Reps. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) and Robin Kelly (D-IL) recently reintroduced a bill designed to amend the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, encouraging a victim-centered approach to combat human trafficking.
The Reducing the Demand for Human Trafficking Act targets those who purchase or solicit human trafficking services while holding them accountable for the crimes, reducing the demand.
The legislators said Illinois ranks among the highest in trafficking rates nationwide. Sex traffickers sell their victims multiple times a day, and often the victims are children.
“Human trafficking is often hidden in plain sight, but it is happening here in Illinois and across the country,” Kinzinger said. “In my district, the City of Rockford ranks second in highest cases of trafficking in the state, and the daily numbers are deeply disturbing.”
He said cutting off the demand and stopping the supply aids the process of ending human trafficking. Kelly said the nature of human trafficking requires a strategy addressing the suppliers and individuals who solicit and purchase the services of trafficked victims.
“The Reducing Demand for Human Trafficking Act of 2021 holds those individuals accountable for their crimes and incentivizes law enforcement to go after the solicitors of victims of human trafficking,” she said.