ST. LOUIS – Attorney General Joshua Hawley will take the fight to human trafficking in Missouri with a series of new initiatives he announced Monday from a safehouse for victims of trafficking in St. Louis.
In an editorial published by CNN titled “Slavery still exists in the land of the free – we must confront it,” Hawley said new regulations were necessary because traffickers had become “adept” at dodging laws already on the books to stop human trafficking.
“Those laws can be difficult to enforce, not least because trafficking frequently involves activities committed in multiple jurisdictions and across state lines,” he wrote. “That makes trafficking cases time-intensive for law enforcement, and costly.”
“And the truth is, many local police and prosecutors simply do not have the resources, time, training or manpower to bring a traditional criminal case involving trafficking to trial.”
Human trafficking has become a focus of lawmakers in Jefferson City over the last few years. Most recently, the House passed Rep. Jean Evans’ HB 270, a bill which will raise the age for marriage license applications in Missouri, designed to fight sex trafficking, and Sen. Jamilah Nasheed has hosted multiple events in the Capitol to highlight the effects of trafficking in the state. Nasheed has also filed a bill to increase criminal penalties for those who patronize prostitutes.
The attorney general’s new regulations are different as they will fall under Missouri’s consumer protection laws. They will prohibit the use of businesses as front operations for prostitution and other forms of trafficking, create new penalties for traffickers and make debt bondage illegal. Debt bondage is a practice used by traffickers to revoke something important from a victim; either money, a passport, or something similar; and use it to force them into submission.
Hawley will also create a new division dedicated to fighting trafficking within his office known as the Anti-Trafficking Unit and he announced the creation of a permanent statewide Human Trafficking Task Force. A former legislative trafficking task force chaired by Rep. Elijah Haahr held its last meeting in November. Hawley’s task force will include prosecutors, members of law enforcement and advocates who have fought human trafficking for years, including Nanette Ward, the chair of the Central Missouri Stop Human Trafficking Coalition.
“I have great hope for change in Missouri with the remarkable reforms being spearheaded by Attorney General Hawley who has such passion about this topic,” she said in a statement. “Our dream is to put an end to human trafficking, and I believe with General Hawley’s help we will make unprecedented strides toward making that a reality.”
