(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) A California State Assembly committee blocked Senate Bill 14, which would have made child trafficking a “serious felony,” even after the bill cleared the state Senate with unanimous bipartisan support.
State Sen. Shannon Grove, who sponsored the bill, released a statement on Twitter expressing her dismay after the bill failed to gain support from Democrats on the Public Safety Committee in the state legislature’s lower chamber, the Daily Caller reported.
SB 14 Update—After passing the Senate with a unanimous, bipartisan vote, I had hoped Democrats on the Assembly Public Safety Committee, led by Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer, would agree to make sex trafficking of a minor a serious felony. I am profoundly disappointed that… pic.twitter.com/al3KoD1qw6
— Senator Shannon Grove (@ShannonGroveCA) July 11, 2023
“I had hoped Democrats … would agree to make sex trafficking of a minor a serious felony,” the statement read. “I am profoundly disappointed that committee Democrats couldn’t bring themselves to support the bill, with their stubborn and misguided objection to any penalty increase regardless of how heinous the crime.”
Grove added that human traffickers typically target young minority girls and promised to keep fighting to end human trafficking.
She worked on the proposal with Concerned Women for America, the Elizabeth Smart Foundation and Operation Underground Railroad—an organization recently featured in the hit movie Sound of Freedom.
California law currently classifies “serious felony” as “murder of voluntary manslaughter, mayhem, rape,” and other crimes that could result in the offender receiving the death penalty or life in prison.
Human trafficking has become an issue of particular concern in recent months, especially as increased amounts of illegal activity continue to rise at the nation’s southern border.
Because of the lack of criminal consequences, along with the California’s lack of immigration enforcement, sex trafficking from central America has become a quickly growing industry in the state.
It is even leading to a real-estate boom in Honduras, where many of the profits from the illegal operations ultimately flow.
The Biden administration has done very little to stop any crime at the border, spurring several investigations for the possible aiding and abetting of child traffickers.
A grand jury in Florida even went as far as charging the Biden administration with human trafficking.
Several U.S. senators sent a letter to Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., chair of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, requesting an additional investigation as the Biden administration continually neglects the situation at the border.
“We have long known that the Biden Administration’s open border policies are fueling human trafficking and child sex trafficking, as migrants repay debts to the cartels who transport them to illegally cross the border,” the senators wrote.
