Latest / The Vault: The Epstein Files / New Mexico Lawmakers Push Trafficking Reforms Tied to Epstein Failures (10/21/26)

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New Mexico Lawmakers Push Trafficking Reforms Tied to Epstein Failures (10/21/26) · The Vault: The Epstein Files

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What's up everyone and welcome to another episode of the
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Epstein Chronicles. Down in New Mexico, there has been an
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: issue with their law regarding sex offenders for quite some time.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Well now, there are new measures underway to try and
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: close that loophole. And it's been a long time coming.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Because Jeffrey Epstein chose New Mexico for a reason. And
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  Speaker 1: it wasn't just for the solitude. He knew the laws there.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: And he knew that it was a place where he
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: could slide under the radar and continue doing what he
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  Speaker 1: was doing. So today, we have an article from Source
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  Speaker 1: NM and the headline, New Mexico AG Democratic Lawmaker Announced
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  Speaker 1: Legislative Proposals to Empower Human Trafficking Survivors. This article was
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  Speaker 1: authored by Joshua Bolling. New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torres
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  Speaker 1: and State Representative Meredith Dixon reported stood alongside advocates for
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  Speaker 1: human trafficking survivors Thursday morning to announce a pair of
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  Speaker 1: legislative proposals they say will be a key step toward
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  Speaker 1: fixing the state's outdated victim protections. Dixon said she plans
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  Speaker 1: to carry two measures in the upcoming legislative session, one
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  Speaker 1: bill and one proposed constitutional amendment, to increase penalties for
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  Speaker 1: human trafficking, close the loophole that allowed Jeffrey Epstein to
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  Speaker 1: avoid registering as a sex offender in New Mexico and
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  Speaker 1: and chills survivors from being re-traumatized during their traffickers' criminal trials. Well,
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  Speaker 1: that last part, that's going to be difficult. Because when
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  Speaker 1: you're somebody that's been trafficked, and you're dealing with a trial,
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  Speaker 1: it's going to bring back a whole bunch of trauma,
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  Speaker 1: because you're going to have to relive that experience on
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  Speaker 1: the stand more times than not. So I find it
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  Speaker 1: to be a valiant effort, but I don't know how
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  Speaker 1: they're going to get that part of it over the
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  Speaker 1: finish line. The Trafficking Investigation and Meaningful Enforcement Act would
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  Speaker 1: place no statute of limitations on prosecuting sex trafficking, would
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  Speaker 1: raise the age of protection to 18, and would update
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  Speaker 1: criminal penalties, particularly in cases where the victim is a child.
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  Speaker 1: It would also treat forcing someone to work off a
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  Speaker 1: debt as trafficking and expand the list of offenses that
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  Speaker 1: require someone to register as a sex offender. I think
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  Speaker 1: that is the most important part. I think there needs
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  Speaker 1: to be some kind of like uniform rule Where if
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  Speaker 1: you're a sex offender, you're a sex offender, right? Now,
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  Speaker 1: I understand every state has different laws and all that jazz.
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  Speaker 1: But bro, come on. If you're diddling kids in, say,
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  Speaker 1: I don't know, Maine, what makes anyone think that it's
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  Speaker 1: going to be different if your bitch ass moves to
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  Speaker 1: New Mexico? So I think that all the states should
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  Speaker 1: get together, the AGs from the states, and try and
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  Speaker 1: put something, you know, on paper, right? Some kind of cooperation,
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  Speaker 1: whatever it might be. But at the end of the day,
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  Speaker 1: it's up to the state congress... to ratify whatever laws,
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  Speaker 1: or change whatever laws that are already on the books.
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  Speaker 1: So hopefully that's what they're going to do here. Despite
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  Speaker 1: pleading guilty in Florida to procuring a minor for prostitution,
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  Speaker 1: Epstein was never required to register as a sex offender
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  Speaker 1: in New Mexico, where he owned property, largely because New
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  Speaker 1: Mexico law set a lower age limit for victims in Florida.
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  Speaker 1: And that's why he was so adamant about the only
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  Speaker 1: person coming forward to accuse him being that 17-year-old girl.
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  Speaker 1: If it was any of the younger girls, it would
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  Speaker 1: have posed real big problems for Epstein. So that's why
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  Speaker 1: they maneuvered the way they did. And that's why the
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  Speaker 1: letter that we're reading right now between Jeffrey Epstein's lawyers
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  Speaker 1: and the DOJ is so telling. Because it gives you
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  Speaker 1: that inside look, right? You're getting inside baseball as to
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  Speaker 1: how this all went down. And the ugliness that it
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  Speaker 1: revealed is eye-opening. In addition to raising the age of
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  Speaker 1: protection to 18 and expanding the offenses that require sex
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  Speaker 1: offender registration, Dixon said the law would require lifelong sex
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  Speaker 1: offender registration for people convicted of child prostitution crimes. Ert,
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  Speaker 1: full stop. No such thing as a child prostitute. A
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  Speaker 1: child can't consent. So how can a child be a prostitute?
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  Speaker 1: I mean, you can call things whatever you want. Fuck,
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  Speaker 1: you can call me a billionaire. Doesn't make it true.
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  Speaker 1: You know what is true? Jeffrey Epstein wasn't soliciting prostitutes.
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  Speaker 1: He was going after high school-aged girls. Okay? They can't
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  Speaker 1: consent to be prostitutes. Her other measure, the Victim Rights Amendment,
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  Speaker 1: would go to voters in the next general election as
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  Speaker 1: a proposed constitutional amendment if it passes out of both
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  Speaker 1: chambers of the state legislature. The proposed amendment to the
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  Speaker 1: state constitution Victim Rights Section would give survivors greater privacy
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  Speaker 1: protections Expand the state's definition of who counts as a
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  Speaker 1: survivor and give survivors the right to refuse being interviewed
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  Speaker 1: by the suspect's attorneys. Yeah, I don't know about that one. Like,
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  Speaker 1: how are we going to get to the bottom of things, right?
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  Speaker 1: There has to be a deposition. There has to be
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  Speaker 1: a fact-finding period. And if somebody is accused of a crime,
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  Speaker 1: they should be able to defend themselves from those accusations.
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  Speaker 1: So I don't know if that part is going to
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  Speaker 1: make it over the finish line. but maybe some version
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  Speaker 1: of that where it has to be a targeted interview
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  Speaker 1: where they can only focus on the allegations at hand
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  Speaker 1: and not try and destroy survivors' credibility. I think that
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  Speaker 1: would be a bit more digestible with people. Under the amendment,
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  Speaker 1: if a survivor agreed to participate in such an interview,
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  Speaker 1: they would have the power to end it at any
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  Speaker 1: time and they could have a support person in the
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  Speaker 1: room with them. Well, yeah, that's a good idea. Let
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  Speaker 1: them have their lawyer in there or whatever. And if
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  Speaker 1: the interview veers off course, then yeah, they should be
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  Speaker 1: able to stop it. Both measures will close the gap
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  Speaker 1: that leave our survivors of human trafficking and child sexual
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  Speaker 1: exploitation without the protection and voice they deserve. Dixon said
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  Speaker 1: at a news conference in New Mexico's Department of Justice,
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  Speaker 1: Albuquerque headquarters. And you know, New Mexico in general has
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  Speaker 1: a lot of problems. When I was there doing my
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  Speaker 1: investigation down at Zorro Ranch, the things that I heard
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  Speaker 1: from people and not just about Epstein, were stomach-turning. The
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  Speaker 1: amount of girls that are missing that are indigenous in
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  Speaker 1: the state of New Mexico is unbelievable. Now look, I'm
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  Speaker 1: not going to sit here and tell you that Epstein
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  Speaker 1: had anything to do with that, but I don't know.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know for sure. This man loved to get
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  Speaker 1: himself some high school girls everywhere he went. So you
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  Speaker 1: mean to tell me he wasn't doing the same thing
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  Speaker 1: in New Mexico, especially where the age of consent was different?
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  Speaker 1: I have a hard time believing that. And when I
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  Speaker 1: look at all the indigenous girls that have gone missing,
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  Speaker 1: and you look at some of the characters in Jeffrey
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  Speaker 1: Epstein's menagerie, well, your boy has some questions. And I
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  Speaker 1: think that's an avenue that certainly needs to be explored. Torres,
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  Speaker 1: who began his career by trying child abuse cases, said
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  Speaker 1: he has long believed New Mexico's protections for survivors of
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  Speaker 1: sex crimes stand among the weakest in the nation. And
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: remember all the way back in 2021, when I told
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  Speaker 1: you that Jeffrey Epstein chose New Mexico for a reason?
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  Speaker 1: This is why. He knew exactly what he was doing.
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  Speaker 1: As an investigatory subcommittee at the state legislature, and Torres
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  Speaker 1: and MDOJ investigate Epstein's time and potential crimes in New Mexico,
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  Speaker 1: he said it's particularly important for state leaders to make
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  Speaker 1: good on their promises of delivering justice for survivors and
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  Speaker 1: their family. Well, that would be a first. Imagine that,
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  Speaker 1: somebody in power actually doing what they say they're going
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  Speaker 1: to do. We all might drop dead of heart attacks
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  Speaker 1: or strokes if that ever happened. There are literally hundreds
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  Speaker 1: if not thousands of survivors in the state that are
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  Speaker 1: victims of horrific crimes year in and year out, Torres said.
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  Speaker 1: Their perpetrator is not internationally known, politically connected, or otherwise
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  Speaker 1: prominently featured in national news stories. These are the victims
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  Speaker 1: that go unseen all too often in our criminal justice system,
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  Speaker 1: and I think we need to keep that in mind.
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  Speaker 1: Most of these human trafficking situations and cases are nowhere
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  Speaker 1: near on the scale of Jeffrey Epstein. That doesn't make
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  Speaker 1: them any less important, and it certainly doesn't mean we
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  Speaker 1: should ignore them. But I think with the Epstein story,
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  Speaker 1: it shines a light on all of it. And once
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  Speaker 1: that door is open and people walk through, they start
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  Speaker 1: to understand the scope. I mean, a lot of people
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  Speaker 1: don't get it, but right now, in the year 2026,
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  Speaker 1: There's more slavery than there's ever been. Now, maybe not
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  Speaker 1: the kind of slavery that we're all used to, right? People,
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  Speaker 1: you know, out in fields or whatever. But modern day slavery,
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  Speaker 1: human trafficking, people being sold, people being moved. There's open
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  Speaker 1: air slave markets in places like Libya. So this is
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  Speaker 1: a big problem. And when it comes to human trafficking,
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  Speaker 1: we need laws that are way more harsh. So anybody
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  Speaker 1: who's looking to take that step in that direction is
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  Speaker 1: somebody that I'm willing to at least listen to. And
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  Speaker 1: if they're walking the walk, then support them. But the
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  Speaker 1: first step of all of that is getting the conversation started.
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  Speaker 1: Advocates for human trafficking survivors backed the proposals at a
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  Speaker 1: news conference with Dixon and Torres Thursday morning. Shelley Repp,
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  Speaker 1: executive director of Albuquerque non-profit New Mexico Dream Center, which
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  Speaker 1: advocates for trafficking survivors, said the provision to let survivors
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  Speaker 1: opt out of repeatedly recounting the abuses they endured before
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  Speaker 1: a criminal trial will make it easier for them to
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  Speaker 1: navigate the criminal justice system. So there's no doubt about it.
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  Speaker 1: It is an arduous process. And a lot of times
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  Speaker 1: these women aren't believed. Some of the stories that I've
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  Speaker 1: heard directly from survivors are just unreal. And the fact
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  Speaker 1: that people have ignored them for so long, that people
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  Speaker 1: knew about what was going on and looked the other way,
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  Speaker 1: is completely and wholly unacceptable. And the people that did
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  Speaker 1: look the other way, the people that knew what was
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  Speaker 1: going on and chose not to act, they need to
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  Speaker 1: be held accountable as well. And maybe this kind of
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  Speaker 1: legislation is a step in the right direction. It's important
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  Speaker 1: to me and it's important to the clients I represent
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  Speaker 1: to be able to say, you can be protected, she said.
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  Speaker 1: You as a victim are can have the time that
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  Speaker 1: you need to recover. You as a victim can have
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  Speaker 1: the protections that you deserve. We as a legal system
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  Speaker 1: do not want to re-traumatize and re-victimize you. Unfortunately, this
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  Speaker 1: whole process, that's what happens. When you have to go
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  Speaker 1: through this and recount it, it's difficult. But I think
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  Speaker 1: that the one portion of this that they might have
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  Speaker 1: trouble with is the not having the lawyer's interview the accuser.
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  Speaker 1: I think that's going to be a pretty big issue, right?
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  Speaker 1: Constitutionally speaking and otherwise. But short of that, everything else
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  Speaker 1: looks good. And I think that they should have no
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  Speaker 1: problem getting the rest of that over the finish line.
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  Speaker 1: But I think most of us have been around long
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  Speaker 1: enough to know that what should happen and what does
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  Speaker 1: happen are two very different things. So as usual, we'll
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  Speaker 1: keep an eye on it and we'll see where it
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  Speaker 1: all goes. All the information that goes with this episode
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: can be found on In the description box.