'The Worst Of The Worst': Governor Greg Abbott Targets Human Traffickers With Two New Laws

In a ceremony on Thursday, Governor Greg Abbott (R-TX) signed two bills cracking down on human trafficking in Texas.

Transcript

00:00Good morning, thank you everybody for being here on an issue that has bipartisan support

00:14in the state legislature.

00:16This is an issue involving human trafficking that Texas has zero tolerance for, and that

00:23shows up in the legislation that I'm about to sign, but also shows up every single day

00:28when you see and hear what members of the Texas legislature talk about.

00:33They are angry about human traffickers, and they want to ensure that Texas has the toughest

00:39laws to prevent human trafficking in the state of Texas.

00:45Someone who shares that passion, someone who cares dearly about and actively involves herself

00:53in supporting the victims of human trafficking is the fabulous First Lady of Texas.

00:58Cecilia Abbott, who joins with us here today.

01:05I'm going to sign two laws today that address this issue.

01:11Before I do, however, I want to recognize, in addition to the members of the legislature

01:16and the First Lady who are involved in this, we know that legislation like this gets across

01:23the finish line, because there are unfortunately so many survivors, and importantly, those survivors

01:31come to the Capitol and let us know what the problems are, or what the best solutions are

01:37to help those survivors.

01:40And I thank all the survivors of human trafficking for stepping up and telling their stories, sharing

01:45their insight, talking about what needs to be done to help their lives.

01:49And we've got advocates also who work on this every single day.

01:54When you add all that together, that's one reason why Texas is so successful in passing

02:00the anti-human trafficking legislation that we passed.

02:05So on the zero-tolerance side, we want to ensure that we do all we can so that human traffickers

02:13never walk the streets of Texas again.

02:17These two bills I'm going to sign help achieve that goal.

02:20One is Senate Bill 1212.

02:23It increases the penalty for all human trafficking offenses to a first-degree felony.

02:30We want tougher penalties for our worst criminals, and Senate Bill 1212 gets that job done.

02:37And then, the worst of the worst are human traffickers of children and people with disabilities.

02:47House Bill 2306 ensures that those traffickers will serve every single day of their prison sentence

02:55behind bars.

02:56No parole for these worst of the worst.

03:00Among other things, this will protect survivors from the trauma of having to attend parole hearing

03:06after a parole hearing and have to go through that whole experience again.

03:11So I want to thank Senator Parker and Representatives Villalobos and Helen Kerwin

03:16for stepping up and getting this legislation to my desk.

04:04Sanibel 2306 and House Bill 1212 are law in the state of Texas.