Sex Trafficking Obliteration Petition Campaign

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814

Dear Governor:

We write on behalf of student advocates and constituents who have joined the Sex Trafficking Obliteration Petition (S.T.O.P) Campaign. This is a petition letter that brings attention to the exacerbating problem of human trafficking. We as citizens of California call for legislation that will protect Asian Pacific Islander survivors who have been sex trafficked into California.

The Department of Justice reports that California is most vulnerable to the illegal smuggling and selling of Asian Pacific Islander women and children. San Francisco Bay Area, San Diego and Los Angeles accounts for nearly 80\% of the sex trafficking that occurs in California. On October 6, 2006, the San Francisco Chronicle reveals that sex trafficking is now an $8 billion international business, with San Francisco among its largest commercial centers. Massage parlors, strip clubs, street prostitution, pornography emporiums, and nightly escort services are among the many avenues in which sex trafficking occurs.

Although Assembly Bill 22 was signed on September 21, 2005, making human trafficking a felony, sex trafficking has fallen under the radar and is on the rise. In February 2007, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom announced his plan to fine and possibly jail landlords who let massage parlors operate as brothels in their buildings. Punishing landlords and massage parlors is not enough to prevent trafficking activities or to assist sex trafficking survivors. Human trafficking is a larger problem that breaches beyond the scope of only massage parlors.

Additionally, the Assembly Bill 22 does not address the enforcement of the newly enacted legislation. Law enforcement must be trained to a level where they can keenly identify and be able to distinguish sex trafficking from other consumer services.

Sex-trafficking victims should not be criminally charged if they have been forced into sex work. While California succeeds in creating a trafficking Task Force under Assembly Bill 22 and granting temporary recovery services for survivors with Senate Bill 1569, enacted on January 1, 2007, the legislation lacks a law enforcement training program, a critical proponent to the sufficient combat of sex trafficking.

Along with the undersigned, I would like to raise attention to the fact that California must take the next step by training law enforcement to detect trafficking conditions. We hope that you will take our stance into consideration to help sex trafficking survivors, a group of individuals who are often invisible and stigmatized by the public.

Tonia Bui and Maytak Chin
Coordinators of the Sex Trafficking Obliteration Petition (STOP) Campaign