Death threats and pedophilia accusations. How child trafficking took over California's Capitol

California Democrats spent the final few days before summer recess in an 
unusual spot: embroiled in a legislative fight with Republicans, who 
typically operate in the shadow of the state’s blue supermajority. 

The cause? A bill to strengthen penalties for child sex traffickers that 
lawmakers killed ahead of a looming legislative deadline. 

By the time they left Sacramento last week, Democrats had doubled back and 
advanced Senate Bill 14 in an emergency hearing of the Assembly Public 
Safety committee, likely at the behest of both Gov. Gavin Newsom and 
Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, D-Hollister. 

And Republicans were celebrating a “win for law and order in California” 
with bill author Sen. Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield. 

How did a party with almost no power in California manage to achieve a 
political win?

In part by employing simplistic, fear-based messaging that exploited the 
divide between progressive and moderate Democrats on criminal justice 
reform. Social media posts amplifying the bill’s failure suggested 
Democrats are soft on crime, especially related to children. 

Their arguments in favor of the bill also carried a whiff of the far-right 
GOP conspiracy theory related to Democrats and pedophilia. 

Here’s what to know as Democrats continue to deal with the fallout.

CALIFORNIA HUMAN TRAFFICKING 
Human trafficking occurs when people are forced or coerced to perform 
work. Most reported human trafficking cases deal with sex trafficking, or 
forced sex work, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. 

During her testimony before the Assembly Public Safety Committee on July 
11, Grove called the state a “hub for human trafficking.”

Trafficking is under-reported, but data from the National Human 
Trafficking Hotline shows California’s share of national cases declined 
from 2015 to 2021, the PPIC reported. The state accounted for about 18% of 
cases nationwide in 2015, a number that dipped to about 13% by 2021. 

The Trafficking Hotline in 2021 identified 1,334 cases in California 
involving 2,122 victims. Its demographic data collection is not complete, 
but 978 identified victims were adults and 246 were children.

TRAFFICKING SENTENCING REFORM 

Child sex trafficking is already a felony in California, but it is not on 
the list of crimes considered “serious felonies.” 

People convicted of child sex trafficking currently face five to 12 years 
in prison and a $500,000 fine. The penalty jumps to 15 years to life if 
the crime involves violence, coercion, fear or threats. 

Crimes considered serious felonies are eligible for sentencing under 
California’s controversial “three strikes” law, which significantly 
increases prison time for repeat offenders.

Grove last year authored a broader bill that attempted to add human 
trafficking to the lists of violent and serious felonies. The measure died 
in the Senate Public Safety Committee. This year, she amended SB 14 to 
more narrowly apply to those trafficking minors. 

California lawmakers have tried repeatedly and unsuccessfully since 2007 
to create more stringent penalties for human traffickers, according to 
reporting by CalMatters. 

The tricky nature of reclassifying trafficking crimes was on display at 
the July 11 hearing.

Sharmin Bock, a former Alameda County district attorney, testified that 
Grove’s bill is necessary because child sex traffickers rarely serve their 
entire prison sentences, emboldening them to re-offend.

But survivor April Grayson of the Sister Warriors Freedom Coalition 
tearfully opposed the bill, saying it can unintentionally sweep in victims 
forced into acting on behalf of their traffickers.

REPUBLICANS BACK DEMOCRATS INTO A CORNER

California has spent the past 15 years moving away from the tough-on-crime 
sentencing laws that created overcrowded prisons filled with Black and 
brown people. A panel of federal judges in 2009 ordered the state to begin 
reducing the incarcerated population.

That resulted in a series of changes that reclassified some lower-level 
crimes from felonies to misdemeanors, shifted some prison inmates to 
county jails and increased opportunities for people to earn credits and 
reduce their sentences.

Progressive Democrats have been hesitant to support bills that would 
increase penalties, wanting to avoid a return to policies promoting mass 
incarceration.

This has created an opening for Republicans, who have spent much of the 
year attacking Democrats and Assembly Public Safety Committee Chair Reggie 
Jones-Sawyer, D-Los Angeles, for opposing measures that would add prison 
time for fentanyl dealers.

Jones-Sawyer had to back down this spring and hear the series of fentanyl 
bills he previously declined to bring before the panel. Members still 
killed the measures that would have strengthened penalties for dealers.

But when it came to SB 14, four Democrats reversed course and joined two 
Republicans to vote in favor of SB 14 at the emergency meeting on July 13.

That may be due in part to a messaging war the GOP undertook after the 
bill failed.

Republicans pushed social media messages saying Democrats rejected efforts 
to make trafficking of minors a serious felony. The posts did not include 
any context around existing penalties or what a serious felony means in 
California.

The posts and news stories spread far enough to attract the attention of 
Twitter owner Elon Musk, who replied to a tweet about the situation, 
saying, “A. How is it not already a serious felony? B. Wtf!?”

Human trafficking has long been a strong issue for Republicans. This is 
especially true in far right corners of the party, where conspiracy 
theorists have perpetuated myths that Democratic leaders are trafficking 
children.

Assemblyman Heath Flora, R-Modesto, alluded to this during the July 13 
Assembly floor session, when he asked his colleagues to choose a team: 
“Pick pedophiles or children.”

Jones-Sawyer told reporters after the bill passed out of his committee 
that some members had received death threats after the July 11 meeting.

Assemblyman Isaac Bryan, D-Los Angeles, was one of two committee members 
who declined to vote on the bill during the second hearing.

“The number of times in the last day people have suggested my (fiancée 
and) family be sex trafficked is a reminder that this was not a policy 
conversation,” Bryan said in a Twitter post.

SB 14 now heads to the Assembly Appropriations Committee after the 
Legislature returns from its summer recess on Aug. 14.

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