Mike Banks, President Donald Trump’s top Border Patrol official, resigned from the position on Thursday, “effective immediately.”
Banks’ departure from the Border Patrol comes under the cloud of sex tourism allegations against him.
Several current and former border patrol agents told the Washington Examiner last month that Banks “bragged” about having sex with prostitutes in countries that included Colombia and Thailand.
That’s not the issue, though. The age of consent is a scape goat to distract from the actual source of the sex tourism problem. Colombia’s laws for example are on par with the Canadian example quoted above. Yes the age of consent is technically 14, but there’s a ton of nuance, like access to sexual rights (which was a big issue, like contraceptives and medical care). As well as strict rules regarding no more than 5 years of age gap.
The real problem is that both Thailand and Colombia have armed criminal groups controlling large swaths of territory where they engage in drug and human trafficking. With both, forced and sex labor intentions. Effective modern day slavery, due to a complex web of factors that make establishing the rule of law very hard. They’re far from the only ones, tons of countries all over the world suffer from this issue regardless of age of consent.