TEXAS PENAL CODE
TITLE 5. OFFENSES AGAINST THE PERSON
CHAPTER 20A. TRAFICKING OF PERSONS
Sec. 20A.01. DEFINITIONS. In this chapter:
(1) “Forced labor or services” means labor or services, including conduct that constitutes an offense under Section 43.02, that are performed or provided by another person and obtained through an actor’s:
(A) causing or threatening to cause bodily injury to the person or another person or otherwise causing the person performing or providing labor or services to believe that the person or another person will suffer bodily injury;
(B) restraining or threatening to restrain the person or another person in a manner described by Section 20.01(1) or causing the person performing or providing labor or services to believe that the person or another person will be restrained;
(C) knowingly destroying, concealing, removing, confiscating, or withholding from the person or another person, or threatening to destroy, conceal, remove, confiscate, or withhold from the person or another person, the person’s actual or purported:
(i) government records;
(ii) identifying information; or
(iii) personal property;
(D) threatening the person with abuse of the law or the legal process in relation to the person or another person;
(E) threatening to report the person or another person to immigration officials or other law enforcement officials or otherwise blackmailing or extorting the person or another person;
(F) exerting financial control over the person or another person by placing the person or another person under the actor’s control as security for a debt to the extent that:
(i) the value of the services provided by the person or another person as reasonably assessed is not applied toward the liquidation of the debt;
(ii) the duration of the services provided by the person or another person is not limited and the nature of the services provided by the person or another person is not defined; or
(iii) the principal amount of the debt does not reasonably reflect the value of the items or services for which the debt was incurred; or
(G) using any scheme, plan, or pattern intended to cause the person to believe that the person or another person will be subjected to serious harm or restraint if the person does not perform or provide the labor or services.
(2) “Trafic” means to transport, entice, recruit, harbor, provide, or otherwise obtain another person by any means.
Added by Acts 2003, 78th Leg., ch. 641, Sec. 2, eff. Sept. 1, 2003.
Amended by:
Acts 2007, 80th Leg., R.S., Ch. 258, Sec. 16.01, eff. September 1, 2007.
Acts 2007, 80th Leg., R.S., Ch. 849, Sec. 4, eff. June 15, 2007.
Sec. 20A.02. TRAFICKING OF PERSONS. (a) A person commits an offense if the person knowingly:
(1) trafics another person with the intent or knowledge that the traficked person will engage in forced labor or services; or
(2) benefits from participating in a venture that involves an activity described by Subdivision (1), including by receiving labor or services the person knows are forced labor or services.
(b) Except as otherwise provided by this subsection, an offense under this section is a felony of the second degree. An offense under this section is a felony of the first degree if:
(1) the applicable conduct constitutes an offense under Section 43.05 or 43.25 and the person who is traficked is a child younger than 18 years of age at the time of the offense, regardless of whether the actor knows the age of the child at the time the actor commits the offense; or
(2) the commission of the offense results in the death of the person who is traficked.
(c) If conduct constituting an offense under this section also constitutes an offense under another section of this code, the actor may be prosecuted under either section or under both sections.
Added by Acts 2003, 78th Leg., ch. 641, Sec. 2, eff. Sept. 1, 2003.
Amended by:
Acts 2007, 80th Leg., R.S., Ch. 258, Sec. 16.02, eff. September 1, 2007.
Acts 2007, 80th Leg., R.S., Ch. 849, Sec. 5, eff. June 15, 2007.
Acts 2009, 81st Leg., R.S., Ch. 1002, Sec. 7, eff. September 1, 2009.
