VisasHuman traffickers exploit fiancé and work visas

In a report released on Monday, DHS IG says that human traffickers used fiancé and work visas to bring dozens of people to the United States. The IG says this was possible because of a lack of data sharing between immigration offices within the department.

The New York Times reports that investigators found that from 2005 to 2014, 17 of the 32 known traffickers they examined used the visas to bring in victims into the United States to engage in forced labor or prostitution. The report also found that 274 suspected traffickers successfully petitioned federal officials to bring 425 family members or fiancés into the United States.

The Times notes that Tashfeen Malik, one of the San Bernardino attackers, was granted entry to the United States under a K-1 visa, also known as a fiancé visa.

DHS IG says human traffickers could take advantage of the work and fiancé visa system because the two agencies responsible for immigration enforcement, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS), did not always share data that was collected on human traffickers.

Moreover the auditors found that CIS did not always collect the names and other information about traffickers, even when the victims provide this information in their visa applications.

The auditors’ report notes that after more than a year of requests and waiting, ICE was still unable to provide auditors with a complete set of data containing basic information such as names and dates of birth for suspected traffickers. Even when the agency provided the data, the results were not always accurate or reliable.

“Without concerted DHS efforts to collect and share information, the risk exists that some human traffickers may remain unidentified and free to abuse other individuals,” the report said.

Homeland Security auditors also found that some victims of human trafficking had overstayed their visitor visas.

The Times notes that nearly twenty years ago, Congress requiring the federal government to develop a system to track people who overstayed their visas. After twenty years and millions of dollars, the federal government can still only estimate the number of people in the country illegally after overstaying visas.