Lake County Gazette

A new law taking effect Jan. 1 is set to expand protections for human trafficking victims across Illinois. 

The bill, co-sponsored by Rep. Chris Bos (R-Lake Zurich) expands the Address Confidentiality for Victims of Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault or Stalking Act  to add the same protections for victims of human trafficking. 

“I was proud to co-sponsor this new law that takes effect on January 1st,” Bos wrote in a Facebook post Dec. 27 announcing the new law.

According to the Illinois Human Trafficking Task Force Report, the state had the 11th-highest number of cases of human trafficking in the country as of 2018. In 2017, the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault reported 552 individuals who had been trafficked through Illinois were reported to the National Human Trafficking Hotline.

The Address Confidentiality Act allows for state and local agencies to respond to requests for public records without disclosing the location of a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking or now, human trafficking. This also allows for victims participating in the Address Confidentiality Program to use an address designated by the attorney general as a substitute mailing address. 

This comes alongside nearly 300 new laws that will go into effect at the start of the new year, ABC 7 Chicago reports. These include laws raising the minimum wage to $12 per hour; allowing students to take up to five excused absences for mental health days; prohibiting discrimination against natural and ethnic hairstyles; and requiring public universities to make it optional for prospective students to submit SAT and ACT scores for admissions decisions.