Human Trafficking & Homeland Security

This blog post may be a little off topic when you think of Homeland Security. I promise you it is a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issue. What am I talking about? Human trafficking.

According to the DHS;

“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations investigates incidents of human trafficking, arrests traffickers, protects victims, and provides short-term immigration relief for foreign victims;

U.S. Customs and Border Protection interdicts traffickers, protects victims, and disrupts human trafficking schemes at our borders;

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services provides long-term immigration relief to foreign victims of human trafficking through its T and U visas; and,

The Federal Law Enforcement Training Center coordinates with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Office of Health Affairs to develop human trafficking awareness training for law enforcement and first responders. “

Our society is not only seeing an increase in the number of human trafficking incidents, but we’re seeing an increase in the amount of children being used. These children are trafficked for a variety of reasons, but mostly for drug mule or sex slave purposes! We should all be outraged right now.

January is National Human Trafficking and Slavery Prevention Month. As business owners and everyday people, we need to be on the lookout for indicators of trafficking and then report any suspicious activity. Know that you can report suspicious human trafficking activity, or get help from federal law enforcement, by calling 1-866-347-2423.

The DHS has a Blue Campaign running right now and the public is encouraged to educated themselves about the things to watch for and how to become involved. Here is the link: https://www.dhs.gov/blue-campaign/take-action

I’m hopeful you will take the time to visit the link above and share this information with others. Let’s all work together to stop this from happening again.

Twyla Garrett, CEO of IME

Why the Government Can Improve Using Social Media.

Our Government has to catch up. I mean, social media can help our Government run more efficiently. Why? Well, social media is the world's biggest, most instant communication tool. This means everything when it comes to warning the public about a potential threat or natural disaster.

The Federal Social Media Community of Practice launched a Social Media Accessibility Working Group to collaborate with and deliver programs for accessibility communities and social media leaders across government. While this effort is a step in the right direction, I don't think spending hours, if not months, reviewing how to use social media is going to help utilize a tool that is updated second by second.

Here are my tips to help our Government connect better with the public:

1. Include ways to contact your organization, such as your 800 number, an online “Contact Us” form, or general contact email address for more information directly on your Twitter, Facebook, Google+, etc. profiles.

2.Use the Twitter API or Embedded Timelines feature to display your agency's tweets on your .gov site. Embedded Timelines feature on Twitter appears to have accessibility built-in even for those who do not have JavaScript.

3. All videos should have closed captioning. YouTube has a feature that will automatically caption videos less than 10 minutes. To increase accuracy of the YouTube machine translation, your video will need to have very clear-spoken words and little background noise.

These tips to help our Government improve using social media are just the tip of the iceberg.

For specifics, please contact me for a complimentary consultation.

Twyla Garrett