The League of Women Voters of Colorado considers human trafficking a form of modern-day slavery. We believe traffickers should be prosecuted and severely punished. That is exactly why we oppose Proposition 133. As written, it is likely to punish the children it claims to protect.
Traffickers do not work alone. They routinely force or groom their victims into running parts of the operation: recruiting friends, posting ads, collecting money, watching younger children. This is deliberate. It deepens the trafficker’s control, spreads the legal risk, and leaves victims afraid that coming forward will expose their own role.
The Jeffrey Epstein case showed this pattern to the whole country. Girls Epstein abused were paid to bring him other girls, and some recruiters had been recruited as teenagers themselves. Colorado’s trafficking cases follow the same pattern.
Prop 133 makes this worse in three ways.
It widens the net. The measure expands the crime to cover anyone who knowingly trades “anything of monetary value” to buy or sell sexual activity with a minor. A broader definition sweeps in more of the people traffickers use as tools, including victims.
It removes a key protection for survivors. In 2019, the League supported a law that gives minor trafficking victims immunity from prostitution charges and an affirmative defense for most crimes they are forced to commit. That defense does not cover class 1 felonies. Prop 133 makes child sex trafficking a class 1 felony. A 15-year-old forced to recruit a classmate could face the same charge as the trafficker, without the defense the legislature created for her.
It ties judges’ hands. Every conviction would carry life in prison without parole. A judge could not consider who controlled whom, how old the defendant was, or whether she was a victim first. The League has long held that sentencing should reflect the circumstances of the crime and the person’s role, rather than a mandatory one-size-fits-all penalty.
These changes would also hurt prosecutions. Colorado’s official Blue Book analysis notes that fear of a life sentence may make victims less likely to report crimes or cooperate with police. Survivors’ testimony is often the evidence that convicts traffickers. A law that scares victims into silence protects the people at the top.
We also share concerns, raised by other organizations, that the measure’s vague new language could be used against parents and others who help minors from out of state obtain legally protected reproductive and gender-affirming care in Colorado. The measure’s sponsors dispute this.
Colorado already punishes child sex trafficking with up to 48 years in prison followed by mandatory parole. What survivors need is stronger enforcement against traffickers, real services for victims, and laws that recognize how trafficking actually works. Prop 133 offers none of these.
The League of Women Voters of Colorado urges a NO vote on Proposition 133.