February 5, 2019
My Visit to White House to Discuss Human Trafficking Plus Update on Sex Offender Arrest @ Starbucks
Dear Friends,
It was a whirlwind last week at Enough Is Enough® (EIE)! On Friday, I had the privilege to attend a White House meeting on "Human Trafficking on the Southern Border" led by President Donald J. Trump.
EIE was asked to serve as a conduit to bring in experts who work on this issue at the southern border to help put a face to the very real issue of sex trafficking. As a result, my friend, Alma Tucker, president of International Network of Hearts, who runs safe houses and orphanages in Tijuana to care for trafficked children, attended the meeting and shared real life heart-wrenching stories and her observations.
At the meeting, President Trump reiterated that in in fiscal year 2018, ICE made more than 1,500 human trafficking arrests with 97 percent of those arrests made for sex trafficking. A post meeting White House release added that 30 percent of of women are sexually assaulted on the journey to our southern border.
At the end of the White House meeting, I had the opportunity to share how important it is to prosecute existing U.S. laws to deal with the demand for trafficked victims which is fueled by child pornography (illegal) and obscene pornography (prosecutable), both freely accessible on the Internet. Both laws need to be enforced per EIE's Children's Internet Safety Presidential Pledge signed by President Trump when he was a candidate.
Child porn (child sex abuse images) and prosecutable obscene pornography (often violent and degrading to women and barely-legal teens) doesn't satisfy the sexual appetite of the consumers of this content. Instead, it feeds the consumers' desire to act out on vulnerable women and children. Additionally, children and young women who are victims of trafficking, are often further exploited by having the sex acts they are forced to perform filmed and distributed on the Internet.
Unlike illegal drugs which are sold and consumed once, these precious innocent human beings, once trafficked into America, are forced into sexual slavery servicing up 20-40 men per day. This horror and trauma is real.
Protecting the vulnerable from human trafficking is a nonpartisan issue
-- one that deserves active bipartisan outrage and aggressive bi-partisan action by our Congress.
While Enough Is Enough® is a non-partisan organization, I hope and pray Congress will find workable solutions to curb the flood of trafficked victims across our southern border. While the criminal activity of human trafficking at our border is real, women and children within our own borders are being lured and abducted into the multi-billion sex trafficking industry. This is big business that requires all of us working together to stop.
Now, more than ever, our nation's leaders need to check their differences at the door to defend the dignity and innocence of women and children to prevent sex trafficking. Every child deserves an age of innocence free from sexual exploitation.
"Even one woman or one child trafficked is too many."
-President Donald J. Trump
I was able to share some of these thoughts on Friday evening when I joined both Alma and Shannon Bream on "Fox News @ Night" Friday to discuss the president's White House meeting on the issue. Click on the image below to view the segment:
Starbucks Update
Also, this past week EIE learned of the arrest of fugitive sex offender Jason Zeller as authorities were able to track him in Florida because he was using Starbucks' free WiFi. While it is unclear as to whether Mr. Zeller was accessing or sharing child porn online at the time of his arrest, this is just another reminder that Starbucks needs to keep its most recent promise in November 2019 to filter its WiFi from pornography and child pornography. By doing so, it will help prevent sexual predators from accessing illegal child sex abuse images and flying under the radar of law enforcement.
Our press release can be viewed here. You can also still sign EIE's petition to hold Starbucks accountable to filtering here!
With your support, we can continue to defend the dignity of children and women. Will you please consider making a special gift to help to Fund the Fight as EIE continues to protect children in the digital world?
So grateful to have you stand with us!
President & CEO
Enough Is Enough®