For Immediate Release:
September 20, 2022
Contact: Jerri Mares – (505) 321-4372
ALBUQUERQUE – Yesterday, New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas, in partnership with the Life Link, Crime Victims Reparation Commission (CVRC), U.S. Department of Labor and CYFD, kicked off the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office’s 6th Annual Human Trafficking Conference. The conference brings law enforcement and service providers from around the state, nation, and across our Mexican border together to collaborate and build relationships, learn and share goals and initiatives moving forward to combat human trafficking.
“My number one priority is keeping our children and families safe, and we will continue to work with our partners to create meaningful solutions to combat human trafficking in New Mexico and save lives,” said Attorney General Hector Balderas.
In answer to the alarming rise of human trafficking in New Mexico, Attorney General Balderas established the Human Trafficking Task Force within the Office of the Attorney General in 2015. The Task Force consists of local, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement agencies, prosecutorial agencies, and service providers from around the state. The sole purpose of the multi-disciplinary Task Force is to implement a collaborative approach to combating all forms of human trafficking within New Mexico—sex trafficking and labor trafficking—of foreign nationals and U.S. citizens (of all sexes and ages), and focusing on a victim-centered approach to identify victims of all types of human trafficking, address the individualized needs of victims through quality services, and investigate and prosecute human trafficking cases at the local, state, tribal, and federal levels.
A program from the conference is attached.
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