Political Quotes

“We are here on the floor today to talk about minor sex trafficking or, to put it more accurately, the rape of children, by adults, for profit. More importantly, though, we are here today for the victims-- the survivors--of this terrible crime. These include Ms. ``T'' Ortiz Walker Pettigrew, who testified so bravely before the Crime Subcommittee about her experiences under the control of a violent pimp after being failed by the foster care system; and Ms. Elizabeth Corey, who recently graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University, despite having been sexually being prostituted by her family starting as young as 8 years old; and the dozens of other victims of this heinous crime who have been identified in just Virginia alone in recent years, as well as the many other victims and survivors that exist in all of our States. The sale of children for sex sounds like something that could only happen in faraway places, but sadly, it is happening right here in the United States every single day. According to the FBI, sex trafficking is the fastest-growing business of organized crime and the third largest criminal enterprise in the world. Criminal organizations, including some of the most violent criminal street gangs like MS-13, have realized that selling children is oftentimes more profitable than selling drugs. This is because drugs can only be sold once, but minor children can be--and are--prostituted multiple times a day.…”