Florida HB 7063: DeSantis on Human Trafficking Prevention & Survivor Support

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0:00 that attracts uh human trafficking and then of course we've had the last three plus years uh where the southern border has been open and millions and millions of people have illegally poured into the country and of course Mexican drug cartels are utilizing that uh to do human trafficking so this is a big big problem for the United States uh 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 uh since 2019 50,000 reports a year have been made Nationwide using

0:38 the national human trafficking hotline uh according to the Department of Justice the average age of a traffic individual is only 13 years old 80% of those traffic are girls and of those girls 80% are subjected to sexual exploitation uh we we know that that is unacceptable and we need to continue to to work hard and today we're doing even more to uphold the law and to go after those who are trafficking uh these children uh we're not going to allow this to stand in the State of Florida just think of of what we've done what is our stand on sexual exploitation of minors we've authorized the death penalty for

1:23 pedophiles and that's something that is absolutely Justus this most recent legislative session the legislatur passed and I've already signed legislation which protects children from grooming activities and other sexual offenses uh 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 uh We've also created stricter guidelines for Sex Offender Registration you know these guys would be convicted sex offenders uh and then they'd register at a residence and then they'd go on the other side of the state

2:13 and live on some boat and not register and so people don't know that these offenders are in their community that changes with the law that I've signed we've also strengthened the role of Statewide Guardian adum office U 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 adolescence negatively impacted by commercial exploitation uh this program establishes therapeutic safe foster homes and provides an evidence-based outreach program to serve minor survivors of

2:59 human trafficking through a multidisciplinary trauma and model and I'm happy to announce that this program is now expanding to six additional counties across Florida including pelis 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 uh if they fail to comply with Florida's human trafficking prevention requirements so from July 1st 2023 to the present R DB PRS division of hotels and restaurants have done 25 different administrative complaints to officer to to operations and

3:47 non-compliance and has already netted tens of thousands of dollars in fines for the non-compliance in 2023 we also signed s690 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 uh this important legislation also authorized the department to create a certification program for adult safe homes and so there's a a group that uh rates what you've done uh for uh all the different things involved in in human trafficking uh it's called the the share hope inter National report card and Florida ranked second in the nation for what we've done to combat human trafficking and we're

4:36 going to add two more probably increase so today uh 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 U making uh decisions on the whole budget soon but as we go through and approve things Happ to announce that we are doing that and so I T today announce that I will be approving when I sign the budget uh 4.9 million uh 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

5:20 the recovery process to give survivors a safe place in the immediate aftermath of being rescued from Human Trafficking we ALS "[Music]" I'm also pleased to announce that uh we will have uh 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 uh so that'll be something that would be very very meaningful now of course last month I signed hb35 which expands the evidence that can be presented to a jury in sex abuse cases where the victim is a minor and it increases penalties on those who take

6:08 part in the sex trafficking of miners uh and as a followup I'm here to sign uh 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 so that's the Attorney General leading lieutenant governor sioban there's a lot of uh really important people that are on that uh so that we have a coordinated effort uh between law enforcement and Social Services in terms of combating human trafficking we're also under this

6:47 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 uh entities that fail to do so 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 minor 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

7:37 will ensure that if businesses are not complying with these very modest reasonable requirements whether knowingly or unknowingly uh that they will be held accountable and of course uh 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 in the legisl I think this got close to unanimous support in the legislature I saw there were some that didn't that didn't vote forth but almost everybody did and we appreciate you doing that we're going to continue to to stand strong for those uh who may not be in a position to defend themselves and unfortunately these are very vulnerable

8:17 individuals that are being exploited uh our state it's a great state there's a lot going on uh but part of what means with that is that this is a place where people want to do this and uh we are united front here saying that 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 here in a minute but before I do that we're going to hear from our speakers and so we will begin with our lieutenant governor good afternoon it's great to be here in Miami my hometown Governor we always love when you come I think we always receive you with open arms right

9:02 people love when you're here and as you heard the governor said we are not going to stand item by as it relates to human trafficking Florida is closed for business there is no question about it uh the governor has done great work over the course of our time in office of partnering with the legislature we've seen so many pieces of legislation that really have become a national model when you talk to people across the country they look to Florida they L to our legislative leaders they looked to our governor our attorney general as to what we're doing here and how they can replicate it to end this horrible Scourge and I will tell you I've been in this fight a long time

9:40 prior to me being an elected office um I got involved with an organization back in the M 2000s and I saw what was going on it was really difficult as a mom to Fathom that someone could take advantage of our children and I know you mentioned the great work that the first lady is doing around hope Florida but she also is passionate about this topic and we have so many leaders in this fight and I want to recognize in the legislature we have two members of the legislature that serve on our Statewide Council representative overd and Senator Garcia they are huge Champions and I want to

10:11 publicly thank them for everything that they've done but make no mistake there is no Governor more focused on stopping this perverse evil and Governor Ronda Sanchez year after year I've stood by him I've seen him champion this issue I've seen him dedicate and allocate resources I've seen him insist that law enfor have the proper training and tools to be able to be active Partners in eradicating human trafficking and so I'm glad that this year we get to do even more when the governor signs this signs this legislation he's going to continue to lead the way but we have to insist that we are all part of this we are all

10:44 in this fight together everybody has a role to play we can continue to invest in resources and partner with our organizations uh you know the faith Bas Community we when the governor first got elected he made sure that we had a faith community initiative and the faith-based community is very active in this and I want to thank them and challenge them to dig deeper and to make sure that they're providing the type of resources that they can provide in a manner that of course is going to recognize the importance of faith in our our state government and so with that I want to

11:14 thank the folks at Citrus they do tremendous work I've been able to see firsthand the chance program and the fact that we get to expand it to six additional counties is something that I very proud of and you know the governor's right uh unfortunately because the inability to keep us safe because he refuses to close our border because he's speckless because he has done little to nothing to keep our children safe this Governor has had to step up to the plate and fight that fight every single day and I want to publicly thank him for that