Tim Ballard of Sound of Freedom urges Biden to locate 85,000 missing migrant children.
Former Federal Agent Demands Biden Administration Find 85,000 Missing Immigrant Children
Tim Ballard, a former federal agent and founder of the anti-child trafficking organization that inspired the hit movie Sound of Freedom, made a passionate plea to the Biden administration. He demanded that they take immediate action to locate the 85,000 immigrant children who have gone missing after being released to sponsors.
During his testimony before the House Homeland Security Committee on Capitol Hill, Ballard compared the ease of taking custody of an unaccompanied child to adopting a pet from a shelter. He emphasized that it is easier for adults in the United States to claim a child released from the border than it is to adopt a needy animal.
“It’s more difficult to adopt a cat from a shelter in the United States than it is to go down and take one of these children out of the custody of [the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services] and claim that I’m the sponsor,” said Ballard.
Ballard, who recently joined the anti-trafficking group, the SPEAR Fund, after leaving his organization Operation Underground Railroad, expressed his frustration with the Biden administration’s handling of the situation. He criticized their decision to stop taking fingerprints and conducting thorough background checks on adults who come forward to care for these children.
“There’s no background checks. There’s no fingerprinting. Why would you afford a foreign child much less protection than you would an American child? I think it’s despicable,” Ballard said.
Earlier this year, the New York Times reported that the government had lost contact with 1-in-4 unaccompanied immigrant children apprehended at the border. These unanswered calls amounted to approximately 85,000 children who could not be located. The New York Times also uncovered cases of children being forced into prostitution and forced labor, highlighting the urgent need for public awareness and action.
“A child can be sold up to 20 times per day, six days a week for ten years or even longer if they are trafficked as a toddler or infant,” Ballard testified. “In one case in particular, a young woman was brought across the border at an area where no barriers or protections existed. Her captors brought her to New York City where once in the U.S., she was sold and raped for money up to 30-40 times a day for five years before eventually escaping.”
Lawmakers from both parties have been working to address this issue. Sens. Dick Durbin and Alex Padilla pushed HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra to explain why warnings about unsafe situations for unaccompanied children were ignored. Additionally, Rep. Marsha Blackburn reintroduced the End Child Trafficking Act, which would require DNA testing of each child apprehended at the border to ensure they are related to the accompanying adult.
Ballard stressed the importance of joint efforts from the HHS, FBI, and Department of Homeland Security to track down each missing child. Only then can the overall issue be effectively addressed and reformed.
The hearing was part of a series by the House Homeland Security Committee to examine the causes and impacts of the border crisis.
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