An Eye Opening Story
Every day at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), we are fighting a fight you rarely hear about in the media - the battle against human trafficking. ICE is taking an aggressive approach to dismantle the global infrastructure of people, money and materials that supports this heinous crime. I want to take this opportunity to share with you a story about a recent ICE human trafficking investigation.
Picture this: May 12, 2007. A rainy midnight in an affluent Long Island neighborhood where the average home cost around $1.5 million. A woman in her fifties – I’ll call her “Jane” – wearing ripped sweat pants and rags she’d sewn together into a shirt wandered the neighborhood looking for help. At first, Jane thought she’d go to a nearby home, but ended up abandoning that plan and even hid in the bushes every time a car passed, having never been out of the house before and unsure of whom she could trust.
Miraculously, Jane found her way to small shopping center with a donut shop - one of the only businesses open at that very early hour - more than a mile away. Again, fearful, she did not go in. But an alert employee spotted Jane and, despite the fact that he did not speak her Indonesian language, convinced her to come inside.
He and his manager sheltered and fed Jane until the manager’s mother, a nurse, arrived. Jane motioned and gestured that she’d been abused. And the nurse observed severe injuries behind her ears – as if someone had tried to cut them off – and dozens of scars and other marks covering her arms. Ultimately, the three called local police for help.
Nassau County Police Department officers arrived, as did a specially trained detective who is part of the local Human Trafficking Task Force. Jane was taken to the hospital and local officers contacted ICE.
The five-month ICE investigation that followed culminated on December 17 when a wealthy Long Island couple was convicted by jury trial on a twelve count federal indictment that included forced labor, peonage, document servitude, harboring aliens and conspiracy for holding Jane and another Indonesian woman captive. The couple is set to be sentenced on March 28, 2008, and each faces up to 40 years for their roles in this scheme.
These women were rescued, and the perpetrators brought to justice, because each of the individuals involved took action. Like many things in law enforcement, the badge-carriers can’t always do the job alone.
For years, a number of non-governmental organizations have assisted us in our cause – both through public outreach and by providing victim services. And now we’re augmenting their efforts by reaching out directly to the public with a new ICE Public Service Announcement. Our message is simple: A human trafficking victim can be anyone. If you see them, report it to ICE at 1-866-347-2423.
The sad reality is that trafficking victims remain anonymous as long as they are ignored. They hide in plain sight. We all must work together to shine a light on this problem and get the victims to the help they deserve.
Julie L. Myers
Assistant Secretary
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Picture this: May 12, 2007. A rainy midnight in an affluent Long Island neighborhood where the average home cost around $1.5 million. A woman in her fifties – I’ll call her “Jane” – wearing ripped sweat pants and rags she’d sewn together into a shirt wandered the neighborhood looking for help. At first, Jane thought she’d go to a nearby home, but ended up abandoning that plan and even hid in the bushes every time a car passed, having never been out of the house before and unsure of whom she could trust.
Miraculously, Jane found her way to small shopping center with a donut shop - one of the only businesses open at that very early hour - more than a mile away. Again, fearful, she did not go in. But an alert employee spotted Jane and, despite the fact that he did not speak her Indonesian language, convinced her to come inside.
He and his manager sheltered and fed Jane until the manager’s mother, a nurse, arrived. Jane motioned and gestured that she’d been abused. And the nurse observed severe injuries behind her ears – as if someone had tried to cut them off – and dozens of scars and other marks covering her arms. Ultimately, the three called local police for help.
Nassau County Police Department officers arrived, as did a specially trained detective who is part of the local Human Trafficking Task Force. Jane was taken to the hospital and local officers contacted ICE.
The five-month ICE investigation that followed culminated on December 17 when a wealthy Long Island couple was convicted by jury trial on a twelve count federal indictment that included forced labor, peonage, document servitude, harboring aliens and conspiracy for holding Jane and another Indonesian woman captive. The couple is set to be sentenced on March 28, 2008, and each faces up to 40 years for their roles in this scheme.
These women were rescued, and the perpetrators brought to justice, because each of the individuals involved took action. Like many things in law enforcement, the badge-carriers can’t always do the job alone.
For years, a number of non-governmental organizations have assisted us in our cause – both through public outreach and by providing victim services. And now we’re augmenting their efforts by reaching out directly to the public with a new ICE Public Service Announcement. Our message is simple: A human trafficking victim can be anyone. If you see them, report it to ICE at 1-866-347-2423.
The sad reality is that trafficking victims remain anonymous as long as they are ignored. They hide in plain sight. We all must work together to shine a light on this problem and get the victims to the help they deserve.
Julie L. Myers
Assistant Secretary
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Labels: human trafficking, ICE
posted by DHS Journal at
5:55 PM
3 Comments:
The seriousness of human trafficking is sometimes obscured by mixing up the terms "human smuggling" (alien smuggling) and "human trafficking." This is a good case and ICE needs to do this kind of case when such violations are discovered, but there is no need to call the investigative groups around the country "human trafficking" groups if they are not doing HT investigations. Most of them are doing human (alien) smuggling investgations and should be referred to as such. There's enough good work being done by ICE that there's no need to confuse the issue by overselling what's being done.
By
Retired Special Agent, At
January 3, 2008 6:20 AM
United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking website www.ungift.org aims to be an extension of UN GIFT activities worldwide. We would like it to evolve into a vibrant online community where people exchange views, showcase their work, talk about their experiences and strengthen the fight against human trafficking. With your help we can make it a valuable resource and a tool to take this fight forward. The organized crime of human trafficking needs a fitting organized response.
United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking (UN.GIFT) was formally launched in London on 26 March 2007. It is designed to have a long-term impact to create a turning point in the worldwide fight against human trafficking. 27million people are trafficked each year. UN.GIFT intends to take action against human trafficking in all its manifestations – commercial sexual exploitation, bonded labour, organ trade, camel jockeying, forced marriages, domestic labour, illegal adoption, and other exploitative work – through creating partnerships at a global level with all sectors of society.
The ultimate goal of the Global Initiative is to contribute to ending human trafficking– estimated to have a total market value of about $32 billion worldwide. UNODC has a two-pronged strategy for achieving this goal – increasing public awareness of the problem and coordinating existing but disparate efforts by international and national groups, governments and non-governmental organizations and by concerned individuals to end the practice.
Numerous regional GIFT events will culminate in Vienna with a Global Forum against Human Trafficking from 13th to 15th Feb 2008.
The objective of The Vienna Forum is to raise awareness, facilitate cooperation and partnerships among the various stakeholders. It will bring together representatives from Member States, UN system organizations, other regional and international organizations, the business community, academia, non-governmental organizations and other elements of civil society. The Forum will allow for an open environment to enable all parties involved to take concrete steps to fight human trafficking, within their spheres of action.
The Forum will be a catalyst for solution-seeking ideas and address three overriding themes on human trafficking: 1.Vulnerability: why does human trafficking happen;
2. Impact: human and social consequences of human trafficking;
3. Action: innovative approaches to solving complex problems.
· It is time to join forces to prevent human trafficking.
· Give this global problem a global solution.
· Rally under the banner of the Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking.
· Get involved!
· Together we can save people and put traffickers behind bars.
Tushar
By
Tushar, At
January 3, 2008 10:35 AM
I can only speak from "An Average Joes" perspective, but these issues are of grave concern.
The problem I find is that the issues are so hard,complex and difficult to combat that an average person cannot comprehend how to tackle, never mind cure, the problem.
We need to have faith in the officials that are trusted to implement the required steps, but sometimes even having faith is hard.
Like all parents I am concerned for my family members, for my future grand children and indeed, concerned for mankind.
We can only dream and / or hope that the future improves.
By
Dart Shop, At
January 4, 2008 2:20 AM
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