Tallahassee, Fl- Florida House Representative Jessica Baker (R) has filed a bill to tighten Florida’s sexual trafficking laws.
The Jacksonville representative, who was rumored to potentially wield a speakership position in the future, filed the bill this Tuesday, October 31st.
Representative Baker’s HB 305 would have first-time offenders found guilty of sexually trafficking minors automatically designated as 'sexual predators'.
The bill would go into effect on July 1st, 2024.
Sexual trafficking offenses for which violators could be designated as sexual predators are also defined by the bill. These include statutes 787.06(3)(f) or (g), which are trafficking minors for interstate commercial sexual activity and trafficking mentally decapitated minors for the same purpose, respectively.
Florida lawmakers have also been combating human trafficking at the national level.
Last July, Representative Laurel Lee (R-Fl) filed the Human Trafficking Hotline Enhancement Act.
Rep. Lee commented to The Floridian that the Enhancement Act will "ensure that the hotline takes any of the tips it gets and get them into the hands of law enforcement who can investigate any of these allegations of potential human trafficking."
Lee mentioned the immigrant crisis at the nation’s southwest border is undermining human trafficking countermeasures.
Lee called human trafficking "one of the tragic results of our failure to secure our southern border," saying House Republicans are seeking every means to secure it, most notably the Secure the Border Act introduced by Representative Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL), which passed the House in May.
