Trump to appoint White House official to take on human trafficking

President Trump will appoint a White House domestic policy adviser to focus exclusively on reducing human trafficking, according to a top administration official.

Trump will sign the order Friday at a two-hour summit on human trafficking at the White House, where White House senior adviser Ivanka Trump is scheduled to speak. Attorney General William Barr, survivors of human trafficking, and representatives of tribal and local governments will be in attendance.

During a visit to Atlanta last month, Ivanka Trump said the White House was committed to ending trafficking, which she likened to "modern day slavery."

The position will be created by executive order, and the appointee will coordinate activities between the White House and federal agencies, Domestic Policy Director Joe Grogan said Friday in a call with reporters. Grogan praised Ivanka Trump's work on the issue and said that her office would join the efforts of the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Justice, and the State Department, a senior administration official said. A candidate has yet to be publicly identified.

Some prominent anti-trafficking organizations have criticized the summit and said they will not attend, though others have said they will. Refugees International President Eric Schwartz, a former Barack Obama appointee, said in statement that policies pursued by the Trump White House endangered victims of human trafficking by reversing legal protections for them. He cited immigration rules limiting the decreased number of special visas for trafficking victims looking to legalize their immigration status and access services.

[Also read: ICE dispatching agents to Super Bowl to catch human traffickers and rescue sex workers]