Hochul Signs Human Trafficking Bills Into Law In Queens

QUEENS, NY — When Gov. Kathy Hochul signed protections against human trafficking into law Wednesday, she chose a place uniquely gripped by the problem: Queens.

"The neighborhood we're in today is one of the most highly trafficked in," she said during an event in Flushing.

"It's the epicenter of trafficking for the entire country."

Hochul signed legislation that extends the state's interagency task force on human trafficking for another four years and requires MTA and Port Authority facilies, as well as truck stops, to post information that could be useful to the victims of human trafficking.

Human trafficking, while it can't be pinned down to a single crime, is akin to slavery, Hochul said.

"When a man is forced to work with little or no pay, physically harmed if he tries to escape, that's just modern-day slavery," she said. "When a teenage girl is lured away with promises of something else, a better life, and becomes literally imprisoned and traded out, that's slavery. Or if a person's locked in a sweat shop, a woman can't leave as a domestic worker, that's another form of slavery."