Since its founding, the United States has always had an industry where humans sold other humans for profit. Although the United States abolished slavery and human trafficking with the Thirteenth Amendment of 1865, the human trafficking industry has not even begun to disappear, despite all the efforts against it. Human trafficking is a problem that affects many people. As author Kevin Bales stated in The Slave Next Door: Human Trafficking and Slavery in America Today, human trafficking involves “equal opportunity” (18). It can affect all types of people regardless of age, gender or ethnicity. Victims of human trafficking are sold for the purpose of exploitation through sexual labor. An estimated 14,500 to 17,500 people are trafficked into the United States each year (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services). Many criminals around the world often traffic human beings with the intent of sending them to America. The United States is one of the top ten global destinations for human traffickers. For this reason, the country issue also has a significant influence on the number of trafficked people worldwide (U.S. Department of State 359). In an effort to reduce and prevent human trafficking, the United States has passed several laws such as the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 and the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 (U.S. Department of State 1). Although the passage of these laws represented a major blow against human trafficking, the problem still persists. For this reason, the United States should modify its current system against human trafficking by creating more laws to combat the problem. This should be done in... middle of paper......-the-worrying-shortage-of-organ-donors-in-the-united-states/2/>.United States of America. US Department of Health and Human Services. The Under Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. Human trafficking to and within the United States: A review of the literature. By Heather J. Clawson, Nicole Dutch, AmySolomon, and Lisa Goldblatt Grace. August 2009. Web. 05 March 2013..United States of America. US Department of State. Office for monitoring and combating human trafficking. Report on human trafficking. US Department of State, 19 June 2012. Web. 12 February 2013..United States of America. US Department of State. US Human Trafficking Laws. Network. 05 March. 2013. .