisiana."
The grants are part of a government-wide effort to combat human trafficking and provide services to survivors, as outlined in, released by the White House in January 2014.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
