EXCLUSIVE: DHS Arrests Scores Of Criminal Illegals In Nationwide Anti-Trafficking Raids

The Department of Homeland Security has busted scores of illegal alien human traffickers and sex predators, and The Daily Wire has obtained exclusive details on the criminal illegals busted by the federal law enforcement agency.

Operations spanning from Newark, New Jersey, to Camarillo, California, resulted in the arrest of dozens of illegal aliens perpetrating the heinous crimes, with the federal agency saying that “the full weight of the American government is bringing the hammer down on human trafficking rings.”

“The brave men and women of DHS are the best in the world at going after traffickers. They are always able to track down those who are trafficking individuals, find the ringleaders, and rip that evil off by its head,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told The Daily Wire.

“I’m so thankful that I get the chance to lead individuals like that, and agents who get up every day to help save our children and to save women and men from the kind of slavery that we’ve seen,” the secretary went on to say, celebrating the work of DHS agents to bust human trafficking rings on the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons.

One late July operation in Newark resulted in the arrest of four illegal alien child predators by ICE agents over a four-day span. Those arrested in the enforcement action, which was part of Operation Apex Predator, were all registered sex offenders.

A July 22 operation resulted in the arrest of a human smuggler in Laredo, Texas, who was found to be smuggling 101 migrants in a locked trailer. Of those 101 individuals, 12 were children. The man was sentenced to 63 months in prison.

ICE and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation teamed up to levy a four-count indictment against eight people with ties to the criminal gang Tren de Aragua, with the defendants charged for their involvement in a “transnational commercial sex enterprise.”

In one particularly disturbing case, Homeland Security Investigations arrested an Ecuadoran national in New York for the sexual violation of a minor. Authorities discovered that a 15-year-old girl who was pregnant with the man’s child had been apprehended after attempting to illegally enter the United States, and that the man had been in a relationship with the child in Ecuador since she was 13 years old. The Ecuadoran national, authorities say, arranged to have her smuggled into the United States.

Not all of the perpetrators busted by federal authorities were illegal aliens. One American citizen, who was apprehended by the U.S. Marshals working in coordination with Customs and Border Protection, was identified as a “high-priority target linked to a criminal syndicate operating in human exploitation.” The suspect was arrested in Yuma, Arizona, and was wanted for placing individuals into prostitution, residing in a house of prostitution, and profiting from the earnings of prostitution.

Other operations targeted human smuggling rings that sought to bring illegal aliens into the United States for profit. The federal agency busted a transnational smuggling ring on May 2, when it discovered that four Mexican illegal aliens were running an “international human smuggling conspiracy” to bring illegal aliens into the United States from the Canadian border. Those smuggled into the United States would pay thousands of dollars to the criminal ring.

Homeland Security busted another smuggling ring on March 25, when a woman who had smuggled more than 100 Colombians into the United States was sentenced to 30 months in prison following her arrest by ICE in Arizona.

Customs and Border Protection apprehended a Mexican national in California’s Port San Luis who sedated a child and attempted to smuggle the child across the border. The woman claimed that she was the mother and presented a false birth certificate, with agents discovering that the woman did not have any familial ties to the child.

Under Trump and Noem, Homeland Security has also cracked down on forced labor rings. One South Korean company, Taepyung Salt Farm, is no longer able to import its products to the United States, with Customs and Border Protection agents detaining their imports on account of “information that reasonably indicates the use of forced labor in the production of the company’s sea salt products.”

Agents also shut down a now-infamous marijuana growing operation in Camarillo, California, rescuing 14 migrant children who were at risk of exploitation, trafficking, and forced labor. Agents arrested a whopping 361 illegal aliens, including some with charges for rape, attempted rape, kidnapping, and attempted child molestation.