Say what you will about Glen Beck, one thing’s for sure…he’s a very good investigative journalist. Tonight on Fox’s Glen Beck Show, Beck ran a jaw-dropping hidden camera investigation of ACORN wherein a young woman posing as a prostitute (actually a journalism student) and her “pimp” (actually a filmmaker) sit down with an ACORN staffer for tax advice.  The prostitute is forthcoming–telling the ACORN worker that she needs to file taxes so that she can qualify for a home loan in order to purchase a house which she freely admits to the ACORN worker will be used as a brothel.  The video is astounding. At every interval the ACORN worker helps the couple with their fraud–from reducing her income for the year (from $90K to $9K) to helping her come up with a creative new title for her profession.  They decide on “performance artist.” Cute.


But what really kicks you in the gut, is when the “pimp” tells the ACORN worker that they will be expanding their business and plan to bring to the U.S. a number of “young” illegal aliens to work as prostitutes.  He then reveals the girls will be 13 and 14 years of age.  The ACORN worker is unfazed. She continues to dole out advice like she’s rambling off her mother’s favorite recipes. 



The “pimp” later says that he and “Kenya” plan to bring up to 13 “very young” girls from El Salvador to work as prostitutes. Although an ACORN staffer points out their plans are illegal, she also suggests that the girls can be claimed as dependents. “What if they are going to be making money because they are performing tricks too?” the pimp says. “If they making money and they are underage, then you shouldn’t be letting anybody know anyway,” the ACORN staffer says, and laughs. “It’s illegal. So I am not hearing this, I am not hearing this. You talk too much. Don’t give up no information you’re not asked.”


The “pimp” then asks ACORN staffers to “promise” not to discriminate against his sex worker because of “who she is and what she does,” according to the audiotape. “If we don’t have the information, then how are we going to discriminate?” the ACORN staffer replies. “You see what I am saying?” If the girls are under age 16, the ACORN staffer says on the tape, then they are not legally allowed to work in the state, regardless of what they do. “So it’s like they don’t even exist?” “Kenya” asks. “Exactly,” the ACORN staffer replies. “It’s like they don’t even exist.”


 The staffer goes on to suggest that as many as three of the underage girls can be listed as dependents at the home, but a “flag” will be raised if as many as 13 are listed. “You are gonna use three of them,” the staffer says. “They are gonna be under 16, so you is eligible to get child tax credit and additional child tax credit.”


It’s a disturbing video that shows the organization’s willingness not only to turn a blind eye but to assist in the horrifying crime of human trafficking of young girls for the sex trade.


So, back to my original question: I wonder if NOW will have anything to say about ACORN because they certainly have weighed in on the issue of human trafficking.  In fact, a September ’07 press release titled “Stop the Sale of Women: Combat Trafficking in the U.S.” was specifically geared toward promoting another film–this one showing the horrors of human trafficking:


Trade, a new feature film starring Kevin Kline, tells the story of a 13-year-old girl who is kidnapped by sex traffickers from her home in Mexico City and the brother who works desperately to find her. NOW is working with Roadside Attractions to promote the film and bring attention to the epidemic of sex trafficking in this country. There is a special screening organized by NOW-NYC on Friday, September 21 in Manhattan. The film opens in select cities on September 28 and NOW activists are encouraged to see the movie opening weekend, as large opening attendance encourages wider distribution. Sadly, the subject of Trade is not fiction. Instead it is the tragic reality for an estimated 800,000 people worldwide, primarily women and children.

The press release then goes on to suggest how women might get more involved in the issue at the community level and lists a number of things the local NY chapter has done to raise awareness–like holding rallies and protests, hosting movie screenings and panel discussions, and meetings with city leaders and applying pressure on publications that profit from advertising services that encourage human trafficking.


May I make one more suggestion–denounce ACORN.