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Illinois' Mandatory Human Trafficking Posters
A couple of years ago, the
state of Illinois passed something called "The Illinois Human Trafficking
Resources Center Notices Act" (Public
Act 099-0099), which took effect January 1st, 2016. The impetus,
according to the Illinois Legislature, was that human trafficking had
become much more common and that victims of trafficking did not know
where to turn for assistance and were often too intimidated to seek help.
The act requires specific
businesses where immigrant labor is more frequently used to post notices
informing the public and victims of human trafficking of telephone
hotlines to seek help or report unlawful activity. Among these businesses
are retail on-premises liquor licensees, farms, hospitals and urgent care
facilities, as well as many transportation establishments - airports, bus
and rail stations, and even truckstops.
There are specific
guidelines regarding the details of the posting with respects to poster
size, font size, area of placement and languages. It is the latter that
is of note today. A state liquor control inspector recently pointed out
to a few licensees that they were missing a required human trafficking
poster in a third language. Enforcement of this act seemingly falls
under the Illinois Department of Labor, so it's unclear if an ILCC agent
would even be within his jurisdiction to issue a fine, but that's a
different topic altogether.
The act itself, linked
above, and Illinois Department of Human Services' summary states
(emphasis ours):
"The specified business and other establishments must
post the notice in English, Spanish and
in one other language that is the most widely spoken language in the
county where the establishment is located
and for which translation is mandated by the federal Voting Rights Act,
as applicable. This does not require a business or other establishment in
a county where a language other than English or Spanish is the most
widely spoken language to print the notice in more than one language in
addition to English and Spanish."
This part in bold seems to
be the most overlooked as well as confusing caveat since the Act took
effect. Do you know what the three most widely spoken languages in your
county are? I have no clue about my home county of Madison.
English and Spanish seem like locks for the top two spots, but
then....?
We have reached out to the
Department of Human Services about a master list of third most common
languages by county. There probably is no such published list
maintained, but we will update this on our website once we hear back. It
seems others who have tried to ascertain the same question have more or
less been told to print one of the posters in any 3rd language they
desire.
Many owners and operators
are no doubt anxious to avoid the potential fines ($500 for a first
violation and $1000 for each subsequent offense) by hanging a poster in
any third language. Posters can be downloaded or printed here:
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