Metro East Sun

Katherine Ruocco, the Republican candidate for the state House seat in District 113, supports the signing of two Illinois bills that tackle human trafficking.  

“The recently passed legislation,­ aimed to fight human trafficking, will deliver a multidisciplinary approach to this grave problem, which should be instrumental in helping to protect our must vulnerable from being victimized, and provide the General Assembly the needed information and recommendations required to put an end to this modern-day slavery,” Ruocco said in an email statement. “Human trafficking is a serious violation of human rights that must be addressed.  This abuse, although we may not always see it, is happening right here in Illinois.".

 

According to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center, there have been 94 human trafficking cases reported in Illinois this year. Most of those cases involved sex trafficking.

 

Statistics from the center also show that  from Jan. 1 to June 30 in 2015 there were 61 human trafficking cases in the state. Those cases consisted of 215 identified victims.

 

“The most vulnerable among us are being trapped by this exploitation and silenced by their captors. We cannot stand silent and allow this atrocity to continue,” Ruocco said.  

 

One of the bills, House Bill 2822, defines the setting up of a task force to examine the human trafficking situation in the state. They will report back to the General Assembly by June 30, 2017.

 

The Illinois bills became law on Aug. 21 after being signed by Gov. Bruce Rauner.

 

The election for the Illinois House of Representatives will be Nov. 8. Ruocco will be taking on incumbent Democrat Jay Hoffman, who beat her in 2014 by just over 2,000 votes.

 

She has recently spoken out about Hoffman and said that candidates in the election should discuss the issues facing Illinois.

 

"Illinois career politicians fail to acknowledge the catastrophic path we are on ... as exemplified by my opponent, who, instead of addressing Illinois' problems, votes to double our debt, keep the massive tax hike up his sleeve until after the November election -- and then on the campaign trail won't even discuss these issues," Ruocco told the Metro East Sun. "He tries to distract from them by being critical of our campaign using an inexpensive keychain in our literature bags."

She said that spending was a major issue for the state House.

"Perhaps if my opponent considered budgetary constraints also, Illinois wouldn't rate [as] the worst state in the nation for its fiscal health, having to do yet another taxpayer bailout of even more than the one that ended in 2014, which increased our state income tax by 67 percent," Ruocco said. "With my opponent's spending bill, our comptroller stated we're looking at more than doubling our state income tax rate. I oppose this madness -- please support me in November and let's stop this wrongful taking of our hard-earned dollars."

In March, Ruocco started a petition to send the members of the Illinois House of Representatives back to work to fix issues that had been left unresolved.