The Politics of Human Trafficking

[majoun]

Human trafficking is so interwoven with illegal immigration that it's a difficult issue to tackle without raising up red flags and all sorts of other controversies. In addition, fighting it involves bringing up the legalization of prostitution (which is how New Zealand greatly reduced it) and of drugs.

We can have a society in which human trafficking is as minimal as possible and in which illegal immigration is as minimal as possible. The only problem is that we'll have to legalize adult prostitution and legalize drugs as well, which would enrage the "conservative" types.

[Sunnysee]

I wish our government would take a hard stance in our Illegal Alien problem because human trafficking is a problem within this context, also.
Yes, there are citizens that really care, but what about our elected serpents?

[wutitiz]

The 'human trafficking' thing is largely a tempest in a teapot. I used to have some friends who were involved in the 'Asian massage parlor' trade in the Seattle area. Mostly SE Asian immigrants with very poor English skills and very limited economic opportunities. There was no 'trafficking' i.e. slavery. The girls were free to come and go as they chose, and they often did. If there had been 'trafficking' I would have turned them in to police myself.

Washington state passed an anti-trafficking law in 2003 and didn't get the first conviction until late 2009.
State's human trafficking law fails to snag a conviction - seattlepi.com

The first conviction was of a 19-yr-old pimp and gang member named Deshawn "Cash Money" Clark. Hardly the image of international intrigue and sophisticated organized crime that crusaders push.

It's pretty simple--vice cops and anti prostitution crusaders know that there is not much public support for going after consenting adults, so they come up with the trafficking canard as a smokescreen.