{"id":8432,"date":"2015-01-30T15:58:18","date_gmt":"2015-01-30T20:58:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/live-immigrationreform.pantheonsite.io\/?p=8432"},"modified":"2018-12-28T14:29:36","modified_gmt":"2018-12-28T19:29:36","slug":"loretta-lynch-keeps-missing-the-big-picture-on-human-trafficking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2015\/01\/30\/loretta-lynch-keeps-missing-the-big-picture-on-human-trafficking\/","title":{"rendered":"Loretta Lynch Keeps Missing the Big Picture on Human Trafficking"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"8320787291_4f9b874e8d_b\"<\/a>Attorney General nominee Loretta Lynch<\/a> answered a variety of legal questions during her Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday, but she used her opening statement to specifically note her previous work prosecuting international human trafficking<\/a> rings.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have taken action against abusers in over 100 child exploitation and child pornography cases, and have prosecuted brutal international human trafficking rings that sold victims as young as 14 and 15 years old into sexual slavery,\u201d Lynch stated about her tenure as the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York.<\/p>\n

In this and previous instances, Lynch is quick to mention her department\u2019s focus on prosecuting foreign-originating crimes, but repeatedly neglects to link \u201cimported crimes\u201d like human smuggling and sexual exploitation of trafficked minors<\/a> to our inefficient immigration policies.<\/p>\n

Even before AG Eric Holder\u2019s resignation, Lynch appeared in an investigative video series that gave an inside look at the sex trafficking industry near the Mexico-U.S. border. \u201cPimp City<\/a>\u201d gave a painful look at the violence and manipulation men, women and children are subjected to after being illegally smuggled into the country.<\/p>\n

Despite the obvious cause and effect relationship trafficking enjoys as a result of our unenforced immigration laws, Lynch completely dodged the topic. Of sex trafficking minors into America, she said, \u201cThis is nothing more than modern day slavery, wars have been fought to end that in this county. This is not something we can tolerate in America.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Lynch is confirmed as attorney general and intends to use her authority to save the lives of thousands<\/a> of trafficked individuals in the U.S., she must not only prosecute offenders, but keep digging to the root causes behind these international rings. If Lynch can work with other nations and attack this problem at its core, it will also cut down related crimes that take place in the interior of America.