What major federal laws addressing child trafficking were signed by Donald J. Trump between 2017 and 2021?

1. FOSTA/SESTA: The headline federal law aimed at online child sex trafficking

The most prominent statutory action during the period was the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act of 2017 (commonly called FOSTA, which includes SESTA provisions), a law President Trump signed that supporters described as giving law enforcement and victims new tools to combat online sex trafficking by weakening certain online immunity protections for websites ^{[1] [6]}.

2. Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization: Congress and the White House reassert federal authority

The administration signed a reauthorization of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPRA) and related measures described by the State Department and the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See as part of the government’s continuing legal framework to prosecute traffickers and protect victims, with the Trump administration publicly marking the reauthorization as a key action in its anti‑trafficking agenda ^{[2] [4]}.

3. Multiple 2018 child‑focused statutes and programmatic laws

The State Department’s compilation of anti‑trafficking authorities lists several 2018 laws the administration signed that bear directly on children and trafficking—named laws include the No Human Trafficking on Our Roads Act of 2018, the Missing Children’s Assistance Act of 2018, and the Juvenile Justice Reform Act of 2018—each placed in the government’s anti‑trafficking legal toolkit and cited by the archive as part of the 2017–2021 record ^[4].

4. Executive orders: policy direction and interagency coordination

President Trump issued executive orders tied to trafficking policy, most notably Executive Order 13773 (on enforcement against transnational criminal organizations and preventing international trafficking) earlier in his term and Executive Order 13903 in January 2020 on Combating Human Trafficking and Online Child Exploitation, the latter directing interagency coordination, prevention programs for youth, and publication of resources to assist victims ^{[4] [3] [5]}.

5. Administration claims versus independent scrutiny

The White House touted nine bipartisan laws and a “National Action Plan” and highlighted arrests, task force activity, and international agreements with Central American countries as proof of progress ^{[5] [7]}, but fact‑checking and advocacy sources caution that some public claims overstated firsts or omitted historical context—FactCheck notes misstatements about who “first” acknowledged child sex trafficking and documents that a later administration revoked portions of a Trump-era order when reorganizing transnational crime efforts ^[8].

6. Critics’ view: laws versus policy choices and capacity

Advocates and some lawmakers argued that despite statutory steps, enforcement and policy choices—such as reallocating personnel to immigration enforcement, cuts to international anti‑trafficking programs, and aggressive sponsor arrests—had the practical effect of undermining protections for vulnerable children; reporting and advocacy pieces raise concerns that program reductions and resource diversion undercut the capacity to prevent exploitation even as laws were passed or orders signed ^{[9] [10] [11]}.

7. Bottom line and limitations of available reporting

Factually, the record between 2017 and 2021 includes FOSTA/SESTA , a TVPRA reauthorization and several named 2018 statutes addressing missing children, juvenile justice, and trafficking, plus two relevant executive orders; the sources supplied here document these enactments and the administration’s public claims while also pointing to independent critiques over effectiveness and implementation, and reporting limitations prevent assessing causal outcomes beyond what those sources report ^{[1] [2] [4] [3] [5] [8] [9]}.