A group of 23 military veterans, including nine females, are part of the latest Human Exploitation Rescue Operative (HERO) internship program graduating class, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) officials.
The program recruits, trains and hires transitioning active-duty service members and military veterans who are wounded, ill or injured. Kicked off as a pilot initiative in 2013, HERO Corps. has now trained more than 160 veterans in computer forensics and law enforcement support of child sexual exploitation investigations, ICE said in a release.
“This program allows veterans to serve their country on a new battlefield – the fight against child predators,” said ICE Acting Deputy Director Patrick J. Lechleitner. “Working with HSI special agents, the HEROs assist with investigations, and help rescue child sexual assault victims – there are few more noble efforts for those who have dedicated their lives in service to this country and who want to continue to do so.”
Analysts work with HSI field offices in the areas of child exploitation investigation, child victim identification, traveling child sex offenders, and digital forensics.
Graduates from the 2021 class recently completed an initial 13 weeks of HSI and computer forensics training. The training period is followed by a one-year internship with nine months of hands-on training at one of the HSI field offices. While participating in the internship, the HERO interns gain valuable job skills, evidenced by the roughly 90 percent who have been offered jobs with HSI field offices.
While this marks the 11th class to graduate since the program started, it comes as the first since the COVID-19 pandemic began. It includes veterans from the U.S. Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marine Corps, and Navy. The typical day of a HERO intern includes disassembling suspect computers, imaging hard drives, running forensic software to carve and index data and preparing that data for analysis by investigative agents, the release said.
The HERO Act was signed into law by President Obama in 2015 and strengthened by Congress two years later with the passage of the Abolish Human Trafficking Act, which made it a DHS agency-wide entity that is open to all branches of service members.
One of those rising through the program is former Navy corpsman Redmond Ramos, who later competed on CBS' ‘Amazing Race’ after losing a leg in Afghanistan.
"When I heard about this program, when I heard I'd have an opportunity to save children, I mean it gives me chills now to think that's going to be me," Ramos told Yahoo News. "It's not just that I wanted to do this mission; I felt that I needed to do this mission. It immediately hit my brain and heart that this will allow me to feel that I'm living with a purpose again."
Ramos is set to be assigned to the ICE/Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) office in Denver.
The HERO Corps program is supported by numerous partners including the Department of Defense (DOD) warrior transition programs, Veteran Administration programs, and federal and state veteran employment agencies. More than 80% of veterans who participated are still working with HSI as computer forensic analysts, the release said.
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