Hochul signs bills to combat human trafficking – The Gloversville Leader Herald

Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a package of bills into law Wednesday that aim to combat human trafficking and expand the state's anti-human trafficking task force and length of duty.

The group of six bills will require Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, commercial service airports and bus stops, MTA facilities, truck stops and Thruway Authority service areas to post human trafficking awareness information in lactation rooms. Another bill will add the New York Secretary of State to the state's Interagency Task Force on Human Trafficking.

The task force already includes the commissioners of the Division of Criminal Justice Services, the state Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, state Department of Health, Office of Mental Health, state Department of Labor, Office of Children and Family Services and Office of Addiction Services and Supports. Also on the task force are the superintendent of the state police, director of the state Office of Addiction Services and the executive director of the Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence.

The task force was created in 2007 with the goal to begin confirming human trafficking referrals from law enforcement in order to be able to connect them to eligible assistance and services. The law was amended in 2016 to allow non-law enforcement agencies to submit human trafficking referrals for confirmation. According to a 2021 report released by the task force, this led to a 150% increase in referrals in 2016.

Speaking in Flushing, Queens, before signing the bills, Hochul said the area was the “epicenter of trafficking for the entire country.”

“Victims are often trafficked from impoverished countries, they have no hope, they think there's at least a chance of a better life. Or they're threatened with violence to themselves, or their family members, or their loved ones,” Hochul said. “They're lured with false promises of better jobs and benefits like green cards. And even in our own country, you get teenage girls lured on social media to meet someone at a local coffee shop or a suburban mall. So they're social media predators going after our children, young people. And it's a real crisis. And it's actually — this has infiltrated a large number of modern industries like agriculture and construction, food service, domestic work, and of course, the illicit sex trade.”

The 2022 report found the COVID-19 pandemic did little to stem the number of incidents, and human trafficking reports spiked in 2021, with 344 cases referred — more than any prior year since the task force's inception in 2007. There were 127 cases in New York City, more than 50 both in Long Island and the lower Hudson Valley regions, and 116 in other upstate areas.

For example, in 2021, state police in Albany conducted an undercover sting operation on the social media platform Kik, which netted an individual attempting to pay $100 to have sex with a 14-year-old girl. The person ultimately agreed to meet in person at a dock at Schenectady County Community College. The suspect pulled up to the dock in a boat to meet the girl, but fled once a police officer identified himself. The suspect was later arrested and charged with attempted rape and attempted criminal sex act.

Hochul said human trafficking is a type of slavery that cannot be ignored.

“When a teenage girl is lured away with promises of something else, a better life, and becomes literally imprisoned and traded out. That's slavery. Or if a person's locked in a sweat shop, a woman can't leave as a domestic worker, that's another form of slavery,” she said. “Here in New York, we have no tolerance for this. We're going to continue to break this cycle of suffering so victims can change from victims into survivors. That's what we have to do.”