Full Text of SR0590 95th General Assembly
SR0590 95TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
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| SENATE RESOLUTION
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| WHEREAS, HR 3887, as introduced and passed with only two | 3 |
| dissents in the U.S. House of Representatives, introduces a | 4 |
| cohesive legal framework for fighting trafficking by combining | 5 |
| and streamlining efforts against the international and | 6 |
| domestic sale of human beings; and
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| WHEREAS, HR 3887 constitutionally targets the demand for | 8 |
| international trafficking by directly addressing the networks | 9 |
| that buy and sell women and children for commercial sexual | 10 |
| exploitation; and
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| WHEREAS, HR 3887 removes a barrier to effective | 12 |
| prosecutions against traffickers by making "force, fraud, and | 13 |
| coercion" part of aggravated trafficking rather than a | 14 |
| requirement for all convictions; and
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| WHEREAS, HR 3887 makes exporting sexual exploiters to other | 16 |
| countries ("sex-tourism") as significant a crime as importing | 17 |
| victims for sexual exploitation; and
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| WHEREAS, HR 3887, as drafted in and passed by the U.S. | 19 |
| House of Representatives, will assist many victims of | 20 |
| trafficking and the sex trade in Illinois; in Chicago alone, | 21 |
| 16,000-25,000 women and girls are involved in prostitution |
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| every year; statewide, an estimated 6,500 youth are prostituted | 2 |
| annually; this bill will enhance legal options on a federal | 3 |
| level to help stem a significant piece of why so many women and | 4 |
| children are forced into the sex trade in Chicago and Illinois: | 5 |
| the pimps and traffickers; and
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| WHEREAS, Sixty-two percent of women and girls in | 7 |
| prostitution in Illinois were first pimped out before they were | 8 |
| 18; many adult women in Illinois are also trafficked and pimped | 9 |
| by third parties who financially profit from keeping them in | 10 |
| prostitution; the majority of these adult women would face | 11 |
| violence if they did not give the money they make in the sex | 12 |
| trade to these third parties; and
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| WHEREAS, Pimps and traffickers do not always use force, | 14 |
| fraud or coercion to bring adult women into prostitution, but | 15 |
| pimping and trafficking is always unlawful, and it is virtually | 16 |
| always practiced on previously harmed, notably vulnerable and | 17 |
| objectively disempowered women; and
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| WHEREAS, Seventy-five percent of women and girls in | 19 |
| prostitution in Illinois are survivors of sexual assault - most | 20 |
| of multiple rapes - and 66% are victims of incest; and
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| WHEREAS, Fifty percent of women and girls in prostitution | 22 |
| are homeless; often, trading sex is the only means of survival |
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| for these women and girls; pimps and traffickers often exploit | 2 |
| these economic hardships to maintain adults and children in | 3 |
| prostitution; many traffickers and pimps profit from the | 4 |
| commercial sexual exploitation-while the women and children | 5 |
| trafficked remain poor; and
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| WHEREAS, Recognizing that trafficking is a serious and | 7 |
| over-looked problem in Illinois, the General Assembly | 8 |
| implemented Public Act 94-0009, the Trafficking of Persons and | 9 |
| Involuntary Servitude Act; though a powerful first step in the | 10 |
| fight against sex trafficking, state resources are limited and | 11 |
| local prosecutors do not have the ability to research, uncover | 12 |
| and prosecute domestic trafficking cases; many local | 13 |
| traffickers are not held accountable and continue to prey upon | 14 |
| victims in Illinois; HR 3887 will assist victims in Illinois by | 15 |
| allowing federal resources to be used to prosecute local | 16 |
| traffickers; therefore, be it
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| RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-FIFTH GENERAL | 18 |
| ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that Federal | 19 |
| anti-trafficking laws should focus on the actions of people and | 20 |
| businesses that prostitute others, not on the resistance level | 21 |
| of victims; and be it further
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| RESOLVED, That prostituted women and children often appear | 23 |
| to be in the industry by choice when they are anything but |
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| free; and be it further
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| RESOLVED, That lies about victim "willingness" to engage in | 3 |
| the sex trade are now being used by pimps and traffickers to | 4 |
| avoid accountability for modern day slavery and the sexual | 5 |
| exploitation of the world's most vulnerable and harmed people, | 6 |
| prominently women and children, but also boys, men, and | 7 |
| transgendered individuals; and be it further
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| RESOLVED, That the U.S. House of Representatives and our | 9 |
| Illinois Delegation are commended for their leadership in | 10 |
| expanding federal anti-trafficking legislation so that it more | 11 |
| accurately represents the experiences of victims in Illinois | 12 |
| and expands the ability of federal prosecutors to bring | 13 |
| domestic traffickers to justice; and be it further
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| RESOLVED, That the Illinois State Senate supports HR 3887 | 15 |
| as passed, and we urge our U.S. Senators to champion federal | 16 |
| anti-trafficking legislation by supporting the passage of HR | 17 |
| 3887, without modification, in the U.S. Senate; and be it | 18 |
| further
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| RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be | 20 |
| forwarded to United States Senators Richard J. Durbin and | 21 |
| Barack Obama.
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