A new bill introduced in the Tennessee General Assembly would increase the penalty for trafficking illegal aliens in the Volunteer State.
HB 2078 “prohibits any person from transporting an illegal alien into this state [and] increases from $1,000 to $5,000 the fine for transporting illegal aliens.”
The bill was introduced by State Representative Bryan Richey (R-Maryville).
The General Assembly has recently turned its focus to human trafficking of all kinds.
During its August special session, an anti-human trafficking bill was passed and signed into law.
That bill requires the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) to “submit a report on child and human trafficking crimes and trends in this state, based upon data available to the bureau, as well as current programs and activities of the bureau’s human trafficking unit, to the governor, the speaker of the house of representatives, and the speaker of the senate by December 1, 2023, and by each December 1 thereafter.”
The Tennessee Faith and Freedom Coalition (TNFFC) played a large role in the passage of that bill.
“Today was another victory in the lengthy, ongoing quest to eradicate child and human trafficking, modern-day slavery, in the state of Tennessee,” the TNFFC said in a statement at the time. “We are grateful to the Tennessee House of Representatives for their approval of HB7041/SB7088 for Special Session today.”
“We started this entire Special Session process vehemently disagreeing with Governor Lee on some issues not related to trafficking,” the TNFFC said. “Very frankly, we even called for him to cancel this Special Session.”
The session was supposed to focus on gun control and was called in response to a mass shooting at The Covenant School that killed six last March.
“To his credit, Governor Lee listened to our concerns on those issues, acknowledged and took them to heart, and then showed true leadership on this issue,” TNFFC said. “It is a true credit to a leader when they put aside certain differences and work together with stakeholders for the common good. In our view, there is no other issue more important than saving children, women, and even men from being victimized by modern-day slavery. Thank you, Governor Lee.”
The first TBI report on human trafficking of minors in the state noted an 800 percent increase in the practice over a five-year period, as reported by The Tennessee Star.
The report said that minor sex trafficking “dramatically increased from 66 in 2016 to over 600 by 2021″ and that those numbers were similar for 2022 and 2023.
– – –
Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on X / Twitter.
Photo “Illegal Immigrants” by John Modlin.
