Thread: Hispanic brothels in Nashville

Saturday, 06/16/07

Hispanic brothels move in on Nashville
Sex sold in residential areas

By SHEILA BURKE
Staff Writer


The businesses are housed in nondescript homes and apartments from Madison to south Nashville. The employees and customers come from Mexico and other Latin American countries and the local Hispanic community.

And law enforcement officers tasked with combating the illicit, highly organized businesses say Hispanic brothels are a growing problem in the Nashville area, where single, male immigrant laborers are creating a burgeoning demand for the services of female immigrant prostitutes.

This week, Tomaja Rameriz-Salomon, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, pleaded guilty to charges she was one of two women who regularly worked as a prostitute in an apartment on Welworth Drive in Madison. She was sentenced to six months in jail, though all but 10 days of the sentence was suspended.

"It's here because we have a growing immigrant population … and if you have a growing Hispanic population who are single and who are looking for sex, there's a market for that," said Amber Beckham, local coordinator for World Relief's Network of Emergency Trafficking Services.

Unlike brothels operated from massage parlors or adult entertainment businesses, many Hispanic brothels are set up in regular homes or apartments, right in the middle of Nashville neighborhoods. That can pose a problem for adults and children who live in those areas and are exposed the business of prostitution, authorities said.

During a 2004 Metro police raid at a south Nashville apartment complex, a resident told officers that men seeking prostitutes would knock on her door while searching for the brothel in the complex.

At least one of the customers, the woman said, propositioned her 9-year-old daughter.

Metro police officials don't keep figures on the number of brothels in residential areas, but anecdotal evidence suggests a pervasive and growing problem.

"What we're seeing right now is mostly Hispanics," said Metro Police Detective Peter Dusche, adding that police typically learn of the brothels from irritated neighbors who complain.

"Does that mean that (all the brothels are run by) Hispanics? No. But that's what's being pointed out to us," he said.

Among the local busts:

• In the case that snared Rameriz-Salomon, police in March raided the apartment where they said men would pay $30 to have sex with one of the women. Investigators said that the Welworth Drive location was among at least 10 Hispanic brothels secretly operating in the city.

• Last year, local, state and federal officers uncovered a statewide prostitution network, with a brothel operating in an apartment near Harding Place in Nashville. In addition to the female prostitutes, police found a man working as a manager and another working as a security guard. Authorities also rescued a girl who said she had been smuggled to the U.S. from Mexico at 13, beaten and forced to have sex with as many as 40 men a day.

• In September 2004, police raided seven locations in Madison and Nashville, including an apartment complex on Welch Road where 27 people were arrested on prostitution- and pimping-related charges.

"When you have an immigrant population, obviously some of those are going to be undocumented and when persons are undocumented, it makes them more vulnerable to exploitation," said Beckham, the World Relief worker.

Authorities in Rutherford and Robertson counties, which also have large populations of Hispanic immigrants, said they haven't seen the problem to the extent Nashville has.

Most workers are willing

Dusche, the Metro vice detective, said most of the immigrant women working as prostitutes in the Nashville area appear to be doing so willingly, though he said there is "at least one other" child sex slave case being worked. He refused to elaborate.

Hispanic women are particularly vulnerable to exploitation because of their immigration status, said one member of the local Hispanic community.

"Certainly, these women that end up victims of these prostitution rings where they are promised and offered jobs and better quality of life. Sadly it's just another manifestation of that broken (immigration) system," said Jose Gonzalez, executive director of Conexion Americas, a nonprofit group that helps Hispanics assimilate to life in the U.S.

"Those in the prostitution ring need to be arrested, prosecuted, deported and hung from the highest pole."

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll ... /1017/NEWS

Just doing work americans won't do.

Oh yea. We had some in Dallas a few years ago. Right in the middle of up scale neighborhoods.

Dixie

This represents the moral values George Bush babbles about.

Yes these good hard working, moral conservative immigrants.

Loks like we're having a national trash drive and it's only going to get worse unless this madness is stopped.

Originally Posted by txkayaker

Just doing work americans won't do.

rofl

I'm sure a lot of the illegals really are good people just trying to provide for a better life for their family. The thing is it's an all or nothing deal and there are millions and millions who don't want to be here to become americans, they want to rape our morals, our values, our way of life, and more than anything, our social services.

I feel for the ones who really want to be citizens, but there are channels open for them to come back and we can't absorb the millions of crappy illegals so the hard working ones can stay.

Originally Posted by GoDawgs

Saturday, 06/16/07

Hispanic brothels move in on Nashville
Sex sold in residential areas

By SHEILA BURKE
Staff Writer


"It's here because we have a growing immigrant population … and if you have a growing Hispanic population who are single and who are looking for sex, there's a market for that," said Amber Beckham, local coordinator for World Relief's Network of Emergency Trafficking Services.

What the h*ll is the World Relief's Network of Emergency Trafficking Services?

Originally Posted by GoDawgs

Hispanic women are particularly vulnerable to exploitation because of their immigration status, said one member of the local Hispanic community.

"Certainly, these women that end up victims of these prostitution rings where they are promised and offered jobs and better quality of life. Sadly it's just another manifestation of that broken (immigration) system," said Jose Gonzalez, executive director of Conexion Americas, a nonprofit group that helps Hispanics assimilate to life in the U.S.

."

For the love of God, how is a penchant for prostitutes a symptom of our "broken immigration system"? I guess we're responsible for the MS-13 killings, too. Let's all stand together with Jose and Amber and wring our hands over how to remedy this situation. I'm sorry, but I'm just all out of sympathy. Nashville is reaping what it has sown. As a native Nashvillian, I'm disgusted with its complete lack of foresight. It has been warmly welcoming the "newcomers" for several years, and now they have situations like this, and a growing gang presence to show for their altruism.

We're so proud here