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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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Elizabeth Nolan Brown is a senior editor at Reason.

PoliticsCultureImmigrationChildren
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  1. Warty   11 years ago

    Haven't you caused enough damage for one day, Elizabeth?

    1. Elizabeth Nolan Brown   11 years ago

      This one seems like a pretty straight forward case of politician-saying-something-dumb that we can all agree on, no?

      1. Grand Moff Serious Man   11 years ago

        Immigration reform will lead to more abortions.

        **Ha ha!, runs from room**

        1. Almanian!   11 years ago

          You bastard!!

          *shakes fist*

        2. Tonio   11 years ago

          Good one, Serious.

      2. Heroic Mulatto   11 years ago

        Listen, if we reform immigration laws, then Sen. Bob Menendez won't have to travel all the way to the Dominican Republic for his under-aged prostitutes. He'll be able to order them in! And is that the America you want, Ms. Brown?

        1. Tonio   11 years ago

          Yeah, Menendez is a real piece of...work. Can't believe he's still in office.

      3. Episiarch   11 years ago

        Yeah, but Elizabeth, everyone knows that child sex slavery inevitably leads to abortion. You're just trying to get another 350 comment thread! Hit whore!

        1. Almanian!   11 years ago

          Hit whore!

          ....and the War on Wimminz? continues....

        2. Heroic Mulatto   11 years ago

          Hit whore? Stop blog slut shaming, dude.

          1. Episiarch   11 years ago

            Look, if she didn't want to get blog pregnant, she should have used blog protection. Maybe she should take responsibility for her slutty hit whoring actions.

            1. Elizabeth Nolan Brown   11 years ago

              I prefer HTML harlotry.

              1. Almanian!   11 years ago

                HUSSY!

              2. Episiarch   11 years ago

                Not JavaScript Strumpet?

              3. Scruffy Nerfherder   11 years ago

                comment cocotte

                1. Heroic Mulatto   11 years ago

                  Her "street" name is On Rails Ruby.

    2. Dances-with-Trolls   11 years ago

      Round Two: Fight!

  2. BakedPenguin   11 years ago

    That's some good work, Lou. You'll make Congressman for this.

    1. MJGreen   11 years ago

      I already am a Congressman, Chief.

      1. BakedPenguin   11 years ago

        Quiet, Lou! Or I will bust you down to Congressman so fast it'll make your head spin!

  3. Acosmist   11 years ago

    Is he somehow wrong about Vietnam? We scored crushing victory after crushing victory, then left. The Tet Offensive was a disaster...and not for us.

    1. Calvin Coolidge   11 years ago

      The British invasion of New York City was a disaster for us and a crushing victory for the Brits, and yet it failed to end the war. So long as a local army remains in the field as a symbol of resistance, the war goes on.

    2. DEATFBIRSECIA   11 years ago

      Is she right? 'Cause I know that's the *popular* version of what went on there. And a lot of people like to believe that. I wish I could, but I was *there*. I wasn't here in a class room, hoping I was right, thinking about it.

      I was up to my knees in rice paddies, with guns that didn't work! Going in there, looking for Charlie, slugging it out with him; While pussies like you were back here partying, putting headbands on, doing drugs, and listening to the goddamn Beatle albums! Oh! Oh! Oh!

      1. Episiarch   11 years ago

        Good teacher. He really seems to care. About what I have no idea.

      2. Almanian!   11 years ago

        +1

  4. Calvin Coolidge   11 years ago

    We can all agree that this is a ludicrous statement, that it is their undocumented status that makes them easy prey for sex slavers.

    But this one looks fun: "lamenting that Vietnam was winnable, but people in Washington decided we should not win it."

    The list of ways that the government crippled the war effort by not providing proper funding, increasing service committments to keep veterans with their units, refusing for too long to stop the use of Cambodia as a safe haven for the NVA, etc. is legion. But so are the reasons the war might not have been winnable anyway - brave and determined local population, horrible terrain, an ocean to cross to get there, etc.

    So could we have won if the government had fully committed to winning in 1965? 1969?

  5. Fist of Etiquette   11 years ago

    WHY ARE YOU EVEN POSTING THIS ARTICLE? Do the Kochs have some stake in the immigrant sex trade? Does reason have any idea how many sex slaves a post like this creates?

    1. Notorious G.K.C.   11 years ago

      On a related topic, where do all the Warty jokes come from? Why is he associated with rape dungeons and the like?

      1. Elizabeth Nolan Brown   11 years ago

        Oh! I would like to know this too.

        1. Notorious G.K.C.   11 years ago

          We agree on something!

        2. Almanian!   11 years ago

          You THINK you want to know....

          the horror.....the...HORROR....

        3. Warty   11 years ago

          As far as I know, I started the thing by making gross sex jokes years ago. Other commenters picked it up and ran with it. Eventually, my biographer published the full truth about me. Be sure to buy his unabridged chronicles, coming soon to Amazon.

          1. Tonio   11 years ago

            Yeah, and when did STEVE SMITH stop being the rape boogeyman of H&R?

            1. Episiarch   11 years ago

              When Warty took over. We had pretty heavily mined the possibilities of STEVE SMITH. Warty provides much more material. In his penis.

            2. jesse.in.mb   11 years ago

              Warty is the Amun to STEVE SMITH's Ra.

              Eventually they'll wholly be the same thing and we won't notice much of a difference.

            3. Warty   11 years ago

              Since I helped create STEVE SMITH, it's only fitting that I help kill him.

              1. Pl?ya Manhattan.   11 years ago

                IIRC, you were the first one to say STEVE SMITH raped, right?

                Before that, it was SMASH SMASH, but you did the right thing and took it to the next level.

                1. Episiarch   11 years ago

                  Appropriately, there are now 69 comments on this thread. Oh shit, this made it 70!

                2. Warty   11 years ago

                  I believe so. Our archivist did some work to establish ownership, but I forget who said what now.

                  We had some guy here a few years back who hated me for stealing credit for the STEVE SMITH. I still don't know what that was about.

        4. hamilton   11 years ago

          Some things shouldn't be asked Elizabeth. And you're already in the doghouse for starting an abortion thread.

      2. NoVAHockey   11 years ago

        Those aren't jokes. They are warnings.

        Now if you'll excuse me, I have to do more squats as homage.

      3. Lord Humungus   11 years ago

        You must visit his biographer's website to understand the true horror that is Warty.

        Here is a FAQ
        http://wartyhugeman.blogspot.c.....tions.html

        1. Elizabeth Nolan Brown   11 years ago

          Thank you, this is very informative.

    2. Elizabeth Nolan Brown   11 years ago

      For every comment posted, another sex trafficker gets his wings.

      1. Episiarch   11 years ago

        Not a pimpmobile?

        1. Heroic Mulatto   11 years ago

          My entire high school education revolved around the time when I was not watching Blaxploitation films.

          1. Heroic Mulatto   11 years ago

            Oh and this is exactly how I want my funeral to be. Take notice.

            1. Scruffy Nerfherder   11 years ago

              I'll make sure Uhura shows up.

              1. Heroic Mulatto   11 years ago

                She better bitch-slap someone after some dude spits on my corpse.

            2. Warty   11 years ago

              I would have thought you'd want more booty at your funeral. Shown and shaken.

              1. Heroic Mulatto   11 years ago

                Well, it'll be like a Dixieland funeral. The party is after I'm in the ground.

              2. Paul.   11 years ago

                No, I wan't more booty at his funeral, Shown and shaken... if I'm attending that is. Doesn't do a brother any good if he's the one chillin' in the casket.

      2. Tonio   11 years ago

        Nikki has some serious competition for worst ever.

        ENB, didn't they tell you to not interact with the commentariat? Do you want to end up like Lu... Oops, I've said too much.

        1. Almanian!   11 years ago

          DON'T TALK ABOUT LUCY, GODDAMNIT!

        2. Episiarch   11 years ago

          DON'T TALK ABOUT LU

      3. Almanian!   11 years ago

        +nice

  6. MiloMinderbinder   11 years ago

    Yeah, that is pretty weak.

    Both sides are really clutching at straws coming up with the most ridiculous pro or anti-immigration arguments. Like the Ogallala aquifer is running out of water, so we need to bring more people to the plains, or something.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04.....inion&_r=0

  7. widget   11 years ago

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

    Doesn't look to like we really beat either the Commies or the Fascists. The blood and treasure is required so we just outright surrender, I suppose.

  8. Paul.   11 years ago

    So... fuck. I had something to say about my mother who was an immigrant... but Episiarch will just reveal all my family secrets.

    1. Episiarch   11 years ago

      Paul's mom is also his dad.

      1. Paul.   11 years ago

        My dad died with Nazi bullets in his ass!

  9. widget   11 years ago

    don't ^

  10. Scruffy Nerfherder   11 years ago

    And for all of the children that are drawn in illegally born, you know that some get sucked into sex slavery. Human trafficking becomes even bigger business.

    1. Calvin Coolidge   11 years ago

      From what I can tell, he is at least ideologically consistent here and has a strong anti-fornication platform in all areas.

      All areas.

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder   11 years ago

        I can guarantee he's pro-birth/anti-abortion. Probably doesn't even care if the fetuses consent.

  11. BilboTeabaggins   11 years ago

    This stuff polls so well. All the soccer moms in my very safe, very white subdivision think there are criminals waiting to kidnap their kids to be sold into sex slavery at every corner. They demand to be protected by guys like this and think the militarization of the police is awesome because of it.

    We are in such a small minority on this subject it isn't even funny.

    1. Calvin Coolidge   11 years ago

      When not at work, google "kid fucking" for a great bit of standup on this.

      "Your kid isn't that hot. You could send them to school every day in short-shorts, licking a lollypop, and nobody is going to want to fuck them."

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder   11 years ago

        When not at work logged into a VM instance and running through 7 proxies plus the Tor network, google "kid fucking"

      2. Andrew S.   11 years ago

        Most of us are on a number of watchlists just by reason of being on Reason. You want us to get on a few more?

      3. gimmeasammich   11 years ago

        Doug Stanhope? That was my first thought as well.

        1. Calvin Coolidge   11 years ago

          Yes, that's the one. I would have googled it except for the reasons.

    2. Elizabeth Nolan Brown   11 years ago

      There's a good post today by a sex worker that Katha Pollitt recently used as a rhetorical device in one of her articles about why prostitution should be illegal - http://titsandsass.com/im-kath.....ng-victim/

      Anyway, in it, she mentions having been sex trafficked as a child... by her dad. To the extend that child sex trafficking does exist, I think the relatives (or someone a child knows) are as or more likely to be the perps than some random evil stranger.

      1. hamilton   11 years ago

        This is a good excuse for making dads illegal.

        1. Scruffy Nerfherder   11 years ago

          No wait, I thought the mom knifing her three kids was going to be the excuse for making maternal units illegal.

          Fuck it, let's outlaw family. I never like reunions anyway.

          1. Andrew S.   11 years ago

            Agreed. It would definitely move us into a brave new world.

      2. Paul.   11 years ago

        To the extend that child sex trafficking does exist, I think the relatives (or someone a child knows) are as or more likely to be the perps than some random evil stranger.

        Yes, a lot of things have to be stacked on the pile to get a "child" involved in sex trafficking.

        Your average middle-school snowflake in a good home wioth decent parents doesn't hear the siren-song of Bishop Don Magic Juan and suddenly find themselves on the game.

        1. Heroic Mulatto   11 years ago

          Your average middle-school snowflake in a good home wioth decent parents doesn't hear the siren-song of Bishop Don Magic Juan and suddenly find themselves on the game

          That's because most of these youngbloods out hustlin' aren't true macks. Back in the day, a real player could shoot game at a square and turn her out in a heartbeat.

          1. Paul.   11 years ago

            And that was back when hos had respect... and dedication! They'd never go out of pocket.

          2. Paul.   11 years ago

            "Hey girl, it's Fillmore Slim from the movie American Pimp," he yells to a streetwalking beauty, who looks up and cracks a smile. "C'mon girl, you know who I am. Come on over and talk to me, and we'll see if we can get you in American Pimp 2."

            That's game.

          3. Scruffy Nerfherder   11 years ago

            Your mastery of various lingoes astounds.

  12. Tonio   11 years ago

    Human Trafficking is now joining Climate Change as a go-to for your fear-mongering needs. Human trafficking is a real problem and Gohmert and those like him are not helping.

    1. Paul.   11 years ago

      Bullying. Don't forget bullying.

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