Date: 2010-12-21
Speaker: DANIEL E. LUNGREN (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. We rarely speak on this floor of evil. Most of the issues we talk about are areas of controversy where you can have men and women of good will with areas of disagreement. And in our society we shun the idea of talking about evil because it sounds judgmental. This is one example where evil reigns. This is an example of one of the worst kinds of evil in our society today because this affects the most vulnerable among us. and it is a population that is largely hidden from view. in some cases because we avert our eyes. In other cases because we just dont spend the time to know. The problem of domestic sex trafficking of minors is one that plagues virtually every community in America. Thats the surprise for many people. They say. Not here. somewhere else. New York City. The big cities. But its a problem that knows no jurisdictional boundaries. as traffickers and pimps seem to cross national and international borders with impunity. It is a problem which exploits the young and vulnerable and robs them of their innocence. and it is a problem that we can do something about. Believe it or not. many of my constituents. many in the general Sacramento region. would be surprised to know that we hold the unfortunate distinction of having one of the highest incidences of domestic minor sex trafficking in the Nation. at least according to the FBI when they did their stings just a year or so ago. One of the reasons could be that were at the intersection of major thoroughfares that go north and south and come east and west. That might be a comforting thought to others to think its coming from somewhere else. but we find that most of the people come from our own region and most of them are victims. We have a courageous police chief just outside my district in the community of Truckee. right near Lake Tahoe. Police Chief Nick Sensley. Hes one of the experts in the world on this. And one of the things he always stresses in the programs hes established is this: these young women. these girls are victims. They get caught up in arrests for prostitution and the system looks at them as criminals. Yet you look at almost every single one of them and they are victims. And we dont do much about it. Oftentimes. when these young girls are able to escape from their imprisonment because law enforcement intervenes. theyre let out on the streets shortly thereafter with nowhere to go. And what happens? The pimps start coming around again. And guess what? Theyre the only one that gives them some perverted idea of love. affection. and commitment. This evil allows the perversion such that these young girls have no other place to look. We have got to do something about this. Were beginning to do something in California and in Sacramento. Were beginning to do it in other areas of the country. We have to do it as a Nation even more than we have done it before because. as I say. these pimps dont recognize boundaries. They certainly dont recognize laws. They recognize one thing and that is the vulnerability of these young girls. We have got to do something. and in this Christmas season. we can do nothing better than to give this great gift of a start towards helping communities understand the nature of the problem. begin to allow us to refuse to avert our eyes to whats happening in our own areas. and allow us to support this legislation which will help move us in the right direction.