Colorado lawmakers are attempting anew to tackle human trafficking, with two bipartisan bills that would impose heavier penalties for those who engage in trafficking headed for committee hearings in the next 10 days.

The two bills include House Bill 1092 and Senate Bill 035, which, if passed, would enact stricter punishments for suspects found guilty of sex trafficking crimes.

However, the intention to put harsher penalties, including mandatory jail time, on trafficking crimes is running up against progressive Democrats, who are opposed to mandatory minimum sentences. 

The first measure deals specifically with human trafficking that involves children, and it will face its toughest test – the House State, Civic, Military & Veterans Affairs Committee, also known as the “kill” committee – on Thursday.

Reps. Brandi Bradley, R-Roxborough Park, and Regina English, D-Colorado Springs, are sponsoring House Bill 1092.

Bradley addressed head-on the issue of mandatory minimums, one of the provisions in the bill expected to face face stiff opposition.

“All bets are off of me when it comes to harming and exploiting kids, and that’s what I’m challenging my colleagues to look at,” Bradley told Colorado Politics. “This is not a particular piece of legislation where you can politic – you really have to legislate for people.”

Bradley acknowledged the concern raised by opponents that people of color are disproportionately incarcerated. But in human trafficking, the vast majority of those committing those crimes are White, suburban men who get a little more than a slap on the wrist, Bradley said. 

House Bill 1092 would set a mandatory minimum sentence of four years for a whole host of crimes against children, including soliciting for child prostitution, pandering of a child, procurement of a child, keeping a place of child prostitution, pimping of a child, inducement of child prostitution, and patronizing a prostituted child.

It’s a story that Kelly Dore knows all too well.

Dore is a former Elbert County commissioner and wife of former state Rep. Tim Dore.

But she is also a survivor of child sex trafficking, a harrowing story she recounted to Colorado Politics several years ago. 

Dore was trafficked for 14 years by her own father in exchange for drugs, beginning when she was a baby. When he was finally arrested and convicted, he got just 10 months in prison for 14 years of sexual abuse.

Colorado’s laws on child trafficking are not keeping up, she told Colorado Politics, largely because the state refuses to go after the buyers of children.

In Colorado, a person who commits rape or incest of a child – which in legal parlance is sexual assault by a person in a position of trust – can get be sentenced to between two and 32 years in prison. But the law says someone who sells or buys a child for sexual purposes, including trafficking, may be sentenced to the presumptive minimum term for these class 2, 3 and 4 felonies.

And with most serving less than a third of the time, under current guidelines, that means months rather than years in prison, as was the case with Dore’s  abuser.

Under HB 1092, the word “may” will change to a “shall.”

Dore addressed the concerns over racial disparities in the criminal justice system.

“I fight against mandatory minimums all the time because I understand the racial disparities,” she said. “But in this case, most of the children are Black and Brown children, and the buyers are White. There is no difference between a child who’s a victim of rape or incest that wasn’t purchased versus a child who was purchased.”

For years, Dore has worked on trafficking issues, even moving to fight the issue on the international level recently. She now runs Montezillo (“Little Hill” in Spanish) Consulting and serves on the International Survivor of Trafficking Advisory Council, which provides policy advice to 57 NATO countries. 

That work has taken her to the Middle East and Western Africa. In the last four years, the organization has recovered more than 2,700 victims, who are provided with education and jobs. The group also has an orphan care center for children, and it is currently piloting a mental health treatment component that Dore authored. 

Dore will speak to the United Nations next month about her ongoing work. 

That rescue work has also led to Dore being banned in three countries – Turkey, Oman and Yemen. Trafficking is often state-sponsored in those countries, she claimed.

Back in Colorado, Dore said the state is falling further behind in its efforts to address human, and especially child, trafficking.

She said only about 3% of buyers of children are ever arrested, and even fewer are prosecuted. That’s led to an 87% recidivism rate for buyers who receive light sentences or even probation, she said.

With such light punishment, buyers, mostly White men, can go back into their communities, and that can lead to more sexual abuse within the abuser’s family, she said.

A man who rapes his niece gets a long jail sentence, Dore said. A man who buys an African American child gets a slap on the wrist, and for that child, the abuse is a lifelong sentence, Dore added. 

HB 1092 will not take away judicial discretion nor the ability of district attorneys to prosecute these crimes, Dore said.

She also addressed another issue raised by opponents – that it would hurt sex workers. But children, who are the subject of HB 1092, cannot be “sex workers,” Dore said. 

The bill doesn’t yet have the support of the Colorado District Attorneys’ Council, which is currently in a “monitoring” position. That’s due to concerns about conflicts between the sentences in HB 1092 and other sex crimes, according to Executive Director Tom Raynes. 

The council, however, is in full support of a second bill introduced in the 2024 session. Senate Bill 035 would add human trafficking to the list of crimes of violence subject to enhanced sentencing. The bill would also extend the statute of limitations for human trafficking of either adults or children to 20 years.

The measure is sponsored by Sens. Rhonda Fields, D-Aurora, and Byron Pelton, R-Sterling. Denver District Attorney Beth McCann supports the measure, and Dore also backs it. 

The bill’s fiscal note pointed out four individuals have been convicted and sentenced for the crime of human trafficking for purposes of involuntary servitude over the last two fiscal years. All four were men. Sentences for all those crimes ranged from six years to 28 years.

But human trafficking of adults or children for sexual servitude has drawn more convictions over the same time period – 17, with 15 of those crimes committed by men.

Pelton told Colorado Politics the minimum sentence for these crimes is eight years, but it would go to 14 years under SB 35.

Pelton also pointed out that getting these laws in place now is critical due to a concern over the immigrant problem currently at crisis levels in Denver.

“We want to make sure that we protect everybody, even if they’re from this country or not,” Pelton said.

Interpol and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime announced a new project last year designed to combat human trafficking in the Americas, saying human trafficking and immigrant smuggling affect men, women, and children differently. The International Organization for Migration, in a 2022 report, said immigrant women and girls are more often trafficked for sexual exploitation, forced marriages and domestic servitude.

SB 35 is scheduled for its first hearing on Feb. 21 in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Editor’s note: corrected quote by Bradley.