Arizona Politician Charged With Human Trafficking

[tulc]

Arizona Politician Charged With Human Trafficking

An Arizona elected official ran a human smuggling scheme that promised pregnant women thousands of dollars to lure them from a Pacific Island nation to the United States, where they were crammed into houses to wait to give birth, sometimes with little to no prenatal care, prosecutors say.

Paul Petersen, the Republican assessor of Maricopa County, Arizona, home to Phoenix, was charged in Utah, Arizona and Arkansas with counts including human smuggling, sale of a child, fraud, forgery and conspiracy to commit money laundering

tulc( )

 

[Sketcher]

Truly horrible. Hopefully, more enforcement of our immigration laws will catch more people like this.

 

[AllDayFaith]

I read about this a while ago, those people are truly depraved. How was he able to pull this off by himself? How come they haven't arrested everyone involved?

 

[Hank77]

 

[Hank77]

Truly horrible. Hopefully, more enforcement of our immigration laws will catch more people like this.

I'd have to see the treaty to be convinced that it says anything about adoptions, but I could be wrong.

 

[Mountainmanbob]

Arizona Politician Charged With Human Trafficking

tulc( )

How can it be called human trafficking?
When the dems are letting everyone in?
M-Bob

 

[tulc]

How can it be called human trafficking?
When the dems are letting everyone in?

(snip)

It apparently was called human trafficking because they were selling humans?
tulc(that would be his guess)

 

[HannahT]

Arizona Politician Charged With Human Trafficking

tulc( )

Yikes! I had read about stories of Chinese women coming to the USA to give birth so they could have dual citizenship - I guess it's a status thing there.

I have to wonder if he used the same loopholes they do for this scheme. The Chinese go back home, but I'm sure these women may not. It doesn't say in the article.

"Prosecutors say Petersen used associates to recruit pregnant women by offering many of them $10,000 each to give up their babies for adoption. Petersen would pay for the women to travel to the United States days or months before giving birth and live in a home that he owned until delivering the baby, according to the court records.

The expectant mothers were often crowded in the homes, with Marshallese women Petersen employed helping with translation, transportation, legal documents and applications for Medicaid benefits, prosecutors said."

You are speaking of families that could use that $10,000 for the benefit of their families, and they said in the article that they were not promised they could keep the baby. So, it looks like a transaction they came into with their eyes open....still YUCK! It's awful!

I read what the lawyer said about the initial payment to the women, but you have to wonder HOW he will spin to say that was part of the expenses of this process. The article does not say, but it may be part of the transportation costs, etc.