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Final Report on 2025 Iowa Anti-trafficking Legislation

Session successes:

  • Secured $150,000 for human trafficking survivor services grants in the Justice Systems Budget.
  • Passed HF1036 Comprehensive HT legislation through the House Full House. It’s eligible for discussion in the Senate next session.
  • Passed HF649 updating the definition of human trafficking and services.
  • Supported SJR9 AG’s Constitutional Amendment allowing remote court testimony for certain children.
  • Supported SF150 which increase the fines/penalities for sexual exploitation of a minor.
  • Supported HF180 which makes grooming a criminal offense and requires registration on the sex offender registry.

Tap here for a full explanation of the human trafficking related legislation.

June 23 Marks NAHT 20th Anniversary

On June 23, the NAHT will celebrate its 20th anniversary. Please consider honoring this milestone by supporting Iowa’s only statewide non-profit, all-volunteer organization fighting human trafficking.

During our 20th anniversary fundraising campaign, we’re hoping to raise $20,000. Money will be used to help the NAHT to increase awareness and thereby the prevention of this heinous crime of human trafficking. Your generous support will also help us to make tremendous progress in improving public policy and legislation.

Individual donors are the main source of revenue for the NAHT, followed by the faith community and businesses. We receive no state or federal funding but have instead advocated for state funding of victim and survivor direct service providers. In 2024, the NAHT incurred expenses of $23,512 but contributions of only $16,673, leaving a shortfall of $6,839. Obviously, the current need is truly urgent.

Ways you can help us to reach our $20,000 goal:

  • Donate on our website now. Thank you in advance for your support!

    Share our 20th anniversary campaign with your church, service club, and friends. Invite them to join the cause.

  • Make your own donation on our website now.
  • Mail a check to Iowa NAHT, 5508 Lincoln Way, Ames, IA 50014.

None of the progress and achievements of the last 20 years would have been possible without the indispensable support and contributions of anti-trafficking advocates.

Will you help the NAHT reach its $20,000 goal by donating $20 for the 20th anniversary? Can you do any amount that is a multiple of $20, such as $200? Any amount will be greatly appreciated.

Guatemalan Workers Sue Iowa Egg Company, Alleging Human Trafficking

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa by attorneys for six Guatemalan citizens, all of whom lived in Belmond, Eagle Grove, Clarion, or Webster City while working for Centrum Valley Farms in recent years.

Named as defendants are Centrum Valley Farms of Clarion and company manager Jose Cornejo.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages for harassment, discrimination and retaliation; wrongful discharge; human trafficking related to forced labor; violations of wage-and-hour laws related to overtime pay, and violations of the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act.

The plaintiffs claim Centrum Valley Farms recruited them to work at the company’s Clarion egg farm and packaging facility and helped them obtain work-authorization documents from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, with Cornejo acting as their supervisor.

On a daily basis, Cornejo, who is Mexican, made “repeated unwelcome comments disparaging the plaintiffs for their Guatemalan national origin,” the lawsuit claims. Cornejo is accused of telling the plaintiffs all Guatemalans were lazy and that he wanted to replace them with Mexicans or Americans.

When the Guatemalans complained about Cornejo to other managers, the harassment allegedly grew worse with Cornejo threatening to have them deported. “Cornejo even brought a firearm to work, showed it to the plaintiffs, and displayed it in his office to intimidate the plaintiffs and silence their complaints,” the lawsuit claims.

Tap here to read more about this Iowa labor trafficking case.

Department of Labor Terminates Grants that Fight International Human Trafficking, Promote Labor Rights

On March 26, the new head of the International Labor Affairs Bureau (ILAB), John Clark, issued a message to the agency announcing the immediate termination of all the agency’s existing grant programs.

The ILAB is a sub-agency of the Department of Labor responsible for strengthening and promoting good labor standards around the world. While the rest of the Department of Labor is primarily focused on the rights and wellbeing of workers working within U.S. borders, in a world with an interconnected global economy, ILAB’s work recognizes that international cooperation on labor standards is also key to protecting workers and job quality here in the U.S. Without strong labor standards abroad, countries will find themselves in a race to the bottom to provide cheap or exploited labor for multinational corporations. The agency participates in trade negotiations on behalf of the U.S. government and provides research and evaluation on the state of fair labor conditions around the world to inform policymaking. ILAB played a central role in monitoring and enforcing labor standards in Mexico under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement.

Tap here to read more about the termination of anti-trafficking grants.

Americans Think Human Trafficking Is a Major Global Problem

Most Americans recognize human trafficking as a serious global issue. Nearly all respondents (86.2%) in a new national survey strongly agree that trafficking is a problem worldwide. When asked about trafficking in the United States, agreement remains high at 82.4%. But when the focus turns local, confidence drops by more than half — only 36.3% strongly agree that trafficking is a problem in their state.

The findings come from “’Americans’ Perceptions of Human Trafficking in the United States,” based on a University of California, Irvine-led study in collaboration with EverFree. The nationally representative sample of 1,027 U.S. adults was co-developed with survivors of human trafficking to explore public understanding of what trafficking is, the scale of the issue, how it impacts society and victims, and who should manage it.

The study highlights several misconceptions about human trafficking. One of the most persistent myths is that kidnapping is a common method traffickers use to recruit victims. Among survey participants, targeted kidnapping ranked among the top five tactics they believed traffickers most often use, despite research showing it’s among the least common. Even in child trafficking situations, kidnapping is involved in only an estimated 0.45% of cases. In reality, false job offers, economic coercion, and manipulation by family members or intimate partners are far more prevalent.

In addition, perceptions of vulnerability to trafficking overlook many victims. When asked what factors make someone vulnerable to trafficking, 76.6% of respondents said being a woman increases vulnerability “a great deal.” By contrast, only 2.2% said the same for men. This perception aligns with media portrayals of trafficking but not with actual data. Human trafficking affects people of all genders, though men and boys are less likely to be identified and supported.

“This data reinforces one of the biggest challenges in addressing human trafficking: People assume it happens elsewhere,” said Kelsey Morgan, Co-Founder and CEO of EverFree. “When communities don’t see trafficking as a local issue, or believe trafficking primarily happens through dramatic kidnappings and only to women, they might miss the far more common scenarios unfolding in plain sight around them. They might not push for better policies that protect survivors and those at risk in their communities. That’s why shifting the narrative — by working with survivors and taking a more data-driven approach to the issue — is so important. The more accurately we understand trafficking, the better we can prevent it.”

The Fight to End Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act

Section 230 of the US Communications Decency Act denies justice to those who experience the most heinous of crimes at the hands of social media. Anti-trafficking advocates are asking Congress to repeal Section 230. Unless this dangerous law is repealed, tech companies will continue to profit from the abuse and exploitation of children. They will not change until Congress compels them to.

Here is an example of the damage being done by Section 230. Three teen girls, all with near-identical experiences of how they were sex trafficked on Meta’s platforms.

To read the stories of the three teen girls, tap here.

Iowa Survivor Story Told in a New Book

A Wings of Refuge (based in Ames) graduate has become a published author. Wings of Refuge is celebrating the restoration and reclamation of hope for survivor Cara Page, who was led to share her experience with the community. Cara’s story exemplifies the journey of restoration not as a destination but a day-to-day walk alongside a community of support.

It’s not every day that Wings of Refuge is able to provide the community with such an in-depth look at what a survivor’s journey is truly like, but Cara felt the time was right. Find your copy of “TRAFFICKED The Story of a Real Survivor – From Entrapment to Redemption” in their storefront or online store.

Temporary Agricultural Slavery Program

Courtesy of the United Farm Workers

A joint investigation by the Department of Labor, Homeland Security, the State Department, the FBI and other federal agencies has uncovered what they called “modern-day slavery” in several southern U.S. states.

The federal investigation began looking into abuses in the H-2A Temporary Agricultural Visa Program, which should maybe be renamed Temporary Agricultural Slavery Program.

The H-2A guest visa program is meant to help businesses hire foreign guest workers. When employers import workers, they must pay travel expenses in both directions, provide decent housing, have workers’ compensation coverage, and pay prevailing wages so that the guest workers don’t depress the wages of the U.S. workers. But too often, the H-2A program has been used to exploit workers. Some horrendously.

The investigation press release said: “The conspirators required the workers to pay unlawful fees for transportation, food, and housing while illegally withholding their travel and identification documents, and subjected the workers ‘to perform physically demanding work for little or no pay, housing them in crowded, unsanitary, and degrading living conditions, and by threatening them with deportation and violence.’

“Exploitation of the workers included being required to dig onions with their bare hands, paid 20 cents for each bucket harvested, and threatened with guns and violence to keep them in line. The workers were held in cramped, unsanitary quarters and fenced work camps with little or no food, limited plumbing and without safe water. The conspirators are accused of raping, kidnapping and threatening or attempting to kill some of the workers or their families, and many cases sold or traded the workers to their conspirators. At least two of the workers died as a result of workplace conditions.”

Marshalltown Man Charged with 329 Counts of Sexual Exploitation of a Minor

Courtesy of the Des Moines Register

A Marshalltown man was arrested and charged with 329 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor after police conducted a years-long investigation. Marshall Police Department officers arrested Michael Lynn Benson, 65, on April 24 outside of his residence for being in possession of child pornography, according to a news release.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received a cyber tip from an internet search engine company that “child sexual abuse material” had been uploaded from a certain address on July 15, 2023, according to court documents.

The Iowa Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force started an investigation and found Benson to be the owner of the address, court documents said. A search warrant was executed on Feb. 29 at the address, according to court documents. Electronics were seized, including a hard drive reportedly belonging to Benson.

The electronics were sent for a forensic analysis, which recovered 1,646 files that were deleted from the hard drive, court documents said. More than 800 images involved children. There were 329 images of different children that involved child sexual abuse material, according to court documents.

Funding for Critical Victim Services has been Revoked

Courtesy of the National Center for Victims of Crime

We wish we had something positive to say, but unfortunately, we have to share somber news.

The National Center for Victims of Crime was notified that over $2.8 million of our federal grant funding was immediately terminated because it no longer “aligned with DOJ priorities.” Unless promptly reversed, this careless decision will result in the immediate closure of the VictimConnect Resource Center, a 100% federally funded national hotline that has served tens of thousands of crime survivors since 2015, including more than 16,000 in the last year alone.

“We’re shocked that an administration that claims to care about protecting victims would leave so many vulnerable Americans without access to an essential lifeline,” said Renée Williams, CEO of the National Center for Victims of Crime.

In emails, the Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs informed NCVC that our awarded grants “no longer effectuate the program goals or agency priorities.” Yet the same notice lists “combating violent crime, protecting American children, and supporting American victims of trafficking and sexual assault” as priorities for Justice Department funding.

NCVC’s work directly supports those same priorities in projects funded both privately and by the Department of Justice. VictimConnect is a hotline and support service that helps crime survivors of all ages, including those of trafficking and other violent crimes, find help. It is staffed by trained specialists and serves victims across the United States.

To read more about the canceled grant, tap here.

Another Teen Male Becomes a Victim of Sextortion and Commits Suicide

Courtesy of the Courier Journal

Just a few weeks ago, “sextortion,” or sexual extortion, was a completely unfamiliar term to Shannon Heacock and John Burnett — until their 16-year-old son, Elijah Heacock, suddenly took his own life after someone threatened to expose explicit images of him online.

Heacock and Burnett described Elijah as a “smart, happy kid,” but everything changed in an instant when he died by suicide Feb. 28 after being financially extorted. His death rippled through the community of Glasgow, leaving dozens to mourn the loss of a friend and classmate.

“Everybody got hit by this … and this happened in one hour,” Burnett said, describing the hundreds of people at Eli’s funeral service. “This was not the depressed kid that just had enough. This was a happy young man that did more for other people than he did himself.”

Their community isn’t alone. Reports of sextortion — the act of deceiving or manipulating minors into creating sexually explicit material, then threatening to release it publicly to extort money or more material out of them — has been on the rise in recent years, including in south-central Kentucky.

According to a report from the FBI, the crimes most often impact teenage boys ages 14-17 with more than 13,000 reports of financial sextortion reported nationwide between October 2021 and March 2023. In Kentucky, more than 300 offenders have been arrested in connection with sextortion cases since 2019, according to the Kentucky State Police.

“Our team is committed to tracking down the people who hide behind the keyboard to target our young people, Electronic Crime Branch Commander Lt. Mike Bowling said in a statement issued in early March.

Tap here to read the rest of the article.

3 Hotels to Pay $17.5M to Three Sex Trafficking Victims

Three women will be paid millions by the Motel 6, Days Inn, and North American Motor Inn on Roosevelt Boulevard in Philadelphia after they were trafficked at these establishments when they were minors. However, the money does not erase their trauma.

Attorneys for the three women, who were victims of sex trafficking, have announced their clients have agreed to a multimillion-dollar settlement with the owners of three hotels located along Roosevelt Boulevard in Northeast Philadelphia after claiming the business didn’t do enough to protect them.

The women, the attorneys said, were trafficked at those businesses on and off from May 2015 through January 2017. In a statement, attorneys for the women said that the hotels did not have adequate security, despite ongoing criminal activity and “countless visits” from the Philadelphia Police Department.

“Instead of hiring qualified security and adoption and enforcement policies against criminal activity, the hotels did nothing and permitted criminal activity to the detriment of our clients,” said Emily Marks of Kline & Specter, in a statement. The case had been set for trial prior to a settlement being reached, the attorneys said.

 TV News Clips & Articles

By on June 2, 2025   /   News