Deja Vu for Hawaii Human Trafficking Bill?

Sara Lin/Civil Beat

Hawaii lawmakers are determined to keep an anti-human trafficking bill alive this session. But there's still a major rift between vocal victims advocates who want laws criminalizing sex and labor trafficking, and law enforcement that thinks existing laws are adequate.

The support of Honolulu Prosecutor Keith Kaneshiro seems key to any human trafficking bill's passage. But the prosecutor reiterated Thursday morning to House lawmakers that he doesn't think Hawaii needs a human trafficking bill. He stands by his original proposal to toughen existing laws to attack the demand side of prostitution to stop sex trafficking.

"I don't disagree with what (the advocates) are trying to do. I've always been very active in prosecuting johns," Kaneshiro said. "But we already have these concepts in our current law."

Kaneshiro's comments come one day before he's scheduled to meet with Luis de Baca, President Barack Obama's Ambassador-at-Large in charge of monitoring and combating human trafficking.

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