November 16, 2007

Human Trafficking

Global Impact

An estimated 800,000* men, women and children are trafficked across international borders each year. Victims are trafficked into the international sex trade and into forced labor situations throughout the world. Many of these victims are lured from their homes with false promises of well-paying jobs; instead, they are forced or coerced into prostitution, domestic servitude, farm or factory labor or other types of forced labor.

*Source: Trafficking in Persons Report, U.S. Department of State, June 2007.

Understanding Means of Coercion

Victims often find themselves in a foreign country and cannot speak the language. Traffickers often take away the victims' travel and identity documents and tell victims that if they attempt to escape, the victims or their families back home will be harmed or that the victims' families will assume the debt. We recognize that men, women and children that are encountered in brothels, sweat shops, massage parlors, agricultural fields and other labor markets may be forced or coerced into those situations and potentially are trafficking victims.

Trafficking vs. Smuggling

Human Trafficking is defined as:

• sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age; or
• recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage or slavery.

Human Smuggling is defined as:

• importation of people into the U.S. involving deliberate evasion of immigration laws. This offense includes bringing illegal aliens into the U.S., as well as the unlawful transportation and harboring of aliens already in the United States.

These are not interchangeable terms

• Smuggling is transportation-based
• Trafficking is exploitation-based

Role of ICE

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) works with its law enforcement partners to dismantle the global criminal infrastructure engaged in human trafficking. ICE accomplishes this mission by making full use of authorities and expertise, stripping away assets and profit incentive, collaborating with U.S. and foreign partners to attack networks worldwide and working in partnership with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to identify, rescue and provide assistance to trafficking victims.

Victim-Centered Approach

ICE recognizes that in order to successfully investigate and prosecute traffickers, victims must be stable and free from fear and intimidation to be effective witnesses. Equal value is placed on the identification and rescue of victims and the prosecution of traffickers. ICE has more than 300 collateral duty victim/witness coordinators who work with NGOs to assist in the provision of victim services. Short-term immigration relief is provided to certified victims of trafficking in the form of Continued Presence (CP).

Recent Anti-Human Trafficking Successes

On August 16, 2007, Michail Aronov, 34, a Lithuanian national, was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison for his role as a ringleader in an involuntary servitude and money laundering conspiracy. He was the last of nine convicted defendants to be sentenced for crimes associated with this conspiracy. He was convicted for conspiring to violate the civil rights of Eastern European women by forcing them to work as exotic dancers in Detroit-area strip clubs, as well as immigration and money laundering conspiracies. Aronov was also ordered to pay more than $1 million in restitution to the victims. The court had previously ordered Aronov's henchman, Aleksandr Maksimenko, to reimburse the dancers a total of $1,570,450. The court also ordered that $537,043 in cash seized from Maksimenko's home and safety deposit boxes, as well as about $30,000 worth of jewelry, be used to satisfy a portion of the restitution award. Maksimenko received a 14-year prison sentence. His father, Venyamin Gonikman, remains a fugitive. Three other individuals were also previously sentenced as a part of this conspiracy.

On June 1, 2007, a San Antonio woman and her two daughters were ordered detained without bond for engaging in sex trafficking of children. The woman, age 59 and her daughters, ages 32 and 29 were arrested and charged with sex trafficking of children by force, fraud or coercion. Based on the ongoing investigation and the victims' statements, it is alleged that the defendants traveled to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, to recruit young girls to work as prostitutes in the San Antonio area. The victims in this case are 15, 17, and 22 years old. After arriving in the in the United States, the victims were told they would have to work as prostitutes for five years to repay the money the defendants had spent. Allegedly the money was spent on smuggling and other expenses they incurred to prepare the young women to be prostitutes. The victims told ICE agents that they were scared to leave because a male associate of the Ochoa's had threatened them with a gun; he also stated that he could find them and their families back in Mexico, and he would have them killed. This is an ongoing ICE investigation.

On May 31, 2007, a couple from Cameroon were sentenced for involuntary servitude and related charges. Joseph Djoumessi, 49, was found guilty of conspiracy, involuntary servitude and harboring for financial gain. He was sentenced to 17 years in prison, to run concurrent with a 9-to-15-year sentence he is currently serving for a Michigan state conviction related to the same crime. A jury also convicted Djoumessi's wife, Evelyn Djoumessi, 42, of conspiracy and involuntary servitude. She was sentenced to five years in prison. The couple was also ordered to pay $100,000 in restitution to the victim. ICE agents in Detroit began an investigation in 2000 after receiving information regarding a young girl who was possibly being held against her will. A 17-year-old girl from Cameroon was discovered in the Djoumessi home, living under a false identity and in questionable circumstances. The girl had been brought into the United States illegally when she was 14 years old. During the time the girl lived at the couple's home, she was forced "by beating and threats," according to court documents, to care for their children and perform household chores without pay. They also limited her contact with the outside world and did not permit her to attend school.

Operation Cold Comfort - This two-year investigation, initiated in May 2005, identified, investigated and dismantled an organization involved in the trafficking of women, primarily from South Korea, into the United States. This investigation revealed a wide-range criminal enterprise that included conspirators in 11 states as well as South Korea. This organization was responsible for the smuggling and trafficking of over 100 women. Many of these women were forced to work as prostitutes in brothels along the East Coast of the United States. A transporter acted as the primary point of contact for more than 60 brothels. The various brothel owners and managers would contact the transporter in order to obtain women to work as prostitutes. The transporter worked with at least five other New York area transporters to fill the demands. 39 individuals were criminally arrested and 83 arrested on administrative charges. Nineteen defendants have already pled guilty in the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York on a variety of charges. This investigation has resulted in the court-ordered forfeiture of approximately $1.8 million dollars and six vehicles.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was established in March 2003 as the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security. ICE is comprised of five integrated divisions that form a 21st century law enforcement agency with broad responsibilities for a number of key homeland security priorities.

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