Ex-ICE Agent: Feds Seem Indifferent to Human Trafficking

American businesses hungry for cheap, undocumented immigrant labor are enablers if not members of violent criminal rings that also traffic in illegal drugs and indentured servitude, but federal authorities appear to have other priorities regarding border control, says a former immigration and customs agent.

"There used to be a huge priority for human trafficking and smuggling," A.J. Irwin, formerly with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), told "MidPoint" host Ed Berliner on Newsmax TV on Friday, referring to the agency's office of investigation.

"We called it smuggling, and now it's called human trafficking because, obviously, there's been people who have been victimized — such as these people who are smuggled and fraudulently tricked into working in indentured servitude," said Irwin.

"Why isn't there something being done about it?" he said. "I know agents who tried to do something about it, but they don't receive as much support as someone who would be doing an investigation of a narcotics trafficker or a trafficker of microchips or of counterfeit T-shirts. It just doesn't seem to be a priority in the agency anymore."

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