child sex slaves, the horror of illegal immigration

[gunsmith]

http://www.local6.com/news/9613282/detail.html

Fla. Man Sentenced For Having Sex Slave
BONITA SPRINGS, Fla. -- A North Fort Myers man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for his role in harboring a 13-year-old girl kept as a sex slave and housekeeper.

U.S. District Judge Virginia M. Hernandez Covington gave Fernando Pascual, 22, what she considered a lenient sentence Tuesday. As part of a plea deal, Pascual pleaded guilty in March to charges of sex trafficking and harboring an illegal immigrant for commercial gain. His sentence of 10 years was in exchange for the victim not having to testify because she was traumatized, Covington said.

"These are truly horrible crimes you have committed and they will not be tolerated in the United States," Covington said.
Pascual, his sister, Matilde Pascual Andres, and Andres' husband, Pascual Miguel Sebastian, were charged in May 2005 with harboring a young girl in a Cape Coral home. Prosecutors said the girl was bought in Guatemala and brought to Cape Coral, where she was raped, beaten and forced to work.

Matilde Pascual Andres also was sentenced Tuesday to 22 months in prison for her role. Pascual Miguel Sebastian was sentenced to 16 months in May on a similar charge.

"This is finally a chance ... to move forward," said Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney Doug Molloy.

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

Poverty sucks, dunnit?

[Guest]

They came here to commit the rapes and sexual imprisonment that ordinary Americans won't do.

[Nightfall]

Only 10 years for enslaving, beating, and raping a little girl? Sounds like a prime candidate for the death penalty for me.

[Guest]

U.S. District Judge Virginia M. Hernandez Covington gave Fernando Pascual, 22, what she considered a lenient sentence

No connection between any of that, of course.

[Perd Hapley]

His sentence of 10 years was in exchange for the victim not having to testify because she was traumatized, U.S. District Judge Virginia M. Hernandez Covington said.

On the other hand, she does provide a reason for the light sentence.

[cordex]

This is awful and all, but it isn't something confined to illegal immigrants or immigrant communities.

I'm no fan of illegal immigration, but it bugs me a bit that whenever border-criminals do anything wrong we have folks who weep and gnash their teeth and go on about how awful it is that said border-criminals bring such awful things into our pure and perfect nation.

Yeah, a little girl being raped and held captive is an awful crime.  Just remember, we've got legal citizens who rape scores of young boys, and that's just the born-and-bred-in-America pedophile nastiness from today's news.

Border-criminals are criminals, but pointing at the worst of them and claiming that it is indicative of the group is kind of like pointing at David Berkowitz and then crying about how awful Bernhard Goetz is.  Yeah, both unlawfully shot people, but they're not remotely similar.

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

Cordex is right.  This isn't an illegal immigration issue, this is a thug preying upon a helpless child issue.  The fact that the thug is an illegal immigrant is coincidental, not causal.

[Mannlicher]

its fairly common in Miami for rich foreign residents to get off with a wrist slap for crimes that would have an American in jail for ever.

[gunsmith]

My point is that sex slavery is part of the reason illegal immigration must end.

All the Asian massage parlors in CA are populated by large amounts of girls smuggled into this country and forced into prostitution.

The underground illegal alien market is ripe for exploitation of children who don't speak our language and fear the authorities.

It's bad enough that we have "registered" pedophiles walking around, the last thing we need are "undocumented" pedophiles walking around & getting a slap on the wrist when caught.

[cordex]

My point is that sex slavery is part of the reason illegal immigration must end.

And my point is, it doesn't matter whether the victims or perpetrators are border criminals, legal immigrants, citizens, resident aliens, or space aliens - sex slavery and child molestation are things that are horrible without regarding the origin of the various involved parties.

In this case, the little girl has been rescued from sex slavery because she was illegally brought to a country whose legal system is slightly less corrupt than other countries'.  If her "owner" had decided to move to Zapopan Mexico instead of Cape Coral Florida, as long as he could pay the Federales a few extra bucks each month he could have kept that girl until he became tired of her.  Then ... well ...

And let's dig a little deeper.  Suppose that Mr. Pascual decided to immigrate lawfully and bring the girl into the country legally somehow, would her slavery suddenly become more bearable?  Would his crime be less heinous?  She still wouldn't know the language, and I doubt she'd know that she could trust the American police.

All the Asian massage parlors in CA are populated by large amounts of girls smuggled into this country and forced into prostitution.

Consider the background of these girls.  Are we to believe that the problem is illegal immigration and that had they not illegally immigrated they would have had happy lives as good little sex-slaves in the gutters of Singapore, Manila and Ch'ongjin?

It's horrible, that such things happen to anyone, but the problem is not their immigrant status; the problem is that they're slaves.  I'm not sure how the fact that they're sex-slaves in the US is somehow worse than them hopelessly rotting away in a whorehouse or open sewer in their home country.

The underground illegal alien market is ripe for exploitation of children who don't speak our language and fear the authorities.

True enough, but as I believe I demonstrated it doesn't take illegal immigrants as victims or perpetrators for children to be exploited.