MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE
2006 Regular Session
To: Judiciary, Division B
By: Senator(s) Tollison, Albritton
AN ACT TO CREATE THE ANTI-HUMAN TRAFFICKING ACT; TO ENACT DEFINITIONS; TO PROHIBIT TRAFFICKING OF PERSONS FOR FORCED LABOR OR SERVICES, INVOLUNTARY SERVITUDE, SEXUAL SERVITUDE OF A MINOR, AND UNLAWFUL CONDUCT WITH RESPECT TO DOCUMENTS IN FURTHERANCE OF TRAFFICKING OR INVOLUNTARY SERVITUDE, AND TO PROVIDE FOR LIABILITY OF AN ACCOMPLICE IN THOSE ACTS; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:
SECTION 1. For the purposes of this act, the following words and phrases shall have the meanings ascribed herein unless the context clearly requires otherwise:
(a) "Actor" means a person who violates any of the provisions of this act.
(b) "Extortion" means obtaining property or things of value of another by threatening to (i) inflict bodily injury on anyone; (ii) to commit any other criminal offense; or (iii) expose any secret tending to subject any person to hatred, contempt or ridicule.
(c) "Commercial sexual activity" means any sex act on account of which anything of value is given to, promised to, or received by any person.
(d) "Debt bondage" means the status or condition of a debtor arising from a pledge by the debtor of his or her personal services or of those of a person under his or her control as a security for debt, if the value of those services as reasonably assessed is not applied toward the liquidation of the debt or the length and nature of those services are not reasonably limited and defined.
(e) "Financial harm" includes, but is not limited to, extortion as defined by Section 97-3-82, Mississippi Code of 1972, violation of the usury law as defined by Title 75, Chapter 17, Mississippi Code of 1972, or employment contracts that violate Section 15-3-1, Mississippi Code of 1972.
(f) "Forced labor or services" means labor or services, that are performed or provided by another person and are obtained or maintained through an actor:
(i) Causing or threatening to cause serious harm to any person;
(ii) Physically restraining or threatening to physically restrain any person;
(iii) Abusing or threatening to abuse the law or legal process;
(iv) Knowingly destroying, concealing, removing, confiscating or possessing any actual or purported passport or other immigration document, or any other actual or purported government identification document, of another person;
(v) Using extortion;
(vi) Causing or threatening to cause financial harm to any person or using financial control over any person; or
(vii) Using any scheme, plan or pattern intended to cause any person to believe that, if the person did not perform such labor or services, that person or another person would suffer serious harm or physical restraint.
(g) "Labor" means work of economic or financial value.
(h) "Maintain" means, in relation to labor or services, to secure continued performance thereof, regardless of any initial agreement on the part of the trafficked person to perform such labor or service.
(i) "Minor" means a person under the age of eighteen (18) years.
(j) "Obtain" means, in relation to labor or services, to secure performance thereof.
(k) "Services" means an ongoing relationship between a person and the actor in which the person performs activities under the supervision of or for the benefit of the actor or a third party. Commercial sexual activity and sexually explicit performances shall be considered services under this act.
(l) "Sexually-explicit performance" means a live or public act or show intended to arouse or satisfy the sexual desires or appeal to the prurient interests of patrons.
(m) "Trafficked person" means a person subjected to the practices prohibited by this act and is a term used interchangeably with the terms "victim of trafficking" and "trafficking victim."
(n) "Venture" means any group of two (2) or more individuals associated in fact, whether or not a legal entity.
(o) "Sexually oriented material" is defined by Section 97-5-27, Mississippi Code of 1972.
(p) "Human Trafficking" includes, but is not limited to, one or more of the following:
(i) To trade or barter individuals for forced labor or services;
(ii) Involuntary servitude;
(iii) Sexual servitude, or unlawful conduct with respect to documents in furtherance of forced labor or services, involuntary servitude, or sexual conduct.
SECTION 2. Trafficking of Persons for Forced Labor or Services. (1) Whoever knowingly:
(a) Recruits, entices, harbors, transports, provides or obtains by any means, or attempts to recruit, entice, harbor, transport, provide or obtain by any means, another person, intending or knowing that the person will be subjected to forced labor or services; or
(b) Benefits, whether financially or by receiving anything of value, from participation in a venture that has engaged in an act described in violation of subsection (2) or (3) of this section, shall be committed to the custody of the Department of Corrections for not more than twenty (20) years.
(2) Involuntary Servitude. Whoever knowingly subjects, or attempts to subject, another person to forced labor or services shall be punished by commitment to the custody of the Department of Corrections for not more than twenty (20) years.
(3) Sexual Servitude of a Minor. Whoever knowingly subjects, or attempts to subject, or who recruits, entices, harbors, transports, provides or obtains by any means, or attempts to recruit, entice, harbor, transport, provide or obtain by any means, a minor knowing that the minor will engage in commercial sexual activity, sexually-explicit performance, or the production of sexually oriented material or causes or attempts to cause a minor to engage in commercial sexual activity, sexually–explicit performance, or the production of sexually oriented material shall be punished by commitment to the custody of the Department of Corrections as follows:
(a) In cases involving a minor between the ages of sixteen (16) and eighteen (18) years, not involving force or threat of force, for not more than twenty (20) years;
(b) In cases in which the minor had not attained the age of sixteen (16) years, not involving force or threat of force, for not more than twenty-five (25) years; and
(c) In cases in which the violation was sexual servitude of a minor, for not more than thirty (30) years.
(4) Unlawful Conduct with Respect to Documents in Furtherance of Trafficking or Involuntary Servitude. Anyone who knowingly destroys, conceals, removes, confiscates or possesses, or attempts to destroy, conceal, remove, confiscate or possess, any actual or purported passport or other immigration document, or any other actual or purported government identification document, of any person to prevent or restrict or attempt to prevent or restrict, without lawful authority, the person's liberty to move or travel in order to maintain the labor or services of that person, when the person is or has been a victim of a violation set out in subsection (1), (2) or (3) shall be punished by commitment to the custody of the Department of Corrections for not more than five (5) years.
(5) Accomplice liability. Whoever knowingly aids abets or conspires with one or more persons to violate subsection (1), (2), (3) or (4) of this section shall be punishable in the same manner as for a completed violation of that subsection.
SECTION 3. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2006.