September 15, 2019 (San Diego) – The California State Legislature today passed on a 61-9 vote Assembly Bill 589 authored by state Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego) to make it illegal for an employer to confiscate a worker’s immigration documents as a way to force them into labor.
State law requires some businesses to post notices
Source: California Department of Justice
January 30, 2019 (Sacramento) - During National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra reminds California businesses to post notices informing the public and trafficking victims of resources available to help combat slavery and human trafficking. Up-to-date digital copies of these notices are available for free on the Attorney General’s website.
October 19, 2017 (San Diego) -- The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), along with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), announced today that 84 minors were recovered and 120 traffickers were arrested as part of Operation Cross Country XI, a nationwide effort focusing on underage human trafficking that ran from October 12-15, 2017.
Panel of experts and neighborhood organizing to follow showing of “Indoctrinated, the Grooming of Child Prostitutes” by Lemon Grove filmmaker Jim Ellis
By Helen Ofield, Lemon Grove Historical Society
April 8, 2017 (Lemon Grove) -- Right here, right now, in our town...tough though it is to think of Lemon Grove as a haven for human sex traffickers, it is. This heinous crime is alive in our town. Predators are after our girls and boys. This, in a town where every neighborhood is anchored by a public school and volunteerism has been a tradition since 1890.
Five Wishes, by Mollie Moon (Suka Press LLC, Carlsbad, California, 2017, 346 pages).
Book Review by Dennis Moore
When you enter into freedom, possibility comes to meet you.
John O’Donohue
March 20, 2017 (San Diego) - Mollie Moon has escaped the cold European winters for a life in Southern California, where she lives with a bossy feline and occasional sand in her shoes, to write this fictional account of a young Latina breaking with family and cultural traditions; Five Wishes.
February 4, 2017 (Sacramento) - Toni G. Atkins (D-San Diego) this week introduced new bills that will strengthen the San Diego River Conservancy (SB 214), bolster language-assistance services in medical care (SB 223), and help prosecute human traffickers (SB 230).
AB 1708 would implement statutory reforms and increase penalties for purchasers of sex
East County News Service
September 1, 2016 (Sacramento) - Human trafficking legislation by California State Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego) that would create minimum penalties for those attempting to purchase sex was approved by the Assembly today on a unanimous 63-0 vote. It will now be submitted to the Governor.
August 26 2016 (San Diego) --California’s state Senate today approved a measure which would allow human trafficking victims arrested or convicted of non-violent crimes while they were trafficked to have those charges removed from their records.
November 12, 2015 (San Diego’s East County) – A woman who ran a Border Patrol checkpoint in Pine Valley, after agents found a person hidden in her trunk, led authorities on a chase at speeds up to 120 miles per hour last night.
The chase began shortly before 5 p.m. and continued for 30 miles, despite tack strips laid down to try and half the driver, who was in a Ford Mustang. Border Patrol and California Highway Patrol officers were involved in the pursuit. The driver exited the freeway in El Cajon, where she crashed into the back of a Jeep s at Madison and Second Street, Customs and Border Patrol reports. The CHP site and several media outlets reported that the suspect struck more than one vehicle.
August 12, 2014 (San Diego’s East County)--Two bills aimed at fighting human trafficking are advancing in the Legislature. Both are authored by San Diego State Senator Marty Block.
Block says gangs are increasingly involved in human trafficking, selling young girls locallylocal into prostitution and immigrants into forced labor. Human trafficking cases have risen over 600% in San Diego in the past year as gangs rake in over $97 million from human sex trafficking in San Diego alone, KPBS reports.
Lemon Grove Filmmaker Jim Ellis Creates 33-Minute Documentary for Children, Parents to Watch Together
By Mark Gabrish Conlan
February 18, 2013 (Lemon Grove)--Nikki’s story is all too typical of the ones told in Lemon Grove filmmaker Jim Ellis’s new 33-minute documentary, Indoctrinated: The Grooming of Children Into Prostitution. At age 18, to raise the money to go to college, she took a job in a strip club. There she met an older man who helped her out financially, bought her nice clothes and accessories, and got her to fall in love with him and ultimately move in with him. Then he put the hammer down and told her that in order to keep her lifestyle — and his affections — she’d have to have sex with other men, for which he, not she, would be paid. Nikki’s story ends more happily than most such tales; she got out of “the life,” as prostitutes call it, and in her 20’s is trying to piece her life back together. She’s sufficiently self-assured that of all the present and former prostitutes Ellis interviewed, she was the only one who agreed to show her face on camera instead of having it electronically blurred.
October 12, 2012 (San Diego’s East County) – There are numerous important initiatives on the November 6 ballot. Topics include education funding, clean energy, criminal penalties, taxes and labeling what’s in your food. For our nonpartisan analysis and arguments on both sides of each proposition, click the links below.
San Diego has one of the highest rates of child sex trafficking in the U.S.
October 10, 2012 (San Diego's East County)--Proposition 35 would increase prison sentences and fines for anyone convicted of human trafficking — the illegal trade of human beings for sex slavery or forced labor. Prison sentences would be increased to 15-years-to life, with fines up to $1.5 million. Prop 35 would also require anyone convicted of sex trafficking to register as a sex offender and disclose identities they use on the Internet, along with which sites they visit.
In a rare show of unity, this proposition is supported by both the California Democratic and Republican parties.
AB 2212 gives law enforcement new tool; AB 2126 streamlines campus administration
September 10, 2012 (San Diego) -- Assemblymember Marty Block (AD-78) today announced that Gov. Jerry Brown signed his measure to give law enforcement a new tool to shut down human trafficking, AB 2212, and another bill, AB 2126, which helps the California State University (CSU) system streamline its regulation process.
August 18, 2014 (Sacramento)—A measure which would permit law enforcement to prosecute human trafficking as a civil nuisance as well as a crime and direct recovered penalties to the victims of these crimes was on its way to Gov. Jerry Brown on a 76-0 vote.
Assemblymember Marty Block (AD-78) introduced the legislation, AB 2212, earlier this year.
"Imagine yourself, 8-years-old, stripped naked, on the ground, on the bathroom floor, chained, crying for your mommy."
– Angela, Survivor
Story and photos by Ron Logan
April 9, 2012 (San Diego) – If you believe that human trafficking is not a problem in San Diego County – you would be wrong. Very wrong. Human trafficking is happening right now, across our region, even as you read this. And it is happening on our front porch.
April 2, 2012 (San Diego) – San Diego has become a hotbed of human trafficking and it includes more than undocumented immigrants. Law enforcement have identified San Diego as an international gateway for sex trafficking and one of the 13 cities in the nation with the highest incidence of child prostitution, including local teens. Forced marriages and modern slavery are also critical issues. Worldwide, trafficking is an estimated $40 billion industry affecting every country.
Survivors of Human Trafficking/Commercial Sexual Exploitation Among Those Getting Help
March 18, 2012 (San Diego) -- Four new regional projects have received more than $1.7 million in federal funding for the first time thanks to efforts by County Housing and Community Development, the lead agent for the Regional Continuum of Care. The new projects will provide transitional and long-term housing and support services for homeless people.
March 3, 2012 (Jacumba) -- Members of the Boulevard Border Patrol Station Abatement Team (BLV SAT) executed a Federal Arrest Warrant on February 19 for the notorious alien smuggler Steven Virgin Zavala. Zavala, the last member of his family residing in the town of Jacumba, was the leader of Zavala Transnational Criminal Organization.
Family wants case reopened; believes daughter may have been sold to human traffickers
Case raises concerns over safety of advertising on Craigslist
By Miriam Raftery
April 19, 2011 (San Diego) – John Steven Burgess confessed to drugging and killing San Diego State University freshman Donna Jou after meeting her on Craigslist, where she advertised tutoring services. Burgess, 38, a convicted sex offender, claimed he accidentally overdosed Jou and panicked, then dumped her body in the ocean. She was never found.
Burgess was sentenced to just five years in prison, convicted of involuntary manslaughter. He sought early release for good behavior after serving just two years. After protests by the family, California Deparment of Corrections last week announced it would release Burgess from state custody, though he will serve another year in Los Angeles County Jail. The news sparked outrage due to his dark history of sexual predation and violence--even before he met Jou.
April 13, 2011 (Sacramento) – Legislation authored by Assemblymember Marty Block (D-AD78) to provide law enforcement with better tools to fight the growing epidemic of gang-related criminal sexual exploitation and human trafficking, cleared its first Assembly committee today. AB 918 was approved by the Assembly Public Safety Committee by a vote of 6-0.
Pimping and other exploitative crimes are now second biggest revenue source for gangs in San Diego County
April 8, 2011 (San Diego) – To help law enforcement tackle the growing problem of gang-related criminal sexual exploitation and human trafficking, Assemblymember Marty Block (AD-78) today was joined by San Diego County Supervisor Dianne Jacob, San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis and San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore to support AB 918.
The bill, authored by Block and sponsored by San Diego County, would give law enforcement better tools to combat criminal street gangs that commit the crimes of pimping, pandering or human trafficking--the second biggest income source for local gangs.
East County News Service
Lemon Grove Filmmaker Jim Ellis Creates 33-Minute Documentary for Children, Parents to Watch Together
October 12, 2012 (San Diego’s East County) – There are numerous important initiatives on the November 6 ballot. Topics include education funding, clean energy, criminal penalties, taxes and labeling what’s in your food. For our nonpartisan analysis and arguments on both sides of each proposition, click the links below.
By Thea Skinner
April 2, 2012 (San Diego) – San Diego has become a hotbed of human trafficking and it includes more than undocumented immigrants. Law enforcement have identified San Diego as an international gateway for sex trafficking and one of the 13 cities in the nation with the highest incidence of child prostitution, including local teens. Forced marriages and modern slavery are also critical issues. Worldwide, trafficking is an estimated $40 billion industry affecting every country.
Survivors of Human Trafficking/Commercial Sexual Exploitation Among Those Getting Help 
By Miriam Raftery
April 13, 2011 (Sacramento) – Legislation authored by Assemblymember Marty Block (D-AD78) to provide law enforcement with better tools to fight the growing epidemic of gang-related criminal sexual exploitation and human trafficking, cleared its first Assembly committee today. AB 918 was approved by the Assembly Public Safety Committee by a vote of 6-0. 
Pimping and other exploitative crimes are now second biggest revenue source for gangs in San Diego County
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