On World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, Noem Announces Strong Measures Against Criminal Networks

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem took the opportunity to mark July 30, designated World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, with an update on how her department is cracking down on criminal human trafficking networks.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced in a press release that in just the first few months, the Trump administration has obtained leads on thousands of human trafficking cases and other criminal activities.

She added that the agency has arrested more than 2,700 members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan transnational gang designated as a foreign terrorist organization, “which enriches itself through the sex trafficking of vulnerable young women.”

The human trafficking crisis is fueled by organized crime networks, such as “sophisticated cartels that exploited the weakness of the previous administration, especially its open border and refusal to enforce immigration law, to rake in billions from forced labor, brutal sexual exploitation, coercing innocent people into drug running, and other heinous crimes.”

Among the operations it has carried out to eradicate human trafficking, the DHS said that as part of “Operation Apex Predator,” Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested four illegal immigrants who were predators or suspected sexual predators of minors in Newark, New Jersey, on July 28. Two of them were sentenced to three and five years in prison, respectively.

The department also said that ICE arrested 243 illegal immigrants in the Denver metropolitan area on July 23, 2025. Among those arrested were foreigners wanted for human trafficking, as well as several members of transnational criminal organizations, such as the Tren de Aragua, Los Zetas, and the Sinaloa Cartel.

“The brave men and women of DHS are the best in the world at going after traffickers,” said Noem in the statement. “They are always able to track down those who are trafficking individuals, find the ringleaders, and rip that evil off by its head.”

“I’m so thankful that I get the chance to lead individuals like that, and agents who get up every day to help save our children and to save women and men from the kind of slavery that we’ve seen,” she added.

At least 468,929 unaccompanied foreign minors entered the United States between fiscal years 2021 and 2024, according to data updated on June 20, 2025, by the Administration for Children and Families, an agency of the Department of Health and Human Services. The department said that “the previous administration’s open border policies empowered human traffickers” by allowing these unaccompanied children to be smuggled across the border.

Officials also invited the public to join the fight to end human trafficking through the DHS Blue Campaign, which raises public awareness about identifying human trafficking and provides resources for reporting suspicious activity to law enforcement.