Friend –

There is no denying that human trafficking of a minor is a horrific crime and we must do everything possible to get victims to safety and hold traffickers accountable. But Senate Bill 14 by State Senator Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield) will harm the very people it is supposed to protect, deterring victims from coming forward and further controlling, manipulating, and traumatizing survivors.

SB 14 does not differentiate between human traffickers and their victims, who are ensnared and coerced into doing their traffickers' bidding. Already, police and prosecutors threaten victims with arrest and prosecution to gain leverage against true traffickers. And it's not just threats. A National Survivor Network study revealed that 9 out of 10 of trafficking victims have themselves been arrested.

SB 14 will expand the overly-racialized Three Strikes Law. This makes for good headlines but does nothing to protect or empower survivors. Under SB 14, prosecutors can leverage the threat of a "strike" to get survivors to testify against their traffickers. Survivors from poor, Black, Brown, Indigenous, and LGBTQ communities, especially trans women, are particularly vulnerable to such threats and least likely to see justice. Tell your California lawmaker: Protection over politics, vote NO on Senate Bill 14.

And, of course, because contact with the criminal legal system can result in significant barriers to treatment, housing, employment, and immigration relief, SB 14 will have a chilling effect on victims – driving them deeper underground and deeper into the clutches of their traffickers.

SB 14 is dangerous and isn't needed. Existing law already makes human trafficking of a minor a felony punishable by up to 15 years-to-life. Before SB 14 becomes law, legislators must vote on whether to give the government another tool to control and manipulate survivors. We must act now to stop this bill by September 1.

California lawmakers should support laws that empower survivors of human trafficking, extricate them, and provide them with resources to recover from the trauma that they've endured. This issue is too important to allow politics to compromise what is best for survivors.

Defend survivors and victims of human trafficking from sensationalist rhetoric and bad laws that fail to address their actual lived experience. Tell your California lawmaker: Protection over politics, vote NO on SB 14.

Thanks for taking action,

Carmen-Nicole Cox
Director of Government Affairs, ACLU California Action