By Juan Perez, Jr.

CHICAGO, IL - U.S. Sens. Mark Kirk and John Cornyn joined top Cook County law enforcement officials to endorse a Senate bill intended to target the Internet sex trade.

The Republicans met with Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez and Sheriff Tom Dart in Kirk's office Monday, promoting legislation to wield federal racketeering laws against website operators that sell or promote ads that facilitate sex crimes.

Specifically, Kirk and Dart took direct aim at Backpage.com, an online classified ad service they accused of enabling crimes involving prostitution and sex trafficking.

Kirk called Jim Larkin and Michael Lacey, Backpage's owners, "my two least favorite Americans" while likening the pair to "modern-day slave masters."

"As citizens of Illinois, we have a special moral obligation to make sure that modern-day slavery has no place in the state of Illinois (and) to make sure that involuntary servitude is not part of this state's experience," Kirk said.

Backpage.com could not be immediately reached for comment.

Prospects for the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act are unclear. Kirk said 14 senators have signed onto the effort, but the bill must pass through a committee process that Cornyn said has other priorities before it can reach a full Senate vote.

The legislation must also navigate through thorny free speech concerns and debate over the role of the Internet. Federal law currently protects web operators from liability for what people post on their sites.

But officials said the proposed law would also fund local efforts to support victims of sex crimes, while providing an avenue to seize assets of those who profit off the controversial websites.

Sex trafficking, Alvarez said, is already an problem that exhibits a deep impact across the city and state.

"So it's important that we focus and look for more resources to help the people who are true victims of this horrific crime," she said.

"Most of the victims that we encounter are recruited, they're seduced into this life by experienced predators. And they prey on the vulnerabilities of poverty and homelessness."

Dart said Backpage has emerged as the "pre-eminent" website for prostitution and sex trafficking after Craigslist officials bowed to legal pressure and stopped accepting ads for erotic services.

But provisions in the Communications Decency Act prevent law enforcement from targeting sites such as Backpage, Dart said.

"Time in and time out, when we've attempted to go after them, we have been faced with the Decency Act -- or so it's called -- as the reason why we can't shut them down," Dart said.

"We have been pulling our hair out, saying this is a losing battle," he said, adding that the sheriff's office is involved in nearly 600 criminal cases involving the website.

"They know their site is being used for this. They do not care. They don't care," he said.

Cornyn said the legislation could serve as a "confidence building" exercise that could gain bipartisan support and assure balance between free-expression concerns and targeting criminal acts.

"I don't know why this has to become a zero-sum game," Cornyn said. "People have the attitude (that), 'Well, you have to be for free and open Internet or you have to be for sexual slavery and modern-day human trafficking.' I don't agree with that.

"… We can, I think go after the bad actors and the bad conduct without interfering with the ability of people to use these modes of communication for perfectly legitimate purposes."

Originally published in the Chicago Tribune