Bill Text: MS HB1114 | 2020 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Interstate compact on human trafficking; authorize state of Mississippi to enter into.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Failed) 2020-03-03 - Died In Committee [HB1114 Detail]
Download: Mississippi-2020-HB1114-Introduced.html
MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE
2020 Regular Session
To: Interstate Cooperation; Judiciary B
By: Representative Arnold
House Bill 1114
AN ACT TO CREATE THE INTERSTATE COMPACT FOR HUMAN TRAFFICKING; TO AUTHORIZE THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI TO ENTER INTO THE COMPACT; TO ESTABLISH THE INTERSTATE COMPACT FOR HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND PROVIDE FOR ITS MEMBERSHIP AND ITS POWERS AND DUTIES; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:
SECTION 1. The Interstate Compact for Human Trafficking is enacted into law and entered into by the State of Mississippi with any and all states legally joining therein in accordance with its terms. The compact is substantially as follows:
ARTICLE I
PURPOSE AND FINDINGS
The purposes of this chapter are to combat trafficking in persons, a contemporary manifestation of slavery whose victims are predominantly women and children, to ensure just and effective punishment of traffickers, and to protect their victims.
The State of Mississippi finds that:
A. The degrading institution of slavery continues throughout the world. Trafficking in persons is a modern form of slavery, and it is the largest manifestation of slavery today. At least seven hundred thousand (700,000) persons annually, primarily women and children, are trafficked within or across international borders. Approximately fifty thousand (50,000) women and children are trafficked into the United States each year.
B. Many of these persons are trafficked into the international sex trade, often by force, fraud or coercion. The sex industry has rapidly expanded over the past several decades. It involves sexual exploitation of persons, predominantly women and girls, involving activities related to prostitution, pornography, sex tourism and other commercial sexual services. The low status of women in many parts of the world has contributed to a burgeoning of the trafficking industry.
C. Trafficking in persons is not limited to the sex industry. This growing transnational crime also includes forced labor and involves significant violations of labor, public health and human rights standards worldwide.
D. Traffickers primarily target women and girls, who are disproportionately affected by poverty, the lack of access to education, chronic unemployment, discrimination and the lack of economic opportunities in countries of origin. Traffickers lure women and girls into their networks through false promises of decent working conditions at relatively good pay as nannies, maids, dancers, factory workers, restaurant workers, sales clerks or models. Traffickers also buy children from poor families and sell them into prostitution or into various types of forced or bonded labor.
E. Traffickers often transport victims from their home communities to unfamiliar destinations, including foreign countries away from family and friends, religious institutions, and other sources of protection and support, leaving the victims defenseless and vulnerable.
F. Victims are often forced through physical violence to engage in sex acts or perform slavery-like labor. Such force includes rape and other forms of sexual abuse, torture, starvation, imprisonment, threats, psychological abuse and coercion.
G. Traffickers often make representations to their victims that physical harm may occur to them or others should the victim escape or attempt to escape. Such representations can have the same coercive effects on victims as direct threats to inflict such harm.
H. Trafficking in persons is increasingly perpetrated by organized, sophisticated criminal enterprises. Such trafficking is the fastest growing source of profits for organized criminal enterprises worldwide. Profits from the trafficking industry contribute to the expansion of organized crime in the United States and worldwide. Trafficking in persons is often aided by official corruption in countries of origin, transit, and destination, thereby threatening the rule of law.
I. Trafficking includes all the elements of the crime of forcible rape when it involves the involuntary participation of another person in sex acts by means of fraud, force or coercion.
J. Trafficking also involves violations of other laws, including labor and immigration codes and laws against kidnapping, slavery, false imprisonment, assault, battery, pandering, fraud and extortion.
K. Trafficking exposes victims to serious health risks. Women and children trafficked in the sex industry are exposed to deadly diseases, including HIV and AIDS. Trafficking victims are sometimes worked or physically brutalized to death.
L. Trafficking in persons substantially affects interstate and foreign commerce. Trafficking for such purposes as involuntary servitude, peonage and other forms of forced labor has an impact on the nationwide employment network and labor market. Within the context of slavery, servitude, and labor or services which are obtained or maintained through coercive conduct that amounts to a condition of servitude, victims are subjected to a range of violations.
M. Involuntary servitude statutes are intended to reach cases in which persons are held in a condition of servitude through nonviolent coercion.
N. Legislation and law enforcement efforts in the United States have been enacted to deter trafficking and bring traffickers to justice.
O. Adequate services and facilities do not exist to meet victims' needs regarding health care, housing, education and legal assistance, which safely reintegrate trafficking victims into their home countries.
P. Victims of severe forms of trafficking should not be inappropriately incarcerated, fined or otherwise penalized solely for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked, such as using false documents, entering the country without documentation or working without documentation.
Q. Because victims of trafficking are frequently unfamiliar with the laws, cultures and languages of the countries into which they have been trafficked, because they are often subjected to coercion and intimidation including physical detention and debt bondage, and because they often fear retribution and forcible removal to countries in which they will face retribution or other hardship, these victims often find it difficult or impossible to report the crimes committed against them or to assist in the investigation and prosecution of such crimes.
R. Trafficking of persons is an evil requiring concerted and vigorous action by countries of origin, transit or destination, and by international organizations.
S. Trafficking in persons involves grave violations of human rights and is a matter of pressing international concern. The international community has repeatedly condemned slavery and involuntary servitude, violence against women and other elements of trafficking.
T. Trafficking in persons is a transnational crime with national implications. To deter international trafficking and bring its perpetrators to justice, states must recognize that trafficking is a serious offense. This is done by prescribing appropriate punishment, giving priority to the prosecution of trafficking offenses, and protecting rather than punishing the victims of such offenses. States must work bilaterally and multilaterally to abolish the trafficking industry by taking steps to promote cooperation among countries linked together by international trafficking routes.
ARTICLE II
DEFINITIONS
As used in this compact, the following terms shall have the meanings ascribed herein, unless the context otherwise requires:
(a) "Abuse or threatened abuse of the legal process" means the use or threatened use of a law or legal process, whether administrative, civil or criminal, in any manner or for any purpose for which the law was not designed, in order to exert pressure on another person to cause that person to take some action or refrain from taking some action.
(b) "Coercion" means:
(i) Threats of serious harm to or physical restraint against any person;
(ii) Any scheme, plan or pattern intended to cause a person to believe that failure to perform an act would result in serious harm to or physical restraint against any person; or
(iii) The abuse or threatened abuse of the legal process.
(c) "Commercial sex act" means any sex act on account of which anything of value is given to or received by any person.
(d) "Concrete actions" means actions that demonstrate increased efforts by the government of a state to meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, including any of the following:
(i) Enforcement actions taken;
(ii) Investigations actively underway;
(iii) Prosecutions conducted;
(iv) Convictions attained;
(v) Training provided;
(vi) Programs and partnerships actively underway;
(vii) Efforts to prevent severe forms of trafficking, including programs to reduce the vulnerability of particularly vulnerable populations, involving survivors of trafficking in community engagement and policy making, engagement with foreign migrants, ending recruitment fees and other such measures;
(viii) Victim services offered, including immigration services and restitution; or
(ix) The amount of money the government has committed to the actions described in subparagraphs (i) through (viii).
(e) "Debt bondage" means the status or condition of a debtor arising from a pledge by the debtor of his or her personal services or of those of a person under his or her control as a security for debt, if the value of those services as reasonably assessed is not applied toward the liquidation of the debt or the length and nature of those services are not respectively limited and defined.
(f) "Involuntary servitude" includes a condition of servitude induced by means of:
(i) Any scheme, plan or pattern intended to cause a person to believe that, if the person did not enter into or continue in such condition, that person or another person would suffer serious harm or physical restraint; or
(ii) The abuse or threatened abuse of the legal process.
(g) "Severe forms of trafficking in persons" means:
(i) Sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age; or
(ii) The recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage or slavery.
(h) "Sex trafficking" means the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, obtaining, patronizing or soliciting of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act.
(i) "State" means each of the several states of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and territories and possessions of the United States.
(j) "Commission" means Interstate Commission on Human Trafficking.
ARTICLE III
THE COMMISSION
A. The compacting states create the Interstate Commission on Human Trafficking. The commission shall be a body corporate of each compacting state. The commission shall have all the responsibilities, powers, and duties set forth in this act, including the power to sue and be sued, and such additional powers as may be conferred upon it by subsequent action of the respective legislatures of the compacting states in accordance with the terms of this compact.
B. The commission shall consist of nine (9) resident members representing each party state. One (1) of such members shall be the Governor of Mississippi, or the governor's designee, who shall serve during the tenure of office of the Governor; one (1) shall be the Commissioner of Public Safety, or his or her designee, who shall serve during the tenure of his or her office as commissioner; one (1) shall be the Director of the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, or his or her designee, who shall serve during the tenure of his or her office as director; one (1) shall be the Director of the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, or his or her designee, who shall serve during the tenure of his or her office as director; one (1) shall be the Executive Director of Child Protection Services, or his or her designee, who shall serve during the tenure of his or her office as executive director; one (1) shall be the Attorney General of the State of Mississippi, or his or her designee, who shall serve during the tenure of his or her office as Attorney General; one (1) shall be Executive Director of the Mississippi Department of Human Services, or his or her designee, who shall serve during the tenure of his or her office as executive director; and two (2) shall be members of the Legislature which shall consist of the Chairmen of the Senate and House Judiciary A Committees, who shall serve during the tenure of his or her office as chairman of the respective committee. All vacancies shall be filled in accordance with the laws of the appointed states. Any commissioner appointed to fill a vacancy shall serve until the end of the incomplete term, except that any individual serving in an interim capacity as executive director, shall only serve until such time as those positions are permanently filled by the respective appointing boards.
C. The commission shall select annually, from among its members, a chairperson, a vice chairperson and a treasurer.
D. The commission shall appoint an executive director who shall serve at its pleasure and who shall act as secretary to the commission. The treasurer, the executive director and such other personnel as the commission may determine shall be bonded in such amounts as the commission may require.
E. The commission shall meet at least once each calendar year. The chairperson may call additional meetings and, upon the request of a majority of the commission members of five (5) or more compacting states, shall call additional meetings. Public notice shall be given of all meetings and meetings shall be open to the public.
F. Each compacting state represented at any meeting of the commission is entitled to one (1) vote. A majority of the compacting states shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business, unless a larger quorum is required by the bylaws of the commission.
G. The commission shall carry out the following activities:
1. Coordinate the implementation of this compact;
2. Measure and evaluate progress of the compacting states and other states in the areas of trafficking prevention, protection, and assistance to victims of trafficking, and prosecution and enforcement against traffickers, including the role of public corruption in facilitating trafficking;
3. Expand interagency procedures to collect and organize data, including significant research and resource information on domestic and international trafficking and providing an annual report on the case referrals received from the national human trafficking hotline by Federal departments and agencies. Any data collection procedures and reporting requirements established under this subsection shall respect the confidentiality of victims of trafficking.
4. Engage in efforts to facilitate cooperation among countries of origin, transit, and destination. Such efforts shall aim to strengthen local and regional capacities to prevent trafficking, prosecute traffickers and assist trafficking victims, and shall include initiatives to enhance cooperative efforts between destination countries and countries of origin and assist in the appropriate reintegration of stateless victims of trafficking.
5. Examine the role of the international "sex tourism" industry in the trafficking of persons and in the sexual exploitation of women and children around the world.
6. Engage in consultation and advocacy with governmental and nongovernmental organizations, among other entities, to advance the purposes of this chapter, and make reasonable efforts to distribute information to enable all relevant state agencies to publicize the National Human Trafficking Resource Center Hotline on their websites.
ARTICLE IV
FINANCE
A. The moneys necessary to finance the general operations of the commission, not otherwise provided for, in carrying forth its duties, responsibilities, and powers as stated herein shall be appropriated to the commission by the compacting states, when authorized by the respective legislatures, by equal apportionment among the compacting states.
B. The commission shall not incur any obligations of any kind prior to the making of appropriations adequate to meet the same; nor shall the commission pledge the credit of any of the compacting states, except by and with the authority of the compacting state.
C. The commission shall keep accurate accounts of all receipts and disbursements. The receipts and disbursements of the commission shall be subject to the audit and accounting procedures established under its bylaws. However, all receipts and disbursements of funds handled by the commission shall be audited yearly by a certified or licensed public accountant and the report of the audit shall be included in and become part of the annual report of the commission.
D. The accounts of the commission shall be open at any reasonable time for inspection by duly authorized representatives of the compacting states and persons authorized by the commission.
ARTICLE V
ELIGIBLE PARTIES AND ENTRY INTO FORCE
A. The states of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and West Virginia shall be eligible to become party to this compact. Additional states will be eligible if approved by a majority of the compacting states.
B. As to any eligible party state, this compact shall become effective when its legislature shall have enacted the same into law.
C. Amendments to the compact shall become effective upon their enactment by the legislatures of all compacting states.
ARTICLE VI
WITHDRAWAL, DEFAULT, AND TERMINATION
A. Any compacting state may withdraw from this compact by enacting a statute repealing the compact, but such withdrawal shall not become effective until two (2) years after the enactment of such statute. A withdrawing state shall be liable for any obligations which it may have incurred on account of its party status up to the effective date of withdrawal, except that if the withdrawing state has specifically undertaken or committed itself to any performance of an obligation extending beyond the effective date of withdrawal, it shall remain liable to the extent of such obligation.
B. If any compacting state shall at any time default in the performance of any of its obligations, assumed or imposed, in accordance with the provisions of this compact, all rights, privileges, and benefits conferred by this compact or agreements hereunder shall be suspended from the effective date of such default as fixed by the commission, and the commission shall stipulate the conditions and maximum time for compliance under which the defaulting state may resume its regular status. Unless such default shall be remedied and made good within a period of one (1) year immediately following the date of such default this compact may be terminated with respect to such defaulting state by an affirmative vote of three-fourths (3/4) of the members of the commission (exclusive of the members representing the state in default), from and after which time such state shall cease to be a party to this compact and shall have no further claim to or ownership of any of the property held by or vested in the commission or to any of the funds of the commission held under the terms of this compact, but such termination shall in no manner release such defaulting state from any accrued obligation or otherwise affect this compact or the rights, duties, privileges or obligations of the remaining states thereunder.
ARTICLE VII
SEVERABILITY AND CONSTRUCTION
A. The provisions of this compact entered into hereunder shall be severable and if any phrase, clause, sentence, or provision of this compact is declared to be contrary to the
Constitution of any compacting state or of the United States or the applicability thereof to any government, agency, person or circumstance is held invalid, the validity of the remainder of this compact and the applicability thereof to any government, agency, person or circumstance shall not be affected thereby. If this compact entered into hereunder shall be held contrary to the constitution of any compacting state, the compact shall remain in full force and effect as to the remaining states and in full force and effect as to the state affected as to all severable matters. The provisions of this compact entered into pursuant hereto shall
be liberally construed to effectuate the purposes thereof.
B. This compact is now in full force and effect, having been approved by the governors and legislatures of more than five (5) of the eligible states.
C. In witness whereof this compact has been approved and signed by the governors of the several states, subject to the approval of their respective legislatures in the manner prescribed in this section, as of the ______ day of _______________, 2020.
State of Tennessee, State of West Virginia,
By ___________________ By ___________________
Governor Governor
State of Georgia, State of Arkansas,
By ___________________ By ___________________
Governor Governor
State of Louisiana, State of Alabama,
By ___________________ By ___________________
Governor Governor
State of Mississippi, Commonwealth of Kentucky,
By ___________________ By ___________________
Governor Governor
State of Oklahoma,
By ___________________
Governor
SECTION 2. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2020.
