ICE DEPORTS SEX CRIMINAL TO TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO

TRINIDAD & TOBAGO IS A SEX PREDATOR’S PARADISE

A LAND WHERE CHILDREN RUN FREE, PARENTS ARE OVERLY TRUSTING, LAWS ARE ANEMIC, AND LAW ENFORCEMENT LAX  

PHILADELPHIA—U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention and removal officers deported a sex criminal to Trinidad and Tobago today who was convicted of crimes against a 10-year-old girl.

Norman Clement Bartholomew, 36, a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago, entered the United States as a legal permanent resident in 1990. He was charged in New York State in November 2002 with endangering the welfare of a child, first-degree sodomy, first-degree rape, and two counts of first-degree sexual abuse. A criminal complaint filed in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of Kings, listed ten separate instances of sexual abuse of the child.

Bartholomew was convicted in Brooklyn in June 2003 of endangering the welfare of a child and first-degree attempted sexual abuse. He received a sentence of one year for the first offense and one-and-a-half to three years for the second.

“Sexual predators who prey upon the most defenseless among us will not be tolerated,” said Jacqueline Osterlind, acting field office director of the ICE office in Philadelphia. “We make it a priority to locate them, arrest them, and deport them.”

ICE special agents encountered Bartholomew while he was serving his sentence and placed a “detainer” on him, so that ICE would be notified upon his release. ICE routinely conducts checks of jails and prisons nationwide to locate, identify and then deport criminal aliens. Though Bartholomew had legal permanent resident status in the United States, his convictions resulted in him being stripped of that status.

Bartholomew’s removal is part of Operation Predator, a nationwide ICE initiative to protect children from sexual predators, including those who travel overseas for sex with minors, Internet child pornographers, criminal alien sex offenders, and child sex traffickers. Since Operation Predator was launched in July 2003, ICE agents have arrested more than 5,500 individuals.

ICE encourages the reporting of suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at 1-866-DHS-2-ICE. Investigators staff this hotline around the clock.

Suspected child sexual exploitation or missing children may be reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, an Operation Predator partner, at 1-800-843-5678 or http://www.cybertipline.com.