1. United States
2. W.V.
3. Letter

I am writing to urge you to oppose West Virginia House Bill 2026, introduced on January 20, 2026, which creates dangerous new criminal penalties that could prosecute individuals providing humanitarian assistance to undocumented people, including trafficking victims. The bill introduces new sections §61-14-2(c) and (d) that criminalize "human smuggling," defined as knowingly transporting, transferring, receiving, isolating, enticing, or harboring an illegal alien. This language is so broad that it could subject anyone who provides shelter, transportation, or basic assistance to undocumented individuals to 2-10 years imprisonment for adults and 3-15 years for minors. While the bill includes a narrow exemption in §61-14-10 for medical providers, mental health professionals, and attorneys, it fails to protect faith leaders, social workers, teachers, neighbors, and family members who offer help. This creates an impossible situation for identifying trafficking victims. Trafficking survivors often lack legal immigration status because traffickers use that vulnerability as a tool of control. Under HB 2026, a person who provides temporary housing to someone fleeing a trafficking situation could face a decade in prison simply because the victim is undocumented. This directly undermines the bill's stated purpose of combating human trafficking by making it dangerous to assist the very people most at risk. The restitution provisions in §61-14-7(d) further reveal the bill's problematic approach by limiting restitution for "adult illegal aliens" to only medical expenses and transportation costs to return them to their place of origin. This treats undocumented trafficking victims as less deserving of justice and compensation than other victims, creating a two-tiered system that traffickers will exploit. I ask you to vote against HB 2026 as written. If the legislature is committed to addressing human trafficking, it should focus on supporting victims and prosecuting traffickers without criminalizing the humanitarian assistance that helps survivors escape exploitation. This bill will drive trafficking further underground and make West Virginia less safe.