Listen to the Words of Survivors

Via a child sex trafficking survivor:

I would like to share my thoughts around SB-14 (which means that sex trafficking of minors in the lists of crimes that are defined as serious under California law, making the crime a strike under the Three Strikes law)

This bill was voted down in the Assembly Public Safety Committee and Governor Newsom stepped up and intervened, so SB 14 now moves forwards and heads to the Assembly Appropriations Committee. This is a huge win, especially for us overcomers of human trafficking!!

In my lived experience, I was sex trafficked as a minor and fell through the cracks in many situations and no one was ever held accountable. This is why I am passionate to speak on these Social Justice issues to bring awareness so no other child ever falls through the cracks like I did and get charged like a criminal and people are held accountable. Not everyone is fortunate to make it out and I am so grateful that I did.

When I was 15 years old, I was lured into sex trafficking. At 16 years old, I committed armed robbery for my trafficker, arrested and was charged as a criminal. When the judge realized that I was under a fake name, and realized that this grown man (My trafficker) who was in the courtroom and claimed to be my uncle was not my uncle, he ordered the bailiffs to remove him from court but never once asked me, “What happened? Who is this man? Why did you commit this robbery?” Instead, he proceeded to sentence me. When I was placed in a group home facility, I escaped and a warrant was put out for my arrest. I was on the run from the law and being sex trafficked on the streets of SF from the age of 16 to 19 years old. My trafficker connected me to gang members on the mission in SF who got me a fake green card with a fake social security card. Once I received my fake identification, my trafficker told me to visit him in a correctional facility. Every week, I would go to the men’s facility in Redwood City and show my fake ID to the deputies at the front desk and they allowed me to enter into the facility to visit my trafficker. I was 16 years old, a child!!! No one noticed or saw any signs. For years, I went in and out of correctional facilities, addicted to meth and was under the control and modern day slavery of three different traffickers!!! None of my traffickers was ever held accountable, and others that assumed I was a criminal, could have prevented me from going down a dark path if they would have intervened by implementing the equality model which provides exit resources.

It is a win that Csec is no longer being charged for sex trafficking, but we still need to do more work to restore children and adults who are being forced to commit crimes, such as trafficking and selling drugs, while they are being victimized, just like in my experience.

So, I stand here in solidarity with SB-14!!! Holding traffickers accountable so they can sit in a cell for a while and think about their actions. I believe making this a serious crime while implementing restorative programs will definitely make a trafficker or exploiter think twice and possibly stop them from repeating this cycle of victimization and trauma unto others ????

To learn more, check out link below:

Child sex trafficking bill advances after Newsom intervenes | The Sacramento Bee (sacbee.com)