Human Trafficking Victims Should Not Be Charged As Sex Offenders
The Issue
Many victims of human trafficking in Texas are criminalized, and we want to see that changed. Pimps coerce their victims into doing their dirty work so they have no paper trail to convict them. They make their victims do things such as renting hotel rooms under their name, answering phone calls to Johns, recruiting and teaching other victims how to solicit themselves, etc.
Under Texas law, anyone who has any involvement in someone being trafficked, such as anything listed above, can be sentenced as a trafficker, and charged as a sex offender.
SB11 was passed in 2025 to dismiss charges for trafficking victims who committed crimes under their pimp’s control. However, this was limited to lesser crimes, and excludes human trafficking.
We want the law to be changed, so that if someone is a victim of human trafficking, they will get rehabilitation instead of a prison sentence if they end up trafficking others or are forced to participate in the act of trafficking.
When a human trafficking survivor is convicted as a sex offender, they have to go through a sex offender treatment program in prison, which can be very traumatizing. After prison, they will have to register as a sex offender for the remainder of their life.
We are a ministry called Citizens Against Sex Trafficking that helps victims of trafficking, primarily in the prison system in Texas. We are wanting laws to change because we have met women who have been through this atrocity, and we feel compelled to do something about it.
Below is a real life example of a woman we help.
“I was trafficked 5 times, mostly when I was a minor. The last time I was trafficked, my pimp was trafficking a minor as well. He made me show her how to do things.
When the cops showed up, they arrested me along with my trafficker, and we are both in prison, though I never made a dime, and my trafficker had $1,500 on him from the minor he trafficked.
He made me hold his two phones when we were being arrested so it looked like I was responsible for trafficking. He also blamed me for everything when questioned by the police.
My lawyer was court appointed and had no education about human trafficking, so he did not help me in the way I could’ve been helped.
I am currently serving a 15 year sentence in prison and will have to register as a sex offender for the rest of my life.”
The Texas governor and the legislature need to change the law to protect victims of human trafficking.
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The Issue
Many victims of human trafficking in Texas are criminalized, and we want to see that changed. Pimps coerce their victims into doing their dirty work so they have no paper trail to convict them. They make their victims do things such as renting hotel rooms under their name, answering phone calls to Johns, recruiting and teaching other victims how to solicit themselves, etc.
Under Texas law, anyone who has any involvement in someone being trafficked, such as anything listed above, can be sentenced as a trafficker, and charged as a sex offender.
SB11 was passed in 2025 to dismiss charges for trafficking victims who committed crimes under their pimp’s control. However, this was limited to lesser crimes, and excludes human trafficking.
We want the law to be changed, so that if someone is a victim of human trafficking, they will get rehabilitation instead of a prison sentence if they end up trafficking others or are forced to participate in the act of trafficking.
When a human trafficking survivor is convicted as a sex offender, they have to go through a sex offender treatment program in prison, which can be very traumatizing. After prison, they will have to register as a sex offender for the remainder of their life.
We are a ministry called Citizens Against Sex Trafficking that helps victims of trafficking, primarily in the prison system in Texas. We are wanting laws to change because we have met women who have been through this atrocity, and we feel compelled to do something about it.
Below is a real life example of a woman we help.
“I was trafficked 5 times, mostly when I was a minor. The last time I was trafficked, my pimp was trafficking a minor as well. He made me show her how to do things.
When the cops showed up, they arrested me along with my trafficker, and we are both in prison, though I never made a dime, and my trafficker had $1,500 on him from the minor he trafficked.
He made me hold his two phones when we were being arrested so it looked like I was responsible for trafficking. He also blamed me for everything when questioned by the police.
My lawyer was court appointed and had no education about human trafficking, so he did not help me in the way I could’ve been helped.
I am currently serving a 15 year sentence in prison and will have to register as a sex offender for the rest of my life.”
The Texas governor and the legislature need to change the law to protect victims of human trafficking.
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Petition created on September 3, 2026