Ambassador leading U.S. efforts to combat human trafficking will speak at ISU March 6

02-29-12

Contacts:

Pat Miller, Lectures Program, (515) 294-9935, pamiller@iastate.edu

Teddi Barron, News Service, (515) 294-4778, tbarron@iastate.edu

Ambassador leading U.S. efforts to combat human trafficking will speak at ISU March 6

AMES, Iowa -- Ambassador Luis CdeBaca, President Obama's appointee to direct the State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, will speak at Iowa State University on Tuesday, March 6.

CdeBaca, a Huxley native and Iowa State alumnus, will present "Fighting Human Trafficking" at 8 p.m. in the Memorial Union Sun Room. The lecture, which is part of Iowa State's World Affairs Series, is free and open to the public.

In his current position as Ambassador at Large, CdeBaca directs the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons at The U.S. Department of State. CdeBaca has worked under three presidential administrations to combat human trafficking and modern forms of 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. He has convicted dozens of abusive employers and helped liberate hundreds of victims from servitude.

Previously, CdeBaca was one of the most decorated federal prosecutors in the Justice Department. He led the investigation and prosecution of cases involving money laundering, organized crime, alien smuggling, official misconduct, hate crimes and human trafficking. 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, which involved the enslavement of more than 300 Vietnamese and Chinese workers in a garment factory in American Samoa. He also received 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. He was honored by The Executive Office of United States Attorneys, and received the leading honor of the national trafficking victim-service-provider community, the Freedom Network's Paul and Sheila Wellstone Award.

During the George W. Bush Administration, CdeBaca served as Chief Counsel to the Civil Rights Division's Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit, and was the Justice Department's Involuntary Servitude and Slavery Coordinator during the Clinton Administration. He was instrumental in developing the United States' victim-centered approach to combating modern slavery.

CdeBaca's family settled in New Mexico in the 1500s, and his great-great-uncle was New Mexico's first elected Hispanic governor. He was raised on a farm near Huxley, participated in 4-H and graduated from Ballard High School. CdeBaca earned his bachelor's degree in political science from Iowa State in 1990, and received his law degree from the University of Michigan Law School, where he was an editor of the Michigan Law Review.

Co-sponsors for CdeBaca's presentation are the Network Against Human Trafficking, World Affairs Series and the Committee on Lectures, which is funded by the Government of the Student Body.

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