Feds can pay award for turning in foreign violators of U.S. prostitution law

Feds can pay award for turning in foreign violators of U.S. prostitution law

In regard to new law quoted below, is the definition of "sex trafficking" in Pub. L 106-386 which defines "sex trafficking" to include:
"(9) Sex trafficking.--The term ``sex trafficking'' means the
recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining
of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act."

A bill became the vehicle for passage of the government spending bill for the remainder of fiscal year 2018. On March 22, 2018, the House replaced the text of the bill with the spending bill.

This bill was formerly the TARGET Act:

H.R. 1625 amends the State Department Basic Authorities Act of 1956 to authorize the State Department and law enforcement agencies to target international human traffickers by offering financial rewards for their arrest or conviction. The Department currently has a rewards program that uses appropriated funds to offer cash awards to deter transnational organized crime.

The legislation broadens the program to explicitly include severe forms of human trafficking, which are sex trafficking and labor trafficking as defined in Pub.L. 106-386. That law came from [H.R. 3244 (106th): Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000]

Any proposals to pay rewards are submitted to the Department of State by the Chief of Mission at a U.S. Embassy at the behest of a U.S. law enforcement agency. Reward proposals are carefully reviewed by an interagency committee, which makes a recommendation for a reward payment to the Secretary of State. Only the Secretary of State has the authority to determine if a reward should be paid. In cases where there is federal criminal jurisdiction, the Secretary must obtain the concurrence of the Attorney General.
Great post. Let me brief the bill and it's purpose so it is dumbed down to a level that can be better tolerated in this very ignorant world we live in...

So there's this law thingy where they are gunn give rewards amd stuff to turn
in people that traffic people.

And then there is some other law thingy that will make other countries give the data up so that no one can hide from the long arm of Injustice.It hasn't been passed cuz of some red tape but i just saw there is rumors. Sunday night when a tv show is on to distract us all.
ICU 812's Avatar
Something like this is already in effect where Federal Authorities enforce US law on pedophyles active in third world countries.

What I am getting from the first two posts is that now, Federal authorities can offer money to law enforcement entities in foreign countries to enforce US anti-prostitution laws outside the USA. It occurs to me that most countries have some forme of legalized sex for money between consenting adults.

Do I have that right? I could be arrested in say, Germany, for bringing an escort to my hotel room?
Gotyour6's Avatar
Something like this is already in effect where Federal Authorities enforce US law on pedophyles active in third world countries.

What I am getting from the first two posts is that now, Federal authorities can offer money to law enforcement entities in foreign countries to enforce US anti-prostitution laws outside the USA. It occurs to me that most countries have some forme of legalized sex for money between consenting adults.

Do I have that right? I could be arrested in say, Germany, for bringing an escort to my hotel room? Originally Posted by ICU 812
Yep,
Go to a third world country for a sugar baby and it is sex trafficking.

You are leaving the country to get a whore.
Great post. Let me brief the bill and it's purpose so it is dumbed down to a level that can be better tolerated in this very ignorant world we live in...

So there's this law thingy where they are gunn give rewards amd stuff to turn
in people that traffic people.

And then there is some other law thingy that will make other countries give the data up so that no one can hide from the long arm of Injustice.It hasn't been passed cuz of some red tape but i just saw there is rumors. Sunday night when a tv show is on to distract us all. Originally Posted by strawberry skye
Distracted? By the hypocritical Monger in Chief who is going to grandstand and sign this bill?
  • Tiny
  • 03-28-2018, 03:06 PM
For any lawyers, what does "obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act" mean? Could that mean anyone who pays money for sex is guilty of sex trafficking?


Yep,
Go to a third world country for a sugar baby and it is sex trafficking.

You are leaving the country to get a whore. Originally Posted by Gotyour6
Irrelevant. You and every hobbyist on here would then be guilty of sex trafficking as the law, which was passed in 2000, doesn't distinguish between sex in the USA and sex in foreign countries. The big difference is that LE in the USA would have a much easier time building a case against someone who has sex with a provider in the USA, compared to a foreign country. And building a case involving a foreign sugar baby? What a joke. They might as well try to start prosecuting American men who marry foreign wives and send them an allowance while they're waiting on a visa.

This is starting to make sense. There's a thread elsewhere on this site about an operation Gauntlet, where the press was describing a Sex Trafficking bust that resulted in 62 arrests. Twenty-six of the arrests resulted from men agreeing to sex acts with police women who they thought were over 18 years of age. And they probably had no reason to believe these imaginary prostitutes were being "trafficked", the way any reasonable person would define that word. The good news is that the 26 were only charged with a Class B Misdemeanor, and don't have to register as sex offenders. The bad news is that apparently the way the law is written they could have been convicted of sex trafficking. And many of their friends and colleagues who read the articles are going to think they're sex traffickers.
Time to leave this great country behind!
Reward not award.
For any lawyers, what does "obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act" mean? Could that mean anyone who pays money for sex is guilty of sex trafficking? Originally Posted by Tiny
Well there was a thread a while back, about that guy who drove his own wife to a 'date', across state lines who was done for trafficing...
cowboy8055's Avatar
The good news is that the 26 were only charged with a Class B Misdemeanor, and don't have to register as sex offenders. The bad news is that apparently the way the law is written they could have been convicted of sex trafficking. And many of their friends and colleagues who read the articles are going to think they're sex traffickers.[/QUOTE]


Could they really have been convicted of sex trafficking? If they could've been why did the DA accept a lesser plea. They probably realize getting sex trafficking convictions won't be easy. LE knows full well not all prostitution is associated with trafficking. It's one thing crafting a law that tries to make all prostitution look like trafficking. It's a different matter trying to actually get convictions on it. Good luck getting a sex trafficking conviction where the escort is self employed.
Could that mean anyone who pays money for sex is guilty of sex trafficking? Originally Posted by Tiny
Prostitution isn't against federal law as it is legal in some places in Nevada.
  • Tiny
  • 03-28-2018, 07:34 PM
Cowboy, good points.

WoodyBoyd, Responding to your original thoughts, before you edited your post, this hinges on what the word "obtaining" means. Don't put it past some prosecutor using language like this to extract a plea bargain or to try and persecute someone.

That said, I scanned the relevant act, the Victims and Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000, and didn't spot a penalty for simple sex trafficking. I still maintain, depending on how you interpret the word "obtaining", each and every hobbyist on this board could have been involved in sex trafficking according to the definition in the Act. I just don't know if there's a jail sentence specified, unless force, fraud, coercion, slavery, etc. are also involved.

Repeating Davephx, here's the definition in the act:

The term "sex trafficking" means the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act.
The new law makes it illegal to post ads in the counties where prostitution is legal in Nevada.
Time to leave this great country behind! Originally Posted by Victoria Taylor
This country sucks balls.
Gotyour6's Avatar
Then leave

Simple

And prostitution is not federal but sex trafficking is.

You meet a hooker outside the country that is sex trafficking.

That 300 a month hooker is a federal charge