Homeland Security Investigations knows its mission and role to track down human rights abuses
During a Sept. 28 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing entitled From Nuremberg to Ukraine: Accountability for War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity, HSI Assistant Director Andre R. Watson told the committee the department is no stranger to human rights investigations.
"HSI is committed to its mission and the role it and the center plays in broader efforts for accountability," Watson said during his testimony, according to a recording of the hearing. "HSI currently has more than 160 active human rights investigations and is handling more than 1,750 human rights-related leads involving suspects from approximately 95 countries, primarily in Central and South America, the Balkans and Africa."
HSI has arrested more than 480 individuals since 2003 for human rights-related allegations under various criminal and immigration statutes, Watson said during the hearing.
"The Center strives to fulfill its mission but would benefit from additional statutory authorities," Watson added at the hearing. "This is illustrated in the investigation, criminal conviction and removal to Guatemala of Francisco Cuxum Alvarado in January 2020."
Eli M. Rosenbaum, director of the Human Rights Enforcement Strategy And Policy and Counselor For War Crimes Accountability at the U.S. Department of Justice, said during his testimony he was pleased to address DOJ's efforts in human rights abuses. These included DOJ's "efforts to ensure that perpetrators of atrocities and other human rights abuses are held to account for their ghastly crimes.
"Given the shocking crimes that continue to be perpetrated by Russia’s forces in the course of its unprovoked war against Ukraine, this hearing could not be held at a more appropriate, urgent or, frankly, terrifying time," Rosenbaum continued during the hearing. "Every single day that passes without prosecutors around the world having all the tools that they need to pursue justice in the aftermath of those horrific events potentially enables war criminals and human rights violators to escape justice."
In his statement during the hearing, Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Sen. Chuck Grassley, D-Iowa, referred to Russian "unprovoked and unjustified invasion of Ukraine" last winter and all "the reports of war crimes committed by Russian forces."
"We’ve heard of mass graves, torture, sexual assault, the bombing of a mall crowded with civilians and even an attack on a maternity hospital," Grassley said during the hearing. "Ukraine has begun to successfully prosecute some war crimes."
During the hearing, Grassley said he hoped more war crime perpetrators will see justice, but he warned war criminals often have gotten away with their crimes.
"We know from our experience with Nazi war criminals, that some offenders will escape immediate prosecution," Grassley said at the hearing. "They may assume false names. They may flee to other countries. Some may even successfully make it to the United States."
He added these war criminals cannot be allowed to live freely in the U.S. if they make it to the country during the hearing. He urged the need for options to exclude, extradite and punish war criminals.
During the hearing, U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee; Grassley; and other distinguished members of the committee shared their gratitude for the opportunity to speak about the important role U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and HSI play to ensure the U.S. does not become a safe haven for human rights violators.
According to the hearing, the committee also highlighted areas where legislation could help effectively implement human rights laws. HSI has a broad investigative mandate and special powers to protect the country from transnational crime and threats as the main criminal investigative component of the Department of Homeland Security.
