AUSTIN, Texas — Texas has become the first state in the nation to provide assistance to domestic human-trafficking victims with a landmark law that Gov. Rick Perry signed into law Aug. 20.
Among the groups that helped shepherd the bipartisan bill through the Lone Star State’s legislature was the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission.
Human-trafficking victims account for 74 percent of the sex-trade market, according to statistics provided by the commission. The State Department reports nearly 20 percent of the nation’s human-trafficking victims come through Texas. Houston and El Paso recently were named major trafficking hubs.
The bill establishes a statewide Human Trafficking Prevention Task Force in the attorney general’s office, creates a human trafficking training component for law-enforcement officers, starts a program to connect services to trafficking victims and begins a grant program for groups that provide assistance to domestic trafficking victims. (TAB)
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