Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are fighting back against the growing existence of human sex trafficking in the United States.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) places a high priority on enforcing laws that combat the sexual exploitation of children. Under Operation Predator, the agency's flagship initiative targeting child sex predators, ICE has made more than 8,000 criminal arrests since 2003.
Each year, millions of children fall prey to sexual predators. Experts estimate that one-in-five girls and one-in-10 boys in the United States will be sexually exploited before they reach adulthood. These young victims are left with permanent psychological, physical and emotional scars. Operation Predator identifies, investigates and arrests child predators. Operation Predator draws on ICE's unique investigative and enforcement authorities to safeguard children. Coordinated nationally and internationally, this initiative brings together an array of ICE disciplines and resources to target these child sex abusers. As part of the effort:
ICE created the National Child Victim Identification System in partnership with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, the FBI, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the U.S. Secret Service, the Department of Justice, the Internet Crimes Against Children task forces and other agencies.ICE agents stationed internationally work with foreign governments, Interpol and others to enhance coordination and cooperation on crimes that cross borders.ICE is a member of the Virtual Global Taskforce, joining law enforcement agencies around the world to fight child exploitation information and images that travel over the Internet.
"U.S. #Immigration and #Customs Enforcement's (ICE) #Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) places a high priority on #enforcing laws that combat the #sexual #exploitation of children.
Under Operation #Predator, the agency's flagship initiative targeting #childsex predators, ICE has made more than 8,000 criminal arrests since 2003."