By: Jillian Frauli
This semester, I learned that the work does not end when the legislation is passed. The Human Trafficking Clinic was built to help survivors utilize the unused vacatur law. This semester, I noticed similar trends with the legislation I was researching for my projects with the clinic. Human trafficking legislation typically receives overwhelming bipartisan support, but I noticed a clear disconnect between the passion for creating the legislation and its implementation.
While researching Illinois’ human trafficking laws, I noticed that Illinois passed relevant and helpful legislation for combating human trafficking. However, Illinois fell short in implementing and utilizing that legislation. For example, legislation was passed to create a task force that would involve multiple departments and create an annual report on human trafficking in Illinois. As of 2025, this task force has not issued a report since 2018 and is inactive. Despite a statutory imperative, this task force did not fulfill its duties. There could be multiple reasons for this failure, including a lack of resources, but this still exemplifies the disconnect between the goals of legislation and the realities of implementation.
In my time with the clinic, I have also observed similar issues with Virginia. Safe harbor laws make it illegal to prosecute children for prostitution. Implementing safe harbor legislation in Virginia has been difficult because of the belief that prostitution still needs to be punished. In 2023, Virginia passed a statute requiring the state to implement a Safe Harbor Pilot Program for two years and to provide updates on the program’s progress. As of May 2025, the only clear progress of the program was selecting a locality. It is also unclear why there is not more progress or updates. Without faithful execution of the legislative directives, change will not result from passing human trafficking legislation.
Human trafficking is a complex issue that requires multiple branches, departments, organizations, and passionate people. The attention to and support of legislative efforts to combat human trafficking are fantastic and necessary, but it is not enough. Legislation should be created with resources in mind, and implementation should be diligent. The history of legislation against human trafficking and in support of human trafficking survivors has been rapidly evolving for decades. This is an ongoing process, but progress will not be made if legislation is created but not implemented.
This post was written by a student at Regent University School of Law. The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect those of Regent University, Regent Law School, or the Center for Global Justice.