The ongoing drama surrounding Assembly Democrats’ temporary defeat of Senate Bill 14 last month is another example of how progressives will pursue their ideological agenda no matter the human cost.
You may be surprised to learn that current law considers sex trafficking a non-serious offense. SB 14 would make human trafficking of a minor a “serious felony,” which comes with a more lengthy sentence. It had bipartisan support, was authored by a Republican and passed the Democratic controlled Senate unanimously, only for Assembly Democrats to defeat it in committee before a national outcry forced reversal.
That this crime is not already a serious felony is scandalous — that elected officials would actively oppose this change is outrageous. Human trafficking victims who shared their harrowing stories in the public safety committee hearing were shocked to watch the bill get defeated.
Human trafficking of minors is neither rare nor exceptional in California. It is intrinsically tied with other violent and destabilizing crimes, like the drug trade and prostitution. Federal and state government studies have identified California as the nation’s epicenter for this phenomenon.
Even the state Attorney General has noted the prevalence of trafficking and claims it is one of his top priorities. Yet if the expert consensus and painful personal victim testimony overwhelmingly show that the human trafficking of minors is such an acute problem, why would Democrats try to kill this much needed legislation?
Predictably, progressives invoked their catch-all accusation of racism to justify killing SB 14. They conveniently ignore that minorities are disproportionately the victims of human trafficking. In fact, one DOJ study found that 40.4% of sex trafficking victims were Black and 23.9% were Hispanic. If the majority of trafficking victims are black and brown, it seems passing a law that cracks down on traffickers would help, not harm, victims. The race of the trafficker is irrelevant.
When Assembly Democrats temporarily killed this child trafficking legislation last month, they also raised the tired trope of so-called “mass incarceration.” By their logic, increasing penalties only serves to increase prison populations, and real solutions to the trafficking of minors must reach “beyond the criminal legal system.” Protecting the innocent and demanding that traffickers be held accountable is now code for racism.
Those legislators who dwell on solving “root causes” and “promoting rehabilitation and alternatives to prison,” ignore the nature of human traffickers. These traffickers include, per the Senate Public Safety Committee’s own report, people who routinely subject 11- and 12-year-olds to have sex with as many as 15 men a day.
Democrats chose to bow down to leftist extremist groups who think incarceration, for any reason, should be abolished. This type of thinking makes little sense to the majority of Californians, hence the swift and severe backlash over their vote.
The bill was resuscitated after Democrat lawmakers were taken out to the woodshed by their sane-minded constituents and ultimately passed in committee amid a fair amount of grousing. The bill now sits in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
Lost amidst the political posturing are the stories of thousands of survivors, many of whom gave their testimony to the same legislators who voted against the bill. California must now clearly and unequivocally signal that human trafficking, especially of minors, has no place in the state by quickly and resoundingly passing SB 14.
Traffickers, who sell the bodies of children for profit, are the lowest of the low, and deserve severe punishment. On that we can all agree.
Melissa Melendez previously served as a Republican California State Senator and Assemblymember. She is now president of the Golden State Policy Council and Senior Advisor for the America First Policy Institute.