Tag: human trafficking

Biden to Name Cindy McCain to United Nations Position

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Cindy McCain

President Joe Biden announced Wednesday that he would nominate Cindy McCain to be the U.S. representative to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture with the rank of ambassador, according to a White House press release.

McCain, the widow of former Republican Arizona Sen. John McCain, has been a critic of Donald Trump and endorsed Biden in the 2020 election, according to the Associated Press.

McCain is the chairman and director of the Hensley Beverage Company, a Phoenix-based alcohol distributor representing Anheuser-Busch, according to the McCain Institute website.

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Gov. Bill Lee Launches New Partnership to Combat Human Trafficking

Cooper Moran

The State of Tennessee is partnering with multiple organizations to help combat human trafficking, Governor Bill Lee announced on Thursday.

According to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation’s project, ItHasToStop.com, this form of modern-day slavery is one of the fastest growing crimes throughout the state and country as a whole. Further, cases of human trafficking have been reported in every county in Tennessee.

“I’m excited to invest in and partner with these remarkable organizations that are at the forefront of this important fight. Human trafficking has no place in our state, and I’m proud to support our law enforcement and non-profit partners,” Governor Lee said.

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Human Traffickers Using Facebook to Lure Customers, Promising Safe Passage to U.S.

Peter D'Abrosca
Group of protestors holding human trafficking signs

A report released Monday details how human traffickers are using Facebook – and the Biden administration’s new open border’s policies – to generate business and smuggle illegal aliens into the United States.

Public Facebook pages called “Migrants from Various Countries in Mexico” and “Migrants in the Mexico-U.S.A. Border Awaiting Hearing,” among others, were openly being used by smugglers on the Big Tech platform to scheme with would-be illegal aliens about how to break America’s immigration laws. 

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Former U.S. Olympics Coach Charged with Human Trafficking Commits Suicide

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Former U.S. Olympics gymnastics coach John Geddert has died by suicide at 63 years old after being charged with human trafficking, the New York Post reported.

On Thursday, Geddert was charged with crimes including sexual assault, human trafficking, lying to a police officer and running a criminal enterprise, the Post reported.  According to the criminal charges filed by Michigan’s Attorney General Dana Nessel, the former coach could have faced up to a life sentence, ESPN reported.

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Ohio Attorney General Yost Reviews 2020 Progress to End Human Trafficking

Jack Windsor

  Attorney General Yost outlined the progress his office made during 2020 – reviewing arrests, rescues, prosecutions as well as the education and legislation efforts designed to achieve the goal “where no one is bought or sold in Ohio.” One statewide anti-human trafficking effort – Autumn Hope –netted 109 rescues of human trafficking victims, cleared 76 cases involving missing and exploited children, arrested 22 individuals for arranging sex with minors, seized 157 men charged with solicitation and other crimes. Throughout 2020, high profile arrests were made in cases involving a Cuyahoga Count religious leader, a Portsmouth attorney, a human trafficking ring leader in Youngstown, and a Columbus man charged with 19 felonies. At the beginning of the year the inaugural Hope in Action Summit drew 600 people, with a focus on linking people and resources to strengthen the statewide fight against trafficking. In the Tuesday communication, Yost announced the 2021 event which is scheduled for January 14, 2021 – registration is currently open. “As part of our offices’ initiatives to strengthen the laws around human trafficking, we reached out to the General Assembly to introduce multiple ideas on how to increase the tools we have available to combat human trafficking.…

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Ohio Attorney General Yost Calls on Netflix to Remove ‘Cuties’

Ben Kolodny

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost called on Netflix to remove the controversial new movie “Cuties” from their platform.

In a joint letter to Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, Yost, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton requested that the platform “voluntarily remove” the movie “from your service due to the great harm it causes to our children.”

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Representative Candice Keller Targeted by Activists at Save Our Children Rally

Corinne Murdock

Counter-protesters wearing black activism gear targeted Representative Candice Keller (R-OH-53) after her speech this past weekend at a Save Our Children Rally in Columbus. Keller is an avid pro-life legislator and creator of the Ohio Heartbeat Bill.

Keller and her husband Kent – a write-in candidate for the Ohio Senate – attended the rally. In interviews with The Ohio Star, Keller states that she and her husband were walking back to their cars when they noticed people recording and following them. Every time the couple looked back, the group stopped and stared – but continued taping.

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Legacy Media Outlet Brushes Aside Dozens of Rescued Children to Politicize ‘Save the Children’ Event

Corinne Murdock

The Columbus Dispatch published an article casting a local “Save the Children” event as a Trojan Horse for “QAnon” beliefs. Before the event even takes place, the article depicts it as mobilization for potential violence by conspiracy theory supporters.

It is the latest in a growing trend with media to downplay or dismiss child sex-trafficking awareness events as covers for other, darker political intentions. QAnon is a conspiracy theory that President Trump is secretly battling powerful and wealthy Satan-worshipping pedophiles.

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Sheriff Sam Page Says, ‘A Country That Doesn’t Define Its Borders and Doesn’t Know Who’s Coming in and Out of the Country, Won’t Last Very Long’

Julie Carr

On Wednesday’s Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – host Leahy welcomed Rockingham County, North Carolina’s Sheriff of 20 years, Samuel ‘Sam’ Page to the show to speak about illegal immigration and how it’s affecting his county and those across the nation.

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Small Segments of Border Wall Matter in Stopping Illegal Aliens, Brian Kolfage Says During We Build the Wall Symposium

Jason M. Reynolds

We Build the Wall sponsored a symposium Saturday to discuss border security issues and a “can-do attitude” that led to its construction of one segment of border wall.

The event was titled “Symposium at the Wall: Cartels, Trafficking, and Asylum.” The location was Sunland Park, New Mexico, near El Paso, Texas, where the organization built its first section of wall.

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Human Trafficking Investigation Leads to Four Businesses Being Raided

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by Shelby Talcott   Four Virginia Beach business were raided in connection with possible human trafficking Thursday, according to authorities. One of the locations was a massage parlor that has been open for about seven or eight years, local outlet Wavy reported. People in the area were not surprised to hear of alleged human trafficking at this location, with one woman saying most business owners in the area had an idea something was up. “Yeah, well I think most of the business owners they had a feeling that something was going on,” said Tiffany, who works near the parlor, according to Wavy. “It was pretty noticeable that there was just gentlemen going in and out. No women of any kind.” “I mean it’s very apparent, you know, the girls will sometimes walk the gentlemen out as they leave the parking lot, you see only gentlemen going in and out,” Tiffany said. “You never see female. I know across, the business across the sidewalk here, one of her girls tried to go get a massage and they turned her down and told her they don’t. You know ‘we don’t service females.’” Human trafficking is a worldwide, multi-billion dollar illegal industry and…

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Blackburn Joins Three Other Republican Senators in Introducing Act to Prevent Immigrant Children from Being Trafficked at Southern Border

Jason M. Reynolds

  U.S. Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and three other Republican senators on Tuesday introduced legislation to protect children from being trafficked at the southern border. Blackburn announced she was working with U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Josh Hawley (R-MO). The bill, S. 1561, is also known as the Accountability for Care of Unaccompanied Alien Children Act to protect children from being trafficked at the southern border. Blackburn tweeted, “Today, @ChuckGrassley, @SenTomCotton & @HawleyMO and I introduced legislation to protect children from being trafficked at the southern border. This is a critical step we must take to secure our country and protect those who are being taken advantage of by criminals.” Today, @ChuckGrassley, @SenTomCotton & @HawleyMO and I introduced legislation to protect children from being trafficked at the southern border. This is a critical step we must take to secure our country and protect those who are being taken advantage of by criminals. pic.twitter.com/oRCJzZwQIt — Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) May 21, 2019 At a 2018 Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations hearing, Blackburn said, a Department of Health and Human Services official admitted the agency lost track of nearly 1,500 unaccompanied minors after their release from federal custody…

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Commentary: Brutal ‘Coyotes’ Are Slave-Trading Criminals

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by Pedro Gonsalez   Migrant women are so likely to be raped by people smugglers (coyotes) on the way to the U.S.-Mexico border that standard procedure is to ingest birth-control before starting the trek. So common is the brutalization of women by coyotes that in smuggling towns along the way pharmacists are at the ready. In one case a woman with a young daughter was left to die in the desert on the way to the U.S. border by coyotes. The reason? She refused to let them have sex with her daughter. The two of them only survived because Customs and Border Patrol agents found them in time. But there are fates worse than death. It is just as easy for coyotes to sell off their human cargo into what essentially amounts to modern-day slavery. In Ohio, for example, four illegal alien minors were found being forced to work on farms under threat of physical violence and without pay – that is, slavery. They were trafficked illegally into the United States from Guatemala. The victimizers of those Guatemalan children were named as follows: Aroldo Castillo-Serrano, Conrado Salgado Soto, Ana Angelica Pedro, Juan Pablo Duran Jr. Not exactly names common to the Midwest. Elsewhere, a 6-year-old illegal alien…

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Gov. Haslam Grants Clemency to Cyntoia Brown, Sets Aug. 7 Release Date for Woman Convicted of Murder at Age 16

Jason M. Reynolds

Retiring Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam on Monday gave executive clemency to convicted murderer Cyntoia Brown by commuting her life sentence. Brown will be released on Aug. 7 to parole supervision for a period of 10 years, Haslam said in a statement. She served 15 years in prison. She was convicted as a teenager of killing a man while she said she was a sex trafficking victim at age 16, NBC News said. In 2006, Brown was convicted by a Davidson County jury of first-degree murder and aggravated robbery for the 2004 murder of 43-year-old Nashville real estate agent Johnny Allen, the governor’s office said. The incident occurred when Allen took Brown to his home. She received a life sentence with the possibility of parole after serving a minimum of 51 years in prison, which means she would not have been eligible for parole consideration until 2055, at the earliest, without the governor’s action. Brown said that she feared for her life and pulled a gun from her purse and shot Allen while in bed with him because she believed he was going for a gun, NBC News said. Brown, a runaway, lived with her 24-year-old boyfriend, a pimp known as…

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President Trump Tells Reporters the Government Will Stay Shut Down Unless Wall is Built

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by Henry Rodgers   President Donald Trump said the federal government will remain shut down unless there is an agreement on some type of border wall or fence. “I can’t tell you when the government is going to reopen … [Not until] we have a wall, a fence, whatever they’d like to call it. I’ll call it whatever they want. But it’s all the same thing. It’s a barrier from people pouring into our country,” Trump said when talking to reporters on Christmas Day. Trump’s comments come as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Republicans need to “abandon” border wall funding if they want the government to reopen, just less than 24 hours into the partial shutdown. Trump has not budged on the issue, despite Schumer’s comments, adding that it’s a barrier from dangers like drug smuggling. “It’s a barrier from drugs. There is a problem in this world today called human trafficking … We are not going to let that take place. We are working so hard to catch these traffickers. They are bad people. We can’t do it without a barrier, we can’t do it without a wall,” Trump continued. Incoming acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney warned it is “very possible” the partial…

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Federal Law, Not President Trump, Dictates How Unaccompanied Children and Family Units Are Treated at the Border

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unaccompanied children

by Robert Romano   Between 2009 and 2016, more than 242,000 unaccompanied children arrived at the southwest border, according to data compiled by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, averaging about 30,000 a year. In 2016, that number was about 20,000. In addition, in 2016, about 23,000 family units were apprehended at the border. According to CBP, “Family Unit represents the number of individuals (either a child under 18 years old, parent or legal guardian) apprehended with a family member by the U.S. Border Patrol.” Normally, what happens, per a 2008 federal law against human trafficking and federal court rulings, is unaccompanied children are given to the care of the Department of Health and Human Services, and eventually released, ideally to a relative residing in the U.S., within 20 days. As for the adults, there is no provision of law allowing them to stay, even if they arrived with children. If upon capture and pleading guilty and being released to ICE custody, they elect to be deported, however, they can return home with the children before the child is required to be released within the 20-day court-imposed deadline — provided there is time to hear the case. If the adults apply for asylum, that…

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Bob Corker Subverts President Trump Yet Again: Says Order to Reunite Immigrant Families Not ‘Realistic’

Jason M. Reynolds
Bob Corker

U.S. Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) told “Face the Nation” that the immigration policy that separated families was done in a “ready, fire, aim way,” and insinuated that Republicans who are concerned about illegal immigration hate others. The Tennessee Republican appeared on the CBS show Sunday. The host asked him if the U.S. committed a “human rights violation.” The senator deflected the question and said, “It obviously is not something that’s realistic. It’s not something that appreciates these young children. It certainly was done in a ready, aim, fire way, obviously.” Corker said President Trump signing an executive order to reunite families “led to another crisis” due to the 20-day limit on how long children may be detained with their parents while they are prosecuted. He accused “some” in the administration of using the issue “as a force to activate the base for elections, but obviously the president realized that was a mistake, and now it’s up to us in Congress to work with them to come up with a longer-term solution.” Corker raps his party Corker was asked about “American values” and a CBS News poll result: Those who enter the nation illegally should be punished as an example of toughness,…

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Twenty-Two Men, Half Now in ICE Custody, Indicted in Brentwood Human Trafficking Sting

Wendy Wilson
Human Trafficking

Twenty-two men, half of whom are now in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), have been indicted in an undercover human trafficking sting in Brentwood. The operation was carried out by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI), the Brentwood Police Department, Homeland Security Investigations and the office of 21st District Attorney General Kim Helper. A Williamson County grand jury on Monday returned mostly felony indictments against the 22 men, who were attempting to buy illicit sex from minors. “Unfortunately, the results of this joint operation demonstrate the need for continued vigilance for signs of human trafficking in our communities,” Helper said in a news release issued by the TBI Thursday. “The fact that so many men were willing to engage in sexual activity with who they believed to be a 14- and 16-year-old is shocking. Our office will continue to vigorously pursue and prosecute individuals involved in any form of human trafficking.” As part of the sting in early October, two female TBI agents posed as individuals offering sex on Backpage.com. They identified themselves as 14 and 16 years old in text or phone conversations that followed. Men who traveled to meet with them for sex despite the ages…

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Brentwood Baptist To Hold Training Saturday On Combating Human Trafficking

Wendy Wilson
Trafficking

Brentwood Baptist Church will hold a training this weekend on fighting human trafficking that is open to the public. The church has been working with other local churches to build awareness about human trafficking in local communities and around the world. Saturday’s training will feature leaders from Alliance for Freedom, Restoration and Juctice, Inc., Nashville Baptist Association and Brentwood Baptist’s Missions Ministry. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has said that human trafficking is the second-fasting growing criminal industry after drug trafficking, according to a press release issued by Brentwood Baptist. “While Tennessee has been ranked as the toughest state in the nation regarding state statues that protect children from commercial sex exploitation crimes, TBI acknowledges that there is a need to develop more resources to aid victims and their families,” the press release said. President Trump has called human trafficking an epidemic that is not getting enough attention. In February, he signed an executive order to combat transnational criminal organizations and international trafficking. “These groups are drivers of crime, corruption, violence, and misery,” the executive order says. “In particular, the trafficking by cartels of controlled substances has triggered a resurgence in deadly drug abuse and a corresponding rise in violent crime related to…

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