On the Front Lines of the U.S. Fight against Child Abuse, Human Trafficking and Sexual Assault
Luis CdeBaca
Tuesday, 19 Jan 2016 at 8:00 pm – Sun Room, Memorial Union
Luis CdeBaca leads the Department of Justice Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering and Tracking (SMART) and has worked under three presidential administrations to combat human trafficking and modern-day forms of slavery. For five years he served as Ambassador to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons in the State Department. Prior to that he was Counsel to the House Committee on the Judiciary, where his portfolio included national security, intelligence, immigration, and civil rights. Luis CdeBaca is a graduate of Iowa State University and received his law degree from the Michigan Law School. World Affairs Series: Redefining Global Security.Luis CdeBaca, a native of Huxley, Iowa, is the Director of the Justice Department's Office for Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking. Mr. CdeBaca served as Chief Counsel of the Civil Rights Division's Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit under the Bush Administration. During the Clinton Administration he was the Justice Department's Involuntary Servitude and Slavery Coordinator, and in 2009 President Obama appointed him to direct the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons at the Department of State, where he served until 2014. He was instrumental in developing the United States' victim-centered approach to combating modern slavery. He has investigated and prosecuted servitude cases in which victims were held for prostitution and other forms of sexual exploitation, farm labor, domestic service, and factory work.
Luis CdeBaca is one of the Justice Department's most decorated federal prosecutors. He was honored with the Attorney General's Distinguished Service Award for his service as lead trial counsel in the largest slavery prosecution in U.S. history - United States v. Kil Soo Lee - which involved the enslavement of over 300 Vietnamese and Chinese workers in a garment factory in American Samoa. He received the Director's Award from the Executive Office of United States Attorneys for his work on the New York "Deaf Mexican" trinket-peddling slavery case, and was awarded the Department's highest litigation honor - the Attorney General's John Marshall Award - for his work as lead counsel in a path-breaking prostitution slavery case in Florida, United States v. Cadena.
Cosponsored By:
- Central Iowa Service Network Against Human Trafficking
- ISU Student Network Against Human Trafficking
- Iowa Network Against Human Trafficking
- Rotary Club of Ames
- World Affairs
- Committee on Lectures (funded by Student Government)
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