Locals Drum up Support for Anti-Trafficking Initiative

Proposition 35 would expand the definition of human trafficking in California, increase penalties for those convicted, change how evidence can be used in those cases and require extra training for law enforcement personnel.

This is a measure that has garnered a lot of support from one local organization; the San Clemente Abolitionists.

They're holding a free meeting Monday evening at The Cellar to drum up support for the measure. Opal Singleton of the anti-trafficking organization Million Kids will let locals know what they can do to help end modern-day slavery.

Million Kids, among other things, works with the Riverside Sheriff's Department to help prevent human trafficking for sex and labor in that county as part of the Riverside County Anti-Trafficking Task Force.

(Read part three in Patch's Border Black Market series too find out more about how immigrants can be lured and coerced into slavery in Southern California.)

Under Prop 35, duplication and distribution of child pornography would be included under human trafficking, according to California's voter information guide for the 2012 election.

In trafficking cases involving minors, prosecutors would no longer have to prove that coersion occurred.

Also, sex trafficking of minors would be punishable by life in prison, while labor trafficking of adults would carry a 12-year sentence for each count, and sex trafficking of adults would carry a 20-year sentence for each count.