Remarks by President Trump in Meeting on Human Trafficking on the Southern Border | Eastern North Carolina Now

    THE PRESIDENT: That's great. Thank you very much. I appreciate it very much. Please.

    MS. TUCKER: Mr. President, thank you for the opportunity to actually put a face to this horrible epidemic situation that we're (inaudible) called human trafficking.

    We are International Network of Hearts, and we represent more than 50 organizations fighting for both sides of the country together against human trafficking.

    And we realize that not only the kids need to be rescued, but also provide services. And this is why we have two shelters - one for boys and one for girls. And we know also the statistic, they say - the (inaudible) is from 12 to 24 years. (Inaudible.) But we were shocked to receive kids four, five years old.


    As you know, when they're rescued, they come with a lot of trauma. They need a lot of services. And I want to tell you a little bit how I start working in human trafficking. That was 20 years ago when I used to work in the Mexican consulate, and I had the privilege to serve some kids that were rescued.

    One particular case impact my life. She was only 14 years old, and the smuggler - the parents paid the smuggler to bring her undocumented to the mountains, to this country. But the smuggler told her that her parents didn't pay a full amount for her transportation, and she had to pay.

    She had to pay with her own body, and have sex with all the people in the group. Then go through this journey. And they forced her to have sex 20, 30 times until Border Patrol rescued her, and they transferred her our way to the hospital. And I was there; they called me. I used to work in the consulate.

    And just to hear a girl - a 14-year-old crying for her mother, crying for someone that can help after going through this trauma. I was able to be there and hold her hand through these horrible moments. And I promised her to stay with her, holding her hand until I was able to find her parents. And she has to go through horrible situations, as you know: medical, interviews, everything.

    And I promised myself, no matter - I didn't work anymore with the consulate - I had to do something. Cases like this, I see one after another.

    I remember another girl, only nine years old. She was brought to this country through the regular lines in San Isidro. But a smuggler decided to put the little girl in the hood next the engine. And he had another four men in the car.

    Once he got caught at the border, they processed them - the whole group. But he never mentioned about the girl. He let her in the hood. Not until the next day, the mother called looking for her and she hear what happened. Then the officers ran to the car and they found the little girl, nine years old, unconscious. Also, she was transferred to the hospital. Thank God, she survived.

    But these people - these smugglers - they don't care about the life of one little girl. They really don't care.

    Other cases that I've been working - I remember they brought a lady who was 21 years old. Her husband actually was - came from Tlaxcala. I don't know I'm pretty sure you're familiar with what is going on in Tlaxcala. There is an industrial business for families for generations and generations in Mexico. And he brought her to this country and promised her a better life.

    But when she was in this country, he forced her to have sex with men in the fields - in agriculture fields. Days - and again, days. Forty, fifty times a day. And when she denied to do it, she told her - she left behind her daughter in Mexico and she said, "You will never see your daughter again."

    Officers, they arrived and they rescued her. And now she's reunited. And thanks to the collaboration from both countries, they found her daughter in Tlaxcala, they brought her to this country, they provide services, and they were reunited.

    I know that it's necessary to increase the collaboration from both countries because this is something that is happening. But we need to do something to stop it. We work direct with the victims. We see how much pain. And from generation and generation (inaudible) when someone is victim of human trafficking.

    Thank you, Mr. President.

    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much.

    SECRETARY NIELSEN: Alma, thank you. And, sir, I'd just like to thank Ivanka Trump who's been such an amazing advocate and support of the victims and raising awareness. Thank you.

    Now we'd like to turn to Deputy Special Agent in Charge, Anthony Scandiffio from New York, who's going to talk about an illegal sex trafficking reunion investigation in New York.

    MR. SCANDIFFIO: Thank you. Good afternoon, Mr. President. HSI New York - unfortunately, we do a lot of work in the sex trafficking area, especially in the Queens, New York area.

    One investigation that we did involved young females that were being brought up from Tenancingo, Mexico to Queens, New York area. The coercion and the abuse begins in Mexico where these traffickers approach these young vulnerable women to either convince them that - to come to America for the better life. Maybe sometimes even date them, become their boyfriends, or even marry them, luring them to the United States.

    The women talk about how they're brought across the border, and one describes being put down face-down on a raft and pulled across on a rope. One driven in the back of truck, in the back of flat-bed truck. Or in the middle of the night, crossing the border into a vehicle taken to a safe house.

    They think their journey - the rough part of the journey is over, but little do they know, once they reach Queens, New York, that's when their true horror begins where they're abused, beaten, maybe not fed - all for the trafficker to take over their minds and to force them into this life of prostitution.

    For us, I thank God for the great work of the Border Patrol. They interdicted one of these individuals he had from females with him. From that little bit of information, we were able to uncover over 12 victims in New York, two of which were minors when they came across the border by this trafficking organization.

    And like Ms. Tucker stated, these poor women were asked to service 15 to 40 men a day for as little as $40. The organization was making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, which is being funneled back through Mexico.

    Doing this type of work for us at HSI is the most rewarding work that we could ever do because you're saving a life; you're saving a victim. And it's making the public aware of this that's out there. We did a bilateral takedown with the Mexican authorities where we arrested five of the individuals in Mexico; three of the individuals in New York. They were recently sentenced in January of this year, ranging from 8 to 25 years for the trafficking of these 12 victims to the New York area.

    THE PRESIDENT: And mostly are coming through the border?

    MR. SCANDIFFIO: Yes, Mr. President.

    THE PRESIDENT: It's incredible. Incredible.

    SECRETARY NIELSEN: We'd like to turn it over to Joel. Joel is going to talk about Operation Safehaven. This was a ring that was operating from Georgia to Texas, sir.

    MR. ROUNTREE: Mr. President, thank you.

    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much.


    MR. ROUNTREE: My name is Joel Rountree. I've been a special agent for approximately 16 years now. And at HSI we work a variety of cases. And I see victims, and some of the most important ones we work are these trafficking type of cases. They allow us to now only make a difference in these people's lives, in the victims' lives, but also it really puts some bad guys in jail.

    So one of these particular cases is Operation Safehaven. I'm out of the Savannah, Georgia office of Homeland Security, and we uncovered a sex trafficking circuit. They are operating in Georgia and also in nine other states, including North Carolina and Texas.

    They had recruiters, very similar to what we heard here today already, operating in foreign countries, and would deliver these girls, mainly uneducated and from poor backgrounds, into the United States with the American Dream that so many people have. And when they get here, it's really a nightmare.

    These victims that we interviewed, as a result of our case, told us - and I'll use their verbiage - they were taken and (inaudible) in houses prior to being put on this 20-brothel circuit that we were taking down at the end. They described how they would be forced to service up to 30 men per day in these brothels where they'd work for one week. And at the end of their week, they were transferred to the next one. And it was just an endless circle that they stayed on.

    We conducted an investigation for possibly 18 months. We employed a variety of investigative tools: mobile tracking devices, covert cameras. All this led to wiretap affidavits where we intercepted communications occurring on the telephones utilized by members of the organization.

    That, in turn, led us to a federal indictment in the (inaudible) of 40 individuals, and they ranged at every level of this organization, from the customers that were at the brothel, to the transporters, to the traffickers.

    We were also able to arrest 36 of those while rescuing 15 of the victims out of these brothels. They were provided services by our victim assistance coordinators in their areas, including food, clothing, shelter, and the like. So we considered it pretty successful.

    THE PRESIDENT: Great job. I heard you do a fantastic job. Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

    SECRETARY NIELSEN: Thank you, Joel. I would like to turn to Carl. And, sir, this is particularly horrific what Carl is going to describe. There are some parts of this that are law enforcement sensitive, so he will keep it at the appropriate level.

    But what he will describe is the child-recycling ring that we have previously talked about. This is a crime, sir, where smugglers take children, and they bring them again and again across the border to enable other criminals to enter our border under the loopholes in our laws.

    So, Carl, please.

    MR. MCCLAFFERTY: Thank you, Secretary. Mr. President.

    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.

    MR. MCCLAFFERTY: As you know, 2008 of October, it was the first time we ever had more family units than single adults apprehended. So the family unit issue has become something of a crisis for us.

    In Yuma, Arizona, we were catching groups of Guatemalans - family units - turning themselves into Border Patrol, crossing around where the fence ends. And I just started looking into it and found that some of the sponsors, after they were released, were the same person, with the same address and same phone number.

    So they reached out to HSI, to Charleston, South Carolina, where these people were going. HSI looked into it. There's something going on here. "Why don't you come out, and we'll do this case together?" We went up to Charleston, followed a group that actually got released. They were picked up by the sponsor. Immediately after that, the smuggler pulled over and put a bag of trash in a dumpster. Agents recovered that. Inside was their ankle bracelet, their illegal documents, already discarded by these sponsors who tend to be in the smuggling organization.

    They investigated this case. We were able to tie this back to a larger group that was smuggling Guatemalans into South Carolina and other places. Out of this, I believe we got eight indictments and then a warrant served, resulting in 24 illegal aliens apprehended.

    And one of the indictments was a woman who was being paid $1,500 a child to take the children back to Guatemala who are not part of the actual family unit. So, she claimed to doing this 13 times, and so we found out they were recycling these children. They would bringing them up, smuggling them as part of a family group, recycle them back to Guatemala, put them in another family group, and come back up.

    So this was, you know, obviously an exploitation of these children.

    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

    SECRETARY NIELSEN: Thank you, Carl.


    Now I would like to turn over to Amy Allen, sir. She is an ICE victim advocate. I had the pleasure of hearing a brief from her a couple of weeks ago. She is a very powerful part of what we do to help the victims and survivors, and I'd love for her to give to you a little bit about what she does.

    MS. ALLEN: Thank you, Mr. President. As working with HSI in Division 4, there's a component there called the Victim Assistance Program, and I am part of that along with 22 other victim advocates that sit in all of our offices.

    As a forensic interviewer, my job is to investigatively interview, alongside with an agent, a victim of human trafficking and child exploitation. I've done over 6,000 interviews in my career. This is all I've done for 25 years.

    I think when we sit here and we talk about the rescue of victims, our minds turn to how that actually happens. And with HSI's investigative efforts, a lot of our leads to seek these rescues come from financial institutions, communities, schools, and our local law enforcement partners.