Cast is calling on California to invest in prevention of human trafficking.

Prevention

Prevent Human Trafficking By Ensuring Protection for All Temporary Foreign Workers Coming to California

Author’s Factsheet CAST Factsheet Bill Text

Prevent Human Trafficking by Ensuring All Child Trafficking Victims Are Served Equally in CA’s Child Welfare System

Whitepaper: Child Labor Trafficking in CA

Prevent Human Trafficking Though Enacting California Government Procurement Policies

Factsheet

Ensure LA City and County Have Accurate Data on Human Trafficking

Proposal for City Prevalence Study Proposal for County Prevalence Study

$10 Million Continuing State Budget Allocation (California)

The $10 million California budget allocation for specialized services for all victims of human trafficking ensures that California will allocate continuing resources annually in the CA budget to support access to intensive case management, legal services, and access to shelter for trafficking survivors across the state. Cast and its partners will no longer have to advocate each year for this funding with the long term result being $100 million allocated to support trafficking survivors every 10 years. This money will support thousands of trafficking victims receiving access to services annually. To date Cal OES, who administers the program, has reported that over 11,000 trafficking survivors have been served with these funds.

Budget Summary Impact Statistics

AB 629 (Smith/ Gonzalez) Victim Compensation: Ensuring Access to Lost Income for Human Trafficking Survivors (California)

AB 629 is first of its kind legislation in the nation and ensures that the California Victim Compensation Board provides victims of human trafficking with compensation for loss of income like victims of other violent crimes. Support for lost income for trafficking victims is calculated at up to 40 hours per week, incurred as a result of the trafficking crime. The payment is capped at $5,000 for the first year and $5,000 for the second year. The board is directed to adopt guidelines allowing the board to rely on evidence other than official employment documentation.

Factsheet Press Release Article Link to Bill Text

AB 1735 (Bauer-Kahan) Human Trafficking Caseworker Privilege

AB 1735 updates the human trafficking caseworker privileged created in California in 2005. It allows a human trafficking victim’s current caseworker to claim the privilege, even if that caseworker was not the victim’s caseworker at the time the confidential communication was made. This bill also expands the list of topics about which human trafficking caseworkers shall be trained to qualify for the privilege and requires a caseworker to have at least one year of experience working with human trafficking victims or have taken 40 hours of training to qualify for the privilege.

Factsheet Link to Bill Text

SB 630 (Stern) Human Trafficking: Hotline Posting Enforcement

This bill updates a bill sponsored by CAST in 2012 that requires specified business to post information about human trafficking, including hotline and text numbers that a victim can call for help. Despite this legal mandate enacted in 2012, many businesses are not in compliance. This bill strengthens enforcement provisions by enabling local jurisdictions to enact ordinances to better ensure that businesses are complying with posting requirements.

Factsheet Link to Bill Text

$10M State Budget Allocation (California)

The $10 million California budget allocation for specialized services for all victims of human trafficking ensures that the 21 currently funded services providers will be refunded in 2019.

Budget Summary Impact Statistics

Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (Federal)

Every three years CAST and its national advocacy partners, the Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking (ATEST) and The Freedom Network, USA, work to reauthorize the most important piece of federal anti-trafficking legislation: the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA). Starting in 2016, CAST and its partners helped shape this bill. During the 2017-2018 legislative cycle the TVPRA provisions were introduced and passed as four separate bills S. 1311, S. 1312, S.1862 and H.R. 2200.

S. 1311 full bill text S. 1312 full bill text S. 1862 full bill text H.R. 2000 full bill text

$5M State Budget Allocation (California)

The $5 million state budget allocation ensures that all victims of human trafficking in California receive the comprehensive services and support they need. The $5 million secured ensures continuing funding for the 11 programs who were first funded in 2016. That funding would otherwise have ended in 2018, resulting in the defunding of those programs.

Budget Summary Impact Report

AB 1761 Human Trafficking Victims Affirmative Defense (California)

AB 1761 puts in place an important additional protection for victims to ensure they are not convicted of crimes their traffickers force them to commit. It also strengthens the ability of the judicial system to more fully describe the complexity of this crime through expert testimony.

Full Bill Text Bill Summary Suggested implementation to Judicial Council

$10M State Budget Allocation (California)

The $10 million state budget allocation ensures that all victims of modern slavery in California receive the comprehensive services and support they need. This request will also ensure appropriate training and technical assistance is provided to first responders and service providers, and that California can better understand the prevalence of human trafficking in our state and how to create effective programs to support victims.

Bill Summary Letter of Support

Survivors of Human Trafficking Empowerment Act (Federal)

The Survivors of Human Trafficking Empowerment Act established the U.S. Advisory Council on Human Trafficking. The Council consists of 8-14 survivors of human trafficking from diverse backgrounds and experiences, in order to provide recommendations to the U.S. Government to strengthen U.S. federal policy and programming efforts that reflect the best practices in the field.

Full Bill Text Bill Summary NSN Press Release

$10M State Budget Allocation (California)

The $10 million state budget allocation ensures that all victims of modern slavery in California receive the comprehensive services and support they need. This request will also ensure appropriate training and technical assistance is provided to first responders and service providers, and that California can better understand the prevalence of human trafficking in our state and how to create effective programs to support victims.

Bill Summary Letter of Support

SB 477 Foreign Labor Contracts: Registration (California)

SB477 seeks to prevent human trafficking and forced labor of foreign workers resulting from the exploitative and abusive practices of foreign labor contractors by requiring registration of foreign labor contractors and the use of registered contractors by employers seeking to hire foreign workers. In addition, the bill requires full and fair disclosure of working conditions to foreign workers.

Full Bill Text Bill Summary CAST Comments on Regulations Labor Commission Resource Page on SB 477

Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (Federal)

The TVPRA directly funds the majority of the victim service programs in the United States through the Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services. The TVPRA of 2011 also makes several improvements to our criminal and immigration laws to better protect trafficking survivors and help them seek justice.

Full Bill Text Bill Summary

SB 1193 Human Trafficking: Public Posting Requirements (California)

Members of CAST’s survivor leadership program know first-hand that access to a human-trafficking hotline number can mean the difference between slavery and freedom. So, in 2010, this group of survivors decided to make a human trafficking hotline poster an advocacy priority. With many partners and activists beside them, CAST survivors and staff wrote letters and spoke to legislators in Sacramento.

A year later, CAST became an original co-sponsor of SB 1193: Human Trafficking: Public Posting Requirements, which became a state law in 2012. SB 1193 requires the public posting of the phone numbers of the National Human Trafficking Hotline and the Coalition to Abolish Slavery & Trafficking’s Hotline in mass transit hubs, emergency rooms, bars and other establishments.

Although the law went into effect in April 2013, the work was not done. So, in early 2014 CAST and a coalition of partners launched a grass-roots campaign to implement this law. Together with the National Council of Jewish Women/LA (NCJW), T’ruah. Jewish Labor Committee, Oasis USA and the law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, CAST led a series of trainings to prepare volunteers to go out into their communities and distribute the hotline posters.

CAST worked together with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher to identify the businesses who must comply with SB 1193. The District Attorney and City Attorney are standing behind this effort and are sending out compliance notices to the required businesses.

Review the District Attorney’s and City Attorney’s Compliance Letter.

SB 1193 posters are available upon request from NCJW/LA, who generously funded the printing of the posters. They are also available for in-house printing with this 11x17 file.

Full Bill Text Bill Summary Roadmap to Implementation

SB 657 California Transparency in Supply Chains Act

SB657 is a crucial step in reducing the demand for slave made products by providing a tool for consumers, including businesses, to better know how products are made. By providing a mechanism for concerned consumers to be able to compare company efforts on forced labor and human trafficking in their “supply chains,” people can make more informed decisions to spend their hard-earned dollars with the more responsible company.

Full Bill Text Bill Summary Suggested Implementation Measures Attorney General Resource Guide Attorney General Resource Page on SB 657

Enhancing Capacity for Impact Advocacy in the Business Community

Summary

Survivor Fellowships to Amplify the Voices of Survivor Leaders

Summary