U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

Migrants seeking sponsors find questionable offers online – NY1
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Migrants seeking sponsors find questionable offers online – NY1

Pedro Yudel Bruzon was looking for someone in the U.S. to support his effort to seek asylum when he landed on a Facebook page filled with posts demanding up to $10,000 for a financial sponsor. It’s part of an underground market that’s emerged since the Biden administration announced it would accept 30,000 immigrants each month arriving by air…

DHS Helped 765 Human Trafficking Victims in 2022, Made Thousands of Trafficking Arrests
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DHS Helped 765 Human Trafficking Victims in 2022, Made Thousands of Trafficking Arrests

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) today released the second Center for Countering Human Trafficking (CCHT) Annual Report, outlining the Department’s achievements in combatting human trafficking during the previous fiscal year (FY). As a global leader in the fight against human trafficking, DHS works to end sex trafficking and forced labor through a wide range of…

New report exposes dramatic shortfall of visas for victims of trafficking – WGBH
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New report exposes dramatic shortfall of visas for victims of trafficking – WGBH

The federal government is making it hard for labor trafficking victims to get legal immigration status that allows them to remain in the United States without fear of deportation, according to a first-of-its-kind nationwide report from Boston University. “The findings of this report show that the T-visa system that is built on a goal of…

Enhancing the fight against human trafficking in the Granite State
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Enhancing the fight against human trafficking in the Granite State

   Darlene Pawlik vividly remembers the moment her 14-year-old self was taken to Plaistow, N.H., by a physician – not for medical treatment, but for sex. Pawlik had just been bought by this older man. “So, why are you doing this?” he asked. “Uh – just bored, nothing else to do,” Pawlik said. But it was not boredom that…

For labor trafficked immigrants, T-visas are a life-saving but flawed relief – WGBH
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For labor trafficked immigrants, T-visas are a life-saving but flawed relief – WGBH

In 2018, the police came to a home in Saugus, Massachusetts, to rescue Anabelle Masalon, a Filipina housekeeper who had been essentially a prisoner of the family from the United Arab Emirates that employed her. She had been forced to work 21-hour days, earning no more than $400 a month, unable to leave the house…