Joe Whitley Co-Authors White Paper on Human Trafficking and Smuggling for Council on National Security and Immigration

Womble Bond Dickinson Partner Joe Whitley has co-authored a new white paper on “The Distinction Between and Response to Human Trafficking and Smuggling”. Whitley co-authored the white paper, which was published by the Council on National Security and Immigration (CNSI), with Gus Coldebella, former Acting General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The paper details the legal differences between the crimes of human trafficking and human smuggling and highlights the common ways that people fall victim to such crimes. While the paper acknowledges the steps the U.S. government has taken to combat smuggling and trafficking, it emphasizes the need to treat the issues separately to properly address them.

“Human smuggling and trafficking are major issues, not only for our immigration system but also for our national security,” Whitley said. “In order to truly address them, we must first recognize the difference. For too long, we have conflated the two, leading to inadequate attention, funding and resources to confront the problem.”

Click here to read the full CNSI white paper.

Whitley previously served as Acting Associate Attorney General in the U.S Department of Justice as well as the first General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. He now leads the WBD (US) White-Collar Defense, Investigations, and Regulatory Enforcement Team.