A bill introduced in Congress in July would provide training to U.S. Department of Labor inspectors to spot signs of human trafficking at job sites. A co-sponsor of the legislation, Sen. Jon Husted, was in Akron Thursday, to get some feedback from Northeast Ohio agencies working to combat human trafficking.
Husted met with a dozen representatives from local agencies, including Asian Services in Action, Summit County’s the juvenile court and public defender’s office, as well as various human trafficking task forces. Survivors were also in the room and shared their experiences with him in a discussion closed to media.
Under the legislation, Labor Department inspectors would refer tips to local police, Husted said.
“What the Department of Labor has is a team of people out there, every day, inspecting work sites, right? But they’re not looking for human trafficking,” he said. “We’re going to train them on how to look for that, whether it’s an agricultural site, a food processing plant, a warehouse.”
After the conversation with the group, Husted shared with reporters some of the feedback he received.
“I didn’t realize the amount of times that you see the human trafficking going through temporary services agencies, and through subcontractors and how they try to hide their criminal rings through those processes,” Husted said. “So, that was really exposed, enlightened to me today.”
Representatives also gave feedback that there needs to be explicit language in the bill about connecting survivors to resources, said Samantha Salamon, chief legal counsel for Asia Services in Action, which provides support services for the AAPI community in Northeast Ohio.
“I think one aspect that we were really trying to push is that holistic or comprehensive way of handling human trafficking and to also include victim services in this,” Salamon said.
It is often difficult to investigate and prosecute human trafficking cases because victims may be hesitant to talk with police, perhaps due to the trauma they’ve faced, Salamon said.
Adding victim advocacy into human trafficking legislation will help equip victims with the support they need for this process, she said.
“If we can set the precedence of all human-trafficking … related bills have both law enforcement and victim advocacies in these bills, we can really make a huge impact on the area of human trafficking,” Salamon said.
Husted heard from survivors that it is often difficult to deal with mental health, housing and finding a job.
“OK – we find them, we convict the criminals, but what about the broken spirits that we find from people who have experienced this for many years in their lives, and where we can connect them to resources so they can recover?” Husted added.
Husted and his legislative team will review the suggestions to consider what could be added to the bill, he said.
Salamon added that while she is glad the bill focuses on labor trafficking, the proposal could be even more effective if Husted incorporates the group’s suggestions and expertise.
“We had a lot of good professionals in that room today and a lot of different perspectives, and I am hopeful that this comprehensiveness and how it impacts the victim and how it impacts the enforcement of human trafficking raids, or operations, [is] going to be beneficial,” she said.
On the 2026 election
Earlier this week, it was reported that former Sen. Sherrod Brown is planning to challenge Husted for his seat in 2026. Brown has not made an official campaign announcement yet.
Husted told reporters he’s surprised that Brown is planning to run.
“It was kind of surprising to me. He just lost less than a year ago by 200,000 votes,” Husted said.
Brown served in the Senate for three terms before losing reelection to Bernie Moreno last year.
Husted is not focusing too much on the election yet, he added.
“I’m just going to do my job and focus on trying to solve problems for people, like human trafficking,” Husted said. “I know it’s fun to talk about politics, but I think we should spend more time talking about how we’re helping people and not talking about how we’re going to run for political office.”
Ahead of the meeting, Husted was the featured speaker at Thursday’s Akron Roundtable luncheon. Listen to the full discussion on September 4, 2026 on WKSU.
