SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘No Trafficking Zones 
Act’’ or the ‘‘NTZ Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds as follows: 
(1) Child sex trafficking can have devastating 
immediate and long-term consequences, including 
health impacts, psychological and physical trauma, 
and even death. 
(2) While any child can be targeted by a traf-
ficker, research, data, survivors’ lived experiences, 
and expertise have revealed that traffickers often 
target vulnerable youth who lack strong support net-
works, supervision, care, or basic necessities, have 
low self-esteem, have experienced violence in the 
past, are experiencing homelessness, are experi-
encing academic difficulties, or are marginalized by 
society, and lure them into forced labor and pros-
titution and other forms of sexual exploitation. Traf-
fickers are masters of manipulation and prey upon 
vulnerabilities using psychological pressure, intimi-
dation, and drugs to control and sexually exploit the 
child for their benefit. 
(3) The National Center for Missing and Ex-
ploited Children (NCMEC) has received reports of 
child sex trafficking in all 50 States, the District of
Columbia, and Puerto Rico. These reports include 
incidents occurring in every type of community, in-
cluding suburban, rural, urban, and Tribal lands. In 
2021, NCMEC received more than 17,200 reports of 
possible child sex trafficking. 
(4) Of 22,326 trafficking victims and survivors 
identified through contacts with the National 
Human Trafficking Hotline in 2019, at least 5,359 
were under age 18. 
(5) Many underage victims of sex trafficking 
are students in the United States school system. No 
community, school, socioeconomic group, or student 
demographic is immune. 
(6) While the internet and social media make 
up the majority of first encounters, traffickers regu-
larly find young people in shopping malls, through 
friends, at bus stops, and at schools. Specifically, 
traffickers systematically target vulnerable children 
and youth by frequenting locations where young peo-
ple congregate, including schools. They also use 
peers or classmates, who befriend the target and 
slowly groom them for the trafficker by bringing the 
young person along to parties and other activities. 
(7) A 2018 survey reported that 55 percent of 
young sex trafficking survivors in Texas were traf-
ficked while at school or school activities and 60 per-
cent of trafficked adults say they were first groomed 
and solicited for trafficking on school campuses. 
(8) Schools can and should be safe havens for 
students. Schools are best positioned to identify and 
report suspected trafficking and connect affected 
students to critical services. Students are more likely 
to report instances of sex trafficking, attempted sex 
trafficking, or grooming for the purposes of sex traf-
ficking where they feel most safe from harm and 
threats. 
SEC. 3. INCREASED PUNISHMENT FOR HUMAN TRAF-
FICKING IN SCHOOL ZONES. 
Section 1591 of title 18, United States Code, is 
amended— 
(1) by redesignating subsection (e) as sub-
section (f); and 
(2) by inserting after subsection (d) the fol-
lowing: 
‘‘(e)(1) Whoever violates subsection (a) in a school 
zone, or on, or within 1,000 feet of, a premises on which 
a school-sponsored activity is taking place, or on, or within 
1,000 feet of a premises owned by an institution of higher 
education, shall, in addition to the punishment otherwise
provided under this section, be imprisoned for not more 
than 5 years. 
‘‘(2) In this subsection: 
‘‘(A) The term ‘school zone’ has the meaning 
given such term in section 921. 
‘‘(B) The term ‘school-sponsored activity’ 
means any activity that is produced, financed, ar-
ranged, supervised, or coordinated by a school or a 
State educational agency or local educational agency 
or is under the jurisdiction of a State educational 
agency or local educational agency. 
‘‘(C) The terms ‘State educational agency’ and 
‘local educational agency’ have the meanings given 
those terms under section 8101 of the Elementary 
and Secondary Education Act of 1965. 
‘‘(D) The term ‘institution of higher education’ 
has the meaning given such term in section 101 of 
the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 
1001).’’. 
SEC. 4. INCREASED PUNISHMENT FOR COERCION AND EN-
TICEMENT IN SCHOOL ZONES. 
Section 2422 of title 18, United States Code, is 
amended—
(1) in subsection (b), by striking ‘‘individual 
who has not attained the age of 18 years’’ and in-
serting ‘‘minor’’; and 
(2) by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(c)(1) Whoever violates subsection (a) or (b) know-
ing, or having reasonable cause to believe, that the viola-
tion is committed against a minor who is enrolled in school 
and is, at the time of the violation, in a school zone or 
on, or within 1,000 feet of, a premises on which a school- 
sponsored activity is taking place, or against a person who 
is enrolled in an institution of higher education and is, 
at the time of the violation on or within 1,000 feet of a 
premises owned by the institution of higher education, 
shall, in addition to the punishment otherwise provided 
under this section, be imprisoned for not more than 5 
years. 
‘‘(2) Paragraph (1) shall not apply in a case in which 
a minor’s presence on, or within 1,000 feet of, the prem-
ises on which a school-sponsored activity is taking place 
is not related to such school-sponsored activity, or the per-
son’s presence on or within 1,000 feet of the premises 
owned by the institution of higher education is not related 
to their enrollment at such institution. 
‘‘(d) In this section: