Jury rejects the defense that Uribe was targeted by “hustlers” for his role as an immigration officer
A federal Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer has been found guilty of raping and robbing four women who were identified as sex workers.
In a trial that opened on September 9 and concluded on Thursday with a verdict of guilt, federal prosecutors explained how Luis Uribe—an officer with CBP who primarily worked at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport— assaulted four Chinese women, forcing them to engage in oral and vaginal sex, and at least once brandishing his government-issued firearm.
Uribe was charged last December with 10 counts of depriving individuals of civil rights under color of law and one additional count of using a firearm during a crime of violence.
During this month’s proceedings, his defense sought to undermine the credibility of the alleged victims. “They are hustlers,” Uribe’s attorney, Michael Clancy, allegedly told the court last week. “They are prostitutes. They are liars.”
Clancy argued that Uribe’s status as a DHS employee made him “the perfect mark” for a Chinese sex-trafficking operation.
The jurors apparently saw through this line of defense, returning guilty verdicts on all 11 counts he faced. The panel reached its decision a day after closing arguments concluded.
Uribe now confronts a mandatory minimum sentence of seven years in prison, with the possibility of a life term.
There is a sense of relief—and some surprise—that a federal officer has been held accountable for crimes committed against a particularly vulnerable group: immigrant women who faced accusations of sex work.
Nevertheless, cases like this underscore one of the many problems linked to the ongoing criminalization of prostitution.
Criminalizing commercial sex exposes sex workers to harassment by law enforcement and other authorities who may have ulterior motives. The women involved may hesitate to report abuses for fear of arrest or other criminal consequences. And when they do speak up, they confront stigma that has long cast sex workers—and sexual women in general—as deceitful, unscrupulous, or untrustworthy—a bias that Uribe’s defense relied upon in this case.
Stigma cannot be remedied with public policy alone, but the criminalization approach can be challenged. Repealing or reforming such laws could reduce the tendency of some law enforcement officers to view sex workers as “the perfect mark,” and it could encourage victims to come forward more readily if they are victimized, whether by police or others.
“Sex workers often experience fear of law enforcement, including fear of potential deportation, arrest and prosecution, as well as cultural and historical trauma related to government officials and law enforcement,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan L. Shih wrote in a July 17 letter to Clancy.
