DETROIT – The federal government is looking for curious, empathetic women to consider becoming homeland security investigators.
Amy, a special agent with Homeland Security Investigations, is located in Metro Detroit. She said there's no typical day on the job.
"Some days I just go to an office and sit in a cube and I feel like many other business workers. And other days, like today, I was up at 4:30 in the morning and we went to serve search warrants," she said.
Amy works on all kinds of cases child exploitation, marriage fraud, cash smuggling, human trafficking, narcotics and firearms investigations and work site enforcement.
Angie Salazar is the Dep. Special Agent for Homeland Security Investigations.
"We feel that we currently don't have enough females in our workforce," she said.
Salazar is in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Michigan and Ohio. She had her masters in organizational leadership and was fluent in Spanish when she applied to be an agent.
"I didn't know if I would love it at the time, but now almost 15 years in, I can honestly say that it's never been a dull moment," she said. "I've loved every minute of it."
They're looking for qualified applicants, especially women who are curious, empathetic and compassionate.
"Every person brings a different experience, but females specifically have different ideas and we find that in many situations we're able to de-escalate situations better, or differently," she said.
"Even if not all of our perpetrators are going to be male or female. Usually every house that we go to, there's going to be both men and women and it's important to have both for sensitivity issues and also women bring a different perspective," Amy said. "And I think having different ideas altogether just makes everything work better."
Amy said the job isn't about the glory, but about the opportunity to make a difference. Especially in cases of child exploitation and human trafficking.
"Hearing what happened to these victims is horrific but I think when you're able to take that perpetrator off the streets and lock them up for a very long time and help bring justice to those victims, victims that sometimes don't have a voice for themselves, whether they're disabled or young children and they cant speak for themselves or ask for help," she said. "I think that's a huge sense of justice and very rewarding."
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