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tholinz ago

This makes sense to me, because like I've been trying to say, the conversation about Tucson so far has kind of come across like people are trying to make connections between factors that aren't directly related to each other. At the least, there's a very poor grasp of city/state geography (CEMEX plant isn't close to Vail, Tucson isn't anywhere near Albuquerque, etc).

However, there's no doubt that Tucson is a massive hub for human trafficking, and that most likely involves trafficking children for the sex trade. Most of this shit is probably run by the Mexicans. But we do have the John McCain connection in Arizona; the McCain Institute would be known to the Clintons, as Hillary does have involvement with it (she spoke at one of their past symposiums).

Personally (as a native who saw a lot of shit back in the day), I'd recommend at least some scrutiny of people that facilitate the continuous flow of illegal immigrants. This might sound insane, but there are a number of charities/organizations in Tucson that deliberately enable human trafficking. I had classmates that used to volunteer with this bullshit. Tucson is a hub of this stuff, as many activists moved in from other states and set up shop in the early 2000s. This is fairly high-profile; in 2007, two of these organizations signed some kind of agreement with Mexico allowing them to provide aid south of the border (https://web.archive.org/web/20070427125921/http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/border/137512)

https://humaneborders.org/ Humane Border puts out water stations in the Sonoran desert. While well-meaning, what this does is help create easier routes to major population centers. It looks like they have some former Washington DC denizens on their board of directors. Founded in 2000 by a Rev Robin Hoover (https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2002/07/thirst-justice/), who was the pastor of the First Christian Church in Tucson. The other big one is No More Deaths: http://forms.nomoredeaths.org/en/ They offer legal services in addition to water stations, and are connected to the Tucson Unitarian Church. If anybody's in Tucson, the U of A library apparently has extensive records on Humane Borders.

Both of these organizations popped up right about the time the Sonoran Desert became one of the major corridors in the US for illegal aliens to enter through. In principle, it's terrible that people die in the desert every yer from exposure, but at the same time, I can't help but wonder if these activities help encourage use of the area by human smugglers (for the record, many illegals pay somebody to bring them in). It saves the kids, sure, but it also makes it easier for criminals to operate. What would be telling here with the purpose/function of these organizations would be their connections to other organizations.

ESOTERICshade ago

@tholinz

Up vote for most sane analysis of the day.

tholinz ago

I'm going to put up a separate post on this. I'm sure some people think I'm a shill or something like that, but I'm honestly just trying to find the right place to start pulling the thread.