New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez and state Rep. Meredith Dixon announced two legislative proposals aimed at strengthening protections for human trafficking survivors and closing legal gaps exposed in part by the Jeffrey Epstein case. The proposed Trafficking Investigation and Meaningful Enforcement Act would eliminate the statute of limitations for sex-trafficking prosecutions, raise the age of protection to 18, increase criminal penalties—especially when children are involved—and expand what conduct qualifies as trafficking, including forcing someone to work off a debt. The bill would also broaden the offenses requiring sex-offender registration and mandate lifetime registration for people convicted of child prostitution crimes. One of the central motivations was the loophole that allowed Epstein to avoid registering as a sex offender in New Mexico despite his Florida conviction for procuring a minor for prostitution, largely because New Mexico law at the time defined protected victims more narrowly.
Dixon also proposed a constitutional Victims’ Rights Amendment that would give trafficking and sexual-abuse survivors greater control over how they participate in criminal cases. The amendment would expand privacy protections, broaden who qualifies as a survivor and allow victims to refuse interviews with defense attorneys; if they agreed to an interview, they could stop it at any time and have a support person present. Torrez framed the proposals as part of a broader effort to correct what he described as some of the weakest protections for sex-crime survivors in the country, particularly as New Mexico continues investigating Epstein’s activities at Zorro Ranch and the institutional failures surrounding him. The larger goal was to make sure the lessons of the Epstein case resulted in permanent changes to state law that would make prosecutions easier, close sex-offender registration loopholes and reduce the chances that survivors would be retraumatized by the justice system itself.
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