California labor traffickers dodge convictions after state crackdown, report says
More than 3,000 California survivors of labor trafficking sought help from a state-funded program between 2016 and 2019, according to a new report from the Little Hoover Commission.
More than a third of the survivors came either from Fresno or Sacramento county, according to the report.
Yet, the commission found that California has no centralized tool to guide those survivors seeking help in the state. The state has also convicted less than 30 people a year on average between 2015 and 2019 for labor trafficking, defined as recruiting or transporting someone to work against their will through force, fraud or coercion, according to the report.
In one case in 2018, a Fresno man was convicted of human trafficking and extortion, after holding the victims’ passports and threatening to report each of them to immigration officials if they didn’t continue to work for him on farms. But such prosecutions and convictions remain rare in the state, the commission said.
“It is unacceptable that perpetrators of this despicable crime are too often not held accountable,” said the commission’s chair, Pedro Nava, in a press release.
The commission identified a number of flaws in the state’s policies, stemming from poor coordination between agencies and a lack of investment that has created a patchwork of programs. To better help survivors and prosecute those who committed the act, the commission urged Gov. Gavin Newsom to create an Anti-Human Trafficking Council and empower the Department of Industrial Relations to take the lead role in investigating labor trafficking crimes.
California has enacted a number of laws and regulations to protect workers against labor trafficking, by strengthening penalties for traffickers and providing victims with financial resources, according to an earlier report from the commission. Under Proposition 35 passed in 2012, labor trafficking is punishable by up to 12 years in state prison and a fine of up to $500,000. Traffickers may also face civil penalties.
Between 2015 and 2019, about 650 people were arrested and 145 people were convicted for labor trafficking crimes in the state. The number has also been trending downwards in those years, according to the report.
The commission noted those figures don’t include cases pursued through civil action or filed under a different charge or instances when a defendant pleaded to a different crime.
The state’s Department of Justice and the Department of Fair Employment and Housing prosecute those crimes. But experts told the commission that those crimes are difficult to prosecute because of reluctant survivors, costly investigations and little training provided to law enforcement officials. The state also lacks the formal procedure that allows for agencies to share data and case information with each other, the commission said.
“You can tell in this report that numerous state agencies are involved in looking at labor trafficking in some form, but very often, the public doesn’t know which agencies to go to,” said Dion Aroner, a former assemblywoman and a current member of the commission who worked on the report.
The commission also said the state must prioritize services for labor trafficking survivors, by creating an online directory of resources for services that’s searchable by location and service and available to be translated into multiple languages.
Aroner said labor trafficking, which she sees as a modern form of slavery, deserves much attention both from the state and the public.
“We know we don’t know the size of the problem,” she said. But “we have an obligation to recognize it happening.”
This story was originally published October 21, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "California labor traffickers dodge convictions after state crackdown, report says."
