Latest Human trafficking News
California lawmakers vote to let legislative employees join a labor union
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Legislative workers at the California Capitol are close to forming their first labor union after state lawmakers approved a bill Wednesday that allows them to organize. The Democrats in charge of California's Legislature have historically been friendly...
California lawmakers vote to end travel ban to states with anti-LGBTQ+ laws
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California may soon lift a ban on state-funded travel to states with anti-LGBTQ+ laws and instead focus on an advertising campaign to bring anti-discrimination messages to red states. California started banning official travel to states with laws it deemed...
Smugglers are steering migrants into the remote Arizona desert, posing new Border Patrol challenges
ORGAN PIPE CACTUS NATIONAL MONUMENT, Ariz. (AP) — Border Patrol agents ordered the young Senegalese men to wait in the scant shade of desert scrub brush while they loaded a more vulnerable group of migrants — a family with three young children from India — into a white van for the short trip...
Opening statements begin in website founder's 2nd trial over ads promoting prostitution
PHOENIX (AP) — A founder of the classified site Backpage.com and four employees carefully strategized how to bring in ads for prostitution to maintain their top-earning platform, a prosecutor said Thursday at a federal trial in Phoenix. Attorneys for Michael Lacey and the other...
Backpage founder faces 2nd trial over what prosecutors say was a scheme to sell sex through ad sales
PHOENIX (AP) — A founder of the lucrative classified site Backpage.com will face his second trial on charges of facilitating prostitution and laundering money in what authorities say was a scheme to knowingly sell ads for sex on the site. Jury selection for Michael Lacey and four...
US says a smuggler with terrorist ties helped get migrants from Uzbekistan into the country
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration said Tuesday that it detected and stopped a network attempting to smuggle people from Uzbekistan into the United States and that at least one member of the network had links to a foreign terrorist group. U.S. officials do not believe the...
GOP donor Anton Lazzaro sentenced to 21 years for sex trafficking minors in Minnesota
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A formerly well-connected GOP donor convicted of giving teenage girls gifts, alcohol and money in exchange for sex was sentenced Wednesday to 21 years in prison on sex trafficking charges. Anton “Tony” Lazzaro was found guilty in March by a federal jury of...
Influencer Andrew Tate released from house arrest while he awaits human trafficking and rape trial
BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Andrew Tate, the divisive internet influencer who is charged in Romania with rape, human trafficking and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women, won an appeal on Friday to be released from house arrest, his spokesperson said. Tate won't be able...
Romanian court rules to keep Andrew Tate under house arrest as human trafficking case continues
BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — A court in Romania’s capital on Tuesday ruled to extend by another 30 days the house arrest of Andrew Tate, the divisive social media influencer who is charged with rape, human trafficking and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women. The...
Andrew Tate sues his accusers in human trafficking case
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Controversial social media personality Andrew Tate and his brother are suing a Florida woman, saying she falsely accused them of imprisoning her in Romania, leading to their arrest there on human trafficking charges. The widely followed former...
