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House Judiciary Committee advances broad human‑trafficking package to expand survivor protections and prosecutorial tools
Summary
The House Judiciary Committee heard prosecutors, detectives and survivors and voted to report more than a dozen house bills and three senate bills to the floor. Measures include set-aside convictions, an affirmative defense for trafficking victims, safe-harbor protections for minors, rules for expert testimony, language changes to reduce stigma, expanded 'other acts' evidence, and survivor immunity while testifying.
LANSING — The House Judiciary Committee advanced a multi-bill package intended to strengthen protections for survivors of human trafficking and to give prosecutors additional tools to hold traffickers accountable.
Assistant Attorney General Melissa Palapoo, who leads the AG’s human-trafficking initiative and chairs the Michigan Human Trafficking Commission, presented the package and said it is designed to be "victim-centered" while improving prevention and accountability. Palapoo cited Polaris hotline data for 2023—"779 signals," of which she said 254 cases were confirmed and 506 victims identified—to illustrate both the scale of reports and the gap between reported signals and confirmed cases.
Key provisions explained to the committee included:
- HB 5836 and HB 5838: Allow survivors to set aside criminal convictions that were a direct result of being trafficked. Palapoo said convictions tied to coercion can hinder housing and employment and these bills help remove that barrier.
- HB 5837: Creates an affirmative defense for conduct the defendant committed as a direct result of being trafficked, similar in structure to other affirmative defenses such as self‑defense or entrapment; the prosecutor would bear the burden to show the defense does not apply.
- HB 5839: Extends safe-harbor protections for minors who are victims of…
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