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It’s perfect: President Donald Trump’s Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) has arrested more than 500 people in one month as the interagency task force conducted a “surge” of resources in January.
The HSTFs, a joint operation of DHS’ Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the FBI in cooperation with other federal and local agencies, were established by the president’s one-day executive order, “Protecting Americans from Attack.”
“The President’s Homeland Security Task Force is a historic achievement that highlights what the federal government can accomplish with a leader like President Trump who is committed to cutting red tape, increasing cooperation, and putting the safety of the American people first,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told Fox News Digital.
“January’s HSTF Human Trafficking Surge made great strides in taking criminals off the streets and protecting victims,” adding that HSTFs across the country continue the same mission every day to fulfill Trump’s promise to “Make America Safe Again.”
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President Donald Trump speaks at the Mexican border. (Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)
The January raid was an attempt to disrupt the presence of criminal organizations, foreign gangs and to dismantle cross-border smuggling rings with a special focus on crimes involving children while using whatever tools are available to enforce federal immigration laws.
During the HSTF’s 114 operations in January, 507 people were arrested – 231 on federal charges and 276 on state charges – and 16 charges were found.
Authorities seized 1,109 kilograms of drugs, including heroin, fentanyl and meth, as well as six caches of weapons. Fifty-two victims identified during the operation were awarded an estimated $491,000 in restitution.
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257 victims have been successfully identified, 27 of them are children.
The project covered the entire Lower 48, from Atlantic City to San Diego, and included Las Cruces, Raleigh, Miami, Buffalo, St. Paul, Wilmington Delaware, Key West, and several border towns including San Ysidro in California, Laredo in Texas, Nogales in Arizona, and Eagle Pass in Texas.
The departments involved ranged in size from the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel Police Department in Cape Charles, Virginia, to the Coast Guard and Border Patrol.
In another incident last week reported by the Coast Guard, its San Juan station worked with the HSTF to apprehend a smuggler with 10 bags of cocaine in the port of Puerto Rico. That cache weighed 790 pounds and had a street value of $5 million.
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“It should now be clear to the entire world that the cartels are the ISIS of the Western Hemisphere,” Trump said at the launch of the HSTF in October.
Since its launch, the HSTF has partnered with other agencies on several missions, including the IRS and the SDNY.
