Human trafficking in Florida is reported unevenly by county, with five metropolitan areas producing most of the state’s cases. Florida’s Abuse Hotline accepted 2,137 reports alleging human trafficking of children in State Fiscal Year 2023–2024, and Hillsborough, Miami-Dade, Broward, Duval, and Orange counties together accounted for roughly 42 percent of them. Florida has 67 counties in total, so that concentration is significant.
The Five Counties With the Most Reports
The Florida Department of Children and Families publishes annual county-level data from the Florida Abuse Hotline. For SFY 2023–2024, the counties generating the most accepted trafficking reports involving children were:
- Hillsborough County: 220 reports (Tampa; the Interstate 4 and I-75 junction)
- Miami-Dade County: 199 reports
- Broward County: 199 reports
- Duval County: 148 reports (Jacksonville)
- Orange County: 139 reports (Orlando and the surrounding tourism corridor)
These numbers reflect reports accepted for investigation, not confirmed cases. Population, infrastructure, and industry combine to push volume upward in each of these counties.
What the Reports Contain
Of the 2,137 accepted reports statewide, 1,965 (about 92 percent) involved commercial sexual exploitation of children. The remaining 172 reports (roughly 8 percent) involved labor trafficking.
The lopsided split does not mean labor trafficking is rare. It reflects how much harder labor exploitation is to spot and report. The verification rate for labor trafficking reports rose from about 12 percent in SFY 2022–2023 to more than 17 percent in SFY 2023–2024. When investigators look, they increasingly substantiate what they find.
Why Trafficking Concentrates in These Counties
Geography and industry drive the pattern. Interstate 95 runs the length of the Atlantic coast through Broward, Miami-Dade, and Duval counties. Interstate 75 links Hillsborough County to the rest of the Southeast, and Interstate 4 connects Tampa to Orlando. These corridors let traffickers move victims quickly between cities, and the steady flow of travelers provides anonymity.
Tourism amplifies the problem in Orange County, where the hospitality footprint around theme parks, convention centers, and cruise ports gives commercial sex operations places to blend in. Hotels, motels, and short-term rentals along major routes are common sites for exploitation.
Florida’s agriculture drives a separate pattern of labor trafficking. Migrant farmworkers, including those on H-2A temporary agricultural visas, are especially vulnerable. Federal law ties an H-2A visa to a single employer, and workers cannot switch jobs once they arrive. That dependency creates leverage for employers who confiscate documents, impose fraudulent debts, or threaten deportation. A federal racketeering prosecution in the Middle District of Florida documented the pattern in detail: Mexican nationals recruited on H-2A visas faced exorbitant fees, passport confiscation, and threats of arrest and deportation while working six to seven days a week for far less than legally required.
How Florida Defines Human Trafficking
Under Florida Statute 787.06, human trafficking means obtaining, recruiting, harboring, or moving another person for the purpose of exploiting them. The exploitation can take the form of forced labor or commercial sexual activity. The law reaches anyone who knowingly profits from a trafficking venture, not only those who directly control victims.
For adults, prosecutors must prove coercion. The statute defines coercion broadly to include physical force or threats of force, confiscating identification, using debt to control someone, or threatening to report a person to immigration authorities.
For children under 18, no proof of coercion is required in sex trafficking cases. Any involvement of a child in commercial sexual activity triggers criminal liability regardless of whether force, fraud, or deception played a role. A minor victim’s consent is explicitly not a defense.
State Penalties
Most trafficking offenses under Section 787.06 are first-degree felonies, punishable by up to 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.
Two categories carry heavier exposure:
- Trafficking a child under 18 for commercial sexual activity, or trafficking any person who is mentally defective or mentally incapacitated for sexual exploitation, is a life felony punishable by a term of imprisonment up to and including life.
- Transporting a child into Florida for commercial sexual activity is also punishable by imprisonment up to life.
Each victim constitutes a separate offense. A trafficker who exploits multiple people faces separate charges and consecutive sentences. The state can also seize and forfeit property used in the trafficking operation under the Florida Contraband Forfeiture Act, and proceeds from forfeited property must first go to restitution for the victims.
When Federal Charges Apply
Trafficking cases that cross state or national borders, involve foreign commerce, or use interstate communications like the internet can be prosecuted federally under 18 U.S.C. 1591 and related statutes. Sex trafficking involving force, fraud, or coercion, or involving a victim under 14, carries a mandatory minimum of 15 years and a maximum of life. When the victim is 14 to 17 and no force was used, the mandatory minimum is 10 years, with a maximum of life.
Federal law also requires mandatory restitution in every trafficking conviction. Under 18 U.S.C. 1593, the court must order the defendant to pay the full amount of the victim’s losses, calculated as the greater of the gross income the trafficker earned from the victim’s labor or the value of that labor under federal minimum wage and overtime standards. This is on top of any criminal sentence or fine.
Protections and Relief for Victims
Safe Harbor for Minors
Florida’s Safe Harbor Act established that sexually exploited children should be treated as dependent children in need of protection rather than as delinquents. Under Florida Statute 409.1678, a dependent child age six or older who has been found to be a victim of sexual exploitation must be assessed for placement in a certified safe house or safe foster home. Those placements use trauma-informed care, maintain 24-hour awake staff, separate trafficking victims from children with other needs, and coordinate with law enforcement if a child goes missing.
Florida Statute 402.881 provides a parallel certification framework for adult safe houses, which are residential facilities specifically for adult survivors of trafficking.
Expunging a Criminal Record
Under Florida Statute 943.0583, a person who committed offenses while being trafficked can petition a court to expunge those records. The offenses must have been committed as part of the trafficking scheme or at the direction of the trafficker, which commonly covers prostitution charges and other offenses under Chapters 796 and 847 of the Florida Statutes. The standard of proof is preponderance of the evidence. A conviction expunged under this provision is treated as having been vacated due to a substantive defect in the underlying proceedings.
The T Visa
Trafficking victims who are not U.S. citizens may qualify for a T nonimmigrant visa, which provides temporary legal status and a path to lawful permanent residency. An applicant must show:
- They are or were a victim of a severe form of trafficking.
- They are physically present in the United States because they were trafficked.
- They have cooperated with reasonable law enforcement requests. Minors under 18 and those unable to cooperate due to trauma may be exempt.
- They would suffer extreme hardship involving unusual and severe harm if removed.
The T visa matters in Florida’s agricultural cases, where H-2A workers may fear that reporting abuse will result in deportation. It takes that threat away from the trafficker.
How to Report
Call 911 if someone is in immediate danger. Otherwise, Florida offers several reporting channels:
- Florida Abuse Hotline, 1-800-962-2873, for suspected abuse or exploitation of children and vulnerable adults. This is the hotline behind the county numbers above.
- Florida Human Trafficking Hotline, 1-855-352-7233, for suspected trafficking of any kind.
- National Human Trafficking Hotline, 1-888-373-7888, a federally funded, confidential line. You can also text “HELP” to 233733.