How many ICE/HSI child‑trafficking cases since 2023 have led to federal convictions and what were the charges?
Executive summary
A precise, verifiable tally of federal convictions solely arising from ICE/Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) child‑trafficking cases "since 2023" is not available in the provided reporting; the sources do document numerous investigations, arrests and individual convictions but do not publish a single aggregating number limited to child‑trafficking convictions in that time frame [1] [2] [3]. Reporting and agency fact sheets instead offer partial indicators — total HSI investigations and arrests in FY2023, multi‑year conviction totals for sexual exploitation, and exemplar case convictions — which must be interpreted with caution [1] [2] [4].
1. What the public data show about scope — investigations, arrests and victim counts
HSI reported investigating 1,282 human‑trafficking cases and making 2,610 arrests in FY2023, which establishes investigative scale but does not equal a numeric count of resulting federal convictions specific to child‑trafficking since 2023 [1]. HSI’s Victim Assistance Program assisted 7,110 identified victims in FY2023, including 1,919 minors, and identified hundreds as trafficking or child‑exploitation victims — metrics that reflect victim identification and casework rather than post‑investigative conviction totals [5]. DHS and HSI public materials aggregate accomplishments — for example, HSI claims it has helped secure more than 2,147 convictions for crimes involving the sexual exploitation of children and has made thousands of arrests in related operations — but those figures are presented across varying time frames and crime categories, not as a clean count of HSI child‑trafficking convictions initiated and adjudicated since January 1, 2023 [2] [3].
2. What the sources explicitly document about convictions and charges
Several concrete case outcomes are documented: an HSI Charleston investigation into a sex‑trafficking organization that involved minors resulted in four federal convictions and lengthy combined sentences (327 months, 293 months, 60 months, 60 months) — a discrete example of child‑trafficking convictions flowing from an HSI probe [4]. ICE/HSI press releases and news items also record other individual federal sentences tied to child sexual exploitation prosecutions, such as a 30‑year sentence for production and distribution of child sexual abuse material in a case with victim rescue in December 2023 (Perez Figueroa) — charges there were production and distribution of child sexual abuse material [6]. Separately, indictments unsealed in HSI New England’s investigations charged defendants with sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion, sex trafficking of a minor, and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking — indictments that may lead to convictions but are not, in these press items, reported as completed conviction counts [7].
3. Why a single authoritative number is absent and how to interpret agency totals
The absence of a single authoritative conviction count "since 2023" in these sources stems from reporting conventions and jurisdictional overlaps: agency releases and Congressional summaries report investigations, arrests, victim services, and multi‑year conviction aggregates across human trafficking and child‑exploitation categories, while DOJ prosecution and sentencing outcomes may be recorded on fiscal‑year or case‑by‑case bases and sometimes under broader DOJ totals rather than identified to HSI alone [1] [2]. Congress/CRS reporting shows DOJ‑wide figures (DOJ filed 181 human‑trafficking cases and secured 289 convictions in FY2023) but does not disaggregate which convictions originated from HSI investigations versus FBI or state referrals [1]. Thus, one can document many HSI‑linked convictions and the types of federal charges used — sex trafficking by force/fraud/coercion, sex trafficking of a minor, conspiracy, production/distribution/possession of child sexual abuse material — but cannot, on the basis of the provided materials, produce an exact, verifiable count limited to "ICE/HSI child‑trafficking cases since 2023" [7] [4] [6] [2].
4. Bottom line and recommended next steps for precise verification
Bottom line: the supplied reporting establishes that HSI opened large numbers of trafficking investigations and that multiple federal convictions arising from HSI child‑trafficking and child‑exploitation probes exist — including convictions for sex trafficking of minors, sex trafficking by force/fraud/coercion, conspiracy, and production/distribution of child sexual abuse material — but it does not provide a definitive, aggregated numerical count of convictions attributable solely to ICE/HSI child‑trafficking cases since 2023 [1] [7] [4] [6] [2]. To obtain a precise total, one would need DOJ/US Attorneys’ and HSI consolidated conviction records for calendar years 2023–present or a CRS/DOJ data table that explicitly tags convictions to originating investigative agencies and to the child‑trafficking charge set; such a dataset is not contained in the provided sources [1].