HUMAN TRAFFICKING WATCH · DISPATCH
Hawaiʻi adopts trafficking training, extends domestic-violence pilot
Governor Green signs Acts 191 and 192, centering prevention, data, and survivor safety
At the State Capitol in Honolulu, Gov. Josh Green signed Acts 191 and 192, launching statewide trafficking training for tourism workers and extending Hawaiʻi’s domestic-violence pilot to deepen data, treatment, and court accountability.
At the Hawaiʻi State Capitol in Honolulu, Governor Josh Green signed two coordinated measures that moved prevention to the front of Hawaiʻi’s response to trafficking and domestic violence—House Bill 1960, now Act 191, and House Bill 1959, now Act 192—both advanced by the Women’s Legislative Caucus, including House Vice Speaker Linda Ichiyama and Sen. Lynn DeCoite. The first set a statewide training mandate for transient accommodations workers to spot and report indicators of trafficking; the second extended and refined a domestic-violence pilot to capture outcomes, expand treatment pathways, and keep lower-level cases from hardening into repeat harm. Taken together, the bills threaded tourism, courts, and community partners into statute, with lawmakers and advocates emphasizing survivor safety, practical tools, and measurable results as the point of the exercise (Now, n.d.; Hawaii Tribune-Herald, n.d.; Hawaii Public Radio, n.d.; KPUA, n.d.).
Act 191 required the Department of the Attorney General to stand up a Human Trafficking Awareness Training Program with standardized materials—and to approve equivalent courses from reputable external providers—so hotels, bed-and-breakfasts, and vacation rentals could train staff on risk indicators, response steps, and reporting. Employers and third-party contractors must keep training records, post required signage, and adopt a prevention policy with clear internal procedures, with civil penalties of up to $100 for noncompliance intended to enforce a floor rather than set an upper limit. The structure placed frontline workers—desk clerks, housekeeping supervisors, security—in a position to identify patterns earlier and to escalate concerns through consistent channels across an industry that touches nearly every visitor corridor in the state (Hawaii Tribune-Herald, n.d.; Hawaii Public Radio, n.d.; Now, n.d.).
The trafficking mandate arrived against a record the state could no longer ignore: a 2020 Arizona State University study commissioned by the Hawaiʻi Commission on the Status of Women flagged about 150 high-risk sex trafficking establishments, largely clustered in Honolulu; roughly one in 11 adult men in Hawaiʻi reported going online to purchase sex; and Native Hawaiian women and girls were disproportionately represented among identified victims. Later surveys found up to 64% of identified victims had Native Hawaiian ancestry, underscoring a disparity that made the case for standardized intervention as much a matter of equity as of enforcement. Legislators also noted the Attorney General’s office is preparing a comprehensive statewide human trafficking report, due in December, covering children and adults and both labor and sex trafficking, a dataset meant to guide the next round of policy (Hawaii Tribune-Herald, n.d.).
Act 192 extended for five more years a domestic-violence pilot first authorized in 2020 and 2021, creating a petty misdemeanor category for the least serious incidents, allowing deferred acceptance of guilty pleas in qualifying misdemeanor and petty misdemeanor abuse cases, and requiring the Judiciary to file annual reports that track outcomes—dismissals, deferrals successfully closed, sentences by category, assessments ordered and completed, and referrals to treatment with documented results. The final evaluation is due December 1, 2030, with a recommendation on whether to make the framework permanent; in the meantime, offenders in the program must complete domestic-violence intervention and acknowledge the harm caused as part of accountability. Lawmakers credited Puna Sen. Joy San Buenaventura’s leadership in advancing the pilot, signaling a blend of treatment, measured sanction, and transparency over raw punishment (Hawaii Tribune-Herald, n.d.; Hawaii Public Radio, n.d.; Now, n.d.).
House Vice Speaker Linda Ichiyama said the bills reached the governor’s desk through sustained collaboration with survivors, advocates, service providers, and community partners; Sen. Lynn DeCoite emphasized that the point is protection—in homes, workplaces, and the visitor industry—and noted that before the pilot, survivors often waited months before their cases moved. Angelina Mercado, executive director of the Hawaiʻi State Coalition Against Domestic Violence, framed the extension as a commitment to putting survivor safety first, a promise that has to be proven case by case in courtrooms and service plans. The sponsors also made clear that the work is not finished, only better organized and better measured than before (Now, n.d.; Hawaii Public Radio, n.d.; KPUA, n.d.).
Implementation now sits with the Attorney General to build curricula and approve equivalents, and with transient accommodation employers and contractors to schedule regular training, maintain records, post signage, and operationalize internal reporting so a desk clerk’s concern becomes a documented referral rather than a dead end. Compliance will be enforced through civil penalties while the tourism sector—one of the state’s broadest networks of eyes and ears—adopts common standards and prevention policies, and the Judiciary continues to publish domestic-violence metrics that make performance legible to the Legislature. The governor signed other measures the same day, but the clear throughline of Acts 191 and 192 was coordination, accountability, and earlier intervention across hotels and courts, with results to be audited in public (Now, n.d.; Hawaii Tribune-Herald, n.d.).
Locations: Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii
Tags: policy, training, state, frontline