Thread: Immigrant prostitutes: victims or criminals?

Immigrant prostitutes: victims or criminals?
Crackdown on illicit sex rings highlights complex legal issues
The Washington Post

updated 3:29 a.m. ET, Fri., March. 7, 2008

The business cards handed to men at a North Woodbridge grocery store didn't say much. Just a first name, a cellphone number and the phrase Casa de Carne, or House of Meat.

But their simplicity made clear the illicit purpose: sex.

Authorities say the cards solicit customers for highly organized prostitution rings that cater to Hispanic immigrants and chauffeur women from out of state. Although prostitution crosses ethnic and racial lines, these immigration-related cases raise complex questions about the interplay of local and federal law and are likely to pose special challenges for Prince William County police in the push against illegal immigration that began this week.

The police department has said it will treat illegal immigrants who are criminals differently from those who are crime victims. But in prostitution cases, the women involved might be both.

"A lot of girls we've interviewed don't even know what city they are in or what state they're in," said 1st Sgt. Daniel Hess, commander of a street crime unit that has handled several of the prostitution cases.

Victims or criminals?
Before county police began the illegal-immigration initiative, they tried to prepare for every scenario. But a closer look at the rings reveals that the line between the local crime of prostitution and the federal crime of sex trafficking is often blurred in subtle details. Did the women knowingly choose to work as prostitutes? Or were they pushed into it by force, fraud or coercion?

Under county policy, officers are ordered to check the immigration status of crime suspects when they have probable cause to think they are in the country illegally. Victims and witnesses of crimes will not be subject to those checks.

"You can definitely see some gray areas or contradictions," Chief Charlie T. Deane said of the prostitution rings. "I think we just have to step back from all these cases and say, 'What are we trying to achieve?' Our philosophy, the overall goal, is to protect crime victims regardless of immigration status."

The department's new Criminal Alien Unit is expected to investigate these prostitution cases and matters such as fake-identification mills, gangs and illegal drugs. The six officers who make up the unit, working under the supervision of federal immigration officials, will have some federal authority, unlike the rest of the department's more than 500 officers.

"These detectives who have this training now understand the nuances of immigration law and how we can protect victims of human smuggling," Deane said. "The goal of these cases really should be the people who are running these operations, the people who are making the money."

In the prostitution cases uncovered locally, law enforcement officials say women get about $30 for 15 minutes and are allowed to keep half of that.

"They are called las treinteras," after treinta, the Spanish word for 30, said Dilcia Molina, a human rights advocate. "In the world of sex work, they are usually the cheapest and the poorest. They are the ones who are usually on the periphery."

Molina, who works with the District-based La Cl¿nica Del Pueblo and founded a Virginia-based human rights organization for Latinas, said many of the women go from poverty in their countries to poverty in the United States and find themselves bound emotionally, psychologically and economically to the men who brought them across the border. Breaking that bond is one of the biggest challenges, she said.

"It's a mixture of hatred and thankfulness," she said. "They know they are exploited and being abused, but this is the same person who helped them cross the border. This is the same person who helped bring all the members of their family and who is going to bring their children."

Last month, Molina said, she met a 28-year-old Mexican woman who became pregnant by her trafficker and had several other children. For about a day, Molina and others struggled to find a place for the woman's family to stay. Then she returned to her pimp.

"So the system lost her," Molina said. "We don't know where she is."

Scott Hatfield, chief of the human smuggling and trafficking unit for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said the agency takes a "victim-centered" approach to such cases, not deporting women who are found to be victims. He said federal officials often reach out to local police to teach them the signs of sex trafficking. One is whether someone else is holding a woman's travel documents. Another is whether she fears for her family, whether in the United States or overseas.

Well-organized circuits
Montgomery County police, active in investigating this type of prostitution, said women travel well-organized circuits from hubs such as New York and New Jersey to states such as Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania.

"They might be in Prince William this week, in Philly the next week and then the following week here in Gaithersburg," Montgomery vice Detective Thomas Stack said. "We've come across address books and cellphones, and you can see there are brothels in every Latino community in the East Coast."

From the well-kept ledgers investigators have found, Stack said, they know the women average about 15 clients a day. In one case the total was 55.

Last year, Prince William police made 44 prostitution arrests. Although many of those cases were unrelated to immigration, Hess said the reach of rings that target Hispanic immigrants "is far greater than what we know."

Unlike massage parlors that sell sex, the prostitution rings are harder to track because they move from one short-term rental home to another. Hess said it is not unusual for police to receive complaints about a home, go to it and find evidence that the operation has just shut down. A search of a Hylton Avenue home led to several arrests, Hess said, but there was evidence that others had just left. Mattresses without sheets lay in every room with condoms and lubricants.

Police said the business cards are also a tip-off.

Last month, Leesburg police arrested a man and woman, both illegal immigrants from Mexico, on prostitution charges. Police said the suspects carried two business cards listing the cellphone number of the man, who would deliver women to the callers.

One card advertised mechanic work, the other housecleaning.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23514365/

You treat them as criminals, just like all the Asian prostitutes busted at "massage" parlors were.

If the police are making a statement that prostitutes will not be deported, you can bet they will all claim to be the victim.
If they paid a smuggler to come here ILLEGALLY, are involved in ILLEGAL activity, there should not be protection from deportation. Send them back to their home country. If they are smart they will stay home.

Solution: let the illegal alien prostitutes remain in temporary custody while the
prosecution of the IA pimps, smugglers, coyotes go on and then DEPORT EACH AND EVERY one of them.

Funny, if the arrested prostitutes were any other race other than hispanic, we wouldn't be having this conversation as to whether they are "victims or criminals." They would be going to jail for solicitation. Period!

Enough already with the "poor victim" routine these peole so readily try to project. It's getting really old.

Victims? These victims are getting paid $15 for 15 minutes 15 to 55 times/day. Assuming they are on the low end, and "work" a little less than 4 hrs/day (15 "clients") 5 days/wk with 2 weeks off, they would make $56250 tax free every year. For a part time job. If they work every day and don't get time off, they would make $78750. Again, no taxes of course. And also part time, as this would average only 28 hours/wk)

"The goal of these cases really should be the people who are running these operations, the people who are making the money."

The prostitutes?

"They are called las treinteras," after treinta, the Spanish word for 30, said Dilcia Molina, a human rights advocate. "In the world of sex work, they are usually the cheapest and the poorest. They are the ones who are usually on the periphery."

They take home between $56250 and $78750 per year. They are NOT poor. They do it willingly, for the money. They make 8 times what an illegal housekeeper makes. Do they look into whether American teenage homeless girls forced into prostitution are victims or criminals? What about single mothers who are prostitutes? They are arrested aren't they? What about drug addicts? Do they dive into their background to see if those women started prostituting themselves because they were desperate and started using drugs to get them through the "work" and then became hooked on drugs and need to prostitute to make the money to be able to afford the drugs? Are they victims? If American hookers are arrested, illegals should be too. Also, these illegals are used to making alot of money. If they stay, what job are they going to get that pays anywhere close to the $60/hr they are used to? They will find other quick and plentiful $$$ "jobs, like drug dealing or human smuggling to satisfy their greed and when caught at that, will again claim to be a "victim".