After over a decade working in emergency services and frontline response, I now work with fellow survivors who have escaped their traffickers - only to find their freedom was only a state of mind, and a criminal record holds them captive. But this isn't just about one person's record - It’s about the 14 trillion dollar burden that trauma and trafficking leaves on our society while predators continue to profit. It's about the generational trauma that ripples through families and communities. This is about keeping our communities safe by breaking cycles, not perpetuating them. We have the power to start responding instead of reacting, and we owe it to each other to play smarter, think faster, and find justice… together. I'm not arguing that we don't each hold accountability for our actions. I'm arguing that in some cases, our freedom is stripped from us—and in those cases, accountability belongs to the one who stole it. The reality is that Human Trafficking is the second largest criminal empire, second only to the drug trade. Career criminals are smart, they have learned they can profit from trafficking drugs AND humans, and do it all while avoiding charges by requiring the trafficked individual to commit the crime of trafficking the drugs. Criminals receive all the profit and the victims alongside our communities, are taking the fall. This is only one example of the many crimes traffickers force their victims into commiting for the purpose of personal gain. When a parent can't pass a background check, they can't get stable employment. They can't secure safe housing. Their children grow up in poverty and instability—the same conditions that create vulnerability to trafficking in the first place. We know that 75% of children experience trauma transmission from parents with adverse childhood experiences. Criminal records tied to exploitation don't just punish survivors—they punish their children, and their children's children. Recent data shows 21 survivors presented over 100 different criminal code sections connected to their victimization. The list approach simply cannot capture the full scope of coerced criminality. HB1298 shifts to categorical eligibility with the intention to cover all misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies committed as a result of trafficking, while maintaining existing safeguards and accountability. Please support HB1298. Thank you.

House Bill 1298 is an important step toward ensuring justice for survivors of human trafficking in Virginia. Many human trafficking victims are forced to commit crimes as part of their exploitation and under current law, are unable to move forward in their healing because these criminal records. Their exploitation and trauma continue to follow them even after exiting trafficking, prohibiting them from truly moving forward into a place of healing and restoration. Criminal records create significant barriers to stable housing, employment, and educational opportunities—not only for survivors themselves, but for their children. These individual barriers compound into broader community impact through increased unemployment and generational cycles of reduced opportunity. Please advance HB 1298 to prevent re-traumatization, to ensure justice, and to promote healing for survivors of human trafficking in Virginia.

I write in strong support of House Bill 1298. As the Director of Virginia's only Human Trafficking Legal Clinic, our office has screened and represented trafficking survivors seeking vacatur relief since 2023. The current narrow scope of qualifying offenses leaves many victims without remedy, perpetuating the collateral consequences of crimes they were compelled to commit. 21 survivors we have screened collectively presented with over 100 criminal offense charges directly resulting from their exploitation—ranging from drug offenses to theft, trespass, and prostitution-related charges. The Rebuttable Presumption is Essential The proposed rebuttable presumption in § 19.2-327.18(F) addresses a critical gap in the current process. Despite presenting compelling evidence—including letters from Assistant United States Attorneys formally attesting to our clients' confirmed victim status—we have faced vigorous Commonwealth opposition to petitions in certain jurisdictions. Trafficking survivors should not face essentially varying evidentiary standards across different jurisdictions, or be required to relitigate their victim status when official documentation already confirms their victimization. The rebuttable presumption provides an appropriate safeguard: it recognizes the weight of official documentation while preserving the Commonwealth's ability to present contrary evidence in truly disputed cases. Without this provision, victims face re-traumatization through protracted litigation over facts already established by law enforcement and federal prosecutors. The rebuttable presumption balances justice for victims with prosecutorial discretion. I urge the subcommittee to advance this legislation.

Shared Hope International is a non-profit organization dedicated to preventing, restoring, and bringing justice to survivors of child and youth sex trafficking. HB 1298, if passed, expands the issuance of a writ of vacatur for victims of human trafficking to all non-violent offenses in Virginia — allowing survivors to vacate certain convictions and associated burdens when their criminal conduct was a direct result of being trafficked. Virginia’s current vacatur statute represents an important acknowledgment that survivors of human trafficking should not bear lifelong criminal consequences for acts committed as a direct result of their exploitation. However, in practice, the law remains too narrow and fails to account for the full range of criminalized conduct survivors are compelled to engage in under the control of traffickers. By limiting relief primarily to certain low-level or enumerated offenses, current law leaves many survivors without meaningful access to justice and healing. Traffickers often force survivors to commit acts such as fraud, financial crimes, drug possession and/or distribution, and other offenses as a means of control, profit, or punishment. These offenses are not committed independently or voluntarily; rather, they are survival behaviors driven by violence, threats, psychological manipulation, and the constant risk of retaliation. Yet under current law, survivors convicted of these nonviolent felonies are often categorically excluded from vacatur relief, regardless of the clear causal connection between the trafficking and the offense. This narrow framework creates arbitrary distinctions that undermine the purpose of vacatur statutes. A survivor may obtain relief for an enumerated offense directly connected to their trafficking, while another survivor—coerced into a non-enumerated offense through the same exploitation—remains permanently barred from relief. This inconsistency fails to reflect the realities of trafficking and places undue weight on offense type rather than the survivor’s victimization and lack of meaningful agency at the time of the conduct. The consequences of these exclusions are severe. Survivors with convictions face persistent barriers to housing, employment, education, professional licensure, and family stability. These barriers directly impede long-term recovery and increase vulnerability to re-exploitation. Moreover, overly restrictive eligibility standards deter survivors from even seeking relief. Survivors often carry deep mistrust of systems that previously failed to protect them. When statutes are narrowly drawn or require survivors to fit within rigid offense categories, they reinforce the perception that relief is inaccessible, burdensome, or not intended for people with complex criminal histories—despite those histories being a direct product of trafficking. HB1298 addresses these shortcomings by expanding vacatur eligibility to include all nonviolent offenses when a survivor can demonstrate that the offense was a direct result of being trafficked. By allowing courts to consider the full context of exploitation and coercion, the bill ensures that relief is available to survivors whose experiences do not fit neatly into narrow statutory boxes. We strongly urge this committee to vote favorably upon HB 1298 to protect victims who are compelled to commit crimes and treat them as the victims they are. Thank you for your consideration.