ICE reaches out to 8,000 students in Puerto Rico during largest iGuardian event ever held

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – Approximately 8,000 students from the public and private schools in Puerto Rico received tips on how to avoid falling victim to online sexual predators Tuesday through Thursday at the Antonio R. Barcelo Coliseum in Toa Baja. The presentation is the second child abuse prevention and education summit organized by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in San Juan, and the largest Project iGuardian outreach since the inception of the initiative in March 2014.

As part of Project iGuardian, HSI special agents in San Juan organized the Internet safety outreach for kids 12 to 16 years old to provide them with the necessary tools to make smart decisions when navigating in the Internet. HSI San Juan made the massive event possible by soliciting support from both the public and private sector. Toa Baja Mayor Anibal Vega Borges and his team took care of all the logistics. The Puerto Rico Department of Education arranged for the transportation of students from schools in the Bayamon Education Region to the Antonio R. Barcelo Coliseum.

Mayor Vega Borges and the first lady of the city, Ivelisse Rivera, as well as Puerto Rico Secretary of Education Rafael Roman attended the event, described it as unique and necessary and expressed their commitment to continue supporting HSI's initiative. All heads of federal agencies represented in Puerto Rico participated of the event and provided their personnel and equipment for the exhibits that followed the Internet safety presentations. According to the participating agencies, cyber safety education not only aids in prevention, it also frequently generates valuable case leads.

HSI will be working closely with its partner law enforcement agencies in Puerto Rico to coordinate and conduct Project iGuardian presentations. The initiative builds on the outreach already being conducted by the Puerto Rico Crimes Against Children Task Force in which local, state and federal law enforcement agencies work together with local and state government agencies to effectively pool their resources to jointly investigate all crimes against children in Puerto Rico. Through the task force, law enforcement officers are encouraged to share evidence, ideas, and investigative and forensic tools to ensure the most successful prosecutions possible. As such, PRCACTF allows law enforcement to speak with one unified voice in defense of the children of Puerto Rico.

At the end of the event, Mayor Vega Borges passed the baton to the mayor of Ponce, Maria E. Melendez Altiari, who will host of the next massive event in March 2016.

In 2014, HSI San Juan held the first iGuardian summit in the municipality of Trujillo Alto and reached out to more than 5,000 students.

HSI is committed to combatting the sexual exploitation of children; as such, investigations of child sexual exploitation are among HSI’s primary investigative priorities. The sexual abuse of children impacts the most vulnerable segment of our society.

HSI recognizes the importance of education and community awareness regarding the dangers of online activity. Project iGuardian aims to counter a disturbing fact: many online child predators are able to find victims online because children are not aware of how dangerous online environments can be.

HSI believes that providing children, teens, parents and teachers with information regarding the dangers of online environments and how to stay safe online can help prevent many instances of this crime. That is why HSI has partnered with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children's NetSmartz and the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Forces to develop Project iGuardian.

HSI San Juan special agents reached out to more than 25,000 students in 2014 through 96 individual outreach presentations island-wide.