Gov. DeSantis in Coral Gables to sign legislature to help combat human trafficking
MIAMI - Governor Ron DeSantis made a South Florida stop Monday afternoon to sign legislation to help combat human trafficking.
The governor was joined by Lt. Governor Jeanette Nuñez, Attorney General Ashley Moody, Secretary of the Department of Children and Families Shevaun Harris.
Here's what the governor had to say during his press conference:
"So, the legislature has, over the years I've been governor worked with us to combat human trafficking. And this is a really serious scourge in our society. And because we're a state that's a destination state, we host big events, whether it's the Super Bowl or the College Football Championship, all these different things, unfortunately, that attracts human trafficking."
"And then, of course, we've had the last three-plus years, where the southern border has been opened, and millions and millions of people have illegally poured into the country. And of course, Mexican drug cartels are utilizing that to do human trafficking. So, this is a big, big problem for the United States. And it's a problem that we have worked to tackle in Florida, and are continuing today with the announcements and the bill signing that I'm going to do momentarily."
"Since 2019, 50,000, reports a year have been made nationwide using the National Human Trafficking Hotline. According to the Department of Justice, the average age of a traffic individual is only 13 years old. 80% of those trafficked are girls, and of those girls. 80% are subjected to sexual exploitation."
"We know that that is unacceptable. And we need to continue to work hard. And today we're doing even more to uphold the law, and to go after those who are trafficking these children. We're not going to allow this to stand in the state of Florida."
"And just think of, of what we've done. What is our stance on sexual exploitation of minors, we've authorized the death penalty for pedophiles. And that's something that is absolutely appropriate."
"Just this most recent legislative session, the legislature has passed and I've already signed legislation which protects children from grooming activities and another sexual offences. We've also established a grant program within the Florida Department of law enforcement to create online sting operations targeting sexual predators."
Many counties are doing it but not all. And so we're going to be able to provide support for those that want to get in the game there. We've also created stricter guidelines for sex offender registration, you know, these guys would be convicted sex offenders, and then they'd register at a residence. And then they'd go in the other side of the state and live on some boat and not register."
"And so people don't know that these offenders are in their committee that changes with the law that I've signed. We've also strengthened the role of statewide guardian ad litem office. We've also implemented new training requirements to ensure law enforcement properly assesses domestic violence situation."
"Now last year 2023, the state of Florida allocated almost $3 million to expand the citrus Chance program. It's a model developed by citrus health. It's called it stands for citrus helping adolescents negatively impacted by commercial exploitation. This program establishes therapeutic safe foster homes and provides an evidence based outreach program to serve minor survivors of human trafficking through a multidisciplinary trauma informed model."
"And I'm happy to announce that this program is now expanding to six additional counties across Florida, including Pinellas Pasco, Duvall, Nassau, Broward and Palm Beach counties. And I think that that's made a big big difference. We've also had our Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation increase efforts to hold public lodging establishments accountable if they fail to comply with Florida's Human Trafficking Prevention requirements."
"So, from July 1 2023 to the present, our DB PRs division of hotels and restaurants have done 25 different administrative complaints to officer to operations and non compliance and has already netted 10s of 1000s of dollars in fines for the non-compliance in 2023."
"We also signed SB 1690, which strengthens the ability Department of Children and Families to help human trafficking survivors it also enhanced requirements for youth residential settings to have Trafficking Awareness materials posted. This important legislation also authorize the department to create a certification program for adult safe homes. And so there's a group that rates what you've done for all the different things that involved in human trafficking, and it's called the shared Hope International report card and Florida ranked second in the nation for what we've done to combat human trafficking."
"Looking and we're going to add two more will probably increase. So, I want to thank everybody that's done.
So today, I'm proud to say a couple things. One, we're going through the budget. I've got a lot of different stuff in there. And so we're going to be making decisions on the whole budget soon. But as we go through and approve things, I'm happy to announce that we are doing that."
"And so I can today announce that I will be approving when I signed the budget $4.9 million to significantly expand access to emergency beds and provide additional staff to continue to increase our human trafficking prevention efforts. These additional beds will be used as part of the recovery process to give survivors a safe place in the immediate aftermath of being rescued from human trafficking."
"We also...I'm also pleased to announce that we will have a $900,000 grant opportunity through the Department of Children and Families to enhance staffing and training for law enforcement departments combating human trafficking throughout the state of Florida."
"So, that'll be something that'll be very, very meaningful. Now, of course, last month, I signed HB 305, which expands the evidence that can be presented to a jury, and sex abuse cases where the victim is a minor and increases penalties on those who take part in the sex trafficking of minors."
"And as a follow-up, I'm here to sign House Bill 7063, which makes important updates to how the state of Florida combats human trafficking. So among other things, this bill will extend the lifetime of our statewide Council on Human Trafficking within the department of legal affairs."
"There's a lot of really important people that are on that so that we have a coordinated effort between law enforcement and social services in terms of combating human trafficking."
"We're also under this bill requiring Florida rest area service plazas, emergency rooms, massage parlor, strip clubs, or other places where trafficking can occur to display Human Trafficking Awareness signs with telephone numbers for either the national or Florida human trafficking hotlines, and also increases punishments for those entities that fail to do so."
"The bill also will require an entity which contracts with the Florida government to provide the state with assurances that they do not use coerced labor and prohibits a miner from being employed by an adult entertainment establishment in any role, and increases punishments who knowingly violate this law."
"So, this legislation will help better protect the most vulnerable in our communities, it will ensure that if businesses are not complying with these very modest reasonable requirements, whether knowingly or unknowingly, that they will be held accountable. And of course, anybody actively involved in human trafficking is going to have the book thrown at them in the state of Florida."
"So, I want to thank everybody for being a part of this and the legislature. I think this got close to unanimous support. In the legislature. I saw there were some that didn't that didn't vote for it, but almost everybody did. And we appreciate you doing that. And we're going to continue to to stand strong for those who may not be in a position to defend themselves."
"And unfortunately, these are very vulnerable individuals that are being exploited our state, it's a great state, there's a lot going on. But part of what it means with that is that this is a place where people want to do this. And we are united front here saying that we're not going to just stand idly by and let it happen that we will fight back so I'm going to sign this legislation...."