18 U.S.C. § 1592 – Unlawful Conduct With Respect to Documents in Furtherance of Trafficking or Peonage
This statute makes it a federal crime to destroy, confiscate, or possess passports or identification documents to facilitate trafficking, peonage, or forced labor.
This statute targets the misuse of passports, immigration documents, and government identification documents as a means of controlling or exploiting another person.
It applies to document confiscation or destruction carried out during, in preparation for, or to maintain conditions of peonage, slavery, involuntary servitude, forced labor, or sex trafficking.
What the law prohibits.
A person violates this statute if they knowingly:
- Destroy, conceal, remove, confiscate, or possess another person’s actual or purported passport, immigration document, or government identification document in the course of violating sections 1581, 1583, 1584, 1589, 1590, 1591, or 1594(a)
- Destroy, conceal, remove, confiscate, or possess such documents with intent to violate sections 1581, 1583, 1584, 1589, 1590, or 1591
- Destroy, conceal, remove, confiscate, or possess such documents to prevent or restrict a person’s liberty to move or travel, without lawful authority, in order to maintain that person’s labor or services when the person is or has been a victim of a severe form of trafficking in persons
- Obstruct, attempt to obstruct, interfere with, or prevent the enforcement of this section
Penalties.
A person convicted under this statute shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for not more than five years, or both.
If you’re being investigated or charged under a federal trafficking-related document abuse statute, call (314) 900-HELP or contact our criminal defense attorneys to discuss next steps.
