Arizona legislators are moving to toughen and broaden state laws against border-related crimes such as human smuggling and trafficking.
Bills prepared for consideration by legislative committees include measures to toughen human-smuggling penalties and to expand that law to cover people involved with transportation, money transmission and other services used in smuggling. There’s also legislation targeting trafficking associated with commercial sex acts.
Consideration of some of the legislation has been delayed by lawmakers’ focus on budget problems, but Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Jonathan Paton said increasing violence, kidnappings and other circumstances warrant a strong push against the problem when an embargo on non-budget bills is lifted.
