U.S. and Mexican Officials Hold Binational Human Trafficking Summit

More than 100 government and private sector representatives, including U.S. and Mexican law enforcement, met in Los Angeles last Thursday for a binational summit on fighting human trafficking in the United States and Mexico.

The conference was organized by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Mexican Consul General in Los Angeles. Speakers and participants discussed ways to collaborate on detecting trafficking activity and the prosecution of suspected perpetrators.

“For everyone at this week’s meeting, combatting human trafficking is a top priority, but despite that, we believe a significant number of trafficking cases continue to go undetected,” said Special Agent in Charge of HSI Los Angeles Claude Arnold. “The goal of the summit was to share ideas on further steps we can take together to bolster efforts to prevent this reprehensible crime.”

Participants also learned about investigative strategies currently used by the United States and Mexico, as well as case prosecutions in the two countries and services available to trafficking victims.

“No human being deserves to be trafficked, abused or exploited,” said David Figueroa, the consul general of Mexico in Los Angeles. “We must not allow our borders to be barriers in the ongoing effort to combat this problem. Our shared goal is to achieve a society free of human trafficking and human smuggling.”