State Laws Sought on Human Trafficking

Alabama has seen a hand­ful of high-profile cases of human trafficking within state lines in recent years -- from a 2007 raid on a brothel at an Albertville mo­bile home to the arrest last year of a Florence man charged with coercing a mi­nor to perform a sex act for money.

While federal prosecutors have moved on those cases, they can't pursue them all, say some victims' advocates and state lawmakers. They're pushing for a state law against human traffick­ing that supporters say would lead to more pros­ecutions in Alabama of what's considered modern­day slavery.

"Right now we've only got one arm of government that's involved, and we're depending on the federal government to take care of everything in Alabama," said state Rep. Jack Wil­liams, R-Vestavia Hills.

Williams and Sen. Wen­dell Mitchell, D-Luverne, in­troduced bills this session that would criminalize hu­man trafficking. Mitchell's version passed the Senate on Tuesday and now must go to a House committee, while Williams' bill passed a House committee earlier this month. Such a law would bring Alabama in line with 43 other states, accord­ing to the Polaris Project, a national organization that supports the legislation. . . .

Excerpt from Birmingham News