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Human Smuggling

Last Updated: October 6, 2022 | Fact Sheets

Fact Sheet: Counter Human Smuggler Campaign Update DHS-Led Effort Makes 5,000th Smuggler Arrest in Fewer Than 6 Months

Launched in April 2022, the Biden Administration’s “Counter Human Smuggler” campaign—a first-of-its-kind effort of unprecedented scale led by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)—is designed to disrupt and dismantle human smuggling networks.

Last Updated: August 4, 2022 | Press Releases

Four Guatemalan Nationals Indicted by Joint Task Force Alpha and Arrested as Part of Takedown of Deadly Human Smuggling Network Based in Guatemala

On Tuesday, extensive coordination and cooperation efforts between United States and Guatemalan law enforcement authorities culminated in the Guatemalan National Civil Police (PNC) conducting a significant enforcement operation to disrupt and dismantle a transnational human smuggling organization. This operation included the arrest of four alleged human smugglers who have been indicted in the United States.

Last Updated: June 9, 2022 | Fact Sheets

Fact Sheet: DHS Leads First-of-Its-Kind Campaign of Unprecedented Scale to Foil Human Smuggling Networks

The Biden Administration is focused on putting these organizations out of business. But human smuggling is, by definition, a transnational problem and we are committed to working with our regional partners in the Americas to commit our collective expertise and resources to put an end to human smuggling.  

Last Updated: April 12, 2022 | Site Page

Human Trafficking Consequences

Human trafficking involves the use of force, fraud, or coercion to obtain some type of labor or commercial sex act. Causing someone under the age of 18 to engage in a commercial sex act, regardless of using force, fraud, or coercion is human trafficking under U.S. law.

Last Updated: January 25, 2022 | Publication

DHS Efforts to Combat Human Trafficking

Learn more about DHS’s efforts to combat human trafficking.

Last Updated: April 27, 2021 | Press Releases

DHS Announces Operation to Target Criminal Smuggling Organizations

Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas announced a new counter-network targeting operation focused on transnational criminal organizations affiliated with the smuggling of migrants.

Last Updated: March 31, 2021 | Press Releases

Statement by Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas on the Grave Risk of Children Traveling with Smugglers

“The inhumane way smugglers abuse children while profiting off parents’ desperation is criminal and morally reprehensible.”

Last Updated: January 15, 2020 | Publication

Strategy to Combat Human Trafficking, the Importation of Goods Produced with Forced Labor, and Child Sexual Exploitation

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security Strategy to Combat Human Trafficking, the Importation of Goods Produced with Forced Labor, and Child Sexual Exploitation articulates the Department’s long-term approach for combating these crimes and serves as a framework to prioritize resources and monitor progress. Additionally, this strategy supports the President’s Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, a Cabinet-level entity that coordinates federal efforts to combat human trafficking.

Last Updated: January 30, 2019 | Press Releases

S&T Combatting Human Trafficking Using Social Science

S&T is incorporating social science research into DHS’s counter-human trafficking approach through two foundational projects: (1) the Counter-human Trafficking and Modern Slavery Foundational Effort and (2) the Human Trafficking System Analysis and Technology Roadmap.

Last Updated: December 20, 2018 | Publication

S&T Combatting Human Trafficking Through Social Science Fact Sheet

DHS S&T seeks to address the growing problem of human trafficking through social science-based research.