Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Call To Abolish ICE Does Not Mean She Supports Sex Trafficking
The Super Bowl is around the corner and a popular sex trafficking myth is back.

Myths about sex trafficking at the Super Bowl are rearing their heads once again.
Earlier this week, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D–N.Y.) tweeted her desire to "scrap" Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after comedian Mohanad Elshieky, who is in the U.S. legally, was detained by border patrol agents while traveling between gigs. Washington Examiner contributor and former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) supervisor Jason Piccolo has now responded to Ocasio-Cortez's tweet by declaring that the congresswoman wanted to abolish "the agency fighting the illegal sex trade at the Super Bowl."
"ICE will be at the forefront of investigating the illicit sex trade at Super Bowl LIII in Atlanta this week. Yes, the same ICE synonymous with immigration enforcement will deploy teams of special agents to combat the sex trade in Georgia," Piccolo writes. His argument relies on a tired narrative to justify unnecessary surveillance.
As Reason's Elizabeth Nolan Brown reported last Super Bowl, fact-checks have found little support for the assertion that the game doubles as a major sex trafficking event. In fact, sources from the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women to The New York Times to Sports Illustrated have found little evidence supporting the supposed link between major events and increases in sex trafficking.
Still, local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies continue to ignore the facts in favor of their own narratives. Last year, ICE's Homeland Security Investigations unveiled a web campaign and a hashtag to show its commitment to fighting the mythical problem.
Brown also noted the importance of nuance, as consensual sex work by adults is often mischaracterized as sex trafficking. Prior to the 2018 Super Bowl, Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) Sgt. Grant Snyder observed that an increase in visitors to the city could lead to "a sizable increase in demand" in paid sexual encounters. However, the demand was primarily for consenting sex workers. Snyder also noted that neither research nor past law enforcement experience supported beliefs of a supposed influx of sex-traffickers in Minneapolis.
Even if ICE was truly on the front lines of such an issue, it does not take away from Ocasio-Cortez's argument that the agency is "totally broken." Audits of the various immigration agencies within DHS found mismanagement, misconduct, and poor oversight predating this administration and the one before it.
Enjoy the Super Bowl!
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post comments
No but it does mean that she rejects having any immigration law whatsoever. Laws are only meaningful to the extent they are enforced. If you deprive the government of the means to enforce a law, you have rendered the law meaningless. Claiming to want to eliminate ICE is a dishonest position. Occasional Cortex and the rest of the open borders advocates need to be honest and tell the country they intend to eliminate all immigration controls. That is their actual position and the country should hear it and it should be debated.
They want unlimited immigration for selected industries so industry leaders rent seek for visas the way they rent seek for welfare.
I believe we are now witnessing a phenomenon similar to what we saw happen with same sex marriage about 10 years ago. Back then, Obama pretended to oppose SSM but claimed to be "evolving." Eventually he announced support for marriage equality, which is now the law of the land.
Similarly, Democrats are not yet at the point where they can proclaim total support for the Koch / Reason open borders immigration agenda. But they can drop hints in that direction, like saying #AbolishICE. Within a couple years ? possibly even in time for the 2020 election ? I predict support for open borders will be a litmus test issue all Democratic politicians must pass. And as a libertarian, I cannot wait for it to happen.
You're running a parody account, of course, but there's a lot to what you're saying.
The bit you missed is that SSM was imposed by judicial fiat, and only after that was accomplished did Democrats come out of the closet on the topic, as it were.
Obama famously opposed SSM for religious reasons. And changed because he 'evolved.'
In reality, he opposed SSM and evolved for the same reason - poll numbers. He was the least principled Prez of my lifetime, although Trump is giving him a run for his money.
I beg to differ. Trump laid out his platform in 2016 and has not changed his mind since. He has pushed the same agenda consistently and with vigour since his election campaign started.
Obama opposed marriage equality running up to he 2012 election, and then flipped immediately afterward, with the democratic party then following suit
When Democrats say #AbolishICE, it is like saying #SnitchesGetStiches. They tend to favor silence over legalization until a movement gets so big it's overpowering.
by all means let's get millions of those uneducated, poverty stricken low skilled masses with bad hygiene up here put them on welfare and get them voting for Democrats and the progressive Socialist agenda. If this is what the Libertarian party is supporting then I am confused as to what they have going on. Is Reason magazine and the nefarious Koch Brothers really supporting this? If so then they are clearly enemies of the Constitution and of the American people.
She's just pandering. She has no actual principals. She Guevera is a lying manipulative psychopathic narcissist who convinces her followers that she is the arbiter of all morality by pandering to their victim mentality world view.. She's a cult leader like Jim Jones except she's more dangerous because she has more power.
You are right. But Dalmia has advocated for the same thing and it is just stupid. There is nothing special about ICE. If you don't like what ICE is doing it is because you don't like the laws they are enforcing. Getting rid of ICE and having CPB or anyone else enforce those laws will not change anything.
These people don't hate ICE, they hate the immigration laws. And that is their right. But they should be honest about that and stop pretending they are not against all immigration laws but somehow just don't want any of them enforced.
Well it's a way to blame the Trump administration for enforcing the laws instead of blaming Congress for not changing them. Just another form of TDS. They weren't bitching when Dear Leader was deporting everyone.
I'm not sure I agree with you about her morality. I think it far more likely that she is just as stupid and addled as she appears.
I have no doubt that she is stupid. That doesn't mean she's not pandering. And she may well believe her own santimonius morality claims.
"I'm not sure I agree with you about her morality."
Her demand for state agents to be further abled to legally perform armed theft from one person to bestow upon another is not persuasive? How about eliminating a person's ability to obtain superior medical services because it is not fair to those that cannot afford it so there is equally poor medical treatment?
The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
I have to agree with your assessment on her stupidity. After watching her being interviewed by anyone who actually asks her a real question and deems to follow up when she makes a ridiculous reply, it is hard to conclude that she is not stupid and despite her claims to her degree she come across as ridiculously uneducated.
Anyone interviewing someone with a degree from Boston University should definitely consider that person with a high degree of scrutiny.
>>>She Guevera
damn funny.
I still prefer Occasional-Cortex.
Not sure i agree with you. I see her as a True Believer of the most dangerous sort.
Still.
Dangerous.
No doubt.
Kamala Harris panders, AOC (occasional cortex) is so moronic she actually believes it.
Fuck her. Her lying cunt ass deserves to reap some of what she sows.
unfortunately someone on the left will believe that you represent thinking Libertarians / Constitutionalists
The way I see it, "zonah" was the term in Biblical Hebrew for a woman who earned a living doing the things a wife normally does for her husband. She might be a sex-worker, or an inn keeper, or a cook, or a nurse ect, and it got translated to mean "prostitute" in the Greco-Roman world, because anyone wealthy enough in that society to read and write centuries old texts was a man who could not imagine his wife doing anything useful besides having sex with him. They had slaves brought in from other societies to do less enjoyable activities.
This is why we should assign visas by random lottery. The leaders of our society should not dictate to immigrants what career path they take.
Sex Trafficking is any sex that is disapproved of whether it be common prostitution or importuning. They had to define it down because they made such a big deal out of it but had almost no real life examples of what most people would consider "trafficking". So now everything is sex trafficking. And the sheep buy it.
Sex trafficking. Is DP a sex traffic jam?
Lol
Why would Super Bowl players traffic themselves for sex? Don't they earn lots of money already?
Although (insert name of your least favorite player) would probably succeed better as a hooker than as a player.
You could say they do traffick themselves for their bodies. I mean since the word has no meaning, why not.
They get traded by the team owners.
And they have the option to quit when their contract expires.
In no way can this be equated as human trafficking.
In fact, the comparison is way beyond ridiculous as contracts and the freedom of choice as well as huge sums of money are involved.
That whole taking a knee thing during the anthem was a code. Some guys like to get sucked off standing up so they can leave quickly when it's done.
so it is akin to "saggin" . Wearing the pants around the base of the butt as to indicate you are open for business.
It just means she into substanceless symbolic grandstanding.
What is she, a politician?
AOC is too young to run for President or we would have to listen to hear Lefty nonsense all the time too.
2024.
She's gonna have a tough time when Hillary wants to run in 2024. 🙂
Or Chelsea. Or both!
Best primary ever!
There's no such thing as "consensual sex work" because as everyone knows women don't actually have agency. /prog-derp
Both sides of the hooker debate are nuts. The prohibitionists act like no woman could ever voluntarily sell herself or that doing so might be the best option available. Nope, only women who are kidnapped and "sex trafficked" could ever do that. And God forbid women do voluntarily sell themselves. That would mean men could get sex without seeking the approval of women and we can't have that. If men can buy sex, their feminist wives and girlfriends might actually have to put out or make some effort to please them. And that is just the patriarchy.
The pro hooker side is in the other ditch. To hear them tell it being a hooker is the greatest and best thing ever. And no one ever got forced into it or ever regretted doing it and there is no sleazy side to it at all.
Though I am much more sypathetic to the pro hooker side, neither side seems capable of telling the truth.
I just think that ultimately a legal market would be safer for the girls and the clients than a black market. Thats not to say it wouldn't have it's problems and there wouldn't be some greasy shit going on. It's not a life I would wish for any woman but if they're going to do it, I want them to have as much control over the situation as possible.
I agree. The thing to do is to make it legal. I think you can regulate so that it isn't a quality of life issue. Street walkers are a pain in the ass and ruin a neighborhood. But there is no reason why there can't be red light districts like there are in Europe and the government has absolutely no business telling people what transactions they can engage in the privacy of their own homes.
Prostitution laws are some of the dumbest and most counterproductive laws there are. I really believe they are mostly driven by women's desire to control men's sexuality and reduce men's leverage in relationships.
The trick is to not regulate it so much that the Black Market version thrives anyway. And, in general, a litmus test of such regulation should be that a woman or girl who is actually being coerced should be able to freely approach the police without there being any question whatsoever fo them arresting her.
*shrug*
As noted above, the 'Sex Trafficking' hysteria is all about 'respectable' women's lively fear that if men can buy sex, they might actually have to be pleasant to the men in their lives. This is pretty much exactly what historians have decided drove the Victorian/Edwardian era 'White Slavery' panics, so 'Sex Trafficking' is 'White Slavery' with the serial numbers filed off.
I think you have to license it so that if someone goes to a legal hooker they are assured the person doens't have an STD, isn't being coerced and is not underaged. Do that and only lunatics and legitimate devients would have any desire to go to an illegal hooker and all of the coercion and under age stuff largely disapears.
I don't think you need to do anything of the kind.
We should certainly keep fraud illegal. So a prostitute can't legaly lie about being STD free.
It's not for you to legislate against "deviant activity" unless it violates someone's rights.
Should we license all consensual sex to exclude things you believe are deviant? Why does it matter if actual money is exchanged, rather than flowers or rings or houses or just treating someone with kindness? Everyone gets something out of a voluntary sexual encounter. If the thing for some people is straight cash, how does that mean they are suddenly giving up their right to full agency?
And you know that the market will certainly compete for your particular dollar and have MANY services that guarantee an STD free experience. Do you really think your nanny state will make the world a better and more moral place by being in charge of licensing?
What grade do you give the government in regulation of other exchanges of goods and services?
Sex with minors by very definition violates their rights because they cannot consent. So, you regulate to ensure no one underage is a hooker.
Yes. Sex with minors is already illegal. No knew regulations needed.
We should certainly keep fraud illegal. So a prostitute can't legaly lie about being STD free.
The last time I got a regularly scheduled checkup at Planned Parenthood, they gave me a card with an identifying number but no name so I could call up for the results. A non-profit could give a similar card with the patient's name on it so that couples could swap cards and call before swapping fluids.
An STD riddled prostitute would never dream of borrowing someone else's card, or faking her own. You want sex to be safe and risk free. It isn't now nor ever has been.
Well said.
The one plus in making all sex subject to licensing would eliminate hysterical women claiming date rape every time they wake up with "buyers remorse". Just think how much nonsense could be avoided if we treated every exchange as a contractual transaction. You could put all into an app where 2 parties agree to the transaction and payment all in a matter of minutes. No muss no fuss just clean (or dirty) sex.
I doubt women invented anti prostitution laws. They are religious based "morality" laws, written by men, and enforced by men.
I do understand what you're getting at; that there is probably a contingency of women who don't like the idea of men being able to pay for sex because it objectifies women. Although it also objectifies men just as much in this context. But all specific exchanges of goods and services reduce the people involved to their contributions to the exchange in that PRECISE moment. But it's absurd for anyone to REALLY believe individuals don't exist in a greater context than their jobs or their purchases or whatever.
Regardless, it's such a stupid and antiquated notion that prostitution is morally wrong if all parties are acting voluntarily. And I honestly think the majority of people would not oppose legalization.
But it's one of those electrified rails of politics I guess. No politician is going to reach great heights on the platform of being pro-prostitution. At least not yet.
It is a question not of what people think but what they vote on. Yes most people would be fine with it being legal but few of those people are going to change their vote based on a candidate's position on the issue. In contrast, the people who want it illegal largely will. So, supporting it being legalized doesn't get a politician any votes and comes at the cost of losing the votes of the people who do want it made illegal.
"So, supporting it being legalized doesn't get a politician any votes"
Tell that to the politicians of Nevada. Prostitution not only gets them votes, it gets them contributions of cash, too.
I am sure much of it had to do with perpetuating the myth of marriage. Lets face it, if guys could get all the sex they wanted without all the drama who would want to put up with being married. Especially to the shrill shrews running the feminist movement today.
I agree. Why not run it like a business from a property away from residential areas. The women who work from this premises will do so out of choice. This business can then be taxed, and weekly/monthly health check ups could be made mandatory to prevent the spread of STDs. The women who work here will have the assurance that they will never have to walk the streets at night and will be far safe as a result.
I cannot see any downside as this will also greatly reduce street walkers.
Why would a client go use a street walker when they can have far less chance of catching an STD.
Making a regular cookie is about as easy as making a pot cookie, but only one of those jobs involves significant levels of coercion in the workplace.
It doesn't matter what AOC calls for.
Not in any practical sense, perhaps, but what she calls for makes for good propaganda and that's what she is really interested in. She knows that her "ideas" haven't a snowball's chance of making it through Congress, but that's not the point. She only wants them to resonate with "the people" to advance her standing as a nationally recognized leftist politician, much the way Hitler in the late 20s and early 30s only wanted his ideas to resonate with "the people" to advance his standing as a leader who could bring Germany out of the stagnation imposed by the Versailles Treaty.
This Super Bowl Sunday, hire a hooker for halftime head.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Call To Abolish ICE Does Not Mean She Supports Sex Trafficking . . .
It may not mean AOC supports sex trafficking but it does she supports open borders and I believe that she would support voting for everybody citizen or not nor would she support immigrants to be integrated US society.
Alexandria Oyster Cult claimed I Am The One You Warned Me Of.
Has Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez-Castro-Ortega-Madura de la Trotsky actually done something that Members of Congress are expected to do, or achieved anything that warrants her receiving more attention that any forty other House members combined?
Well, she doesn't look badly embalmed. Which one can't say about Nasty Pelosi.
So long as Trump remains Nancy's bitch, you losers can call her names as much as your bigoted hearts desire.
She is perky with a head of teeth who dangerously stupid.
Now that's a Super Bowl special
A pat for $75, a ram for $150
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez swears by 'double cleansing': Here's what it is and why you should try it
https://tinyurl.com/ya9jhm7d
Damn, I thought that was going to be some new sex game. Or even a creative douche. AOC is the douche.
She wants to abolish ICE because she feel like she doesn't get enough soda in her cup.
It may not mean that Ms. Occasional-Cortex supports sex-trafficking, but it certainly means that she's as dumb as a brick.
Of course, we already knew that.
All in all she's just another brick in the wall.
Maybe we could use here as a brick in Trump's wall
Start working at home with Google! It's by-far the best job I've had. Last Wednesday I got a brand new BMW since getting a check for $6474 this - 4 weeks past. I began this 8-months ago and immediately was bringing home at least $77 per hour. I work through this link, go to tech tab for work detail.
+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+.................. http://www.just4work.com
Guys, a politician's last name isn't something she chooses. Joking about it is a low blow.
True. Tell it to all those who use Trump's last name as a punch line.
I do.
And to people who make fun of AOC's name, and so on.
I want damned fool politicos ("all of 'em!") attacked for their awful ideas, not with playground taunts.
'Occasional Cortex ' is clumsy and just plain dumb.
'Oyster Cult' is brilliant wordsmithing, worthy of O. Henry, Lenny Bruce, and other masters of the English language.
Too bad I waste it here - maybe I should take it to Black Twitter.
Blow me, bitch.
if the shoe fits and quite frankly when you have dirt balls like Flake disparagement is all we have. I think referring to her loony ramblings as "occasional cortex" is actually being kind
I thought she was sure the world will end in 12 years. If so, what does she care about ICE or the Super Bowl or people having sex?
12 years isn't that long. If I were her, I'd either be settling my affairs and making my peace or maybe angling to leave Earth for some kind of moon colony or Mars mission, if I thought there was a chance I het could happen in that time frame. (Maybe that's her goal in getting into Congress??)
What I would NOT be doing is worrying about crap like heathcare, economic issues, immigration, or prostitution. When it's over?like the atmosphere boiling off completely or the planet becoming just another asteroid belt?it's OVER.
1) True. It does not mean that.
2) Does she have any ideas, not mentioned, for whether or not we should have any customs and immigration enforcement of any kind at all? Because "abolish the agency we have now" means, well, nobody doing the job, unless she's proposed a replacement.
And if she has proposed one, does she think it'll magically be better applying the same policies, because it has a different name?
"Abolish ICE!!!" is a hashtag, not a goddamn policy statement.
Policy could be anything from "a radical change to no border or customs enforcement" to "make a new agency and change policies" to "change policies but keep the name" to "do nothing because things are fine".
("Abolish ICE" is included in the first option, but the first option is MORE THAN that.)
Her hashtag should be #AbolishEveryrhing! The world will literally end in 12 years, according to her. No more life, of any kind, anywhere on Earth.
Why would she give a crap about policy? Go home and hug the people you love. That's all there would be to do unless Elon Musk has some spacecraft lined up to establish some off-world colony. If so, we'll soon see her cozying up to him?guaranteed.
In 12 years she'll be entering her 40s, childless.
I'm calling freudian slip on that one
I am hoping her political reality(not her life) ends in 12 months. She should be teaching kids finger painting in the Poconos not sitting on Congressional Committees. She is not bright and not enlightened. Rather she is an idiot and testament to the poor quality of education found in the North East.
No to anything AOC says or recommends
The Seventh Day Adventists predicted the end of the world 22 Oct 1844, a date that became known as the Great Disappointment. When the date passed and nothing happened, everyone just bit their lip, blushed, and went home. Fortunately for SDA there was no FBI HRT in those days to protect society.
In modern times, predicting the end of the world on a specific date and demanding social and political action be taken to avoid the apocalypse has been taken seriously by the government. Back in the 1990s the Feds had Project Meggido a plan for dealing with apocalyptic end of the world cultists as Y2K approached. Vicki Weaver (Ruby Ridge Standoff) and David Koresh (Waco Raid and Siege) had publically predicted the end of the world by specific calculated dates. The government killed them to save them from their error.
I think AOC is more likely to end up like the SDA twelve years from now, but I just wouldn't go around sounding like an apocalyptic cultist, given the shift of the government to an absolute state justifiying itself by use of force.
Antiquities
Belong nowhere
Opioid imports
Lots to share
I would treat my
Sex slaves fair
Human smuggling
I don't care
Child porn
Everywhere!
Start working at home with Google. It's the most-financially rewarding I've ever done. On tuesday I got a gorgeous BMW after having earned $8699 this last month. I actually started five months/ago and practically straight away was bringin in at least $96, per-hour. visit this site right here..... http://www.mesalary.com
What is the real shame is that MOST of the commentors in this REASON article somehow skirted the true nsture of this very real and most despicable crime called human trafficking. It exists in mind-numbing numbers beyond your imaginings. Most of the human trafficking involves. but not limited to, illegal immigrants (who are real people just like you and me) from the Central and South Americas. They are used for multiple types of slave labor, including agriculture and the sex industries. They are not given a choice. They are not treated as human beings. They include all ages capable of fulfilling the need. They are never released voluntarily. They live and die a slave RIGHT HERE IN THE GOOD OLE USA. Trafficking in humans is not limited to the USA. Indeed, many nations have a higher investment in human trafficking and slave labor than does the USA.
The most despicable of all is the trafficking of children. From babies to teenagers, they are forced into the underground sex industry. Even our government has participated and assisted in the form of Foster Parent programs. Foster parenting is a very honorable and needed program. Regrettably, there are thousands of low life scum that use foster parenting to further the trafficking of humans, especially the black market sex industry.
n nearly every community, there are hidden secrets. Children are stolen, kept hidden, tortured forced to live an unimaginable nightmare. All to staisfy the inhumane cravings of a large number of inhuman animals that look just like you and me. They make up only a small percentage of our population, but that small percentage equates into hundreds of thousands of people spending billions of $$ annually in revenue for the slave masters / cartels / mob / .
So... who will help stop this? Who will help to help stop these crimes against humanity? You? It will take everyone to do so. Awareness and reporting... shining a bright light on this most heinous of crimes to stop it.
Do the research. Main stream media will not provide much information. They are complicit in these crimes, if only by their purposeful attempt to downplay the magnitude of human trafficking for political purposes. So look elsewhere. Then spread awareness. Please.
For the left/progressives that now inhabit much of Reason It is imagined like MS13 and the opioid crisis.
"Consensual" sex workers? Like adults can't be trafficked into sex? The premise is ridiculous. Adults (oftentimes women) can be trafficked just as much as non-citizens and children. The ways of trafficking them are different, much more manipulative, and harder to detect.
There is an increase in demand for sex workers at major sporting events. Just because they are adult sex workers doesn't mean we don't need increased law enforcement presence. Whether ICE is the correct agency to be doing this is another story.
Start working at home with Google! It's by-far the best job I've had. Last Wednesday I got a brand new BMW since getting a check for $6474 this - 4 weeks past. I began this 8-months ago and immediately was bringing home at least $77 per hour. I work through this link, go to tech tab for work detail.
+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+.. >>>>>>>>>> http://www.GeoSalary.com