Luis CdeBaca
| Luis C. deBaca | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| United States Ambassador-at-Large to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons | |
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In office May 18, 2009 – November 10, 2014 |
|
| President | Barack Obama |
| Preceded by | Mark P. Lagon |
| Succeeded by | Susan P. Coppedge |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1967 (age 49–50) Iowa, U.S. |
| Alma mater |
Iowa State University University of Michigan, Ann Arbor |
| Religion | Roman Catholicism |
Luis Cabeza deBaca is an American lawyer and diplomat who served in the Obama Administration as Ambassador-at-Large to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons and as Director of the Department of Justice’s Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking (SMART Office).
After graduating from the University of Michigan Law School, CdeBaca was hired by the Department of Justice as a civil rights prosecutor. He investigated and prosecuted cases involving human trafficking, official misconduct, and hate crimes, as well as money laundering, organised crime, and alien smuggling. He became the Department’s Involuntary Servitude and Slavery Coordinator and later the Chief Counsel of the U.S. Human Trafficking Prosecutions Unit upon its founding. During this time, CdeBaca developed the modern “victim-centered approach” to investigating human trafficking cases cooperatively with non-governmental organizations and those who advocated for workers and survivors of prostitution and sexual abuse. Among other cases, he prosecuted the high-profile “Deaf Mexican” forced labor case; the garment factory case United States v. Kil Soo Lee, the largest slavery case in US history; and the pathbreaking Cadena case, which applied the Thirteenth Amendment to forced prostitution and impelled legislative efforts to update the slavery statutes. CdeBaca also pursued other civil rights cases, for instance, obtaining the conviction of a man who used a Confederate Flag to intimidate an African-American family in the exercise of their housing rights.
As a result of these cases, CdeBaca received the Attorney General’s John Marshall Award from Attorney General Janet Reno and the Distinguished Service Award from Attorney General John Ashcroft. He worked with Senators Paul Wellstone and Sam Brownback, and with Representatives Chris Smith and Sam Gejdenson and their staff to incorporate the interagency model and victim-centered approach into the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000. In recognition of his work on behalf of survivors, he received the highest award of the victim services community, the Freedom Network’s Paul & Sheila Wellstone Award.
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