Reply #95: DHS Fact Sheet: Operation Predator

[Pryderi]

http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/display?content=1067

I don't know what it has to do with homeland security...


Fact Sheet: Operation Predator


For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
July 9, 2003

Operation Predator is a new initiative developed by the Department of Homeland Security's Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to protect children world-wide. As the President has made clear anyone who harms a child will be a priority target of law enforcement in this Administration. This comprehensive DHS program will identify child predators and remove them from the United States (if subject to deportation). Operation Predator will also work to identify children depicted in child pornography to help rescue them, and to assist in prosecuting the people responsible for making and distributing the pornographic material.

This Homeland Security initiative is being driven by ICE's Cyber Smuggling Center in conjunction with every facet of the ICE organization. In addition, ICE will partner with other important law enforcement entities such as DHS's own Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, the U.S. Secret Service, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the FBI, and other state and local law enforcement agencies. This initiative is also being conducted in partnership with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).

Identifying Child Predators:

* Creating a National Child Victim Identification System - In an unprecedented partnership with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, ICE, the FBI, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the U.S. Secret Service and the Department of Justice are developing the National Child Victim Identification Card Program. Together with its partners in this important effort, ICE's CyberSmuggling Center is hosting the nation's only comprehensive, searchable system for identifying digital child pornography images. With its capacity to search and identify known images, the system is designed to help law enforcement agencies throughout the world identify and rescue children featured in the images. The system is also designed to facilitate prosecution of those who possess or distribute digital child pornography images in the wake of a 2002 Supreme Court decision (Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition) requiring proof that such images depict an actual child. Because the effort leverages a comprehensive partnership with federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, this system will eventually contain all known child pornography images on the Internet. With partnership from other law enforcement agencies, this system will eventually contain all known child pornography images. Already, the ICE CyberSmuggling Center has been able to positively identify children featured in roughly 300 images and has provided this information to six different law enforcement agencies nationwide for prosecutorial purposes.
* Enhancing Partnerships - ICE, the U.S. Secret Service, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the FBI have a long-standing partnership with National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), particularly with its efforts to identify victims of child pornography. ICE is expanding this partnership by assigning a full-time ICE criminal investigator to work at NCMEC, and by using the new capabilities of Operation Predator to help NCMEC rescue missing and exploited children worldwide. ICE agents will also work closely with other programs in the Department of Justice and other federal agencies, in particular the FBI's “Innocent Images” program, to bring to bear the full force of the federal government against child predators.
* Using a Single Web Portal to Access All Publicly Available State Megan's Law Databases- In an effort to make state sex offender registry information more widely available to the public, ICE has joined the ranks of other federal agencies in making links to all state sex offender registries available on our website.
* Coordination with the NCIC Registered Sex Offender Database - ICE has obtained from the FBI the National Criminal Information Center (NCIC) registry of sex offenders from all 50 states (approximately 300,000 names) and is querying this list against all indices available to ICE. The objective of this process is to identify those subjects who are linked to investigations of interest to Operation Predator, ICE and its partnership agencies, or who are subject to deportation proceedings. Operation protocol for updated NCIC information and queries will be established on a monthly basis.
* Creation of an ICE Toll Free Reporting Number: ICE has created a toll free telephone number for the public to report information about child sex offenders and others who put children at risk. The toll free number, 1-866-DHS-BICE, will be monitored 24 hours a day by the Law Enforcement Support Center (LESC), which will funnel leads to the appropriate ICE component(s) in a timely manner.

Enhancing Investigative Capabilities

* Forming a New, Multi-Agency Unit at the ICE Cyber Smuggling Center - To oversee and coordinate Operation Predator at the national level, ICE has formed a new unit at its Cyber Smuggling Center. This unit is comprised of various ICE representatives, as well as investigators from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and other federal agencies.
* Appointment of Operation Predator Coordinator - ICE will be appointing an operational coordinator who will report to the Deputy Executive Director of Investigative Services. This new position will be responsible for coordinating Operation Predator activity among ICE law enforcement components and other federal, state, and local agencies.
* Harnessing New Intelligence Capabilities to Target Sexual Predators - The ICE Intelligence Division, as a result of the merger of the former INS and Customs Intelligence units and their respective databases, utilizes the combined information available from these systems to identify and locate major sex violators, criminal fugitives and alien absconders with child sex histories. At the same time, the ICE Cyber Smuggling Center is gathering information from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), state Megan's law lists, and other sources. All these leads are being fed to ICE field agents and fugitive operations teams for action.
* Prioritizing Investigations Involving Child Exploitation - ICE's Investigations Division has begun prioritizing its ongoing investigations involving child sex crimes, as well as alien and human smuggling cases in which children are placed at risk. ICE agents have also prioritized efforts to locate those who have been charged with sexual offenses, but remain at large.

Prioritizing Removal Actions:

* Targeting Fugitive Criminal Aliens with Sex Offense Histories for Removal - In addition to their homeland security responsibilities, ICE's Detention and Removal Division has been prioritizing for removal those criminal aliens with a history of sex offenses. These are foreign nationals who have been convicted of sex offenses, served their sentences, but have subsequently evaded law enforcement efforts to remove them from the country. Upon apprehension, these individuals will be held without bond. To help track down these criminal aliens, ICE has posted a "Most Wanted" Criminal Aliens List on its website at http://www.bice.immigration.gov, enabling the public to see photographs of wanted individuals and to call in tips. ICE has created a toll free tip line, 1-866-DHS-BICE, that is staffed seven days a week, 24 hours per day, to receive information from the public.
* Identifying Alien Sex Offender Inmates Before Release from Prison -- ICE's Institutional Removal Program, which identifies alien inmates at prisons who are subject to removal from the country upon completion of their sentences, will ensure that alien sex offender inmates are identified prior to release from prison and removed from the country upon their release. ICE will be partnering with governors around the country to help state and local prisons identify and place detainers on alien sex offender inmates before their release from prison. ICE's Law Enforcement Support Center in Burlington, Vermont, will play a vital role in this effort.

Working With Foreign Governments:

* Deportation Notifications - ICE will notify foreign governments of any aliens with a history of sexual offense being deported to their countries. ICE will also seek information from foreign governments on anyone with a history of sexual offenses seeking entry into the United States.
* Partnering in Investigations - ICE will work closely with foreign law enforcement partners in conducting both covert and overt child pornography and child sex tourism investigations in the United States and around the globe.