Thanks to patrick who has been our master of ceremonies and has done such a superb job of keeping us on track even dealing with some slight delays. And helping to coordinate the program. We began our day with remarks from attorney general Jeff Sessions and we are deeply honored to have for our closing speaker, another member of the president s cabinet. Sixth homelandhe security secretary. She is a superb leader with a wealth of relevant experience. Last year, she served as the chief of staff to the department of Homeland Security and she then served as the chief of staff to President Trump. In president bushs administration, she served as senior director on the Homeland Security council. In her current role, she supervises several Law Enforcement agencies that play a Critical Role in the u. S. Governments antitrafficking effort both at the border and in the interior. Tom customer from Customs Border protection to the transportation security administration, Homeland Security is on the frontlines of the fight against Human Trafficking and is one of the Justice Departments most important partners. Havee very important to secretary at the helm and we are delighted she was able to join us today. Please welcome our secretary of Homeland Security. [applause] good afternoon. It is my pleasure to be here and i want to thank you all for being part of the summit today. I would like to especially thank attorney general Jeff Sessions, the Deputy Attorney general for your leaders for your leadership. [applause]it is important from r perspective that we have partners such as the department of justice to be able to fight this fight together because that impact is what it requires. The diversity of voices in the room today. Enforcement, nonprofit and private sector it is a reminder that Human Trafficking affects everyone. Most importantly, it takes the united front to end it and fight it together. Human trafficking is not a third world problem but a worldwide problem and it is happening here in the united states. Make a mistake, Human Trafficking is modernday slavery. It in slaves people of all ages, races and backgrounds and it affects every community. We know that it is happening here within our very communities. Sitims of Human Trafficking beside us on airplanes, trains, and buses. They prepare the food we eat. They are often invisible until you look just a little bit closer and when you do, you see hunger, bruises. You see desperation and helplessness. And once you see it, i encourage you not to be silent. Thanks to partners such as the department of justice, we are able to bring these folks to justice. Less then three weeks ago, a wisconsin mont man a wisconsin man was sentenced to jail. Through physical violence, isolation and emotional manipulation, to actual assault and threat to victims families, the man who does not deserve the name, forced multiple young women and girls to engage in commercial sex acts and perform at exotic dance clubs. His brutality is almost unspeakable. On one occasion when one of the women upset him, he made her choose between 2 punishments. She could either drown or jump out the window. She chose to jump out the window. After she survived the fall, he kicked her head so hard, her teeth fell out. But, thanks to the Investigations Unit of the Homeland Security department, the Wisconsin Department of justice and the fbi, the Milwaukee Police department and the u. S. Attorneys office along with other agencies, today that monster of a man is behind bars, and there are hope he stays. And there i hope he stays. Unfortunately, stories like this are far too common and they do not always end in justice. That is why cooperative actions like todays summit are so important because we must Work Together to end this scourge on our communities. At the department of Homeland Security, the blue campaign, i am wearing blue in honor of our blue campaign. January is the month that we at dhs remind everyone of this challenge it is our unified effort to raise public consciousness about Human Trafficking and bring traffickers to justice. In addition to new Public Service announcements this year, we will continue to develop training kits and products to help you all, private industry, Law Enforcement stakeholders and nonprofits to identify the signs of trafficking. From truckstop cashiers and hotel clerks to Police Officers and emergency room nurses, we want everyone who interacts with the public to recognize the signs of Human Trafficking. To know what to look for and whom to report to if they suspect it. I ask for your support in the blue campaigns efforts. More information can be found in our website. I am proud to say that many components play an Important Role. Ice conducts lawenforcement operations four international and domestic Human Trafficking cases. Uscis provides trafficking victims with immigration relief not only identifies victims and the borders but also helps them. We found 77 yesterday, in just one trailer alone. We trained professionals to identify victims and conduct investigations. Dhs is a large department, almost 250,000 strong, and we leverage all of our Law Enforcement capabilities and capacity to disrupt trafficker criminal activities throughout the world. I am sure you heard a little bit today about transnational criminal organizations, but i would like to add my voice to this specific threat. They are using their networks to smuggle dangerous drugs, illegal aliens and potential terrorists to our country. They have no concern for human lives and they are solely motivated by profit and violence. Know that they also traffic in human souls. There are many reasons but if there are many reasons that the department of justice has made this a party to fight, and rejoin join their fight at the department of Homeland Security. One example of how we have supported the fight is Operation Safe haven, an investigation into a looselyaffiliated organization which coordinated the Illegal Movement of women across the southern border from Central America and throughout the united states. In a single day after a 15 month investigation, authorities were able to arrest 29 people in 13 cities in eight states. Law enforcement officers also rescued 15 victims. As a special agent in charge in atlanta said this investigation identified women victimized through fraud, force, and coercion including underage teens. To these enterprises, these women are just objects, to be discarded and passed on to the next trafficker down the line. As we have seen in Operation Safe haven, human smuggling and Human Trafficking are not synonymous, people who argue illegally smuggled into this country are easy for traffickers to prey on. Because this people who are smuggled have nowhere to turn, they live in the shadows, they have no legal protection, they make the perfect victims for the trafficking as they continue to do harm to our country. We are taking on those who exploit human beings, and pollute our activities with drugs. We are intercepting them on our borders, arresting them in hours arresting them in our cities and pursuing them to the ends of the earth. I would like to take one more moment to think our partners at the doj for the Important Role they play. In 2017, we secured convictions against 499 defendants in federal Human Trafficking prosecutions. 471 of which predominately involved sextrafficking. 28 labor trafficking. Several investigations involved both. Through investigations and prosecutions, the doj is an invaluable partner and ally and we thank them for that. Moving forward, we are making it harder for criminals and traffickers to thrive. But to secure our homeland, we need to significantly change our approach to Border Security and immigration. I was just at the National Targeting Center with the president and we discussed the challenges and propose solutions. As you may have seen, the president outlined a generous proposal last week and a framework to secure our borders. We are committed to securing our borders and ending the factors for illegal migrations that actually make trafficking easy. To begin with, we must secure the border. We need a border wall system. Walls work. When i say walls system, i do not just say that infrastructure, but also the technology and personnel, and importantly, closing the legal loopholes that prevent my agents, who put their lives on the line every day, from being able to remove those that they apprehend at the border. We have proposed both technology, the infrastructure, personnel and the closing of the legal loopholes, that exploit our system and enable traffickers and smugglers to succeed. We seek a legislative solution to end these restrictions number to end these restrictions and we ask for the mandatory detention for aliens convicted of crime, or who otherwise pose a threat. One of the littleknown loopholes in the system is those with gang affiliations who we find often who are very involved in the trafficking trade, by virtue of their gang affiliation or even if they are suspected of a crime, we are restricted from removing them or using that as a criteria at the border. These are the loopholes we are looking to change. Instead of asking immigrants what they can do, when we look at Legal Immigration, we went to ask what they can do for our country. As you have seen if you look at President Trumps proposal, we are looking to change the way we do Legal Immigration as well. But empowering Law Enforcement officers to do their job in providing them the tools they need, we can more effectively combat this issue together. I ask you to be part of our team, part of this greater global fight. Our work is far from over and we ask you to join us. I would like to share a quote from april, the Human Trafficking survivor, in a joint fbi and hsi investigation. She says i was 15 at the time and a runaway. I never called police because i felt at the time that it was my fault. I thought at the time like i had to stay, like it was my fault. You know, you had to have your self worth. I did not. It is ok to ask for help. We were victims. You can have the worst past but it does not mean you cannot have a successful future. Together, we can help those such as april and countless others like her to have a successful future. Together, we can help stop Human Trafficking. I thank you for your time, it is crucial that we have partnerships such as yours. We need to hear your voices and perspective, capacities and capabilities that you can offer, the best practices of what is working, what we can do better at the federal level. And i think the doj for hosting and for leading us in this fight. Thank you very much for your time. [applause] coming up on cspan this morning, washington journal is next. Fcc looking at the Emergency Alert in hawaii. After that, Lawmakers Debate and abortion bill that failed to advance this week in the senate. Later, epa administrator scott pruitt testifying for the committee about operations at his agency. Coming up on todays washington journal, a look at the release of the House Intelligence Committee memo that allegation misconduct by the f. B. I. And Justice Department and what it means for the russia investigation being led by special counsel rob gronkowski. First, well hear robert mueller. First, well hear from washington examiners kelly cohen and Michael Allen who is former majority staff director of the House Intelligence Committee. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2016]] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] President Trump i sent it over to congress. Whatever they do is fine. It was declassified and lets see what happens. A lot of people should be ashamed. Host good morning. Its saturday, february 3, 2018, and the political fallout from house intelligence memo released head is pop ok the headlines in washington journal. The document and declassified by President Trump claims that the f. B. I. And Justice Department abused their powers to obtain a surveillance warrant against former Trump Campaign advisor
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