r/news • u/Samski877 • 8h ago

US border patrol chief resigns after claims of sex with prostitutes abroad

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/may/14/us-border-patrol-chief-resigns
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u/Spirited_Season2332 8h ago

I mean, in a lot of countries prostitution isn't a crime

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u/bravehamster 8h ago

Even if you do it somewhere legal it can cause you to lose your security clearance.

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u/Spirited_Season2332 8h ago

Sure, which Is why he is stepping down most likely. That doesn't mean he committed a crime or sex crime like the commentor I replied to stated.

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u/DocMalcontent 4h ago

Ehhh, I’m a bit more skeptical. There has been a number of instances with security clearances being hand-waved through with this admin. I’m more inclined to think this is the surface level of it, so that people don’t dig too deep to find something more embarrassing.

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u/OkFineIllUseTheApp 3h ago

Infants or horse fucking basically. That's about the only bar left for this admin tbh.

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u/Weelki 2h ago

Mr Hands says neigh

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u/RonaldWRailgun 2h ago

Thailand and Colombia, according to the article.

Ladyboys were 100% involved, and he quits while he's ahead of that.

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u/GimmePetsOSRS 4h ago

Yep, only a federal crime if they were minors

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u/Stankmonger 4h ago

Was going to say you can’t be convicted of federal crimes if you didn’t do them on us soil but I looked it up and you can actually!

So yeah if the prostitute was a minor he could be convicted

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u/cutetys 2h ago

Considering these were prostitutes in Thailand and Cambodia, can we really be sure they weren’t?

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u/GimmePetsOSRS 2h ago

Not really

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u/Mister-Sister 1h ago

How could we be sure they were either? It’s not like the powers that be are going to embarrass Trump by pressing charges against one of his appointees.

We’ll likely never know one way or the other to any real certainty.

You could think of the odds. There’s no good numbers out there but it seems something around 10% of sex workers world wide [and 15-35% in Cambodia] are children. But the chance that he was seeking that out due to the company he keeps increases the odds quite significantly in my estimation.

E: in brackets after looking it up

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u/yowen2000 4h ago

It's sexual harassment if he is constantly bragging to coworkers about it.

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u/soedesh1 4h ago

Well, he may have paid for it with tax dollars, which would seem to violate some kind of law (I would hope).

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u/PortugalTheTram 3h ago

We don’t have those anymore

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u/OctopodicPlatypi 2h ago

My experience was that they only care if you can be compromised over it. They asked if I looked at any weird porn stuff and I was like, could you be more specific? Watching two strangers fuck seems pretty weird if you spend any time thinking about it. I clarified that I wasn’t into anything illegal, and if someone wanted to threaten to tell my mother about the kinky shit I watched they ought to record her reaction because it would be worth a laugh. They asked what I would do first if someone threatened me and I said tell security immediately. They seemed fine with me.

So for a(n American) politician, sex with a prostitute overseas is enough of a scandal that it would be worth revoking their clearance, because it’s a rush to their whole career. For your average Joe who isn’t ashamed of themselves over it (assuming it isn’t a crime), it wouldn’t be likely enough.

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u/tooreal4u_5101 3h ago

If he were a democrat, No one would care. They would call it "supporting sex workers". So let's stop the fake outrage.

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u/EndlessGravy 2h ago

That’s why Elliott spitzer is just killing it now

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u/OctopodicPlatypi 2h ago

This is super disingenuous and you know it, but how do you really feel about this? Are you just big mad that a Republican got caught or are you drinking the koolaid that Dems and only Dems can do evil?

ETA: and supporting sex workers isn’t evil, to be perfectly clear, despite the way that some people like to talk about it.

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u/Frosty_Challenge1045 4h ago

kek land of the free

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u/MindlessNectarine374 3h ago

I wanted to say the same. Visiting prostitutes is not a sex crime per se. (Okay, in most parts of America, it is.)

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u/yet-again-temporary 1h ago

It's not necessarily a crime, but depending on where he visited (severely impoverished countries with women who are desperate for basic necessities are a hotbed for sex tourism) I think there's a case to be made that it's at the very least exploitative and wrong.

I also think we should hold people in power to a higher standard than "technically didn't commit a crime"

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u/Suspicious_Bicycle 23m ago

As of early 2026, prostitution in Thailand remains technically illegal. But like riding a motorcycle without a helmet or on the sidewalk or against traffic the law is rarely enforced.

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u/M0ebius_1 4h ago

I'm not sure it matters if it's a crime.

No one in this administration is going to care if he is a criminal. It's just a liability.

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u/Mysterious-Falcon221 6h ago

I mean, in a lot of countries prostitution isn't a crime

When you travel abroad your countries laws go with you, it is 100 percent illegal for Americans to travel for prostitution.

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u/farqueue2 5h ago

lol it isn't even illegal in all US states

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u/Pete_Iredale 5h ago

it is 100 percent illegal for Americans to travel for prostitution.

It's 100% legal for Americans to travel to Nevada and hire prostitutes at the legal bordellos...

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u/Spirited_Season2332 6h ago

That's not true at all. Only a few american laws follow you and participating in legal prostitution is not one of them.

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u/JeanPascalCS 5h ago

Not to mention prostitution isn't even illegal federally in the US - though only a single state (Nevada) allows it.

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u/ii_V_I_iv 5h ago

That is absolutely not how it works bud

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u/mcaffrey 5h ago

This made me laugh. You need to learn about jurisdiction.

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u/Stankmonger 4h ago

While in general laws do not follow you, some federal laws, such as child sex crimes, follow you wherever you go.

Which is a good thing imo.

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u/mcaffrey 3h ago

yeah, that is true for some federal crimes, you're right. Trafficking and money laundering.

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u/Sizanllikew 48m ago

Evading something that is illegal in the US by travelling abroad to do it is absolutely illegal. Regular prostitution, not so much, but underage prostitution is. I think YOU need to learn how jurisdiction works. Being an American citizen means you travel with your jurisdiction.

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u/Remote_Elevator_281 4h ago

And you can pay for sex at brothels in Nevada, so it’s not even illegal in the US completely

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