California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a invoice to bolster penalties for adults who solicit minors for intercourse on July 30.
The brand new regulation will go into impact on Jan. 1, 2026, and will increase jail phrases for offenders convicted of soliciting teenagers beneath 16 for sexual acts.
The laws, authored by state Sen. Shannon Grove, handed with bipartisan assist within the California Legislature final month after dissent from some lawmakers relating to sure points of the laws. Particularly, the Senate Public Security Committee handed the invoice, however solely after rejecting amendments that may have weakened penalties for soliciting 16- and 17-year-olds.
Meeting Invoice 379, which was initially launched in February, establishes loitering with the intent to solicit business intercourse as a misdemeanor, imposes fines as excessive as $25,000 for soliciting minors beneath 16, and permits felony human trafficking expenses for repeat offenders who purchase intercourse from minors.
The invoice additionally mandates intercourse offender registration for these convicted. Such offenses had been beforehand categorized as misdemeanors in sure instances, elevating considerations over lenient sentencing.
“There is a real human cost to human trafficking and exploitation in our community,” Assemblyman Nick Schultz, a Democrat representing elements of Los Angeles, mentioned through the listening to.
“So, while there are costs in terms of detection and enforcement and sentencing, we also have to balance that with the tradeoff and real cost of the lives that are impacted by this plague that is very much alive in our society.”
The invoice drew assist from the California District Legal professional Affiliation, the California Police Chiefs Affiliation, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Division, town of Stockton, the Affiliation for LA Deputy Sheriffs, the League of County Board of Supervisors, and different organizations.
At a July 7 listening to for the invoice, representatives for numerous public officers voiced assist, together with San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria, the San Diego District Legal professional’s Workplace, Bakersfield Mayor Karen Goh, and town of Carlsbad.
Among the many invoice’s detractors had been the Immigrant Authorized Useful resource Heart, the LA Public Defenders Union, and the San Francisco Public Defender’s Workplace, who say that the availability relating to those that are loitering with the intention of buying intercourse might result in profiling and elevated deportations for noncitizens who’re charged with felonies.
Ann Block, an legal professional with the nonprofit Immigrant Authorized Useful resource Heart, mentioned the brand new regulation might grant Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) new authority for its operations.
“The bill would subject more people to traumatic ICE arrests, detention, and deportation,” Block mentioned at a June 7 listening to concerning the invoice. She additionally mentioned the state would incur elevated prices due to the invoice.
“There are going to be significant costs in terms of ICE detention and families being separated in California, families going on welfare because of that, that’s happening right now, and that would happen even more if this bill passes.”
The invoice additionally appears to be like to create a first-of-its-kind survivor assist fund. Money from the fund would go to community-based organizations led by survivors of human trafficking. The sponsor famous that assist contains housing, psychological well being providers, and job coaching.
Whereas introducing the invoice to the committee, Assemblywoman Maggy Krell mentioned it might assist victims and provides regulation enforcement higher instruments to prosecute the consumers.
“Demand is the buyers,” she mentioned. “It is the rows of cars of men lined up on street corners to buy teenagers for sex. Without the buyers, we don’t really have sex trafficking.”
The invoice additionally reinstates penalties for offenses that had been decriminalized by a 2022 California regulation, comparable to loitering with the intent to buy a sufferer.
Assemblymember Mark Gonzalez, a Democrat from Los Angeles, opposed the invoice and argued that it might disproportionately have an effect on communities of coloration.
Additionally opposing the invoice was the director of packages at Rising Worldwide, Jess Torres, a toddler trafficking survivor, who mentioned it will depend on a vaguely outlined suspicion of intent to do one thing felony, slightly than proof.
“This bill will only escalate violence against survivors because persons who are trafficked in commercial sex are harmed when they operate in a criminalized environment,” Torres mentioned. “When buyers believe they are taking on greater risk, they often become more demanding, and that pressure frequently becomes compromising.”
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