What is it with Trump and human traffickers?

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Patrick Pizzella, tapped by President Donald Trump on Friday to step in as acting Labor secretary, is a polarizing figure beloved by conservatives for his pro-business views and disliked by unions and Democrats for a history of opposing worker protections.

Pizzella, who has served as deputy secretary of Labor since April 2018, will take over following Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta’s resignation amid controversy over a plea deal that he brokered for wealthy sex offender Jeffrey Epstein as a prosecutor in Florida. Pizzella comes “highly recommended by Alex,” Trump told reporters Friday.

But Pizzella’s ascendance to the top of the agency tasked with enforcing labor protections is something unions have long feared. He worked alongside disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff to shield the Northern Mariana Islands from federal labor laws in the 1990s, and generally has favored easing workplace regulations.

“If the president is serious about helping working people, selecting Patrick Pizzella wouldn't be the way to demonstrate that,” Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said in a statement. “My dealings with Patrick have been limited, but his dubious track record, including his association with Jack Abramoff, doesn't bode well."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trumps-acting-labor-secretary-pick-feared-by-unions/ar-AAEf65E?li=BBnb7Kz

Essentially what went on in the Marshall Islands was human trafficking.

Abramoff took on the Northern Mariana Islands as a client in 1995. Abramoff and his law firm were paid at least $6.7 million by the CNMI government from 1995 to 2001.[1]

The CNMI is a US commonwealth and thus may apply the "Made in USA" label to goods manufactured on Saipan.

Frank Murkowski, then Republican Senator from Alaska and chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, submitted a bill to extend the protection of U.S. minimum-wage labor laws to the workers in the CNMI.

In testimony before the Senate, it was described that 91% of the private-sector workforce were immigrants, and were being paid barely half the U.S. minimum hourly wage. Stories also emerged of workers forced to live behind barbed wire in squalid shacks without plumbing. A Department of the Interior report found that "Chinese women were subject to forced abortions and that women and children were subject to forced prostitution in the local sex-tourism industry." [2] The Senate passed the Murkowski worker reform bill unanimously, but the bill was then blocked by Tom DeLay in the House.[3]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Abramoff_CNMI_scandal

[elleng]

1. 'He worked alongside disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff to shield the Northern Mariana Islands

from federal labor laws in the 1990s.'