Crackdown on child predators nets 1,000 arrests
From Mike M. Ahlers
CNN Producer
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A three-month federal crackdown on child pornographers and predators has netted more than 1,000 arrests, according to the Bureau Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the investigative arm of the new Department of Homeland Security.
ICE officials launched "Operation Predator" in July, saying government reorganization had brought together resources helpful in identifying and tracking down child predators.
While the operation was wide-ranging in scope, the biggest group of those arrested resulted from comparing ICE databases of people with immigration violations with people on various Megan's Lists -- lists of convicted sexual predators.
The tactic allows ICE to identify child sex offenders who are illegally in the country, and deport them on the belief that they continue to be a threat to U.S. children. Officials in the countries they are returned to are notified about their criminal histories, ICE officials said.
At the same time, ICE officials say they are cracking down on U.S. citizens who go on child-sex tours overseas. This week, ICE officials arrested a man in Seattle who allegedly was returning from a sex tour in Cambodia where he was said to have molested two boys. The man is the first in the nation to be charged under the child sex tourism provisions of the Protect Act, enacted in April.
"You're seeing an incredible refocusing of these broad authorities on this problem of exploitation of children and you're seeing an incredible result," said Michael Garcia, director of ICE.
In addition to making more than 1,000 arrests, ICE investigators have identified, at the request of other law enforcement agencies, children featured in 256 digital child pornography images. And it has fielded "more than 141" calls on its toll-free hotline (1-866-DHS-2ICE), which allows the public to report information about child sex offenders and others preying on children.
One of those tips led to the arrest of a Kenyan national with AIDS accused of raping a 14-year-old girl near Boston, ICE officials said.
