08 March 2004

"Operation Predator" Uses Immigration, Child Predator Laws, March 4, 2004

(Aliens committing sex offenses with children are subject to deportation)

By Louise Fenner
Washington File Staff Writer

More than 2,000 child predators and sex offenders have been brought to justice in the United States since the launch last July of a new law enforcement program known as Operation Predator.

"The vast majority" of the arrests are illegal aliens or lawful permanent residents whose crimes make them subject to deportation, said Michael J. Garcia, assistant secretary for immigration and customs enforcement (ICE), at a March 4 Congressional hearing.

Established in 2003 during the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, ICE conducts complex investigations that involve an array of crimes such as immigration violations, human smuggling and sex offenses.

Each year, millions of children fall prey to sexual predators, he told the House immigration subcommittee. "Child prostitution, human trafficking, child pornography, and international sex tourism now generate billions of dollars a year worldwide.... Operation Predator was established to combat these activities," Garcia said.

ICE compares immigration databases with databases of sexual offenders and rounds up deportable aliens convicted of sexual crimes against children. It also brings together immigration authorities and authorities on pornography.

ICE investigators have found "remarkable numbers of child pornographers on the Internet, human smuggling organizations trafficking in children for sexual exploitation, and the relatively new phenomenon of ‘sex tourists,'" -- people who travel to other countries to engage in sex with minors -- Garcia said.

The program is protecting children worldwide, he said. For example, under Operation Predator, ICE is working with INTERPOL "to enhance foreign government intelligence on criminal child predators... We are developing a mechanism to issue INTERPOL notices to foreign law enforcement agencies whenever ICE deports a convicted sex offender."

The ICE Law Enforcement Support Center (LESC) provides "timely information on the status and identities of aliens suspected, arrested or convicted of criminal activity. The LESC has lodged over 180 administrative detainers on aliens who have been arrested for Operation Predator offenses."

Garcia said ICE's Cyber Crime Center investigates online child pornography. In January of this year the center worked with other law enforcement agencies "to bring about the first indictments in connection to what we believe to be the largest Internet child pornography investigation ever undertaken by the U.S. Government."

In this case, a Belarus-based child pornography enterprise called Regpay and a Florida credit card billing service "were indicted in a global Internet pornography and money-laundering scheme involving thousands of paid memberships to some 50 pornography websites," he said.

A search warrant revealed approximately 70,622 domestic subscriber credit card transactions, as well as 25,597 foreign subscriber transactions. The domestic U.S. transactions are being investigated, "and information on the foreign-based transaction has already been passed to law enforcement officials in a number of countries."

"The arrests will continue as more of these subscriber transactions are investigated," Garcia said. "As this case clearly demonstrates, there is no safe haven for child sex predators; wherever you operate in the world, we are committed to tracking you down."

"Another example of how we are going beyond our borders to protect children involves the investigation ICE has launched against sex tourism from the U.S.," Garcia said. "It is a crime for any person to enter the United States, or for a U.S. citizen of lawful permanent resident to travel abroad, for the purpose of sex tourism involving children." There have been several arrests under this law.

He said ICE is focusing considerable effort on ensuring that aliens convicted of crimes in the U.S. are identified, processed, and, when possible, removed upon their release from a correctional institution.

Garcia also discussed ongoing international efforts in Cambodia, Thailand, and the Philippines to combat child sex tourism. "We want to send a message loud and clear that international borders no longer shield child sex predators," he said.