Immigration security

Sex-Trafficking Smugglers Busted Through Federal-State Cooperation

One of the main assertions made by those promoting "sanctuary policies" is that the refusal of state and local officials to cooperate with immigration authorities makes communities safer. For example, as Montgomery County (Md.) Police Chief Tom Manger has testified:

To do our job we must have the trust and respect of the communities we serve. We fail if the public fears their police and will not come forward when we need them. ... Cooperation is not forthcoming from persons who see their police as immigration agents. When immigrants come to view their local police and sheriffs with distrust because they fear deportation, it creates conditions that encourage criminals to prey upon victims and witnesses alike.

Reality has proven once again, however, that cooperation between federal, state, and local authorities, including immigration officers, actually makes communities safer and safeguards human dignity.

On November 8, 2017, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the indictment in Houston of 22 alleged members or affiliates of the "Southwest Cholos" street gang for "multiple violent crimes". Among those crimes is a sex-trafficking scheme in which:

[I]llegal aliens were allegedly promised they could work in a restaurant to pay off their smuggling debts. After arriving in Houston, however, victims were told they actually had to work as prostitutes in brothels the alleged gang members controlled. The indictment alleges the defendants engaged in numerous acts and threats of violence against the victims and their families whenever the women refused to work as prostitutes or failed to make enough money.