Cindy McCain says border walls don’t deter human trafficking in US
Apr 12, 2019, 3:55 PM
PHOENIX – In a TV interview scheduled to air Friday, Cindy McCain said border walls don’t deter human trafficking in the United States, contrary to President Donald Trump’s assertion.
McCain, the widow of Arizona political icon and Trump critic John McCain and a prominent anti-trafficking activist, told Cynthia McFadden of “NBC Nightly News” the issue is primarily a domestic problem.
“It’s people within our own walls, in our own borders, so a wall is not going to fix this, but education will and awareness will and strengthening our laws will,” McCain said.
McCain is co-chair of the Arizona Governor’s Council on Human Trafficking and also heads the McCain Institute’s Combating Human Trafficking Program.
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“The misnomer in this is that somehow this occurs outside the country, that somehow it’s another country — not us, ever us,” she told McFadden.
“Well, it is very much us. The trafficking I’m talking about with you is domestic trafficking. These are domestic individuals being trafficked.”
In February, Trump said most, if not all, human trafficking in the U.S. comes in across the southern border.
“He’d be so upset over this…”
In an interview with @CynthiaMcFadden, Cindy McCain explains what her late husband, Sen. John McCain, would've thought of the current tone in Washington, D.C.
Watch more tonight on @NBCNightlyNews. pic.twitter.com/qDHMjvJrkB
— NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt (@NBCNightlyNews) April 12, 2019
“This is not something you can go through points of entry. … They go through areas where we don’t have a wall,” he said.
McCain’s late husband famously clashed with the president on several fronts, and Trump has continued making disparaging remarks about the longtime senator from Arizona since his August 2018 death.
