Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Blog: Bill on human 'trafficking' is Sen. Starr's work

Photos and story by Dana Haynes

Here’s an interesting bill I didn’t even know was in the works.

Sen. Bruce Starr, R-Hillsboro, sponsored Senate Bill 839, which is designed to help provide safety, privacy and dignity to victims of human trafficking. The bill would let victims of human trafficking make all public records of their addresses confidential.

“This bill is a simple way to protect the privacy and dignity of human trafficking victims,” Sen. Starr said in a press release issued this morning. “But it is also an important statement about standing up for the abused and exploited, and starting to be a stronger voice against the practice of human trafficking both here and around the world.”

According to the senator’s release, human trafficking is one of the fastest-growing criminal industries in the world. Some estimates say that 1.2 million people are “trafficked,” or moved illegally across a national border to become unwilling victims of the sex-trade or under-paid illegal workers.

This issue isn’t limited to countries outside of the United States, Starr said. The U. S. government believes that 17,500 people are trafficked into the United States each year.

“Many think that human trafficking was an important moral issue of the last century, but is seldom practiced today,” he said. “But the truth is that hundreds of thousands of women and children are sold for labor or the sex trade every year. It’s time we stood up and started defending these individuals who desperately need a defender and a champion.”

The bill goes to the full Senate next.

For more news on the Legislature and PCC.

dana