An effort to strengthen human trafficking penalties in Utah this legislative session was met with strong support in the session’s final week with the passage of House Bill 405.
“Human trafficking is a serious offense, and it involves coercing someone into forced labor or sexual acts, and in essence, it’s modern-day slavery,” Rep. Candice B. Pierucci, R-Herriman, said during her bill’s first House floor debate last month.
“Unfortunately, Utah lags severely behind other states in the prosecution of human trafficking.”
Now passed by both the House and Senate, HB405, if signed by Gov. Spencer Cox, will increase penalties for certain human trafficking offenses in the state.
Under current law, the human trafficking of a child is a first-degree felon but with a five-year minimum sentence; Pierucci’s bill would make it 10. It would likewise change human trafficking for sexual exploitation from a second-degree felony to a first-degree felony, no matter the age of the victim.
It also alters the enhancement for aggravated human trafficking and labor trafficking up to a first-degree level felony.
“This is a very serious issue,” she said. “We’ve talked about some of the horrific impacts of having a porous border over the past four years, and this is an issue that our state and the country as a whole is trying to wrap its hands around.”
During her presentation at the House Judiciary Committee meeting, Pierucci revealed that in 2020, over half of all sex trafficking survivors were undocumented in the United States. She noted that in one study, most victims reported being recruited for both sex and labor trafficking, with 75% holding an unknown immigration status. Another study showed that 60% of Latin American children who attempt to cross the border alone or with smugglers are captured by cartels and exploited in child pornography or drug trafficking.
Is increasing minimum sentencing necessary?
Though the bill passed on Wednesday, lawmakers from both parties expressed concern about the five-year increase in minimum sentencing.
“I’ve seen these mandatory minimums sometimes sweep up people who really don’t deserve the mandatory minimum,” said Derrin R. Owens, R-Fountain Green. “Our job as a legislature is to set policy to say, ‘Yes, we do think these are very serious crimes worthy of very serious punishment,’ but then we let a judge and a jury decide how that law should apply to the facts before them.”
Current U.S. state minimum prison sentences for child sex trafficking and labor trafficking:
- Utah: Sex trafficking — 5 years. Labor trafficking — 1 year.
- Georgia: Sex trafficking — 25 years. Labor trafficking — 10 years.
- Oklahoma: Sex trafficking — 15 years. Labor trafficking — 5 years.
- Missouri: Sex trafficking — 10 years. Labor trafficking — 5 years.
During the Senate flooring discussion on Wednesday, Sen. Todd D. Weiler, R-Woods Cross, stated that although he did not oppose the bill, he wanted to clarify that offenders are rarely released after serving minimum sentences.
“Despite low minimum sentences, the effects of being trafficked for the victims are lifelong,” the bill’s floor sponsor, Sen. Heidi Balderree, R-Saratoga Springs, said in response.
In response to the same concerns during the House floor debate, Pierucci said she would serve 25 years if she could.
“At the very least, we are moving the needle and enhancing this to a first-degree felony with no less than 10 years in prison,” she said. “And the goal, the hope, (and) the message is one: Utah will stop lagging behind the rest of the country in how we charge these things. But also, the message should go out: do not try this in Utah. We take it seriously, and we will make sure you are locked up for a very long time.”