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Politics

Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert: Just Talking About Immigration Reform Leads to Child Sex Slavery

Elizabeth Nolan Brown | 5.22.2014 3:10 PM

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Rep. Louie Gohmert/Facebook

Texas Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert has an interesting reason for opposing immigration reform: He believes it leads to child sex trafficking. Gohmert relayed these beliefs to his fellow legislators in a speech on the House floor Monday. 

When legal status and amnesty is talked about here in Washington, it becomes a magnet and draws people in. And for all of the children that are drawn in illegally, you know that some get sucked into sex slavery. Human trafficking becomes even bigger business.

What? Even if political chatter about amnesty does lead to an uptick in immigration, I'm not sure the promise of getting on the U.S. government's official radar is a big win for international sex traffickers. These aren't the folks being lured by a pathway to citizenship.

If Gohmert means that undocumented immigrant children might be more likely to get drawn or forced into the sex trade—well, that's not unreasonable. But a big part of the reason for that would seem to stem from their undocumented status. 

Anyway, Gohmert continued: 

Because of the talk of amnesty in this town and because we do not have a secured border, then this administration, and this Congress also, is complicit in helping lure people into sex trafficking.

Note that he doesn't say immigration itself will lead to increased child sex slavery—merely talking about immigration reform is enough to embolden the evildoers, apparently. 

Gohmert has previously garnered attention for lamenting that "Vietnam was winnable, but people in Washington decided we should not win it."

[h/t Maggie McNeil]

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NEXT: What NYT's Firing of Jill Abramson Tells Us About Sexism in America

Elizabeth Nolan Brown is a senior editor at Reason.

PoliticsCultureImmigrationChildren
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