In this chapter:

(1) Abuse or threatened abuse of law or legal process

The term “abuse or threatened abuse of the legal process” means the use or threatened use of a law or legal process, whether administrative, civil, or criminal, in any manner or for any purpose for which the law was not designed, in order to exert pressure on another person to cause that person to take some action or refrain from taking some action.

(2) Appropriate congressional committees

The term “appropriate congressional committees” means the Committee on Foreign Relations and the Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate and the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives.

(3) Coercion

The term “coercion” means—

(A) threats of serious harm to or physical restraint against any person;

(B) any scheme, plan, or pattern intended to cause a person to believe that failure to perform an act would result in serious harm to or physical restraint against any person; or

(C) the abuse or threatened abuse of the legal process.

(4) Commercial sex act

The term “commercial sex act” means any sex act on account of which anything of value is given to or received by any person.

(5) Concrete actions

The term “concrete actions” means actions that demonstrate increased efforts by the government of a country to meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, including any of the following:

(A) Enforcement actions taken.

(B) Investigations actively underway.

(C) Prosecutions conducted.

(D) Convictions attained.

(E) Training provided.

(F) Programs and partnerships actively underway.

(G) Efforts to prevent severe forms of trafficking, including programs to reduce the vulnerability of particularly vulnerable populations, involving survivors of trafficking in community engagement and policy making, engagement with foreign migrants, ending recruitment fees, and other such measures.

(H) Victim services offered, including immigration services and restitution.

(I) The amount of money the government has committed to the actions described in subparagraphs (A) through (H).

(6) Credible information

The term “credible information” includes all of the following:

(A) Reports by the Department of State.

(B) Reports of other Federal agencies, including the Department of Labor’s List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor and List of Products Produced by Forced Labor or Indentured Child Labor.

(C) Documentation provided by a foreign country, including—

(i) copies of relevant laws, regulations, and policies adopted or modified; and

(ii) an official record of enforcement actions taken, judicial proceedings, training conducted, consultations conducted, programs and partnerships launched, and services provided.

(D) Materials developed by civil society organizations.

(E) Information from survivors of human trafficking, vulnerable persons, and whistleblowers.

(F) All relevant media and academic reports that, in light of reason and common sense, are worthy of belief.

(G) Information developed by multilateral institutions.

(H) An assessment of the impact of the actions described in subparagraphs (A) through (I) of paragraph (5) on the prevalence of human trafficking in the country.

(7) Debt bondage

The term “debt bondage” means the status or condition of a debtor arising from a pledge by the debtor of his or her personal services or of those of a person under his or her control as a security for debt, if the value of those services as reasonably assessed is not applied toward the liquidation of the debt or the length and nature of those services are not respectively limited and defined.

(8) Involuntary servitude

The term “involuntary servitude” includes a condition of servitude induced by means of—

(A) any scheme, plan, or pattern intended to cause a person to believe that, if the person did not enter into or continue in such condition, that person or another person would suffer serious harm or physical restraint; or

(B) the abuse or threatened abuse of the legal process.

(9) Minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking

The term “minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking” means the standards set forth in section 7106 of this title.

(10) Nonhumanitarian, nontrade-related foreign assistance

The term “nonhumanitarian, nontrade-related foreign assistance” means—

(A) any assistance under the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 [22 U.S.C. 2151 et seq.], other than—

(i) assistance under chapter 4 of part II of that Act [22 U.S.C. 2346 et seq.] in support of programs of nongovernmental organizations that is made available for any program, project, or activity eligible for assistance under chapter 1 of part I of that Act [22 U.S.C. 2151 et seq.];

(ii) assistance under chapter 8 of part I of that Act [22 U.S.C. 2291 et seq.];

(iii) any other narcotics-related assistance under part I of that Act [22 U.S.C. 2151 et seq.] or under chapter 4 or 5 ¹ part II of that Act [22 U.S.C. 2346 et seq., 2347 et seq.], but any such assistance provided under this clause shall be subject to the prior notification procedures applicable to reprogrammings pursuant to section 634A of that Act [22 U.S.C. 2394-1];

(iv) disaster relief assistance, including any assistance under chapter 9 of part I of that Act [22 U.S.C. 2292 et seq.];

(v) antiterrorism assistance under chapter 8 of part II of that Act [22 U.S.C. 2349aa et seq.];

(vi) assistance for refugees;

(vii) humanitarian and other development assistance in support of programs of nongovernmental organizations under chapters 1 and 10 ² of that Act;

(viii) any support under subchapter II of chapter 103 of this title relating to the United States International Development Finance Corporation;

(ix) other programs involving trade-related or humanitarian assistance; and

(B) sales, or financing on any terms, under the Arms Export Control Act [22 U.S.C. 2751 et seq.], other than sales or financing provided for narcotics-related purposes following notification in accordance with the prior notification procedures applicable to reprogrammings pursuant to section 634A of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 [22 U.S.C. 2394-1].

(11) Severe forms of trafficking in persons

The term “severe forms of trafficking in persons” means—

(A) sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age; or

(B) the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery.

(12) Sex trafficking

The term “sex trafficking” means the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, obtaining, patronizing, or soliciting of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act.

(13) State

The term “State” means each of the several States of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and territories and possessions of the United States.

(14) Task Force

The term “Task Force” means the Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking established under section 7103 of this title.

(15) United States

The term “United States” means the fifty States of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the territories and possessions of the United States.

(16) Victim of a severe form of trafficking

The term “victim of a severe form of trafficking” means a person subject to an act or practice described in paragraph (9) ².

(17) Victim of trafficking

The term “victim of trafficking” means a person subjected to an act or practice described in paragraph (9) or (10) ².

(18) Grounds related to human trafficking

The term “grounds related to human trafficking” means grounds related to the criteria for inadmissibility to the United States described in subsection (a)(2)(H) of section 1182 of title 8.