Congratulations to Max Baucus (D) and Charles Grassley (R) for sponsoring a U.S. Customs bill that bans the import of all goods made with convict labor, forced labor, or forced or indentured child labor. The bill requires that a newly created office in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) annually report to Congress… on the volume and value of goods made with child labor, forced labor or convict labor that have been stopped at the border.
Click HERE for Rachel Maddow’s MSNBC report.
Legislation introduced by San Francisco Supervisor Carmen Chu and Mayor Gavin Newsom supported by the Not For Sale Campaign passed with a near unanimous vote. The new legislation will increase transparency and provide additional regulation over the massage industry in San Francisco, an extremely high probability industry in San Francisco for trafficking. Not For Sale Campaign President, David Batstone, provided testimony in support of both pieces of legislation. Among the needed changes this new legislation enhances the ability of the city to revoke licenses from high-probability industries and increases cooperation and dialogue between various regulating agencies, needed changes David has advocated for since the beginning of the campaign.
Not For Sale would like to thank Mayor Gavin Newsom and Supervisor Carmen Chu for their work introducing legislation that would increase the cities ability to prevent trafficking from occuring.
We at Not For Sale would like to take this opportunity to thank the voters of San Francisco for taking an analytical look at Proposition K and realizing the dangerous implications it contained for victims of trafficking.
As an organization Not for Sale, along with the “No On K” Coalition, actively worked to defeat this Proposition and on November 4th San Franciscans came out and voiced their opposition to K. Proponents to K attempted to hide the dangerous implications of K by downplaying the significant role human trafficking plays within the industry in San Francisco and characterizing the efforts of Not for Sale and other organizations as “racial profiling”.
Upon first glance Proposition K, a proposition to decriminalize prostitution, might seem like a ballot measure that would increase the rights of individuals working within the sex industry. In reality this proposition, masquerading as a progressive measure, would have greatly undermined the efforts of local law enforcement to prevent and combat human trafficking. This initiative would have essentially tied the hands of San Francisco law enforcement when attempting to combat human trafficking. San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris voiced her opposition for Proposition K stating it “would expressly bar the investigation and prosecution of human trafficking crimes… Many people in the commercial sex trade have been trafficked and forced to participate in commercial sex. This measure would attempt to provide safe harbor to their traffickers.”
The dark secret about Proposition K, discovered by many San Francisco voters, is that Prop K would have created a legal loophole emboldening human traffickers within San Francisco by providing them with virtually free reign. Not for Sale and many others worked tirelessly to ensure that victims of human trafficking were not further marginalized by the passage of Proposition K.
Lets continue to work together to ensure the victims of human trafficking have the rights and services they desperately need and deserve.
Thank you San Francisco for your support!
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