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WASHINGTON, June 23 (UPI) -- At least 168 children were rescued from sex work in the United States and 281 pimps arrested in this year's Operation Cross Country effort, the FBI announced Monday. The annual sweep was carried out last week in 106 cities, FBI Director James Comey said at a news conference at the agency's headquarters. The FBI works with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and with other local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies.
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"These are not children living in some faraway place, far from everyday life," FBI Director James Comey said at a news conference at FBI Headquarters. "These are our children -- On our streets, our truck stops, our motels. These are America's children."
Operation Cross Country is part of the Innocence Lost program, which began in 2003. The FBI says 3,400 minors have been rescued from sexual exploitation since then.
FBI experts said that providing help and support for the victims of exploitation is critical.
"A lot of these girls feel like they are stuck," said Dani Geissinger-Rodarte, a victim specialist in Seattle. "But I know that if they keep in touch with me, that somewhere down the road they are going to be ready for services, and we can connect them."
In 2007, Geissinger-Rodarte met Nicole, a young woman who had been tricked into prostitution by a man who wooed her when she was 17 and then turned on her. Nicole, hospitalized after a vicious beating by her pimp, was afraid to leave him because she was totally dependent on him, but Geissinger-Rodarte eventually convinced her that she could get help elsewhere.
"Our job is to meet the victim where they are," Geissinger-Rodarte said. "When they are ready for help, they need to know we are there."
