DHS And Human Trafficking

[+ stevenkesslar]

http://www.dhs.gov/blog/2015/07/22/dhs-blue-campaign-five-year-milestone

 

http://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/styles/dhs_homepage_rotator/public/bc-forced-labor-slideshow.jpg?itok=UGFS4LqM

 

I stumbled on this after reading BVB's post on potential electric grid cyberattacks and the lack of preparedness for such "imminent" disasters on the DHS website.

 

They have been hard at work at stopping human trafficking.

 

I'm all for this. As I've stated ad naseum, it was one of the things that my hero and mentor Sen.Paul Wellstone and his wife Sheila were actually able to get done on a bipartisan basis in a divided Congress.

 

DHS makes no mention I can find to Rentboy or any other escort website. And the DHS complaint against Rentboy made no reference to human trafficking or taking advantage of teen Gay runaways or anything like that. It also did not mention, of course, Rentboy's affirmative efforts to network with organizations that helped victims.

 

To me, the takeaway is that DHS should focus on the electric grid, and things like this, human trafficking, where there are real or potential victims. Not on going after the consensual activities and sexual proclivities of adult Gay men.

[curiousnomore]

It's all about the money Steven. Rentboy got to aggressive in their marketing and Uncle Sam thought he wasn't getting his cut.

[Moneymike68]

It's all about the money Steven. Rentboy got to aggressive in their marketing and Uncle Sam thought he wasn't getting his cut.

 

Absolutely. I always found m4rn, rentboy, and even a4a to be anti sex trafficking. This comes from their setup, their users (escorts), and the demographic of client. Sites such as backpage and craigslist, while useful for a fledgeling escort, tend to leave more room for exploitation given the open ended, anonymous, setup. The takedown of rentboy was spiteful and meant to function as a warning shot to the gay community; 1. for getting too bold and 2. for mainstreaming our sex-culture.

[+ quoththeraven]

It's all about the money Steven. Rentboy got to aggressive in their marketing and Uncle Sam thought he wasn't getting his cut.

 

I don't get it. Other than the greater ease for self-employed individuals paid in cash to evade taxes, which would be true even without Rentboy, how did Rentboy's existence cost Uncle Sam money?

[+ stevenkesslar]

I don't get it. Other than the greater ease for self-employed individuals paid in cash to evade taxes, which would be true even without Rentboy, how did Rentboy's existence cost Uncle Sam money?

 

I'm assuming he's referring to the $1.4 million in seized assets.

[curiousnomore]

I don't get it. Other than the greater ease for self-employed individuals paid in cash to evade taxes, which would be true even without Rentboy, how did Rentboy's existence cost Uncle Sam money?

In my humble opinion, Rentboy flaunted themselves. Just look at "The Hookies".

 

I have no issue with anything Rentboy did, but I can see how my Uncle Sam did. I don't agree with his action.

[+ stevenkesslar]

Part of the reason I posted this about "the Blue Campaign" is it captures some of the ambiguity about the situation we are in.

 

I buy the theory that this likely originated because of a visa application and that Rentboy erred by essentially waving what they did in DHS's face. Even if I knew with 100 % certainty that is the truth, which I don't, it would not change anything I have done or will do. If it was about a visa request, all DHS has to do was turn it down. By busting Rentboy instead, they turned this into a broader attack on the Gay community. Their bad.

 

I posted the picture above for a reason. My first thought when I saw the picture of an attractive looking Latin "boy" is that it could be a picture used in a campaign against the trafficking of Mexican teenage boys for sex. If you look at the picture, it suggests something else: it's about trafficking for labor in sweatshops. But it does suggest that DHS sees males as victims of trafficking.

 

Is it possible DHS will go after other escort websites, male or female, because of alleged sex trafficking? I don't know. I could argue that if their campaign is 5 years old, and so far it has only targeted one escort website, that suggests it is not a big priority for DHS. I could also argue that if they successfully take down Rentboy, get good publicity for deterring prostitution, and get to keep $1.4 million of "ill-gained" money, it will encourage them to go after Rentmen or Men4RentNow or some other website next.

 

That is one of many reasons why I think we are ill-advised to just sit back and watch. It's too late to save Rentboy. It's not too late to save the Rentboy 7 from going to jail. And it's certainly not too late to send a loud political message that we don't need DHS to be going after any other of the Gay websites we use every day.

[+ quoththeraven]

I'm assuming he's referring to the $1.4 million in seized assets.

 

How did I forget that? Color me embarrassed!

 

I believe, as did the law professor quoted in the recent EdgeNY article, that it was the H-1B visa application that brought Rentboy to the attention of DHS. If I'm right about that, their openness by itself was not what started this, and the prosecution wasn't actually motivated by anti-gay animus even though its effect is in fact anti-gay and sex-negative.

 

BTW, Steven, ICE would be acting illegally to turn down a visa application because it looked as though the business involved was breaking some other law. Also, while I don't know if DHS or the FBI was involved, several arrests were made recently in New Jersey for trafficking a 14 year old girl and an 18- year old girl. But I can guarantee you that the kind of mindless stings and street sweeps that blanket criminalization causes take much less effort and fill government coffers more quickly than targeting traffickers does.

 

Also, not all clients of escorts affected by the seizure of Rentboy are gay or bisexual men. Some of us are women (cis or trans) and some are trans men. (That's leaving aside cismen who may still identify as straight.) I am not comfortable with an argument that amounts to "access to escorts is important to gay men; make an exception for us and we don't care about anyone else." That's why I side-eye anyone who decries the raid but isn't willing to work toward making sex work safer and better for those on all sides of the equation rather than prosecuting it on the basis that sex workers -- at least all female ones -- are trafficked.

[+ stevenkesslar]

BTW, Steven, ICE would be acting illegally to turn down a visa application because it looked as though the business involved was breaking some other law.

 

That surprises me. Why?

[+ quoththeraven]

That surprises me. Why?

 

If the company meets the visa requirements (assuming there are visas left; each year's quota gets filled up quickly), the issuance of the visa is not discretionary. As an administrative decision subject to internal (administrrative) and external (judicial) review, ICE would have to provide a reason for the denial and an opportunity for review. "We think your business model breaks the law" (and any other reason that has no bearing on visa requirements) is not a valid reason for denial.