New Law Enhances Florida’s Anti-Human Trafficking Measures, Look Out The Reasons
(The Square in the Center)—
Since the legislation was passed into law on Monday, Florida will step up its efforts to combat human trafficking.
The statewide Council on Human Trafficking within the Department of Legal Affairs will have its term extended, and significant modifications to Florida’s anti-human trafficking laws will be made thanks to the signing of House Bill 7063 by Governor Ron DeSantis.
Requirements under the new law include the display of human trafficking awareness signs with phone numbers to Florida’s hotline and the national hotline for rest area service plazas, emergency facilities, massage parlors, strip clubs, and other locations considered to be hotspots for human trafficking. Furthermore, entities that do not comply are facing harsher penalties.
Furthermore, the bill forbids a juvenile from holding any kind of employment position in an adult entertainment facility and mandates that organizations having contracts with the Florida government guarantee the state that they do not use forced labor.
“The Legislature has over the years I’ve been governor, worked with us to combat human trafficking, and this is a really serious scourge in our society, and because we’re a state that’s a destination state…unfortunately that attracts human trafficking,” DeSantis explained.
DeSantis claimed that an enormous influx of undocumented immigrants has been entering the United States over the Southern Border during the last three and a half years. This is an opportunity for the Mexican drug gangs to further their human trafficking business.
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“So this is a big, big problem for the United States, and it’s a problem that we have worked to tackle in Florida and are continuing today with the announcement,” said DeSantis.
The National Human Trafficking Hotline has received over 50,000 calls since 2019, according to DeSantis. DeSantis noted that the average age of a person who has been trafficked is 13 years old, per the Department of Justice.
“80% of those trafficked are girls, and of those girls, 80% are subjected to sexual exploitation,” stated DeSantis.
“We know that that is unacceptable, and we need to continue to work hard and today we’re doing even more to uphold the law, and to go after those who are trafficking these children.”
In spite of the fact that the U.S. Supreme Court forbade the practice in a 2007 ruling in the Kennedy v. Louisiana case, DeSantis stated that Florida has zero tolerance when it comes to the sexual exploitation of children and that those found guilty of it may now receive the death penalty in Florida.