Frullo appointed to committee to study human trafficking - KCBD NewsChannel 11 Lubbock

Provided by State Representative John Frullo

State Representative John Frullo (R-Lubbock) was appointed to the newly created Joint Interim Committee to Study Human Trafficking by Texas House Speaker Joe Straus (R-San Antonio) Monday.

The interim committee is charged with studying ways in which the Legislature can work in collaboration with law enforcement and human rights groups across the state to combat this tragic and inhumane practice.

"I am honored by the Speaker's appointment," Representative Frullo said. "A fundamental role of government is to ensure public safety, and we need to do everything within our power to eradicate this modern-day form of slavery. This committee allows us to take a deeper look into ways the state can protect its citizens."

Second only to drug dealing in criminal profitability, human trafficking is the fastest-growing illegal enterprise, according to the Polaris Project, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that maintains the National Human Trafficking Resource Center. It is estimated that the number of U.S. citizens trafficked within this country's borders exceeds 18,000 each year, with more than 200,000 American children at risk for trafficking into the sex industry.

"With the passage of Alicia's Law, my goal was to raise awareness and combat child pornography trafficking by providing law enforcement the resources needed to rescue children from these horrifying situations more quickly," Frullo said. "The work I and the other members of this joint committee will do during the interim will expand that effort by looking for ways to stop the exploitation and selling of human beings in the state of Texas."