The Global Slavery Index estimates that there are 35.8 million people trapped in modern slavery this day. There are an estimated 60,100 people trapped in slavery in the United States. Iowa has an impact on human trafficking in the United States, because interstate 80 and interstate 35 intersect in Iowa. That means that many of the people being trafficked in the United States go through Iowa at some point. Mike Ferjak, who leads the Iowa Attorney General’s Human Trafficking Enforcement and Prosecution Initiative, said the following in an interview for the Des Moines Register: “The biggest challenge is in shifting public thinking about human trafficking”. He also cited a study that suggested that 75 percent of law enforcement do not believe that human trafficking occurs in their area of jurisdiction. That is simply not true, and until law enforcement and citizens realize that human trafficking is more prevalent today than ever before, and until all are aware of the severity of the situation, nothing is going to change.
Currently, human trafficking is a class D felony in Iowa, unless the victim is a minor, in which case it is a class C felony. That means that the maximum punishment a person could have for human trafficking a minor is ten years in prison and a $10,000 fine. This is preposterous. Human trafficking of adults is treated the same as pimping or pandering adults, when it is a far more severe situation. It is taking away the humanity of another person, and selling them as property. Human trafficking of minors is in the same class as assaults that are intended to and do cause serious injury. Human trafficking is a horrific crime, and needs to be treated as such. It is not the same as pimping, it is not the same as assault. It needs to be punished more severely, or it will never end. Human trafficking needs to be made a class B felony for minors, and a class C felony for adults.
