Children Sold: Unaccompanied Minors Trafficked Instead of Reuniting with Family
Government-Sponsored Child Trafficking: A Whistleblower’s Shocking Revelation
On a recent episode of “American Thought Leaders,” host Jan Jekielek had a riveting conversation with Tara Rodas, a whistleblower from the Health and Human Services (HHS). With two decades of federal service, including 17 years in the inspector general community, Rodas answered the Biden administration’s call to assist with the border crisis and the surge of unaccompanied minors.
Unveiling the Dark Truth
Mr. Jekielek: How did you discover what you’ve call government-sponsored, taxpayer-funded child trafficking?
Tara Rodas: At the beginning of 2001, the Biden administration reached out to federal employees for assistance at the border. They specifically needed employees who could work with children and help place them with sponsors in the United States. Eager to help, I thought I would be a welcoming face for these children. Little did I know that the children themselves had no idea who they were being sent to.
As I delved into case management, it didn’t take long for me to realize that something was amiss. The children were crying, and the case managers were distressed. They couldn’t understand why these children were being sent to people they didn’t know. One case manager was even hospitalized due to the stress of suspecting child trafficking.
That’s when we started investigating the work of contract case managers. I wanted to see the IDs and match them with the paperwork of the intended recipients.
It became clear that this so-called “family reunification” was a sham. How could it be reunification if the children didn’t even know who they were going to? We were supposed to keep these children safe, but within a mere 10 to 14 days, we were sending them off to unvetted individuals and homes. It simply didn’t make sense.
Let me share an example from one of the cases. We sent a 15-year-old girl to her 20-something brother. Later, we discovered that the birth certificates he provided were for a brother and sister, just not for themselves. He posted pictures of himself and the girl, trying to portray a loving sibling relationship. But then he posted another photo of her, all dolled up with her shirt unbuttoned. It was clear that she was being sold.
A Shocking Lack of Accountability
Mr. Jekielek: So no one is actually checking who the sponsors are?
Tara Rodas: As I mentioned during the congressional hearing, it baffled me that no one was holding the sponsors accountable. The majority of these sponsors have no legal presence in the United States. They are here under false pretenses, and yet we are delivering these vulnerable children directly to their doorstep. The government is even footing the bill for their flights and bus tickets. In essence, we are incentivizing the traffickers, who view these children as commodities and make millions of dollars off of them.
Fighting for Justice
Mr. Jekielek: Please tell us about your attempts to disclose this.
Tara Rodas: When we first brought forward a suspicious sponsor activity case, people seemed excited that we had uncovered this information. We identified an individual who had been associated with six different addresses and had accumulated multiple children over time.
We realized that we needed to look for sponsors who were taking in multiple children and different individuals sponsoring at the same address. This was in June 2021.
By July, I was in contact with law enforcement. However, after we identified a major case in Austin, one of the case managers informed me that we were sending another child to that same location, which we had already flagged as a trafficking hotspot.
In a state of urgency, I rushed to the command center where the executives were located. I informed them that we had a child on the manifest going to a known trafficking site. To my shock, the response I received was, “Tara, you do understand that we only get sued if we keep kids in care too long? We don’t get sued by traffickers.” The executive then leaned in and said, “We don’t get sued by traffickers. Are we clear?” It was at that moment I realized their priority was meeting quotas, moving children quickly, and prioritizing speed over safety.
I fervently hope that Congress takes swift action, as children are being sold for sex while we speak. We cannot allow this heinous crime to continue.
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