KCRA3
SACRAMENTO, Calif. —
The California Legislature on Monday officially sent Gov. Gavin Newsom a high-profile proposal to crack down on buyers in the child sex trafficking trade.
The California State Senate gave the Legislature’s final stamp of approval on Assembly Bill 379 in a 33-2 vote. Newsom has already signaled he supports at least part of the proposal.
Democratic Senators either rejected or abstained for the measure. That includes Senators Chris Cabaldon and Scott Wiener, who voted no. Senators Lola Smallwood- Cuevas, Monique Limon, Laura Richardson, and Akilah Weber-Pierson abstained from the vote.
The proposed law has divided Democrats in a nearly two-year-long debate over whether offenders who purchase 16 and 17-year-olds for sex should face the same consequences as those who buy younger children.
AB 379 makes it more likely for older adults in California to face a felony if they buy 16-year-olds and 17-year-olds for sex. State law allows for a felony if the child is under the age of 16, and if 16 and 17-year-olds can prove they are being trafficked.
AB 379 would add a third way for prosecutors to secure a felony based on the age of the offender. If the adult is more than three years older than the minor victim, 16 and up, they would face a felony under the new proposal.
“California must take action and hold buyers accountable; we have to reduce demand,” said State Sen. Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield, who wrote a version of this proposal last year. “We have to take a bold stand, and that’s exactly what AB 379 does.”
This is a step forward to provide justice and protect victims of child sex trafficking,” said State Sen. Jesse Arreguin.
The proposal would also make it a crime again in California to loiter with the intent to purchase anyone for sex, which faced the most pushback from progressive Democrats in Monday’s Senate floor debate.
“We should not be creating new loitering laws in the state of California in the year of 2025,” said State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, who wrote a law that passed in 2021 that decriminalized loitering with the intent to engage in prostitution. “The problem with loitering laws, it’s not about what you’re doing, it’s all about how you look.”
“A crime of sex trafficking is wrong, prostitution is wrong, solicitation is also wrong, the question is whether loitering should be a crime and a misdemeanor?” questioned State Sen. Laura Richardson, D- Los Angeles, who then pointed to Emmett Till, who was lynched for offending a white woman in 1955. “Loitering is not. I call on the authors to fix this bill and make it right.”
Richardson also said the Senate’s Democratic leadership would not allow lawmakers to submit changes to the proposal before Monday’s vote. It’s not clear exactly why, but Democrats had already been ensnarled in drama over the proposal earlier this year.
In April, Democrats in the Assembly blocked the felony piece of the proposal but then backpedaledwhen faced with backlash from members of their own party, including Gov. Newsom.
Assemblymember Maggy Krell, D-Sacramento, wrote the original version of the bill but was punished by Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas after she spoke out against his leadership for preparing to slash the felony from the proposal. Rivas removed Krell’s name from the bill and made Assembly Public Safety Chairman Nick Schultz the lead author instead. Schultz has since carried the bill through the State Senate.
The proposal sailed through the Senate, despite opponents raising new concerns that the legislation would make it easier for immigration authorities to deport undocumented immigrants. Some Republicans said purchasing a child for sex or loitering to buy one should be a deportable offense.
