U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE

WASHINGTON : 

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Publishing Office

Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800

Fax: (202) 512–2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402–0001

94–608PDF 2015

A PATHWAY TO FREEDOM: RESCUE AND REFUGE

FOR SEX TRAFFICKING VICTIMS

HEARING

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH, 

GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND 

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS

FIRST SESSION

MAY 14, 2015

Serial No. 114–67

Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs

(

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/ or

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/

(II)

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

EDWARD R. ROYCE, California, Chairman 

CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey 

ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida 

DANA ROHRABACHER, California 

STEVE CHABOT, Ohio 

JOE WILSON, South Carolina 

MICHAEL T. MCCAUL, Texas 

TED POE, Texas 

MATT SALMON, Arizona 

DARRELL E. ISSA, California 

TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania 

JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina 

MO BROOKS, Alabama 

PAUL COOK, California 

RANDY K. WEBER SR., Texas 

SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania 

RON DESANTIS, Florida 

MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina 

TED S. YOHO, Florida 

CURT CLAWSON, Florida 

SCOTT DESJARLAIS, Tennessee 

REID J. RIBBLE, Wisconsin 

DAVID A. TROTT, Michigan 

LEE M. ZELDIN, New York 

TOM EMMER, Minnesota 

ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York 

BRAD SHERMAN, California 

GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York 

ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey 

GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia 

THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida 

BRIAN HIGGINS, New York 

KAREN BASS, California 

WILLIAM KEATING, Massachusetts 

DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island 

ALAN GRAYSON, Florida 

AMI BERA, California 

ALAN S. LOWENTHAL, California 

GRACE MENG, New York 

LOIS FRANKEL, Florida 

TULSI GABBARD, Hawaii 

JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas 

ROBIN L. KELLY, Illinois 

BRENDAN F. BOYLE, Pennsylvania

AMY PORTER, Chief of Staff THOMAS SHEEHY, Staff Director

JASON STEINBAUM, Democratic Staff Director 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH, GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey, Chairman 

MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina 

CURT CLAWSON, Florida 

SCOTT DESJARLAIS, Tennessee 

TOM EMMER, Minnesota 

KAREN BASS, California 

DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island 

AMI BERA, California 

(III)

C O N T E N T S 

Page

WITNESSES 

The Honorable Sean Reyes, attorney general, State of Utah .............................. 5

Mr. Tim Ballard, founder and chief executive officer, Operation Underground 

Railroad ................................................................................................................. 16

Ms. Karla Jacinto Romero, survivor of human trafficking and advocate, Commission United vs. Trafficking ............................................................................ 23

The Honorable Rosi Orozco, president, Commission United vs. Trafficking 

(former Mexican Congresswoman) ...................................................................... 26

LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING 

The Honorable Sean Reyes: Prepared statement .................................................. 11

Mr. Tim Ballard: Prepared statement ................................................................... 20

Ms. Karla Jacinto Romero: Prepared statement ................................................... 24

The Honorable Rosi Orozco: Prepared statement ................................................. 29

APPENDIX 

Hearing notice .......................................................................................................... 46

Hearing minutes ...................................................................................................... 47

(1)

A PATHWAY TO FREEDOM: RESCUE AND 

REFUGE FOR SEX TRAFFICKING VICTIMS 

THURSDAY, MAY 14, 2015

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH, GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS,

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS,

Washington, DC. 

The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:25 p.m., in room 

2172, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Christopher H. Smith 

(chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. 

Mr. SMITH. The hearing will come to order, and good afternoon. 

It is an honor to be here with you today focusing on the fight 

against human trafficking, an insidious human rights abuse that 

thrives in an environment of secrecy, of silence, of acquiescence, 

complacency, and of a mindset that says that it is somehow somebody else’s business. The truth of the matter is that combating 

modern day slavery is everybody’s business. We are all in this together. Cooperation and coordination are key to mitigating and 

someday ending this pervasive cruelty. 

Significant progress has been made since I authored landmark 

legislation known as the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 

to combat sex and labor trafficking in the United States and globally. The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 and its 2003 

and 2005 reauthorizations, which I also sponsored, launched a bold 

new strategy that included sheltering, political asylum, and other 

protections for the victims, long jail sentences and asset confiscation for the traffickers, and tough sanctions for governments that 

failed to meet minimum standards prescribed in the legislation. 

And for the first time ever, the law recognized, and this was a sea 

change effort, the exploited women, children, and men, as victims, 

not as perpetrators of the crime. 

Since 2004, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act has resulted 

in anti-human trafficking task forces in 42 cities across the U.S. 

These task forces identify potential victims of human trafficking, 

coordinate local and Federal law enforcement to rescue victims, assist with referrals for victim care, and train law enforcement. 

Today’s hearing will concentrate on rescue and refuge. In January 2000, I received actionable information that eight Ukrainian 

women were being exploited by sex traffickers in two bars in Montenegro. The women had been lured there with promises of legitimate work, then forced into prostitution. One desperate victim, 

however, called her mother for help using the phone of one of the 

2

men that was exploiting her. When informed, I immediately called 

the Prime Minister of Montenegro, Filip Vujanovic ́, who personally 

ordered an immediate raid on the bar. As a result, I was told, don’t 

let the local police go. They are on the take. They exploit the 

women. They are getting money from this nefarious establishment. 

So he sent his own police to rescue, and as a result, seven of the 

eight women were rescued and returned to their families in 

Ukraine. Tragically, the eighth woman was trafficked to Albania 

prior to the raid. 

We now know that organized crime, street gangs, pimps around 

the world, have expanded into sex trafficking at an alarming rate. 

It is an extremely lucrative undertaking. A trafficker can make 

hundreds of thousands of dollars a year off just one victim. Unlike 

drugs or weapons, a human being can be held captive and sold into 

sexual slavery over and over and over again, turned into a commodity. Pornography and the devaluation of women are helping to 

drive this demand. And while our Departments of Justice and 

Homeland Security work with law enforcement abroad in sting operations to catch American pedophile sex tourists and to rescue victims, where there is a nexus with the United States, they cannot 

conduct rescue operations or run investigations that fall outside of 

their jurisdiction. 

Nevertheless there are victims, someone’s young son or daughter, 

today being cruelly exploited. Into this gap step nongovernmental 

rescue operations. Some of the best are staffed by former Navy 

SEALS, ex-CIA agents, and even the occasional sitting member of 

a State Government. That is what we will hear about today, from 

witnesses that include a former CIA agent now involved in rescuing the most vulnerable, as well as from a sitting attorney general. We will hear from a former Member of the Mexican Congress 

who has fought trafficking her entire career, and we will hear from 

a victim of trafficking who will also tell us about the importance 

of refuge and rehabilitation following the rescue. 

Operation Underground Railroad has made it their business literally and figuratively to identify children being sex trafficked into 

other countries and then to partner with the relevant foreign governments and their entities for the rescue and rehab of those children. 

Operation Underground Railroad members frequently pose as 

American sex tourists who enlist traffickers to host sex parties for 

them. It is a common occurrence in many Latin American nations 

and it provides the perfect cover for Operation Underground Railroad to lure the traffickers with the children for sale to a preset 

location and then have the local authorities ready to bust the traffickers as well as to rescue the kids. Operation Underground Railroad also trains the local governments on how to conduct sting operations on traffickers and on the rehabilitative needs of those trafficking victims. 

I want to thank our witnesses in advance for their extraordinary 

and courageous activity on behalf of these vulnerable people, especially kids, especially women who are at risk. You have made an 

enormous difference. And the country, the United States, the Congress, and the world, really needs to hear what you are doing so 

3

that these great actions can be replicated so that more people will 

be rescued. 

I would like to now yield to my good friend and colleague, the 

gentlelady from California, Ms. Bass. 

Ms. BASS. Thank you, Mr. Chair, as always for your leadership 

on this issue and so many other issues. I also want to thank our 

distinguished guests who took the time to be here with us today. 

During this hearing I look forward to discussing strategies to address sex trafficking as an issue that we are dealing with here in 

the United States as well as abroad. And hopefully we can embrace 

an inclusive approach that acknowledges the international nature 

of this. It is also important to note, unfortunately, that U.S. nationals are also perpetrators of sex crimes abroad, and I will be particularly interested in hearing about that since I know that a couple of you are involved in that. 

We know that the issue affects millions of adults and children, 

men, and women worldwide who are victimized across a wide range 

of commercial sex and forced labor schemes. In the United States 

and in my congressional district and in some cities, the population 

that is particularly vulnerable, especially the child population, to 

sex trafficking, are kids in the child welfare system; that is an 

issue that we are concerned about in my city but we have also 

worked on in a bipartisan basis. 

I had an experience a couple of years ago of having a young foster child, former foster child, who told me that her experience being 

in the child welfare system actually she felt prepared her to be 

trafficked because she was so used to being moved around place to 

place, and people who were involved with her were all paid to be 

with her. And so we know that this story here is far too common. 

And in a bipartisan effort to drastically decrease the number of foster youth who experience this horrible exploitation, I have reintroduced legislation called Strengthening the Child Welfare Response 

to Trafficking Act this year. The legislation passed the House 

unanimously, and over in the Senate, the language from that bill 

was put in a bill. And Mr. Chair, you might know that that is coming back our way next week, and we hope to have it on the President’s desk very soon. 

So I look forward to your testimony today and how we can learn 

from what you have done around the world and how we can apply 

your experiences and lessons here in the United States. Thank you. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you, Ms. Bass. 

I would like to now recognize Mr. Emmer. 

Mr. EMMER. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and also Ranking Member 

Bass, for holding this important hearing. I can think of no better 

place than this subcommittee when it comes to highlighting the 

atrocious crime of human trafficking. You should both be commended for your leadership on this issue. 

When Boko Haram terrorists kidnapped hundreds of teenage 

girls with the intent of selling them off into slavery, the offense 

sparked international outrage and inspired action here in the halls 

of Congress. I want to thank the ranking member and Robin Kelly 

from this committee, as well as Congresswomen Jackson Lee and 

Wilson for their persistence and leadership on that front. 

4

Unfortunately not all trafficking cases make the international 

news. Every day children across the world are taken from their 

family, from their homes, and sold and enslaved, forced into labor 

and prostitution against their will. As a father of seven children 

myself, I cannot begin to fathom the agony their families must be 

experiencing. The United States, to our collective shame, is not immune to this tragedy. In America alone, hundreds of thousands are 

trafficked in by transnational drug cartels and criminal organizations. The Justice Department estimates that there are more than 

200,000 children across the U.S. that are ‘‘at risk of trafficking.’’ 

Human trafficking is nearly a $30 billion per year criminal enterprise with thousands of innocent children trafficked annually. 

I am pleased that Congress, in coordination with the Obama administration, has made great strides in combating trafficking, but 

there is still much work to be done to help victims improve prosecutions, and prevent men, women, and children from being targeted by predators. This body must do everything within its power 

and authority to stay one step ahead of those involved in these 

crimes against humanity. As a Congress we must prioritize funding 

to support NGOs such as the ones before us today, nonprofits, and 

State and Federal prosecutors, to see the best practices and methods of prevention, protection, and prosecution. 

One way we can combat trafficking is through safe harbor laws 

that have been instituted across the country, including in my home 

State of Minnesota. By protecting victims and assisting prosecutors, by pursuing safe harbor laws at the national level, we can better respond to this national crisis. The words spoken here today 

cannot be merely symbolic gestures. They must be followed by action and constant vigilance. Our children deserve nothing less. 

I want to thank our witnesses and the concerned citizens in attendance for your continued efforts in this fight, and with that I 

yield back, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you very much, Mr. Emmer. 

I would like to recognize my good friend and colleague, Mr. Clawson, from Florida. 

Mr. CLAWSON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member, 

for doing this hearing about such a tragic global situation. It is 

hard to even fathom. And I would like to reiterate the words of my 

friend, Mr. Emmer, I think it is time to bring home the African 

kidnapped girls and, you know, bring home the girls. And I know 

that is not the topic today, but bring home the girls. And we need 

to do everything we can on that. 

To the guests, you all are doing more than just talking, and I respect action; so thank you for what you all do and the example that 

you set. And we ought to learn from that, and others ought to learn 

from that. And to Senorita Karlita, Karla [speaking foreign language]. 

Thank you. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you very much, Mr. Clawson. 

I would like to now introduce our very distinguished witnesses 

and invite them to testify. Beginning first, it is my very high honor 

and privilege to recognize and welcome the Honorable Sean Reyes, 

who today serves as the 21st attorney general of Utah, first appointed and then elected, but first appointed in 2013. Attorney 

5

General Reyes has received attention locally and nationally for 

transforming the Utah attorney general’s office and for his very direct involvement in bringing traffickers to justice both in Utah and 

in South America. Last year, for example he traveled with Operation Underground Railroad to participate in a covert sting where 

he posed as a bodyguard and translator to help liberate over 100 

children from a sex trafficking ring. A public official who doesn’t 

just implement or enforce the law, but actually gets right there 

face-to-face with the horrific tragedy, preventable tragedy, of sex 

trafficking and helps to rescue those kids. 

We will then hear from Mr. Timothy Ballard who is the founder 

and CEO of Operation Underground Railroad and serves as its 

jump team commander for rescue operations. Mr. Ballard has 

worked at the Central Intelligence Agency and as a special agent 

for the Department of Homeland Security where he was assigned 

to the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and deployed 

as an undercover operative for the U.S. Child Sex Tourism Jump 

Team. He has worked every type of case imaginable in the United 

States and in multiple foreign countries in the fight to dismantle, 

disrupt, and bring to justice these terrible child trafficking rings, 

so thank you. 

Then we will hear from Ms. Karla Jacinto Romero who is now 

22 years old and a survivor of human trafficking which she suffered from the age of 12 to the age of 16. Today Karla is a happy 

and successful mother of two beautiful girls, a wife, a student, and 

an international activist. She has shared her strong message 

against human trafficking with the Mexican House of Representatives, in the United Kingdom, in Rome, as well as in the Vatican. 

She helps rebuild the dreams of other human trafficking survivors 

by both her words and by her example, encouraging them to overcome and to love life and to trust their neighbors again. 

We will then hear from Ms. Rosi Orozco who is currently the 

president of the Commission United vs. Trafficking. Since 1990, 

she has worked to promote and defend human rights through several associations, particularly in the prevention and treatment of 

combating human trafficking, crime prevention, social development, and strengthening families. She has also acted as Federal 

Deputy and the President of the Special Commission for the Fight 

Against Human Trafficking in the Mexican House of Representatives and was the main proponent of the Law Initiative to Prevent, 

Punish, and Eradicate the Offenses on Trafficking in Persons and 

to Protect and Assist the Victims of these crimes, which became 

law in Mexico. Fellow lawmaker, welcome, and thank you for your 

leadership. Mr. Attorney General, the floor is yours. 

STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE SEAN REYES, ATTORNEY 

GENERAL, STATE OF UTAH 

Mr. REYES. Thank you, Mr. Chair, members of the committee. It 

is an absolute honor to be with you today along with these distinguished witnesses to address what I consider to be one of the greatest evils plaguing our world today, specifically child sexual slavery, 

or the trafficking of children for sex exploitation. As the attorney 

general of the great State of Utah, I am the highest ranking prosecutor in our State and in this capacity familiar with all manner 

6

of crimes. I oversee approximately 80 certified peace officers who 

serve as investigators for the State, either full-time or from partner 

agencies that are affiliates of our Internet Crimes Against Children 

Task Force or Secure Strike Force, both multi-agency teams under 

the AG’s office, focused on combating crimes such as child sexual 

abuse, exploitation, and child pornography, and disrupting the trafficking of women and children for various reasons, including sex 

and sex exploitation. 

While I believe trafficking of persons is one of the most insidious 

of the many crimes we confront, sadly it is also one of the least understood and least recognized by the public. And as a father of six 

children, I want to change that. I know they are looping behind me, 

or to the side, some of the footage of the mission from October of 

last year when we went down to Cartagena and two other cities in 

Colombia; and if I have time, I will address and give you a little 

bit of context for that as Mr. Ballard may also. 

Today in addition to offering my support for the International 

Megan’s Law, H.R. 515, sponsored by the chair and passed by the 

House, I would also like to paint with a slightly a broader brush 

in giving texture to more comprehensive issues pertaining to 

human trafficking. And to that end, let me begin with a few generalized statistics regarding the trafficking of persons. There are currently an estimated 20 million to 30 million modern-day slaves 

worldwide, people taken or lured into servitude and held against 

their will. And to put that number in perspective, that is twice as 

many or more modern-day slaves than there were during the entire 

transatlantic slave trade from the 16th to 19th centuries, 300 

years, which was by most scholarly accounts, 10 million to 13 million people. And I want to be very clear that I am not saying that 

in any way to diminish the blight that that is on our world history, 

but only to underscore the severity and pervasiveness of what is 

going on today. 

Human trafficking has become the second most lucrative criminal enterprise internationally, trailing only drug trafficking and 

ahead now of even arms dealing and counterfeiting. It generates an 

estimated $150 billion or more annually but is very, very difficult 

to quantify because of how little is reported. The United Nations 

Office on Drugs and Crime estimates that 18 percent of the victims 

are forced into hard labor. Others are conscripted into military servitude, recruited for terrorism, forced into acting as suicide bombers, part of illegal adoptions, or even killed to harvest their organs 

on the black market. But the overwhelming majority, approximately 80 percent, are forced into sex slavery or sex exploitation. 

Sex exploitation includes forcing victims into prostitution and compelling victims to commit sex acts for the purpose of creating pornography. 

Let me focus a few more statistics particularly on sexual slavery. 

Trafficking women and children for sexual exploitation is the fastest growing criminal enterprise in the world at this time, this despite the fact that international law and the laws of 134 countries 

criminalize sex trafficking. About 2 million children are exploited 

every year in the global commercial sex trade. That number is 

about 5 million if you are just talking about trafficking in general. 

Women and girls make up 98 percent of victims of trafficking for 

7

sexual exploitation. Anecdotal estimates from survivors are that 

only 1 in 10 victims caught up in the life ever make it out alive, 

so that is 90 percent of the victims that will never make it out of 

the life alive. 

According to the U.S. State Department, 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders every year, of which 

80 percent are female and half are children. Briefly a quote from 

a young international sex trafficking victim:

‘‘They forced me to sleep with as many as 50 customers a day. 

I had to give the pimp all of my money. If I did not earn a set 

amount, they punished me by removing my clothes and beating 

me with a stick until I fainted, electrocuting me, or cutting 

me.’’

When I first heard experiences such as these, I thought that they 

were not humanly possible to endure. I am dreadfully sorry to report that I was wrong, having heard now from so many more victims that have corroborated the fact that these children can be 

raped dozens, if not scores of times, each and every day. 

In February 2014, in my own home State of Utah, based on a tip 

from our immigrant community and a brave man who wore a wire 

to help us gather evidence, my office arrested Victor Emmanuel 

Rax, a central American individual, based on evidence of trafficking 

children, raping numerous young boys, and forcing them to sell his 

drugs, not only into high schools and junior high schools in our 

area, but even elementary schools in the Salt Lake County area. 

Upon arrest we consulted with our Federal law enforcement partners who indicated that they knew Rax, had tried to make a case 

against him for many years but that witnesses became too intimidated or disappeared in the past. They also indicated Rax had been 

deported seven times to central America where he had spent time 

in prison for crimes related to drugs and child sexual abuse and 

was a member of a notorious international gang. Rax had just come 

back into the U.S. after each deportation. We were not willing to 

let him escape again. When we, with the cooperation with our Federal counterparts, made the decision to prosecute Mr. Rax in the 

U.S. justice system and keep him here rather than deport, we had 

over 60 victims and witnesses come forward to testify by the time 

we filed information and charging documents. With such overwhelming evidence, Rax took his own life during the pendency of 

the trial. 

With an International Megan’s Law and attendant MOUs and bilateral agreements, Guatemala or El Salvador could have notified 

the U.S. to warn us of the monster within our midst. Also these 

countries have the expertise, software, forensic technology, investigative techniques, and prosecutorial experience that we have in 

the U.S. and that we have readily shared through organizations 

like Operation Underground Railroad, there may never have been 

a Victor Rax coming to Utah as they could have handled his case 

in his country of origin. The Rax case opened my eyes to the violations being perpetrated upon some of our most vulnerable. We have 

significantly increased in our State the number of investigations 

and prosecutions of trafficking cases during my administration. 

Just within the past 2 weeks, I participated with my strike force 

8

team on an undercover sting and raid of a massage parlor we believed to be a front for sex trafficking. It was a site that I had personally surveilled over a period of a year with my men. 

In Utah we have worked closely with legislators to enhance penalties for trafficking and to treat victims as victims rather than 

perpetrators. During the Rax case, I heard of an organization based 

in Utah called Operation Underground Railroad, which was just 

starting up. When I spoke to the founder, Tim Ballard, I told him 

I was extremely impressed by three things: One, the emphasis that 

OUR, the acronym, puts into providing resources, counseling, training, and stability to victims that they liberate from trafficking, and 

the involvement of groups and people like Elizabeth Smart in their 

organization. 

Two, I was impressed by the focus on training of local law enforcement partners in the various countries where they do operations to give or enhance the skills, techniques, and tools that they 

need to replicate the operations again and again; and some of the 

most gratifying moments have been hearing from our law enforcement partners after we have done missions in their countries, telling us that they have had success on their own using the techniques they learned from OUR. 

Number three, I told Mr. Ballard the emphasis on letting local 

partners take credit for their wins and building up credibility with 

their own people and government were quite impressive. And over 

the past year, dealing with them, having participated as a partner 

and member of OUR, I would now add two more quick points. The 

talent and dedication of Mr. Ballard’s team, former successful CIA, 

HSI, Navy SEAL, Special Forces, and law enforcement personnel, 

and lastly the effectiveness of the stings they set up. 

As you alluded to, Mr. Chair, how do I know how effective the 

stings are, because I have seen them up close and personally, as 

you might be watching them on the sides here. And if it comes 

back to looping, I will perhaps editorialize a bit. 

In October 2014, I joined an undercover sting operation in 

Cartagena, Colombia, organized by Operation Underground Railroad. There were two other simultaneous jumps in Armenia and 

Metagene, other cities in Colombia, and because of the success that 

this organization had, and here you are actually seeing on the side 

the table at which the transaction occurred where we were making 

the offer to buy and have a sex party. I believe at this very moment 

our law enforcement partners, CTI, or the Columbian equivalent of 

the FBI are swooping in to make arrests. I think the timing of 

some of the clips is not sequential, but this occurred on a group of 

islands off the coast of Cartagena. We isolated the operation to 

minimize the danger to anyone else and to maximize the opportunity to cut off escape by the traffickers and to make sure that 

we could assure the safety of those young girls and boys that we 

were liberating. 

So we had set up on an island there the site for the party. The 

traffickers believed they were going to come and bring all of these 

young children to have a sex party with an affluent American businessman. Again, I was playing the role of the translator and bodyguard, the mean and menacing player, which I thought was a bit 

unfair. You see our law enforcement partners, including Coast 

9

Guard, local police, and CTI, very well coordinated. After months 

of work in excruciatingly detailed cooperation and coordination, we 

isolated the young ladies and the couple of young boys that were 

with them in one of those huts and transacted at the table, upon 

the successful transaction, the large amount of cash in exchange 

for the sex party. You will see law enforcement here now coming 

to take us down as we were posing as the sex participants and local 

law enforcement. 

When they finished processing the traffickers, they allowed us to 

leave to head back to the airport. It was very touching to be able 

to say good-bye to those young girls knowing that many of them 

would be heading back home to families who had likely prayed for 

their safe return for a number of years. In other cases the families 

had no idea that they were actually being trafficked. They had 

been duped into thinking they were participating in a modeling 

agency. And so this is the type of work that Operation Underground Railroad does, very precise with buy-in from the highest 

levels of our sister nations. It is something that they welcome with 

the credit all going to their local law enforcement. And I will let 

Mr. Ballard finish out explaining more about that as I have a few 

more things to address before I summarize. 

You see there, we saw up close the horror and helplessness in 

the eyes of your girls, ages 10 to 16, after the drugs that the traffickers had given them that very morning to take the edge off of 

what they were about to experience. And during those very moments now where it is being frozen around that table, they offered 

up these young girls as if they were desserts to be had for a minimal price. And the fear and, again, helplessness in their eyes was 

something I will never forget. Contrasted with the sense of liberation just a few minutes later and the hope that they had that they 

were going to potentially get home and be back safely with their 

parents. 

All I can say is thank goodness that we were the ones there that 

day instead of real sex tourist predators. Not only did we liberate 

over 120 innocent girls and boys that day, cumulatively with the 

three missions that were done simultaneously and reunite them 

with families and get them much needed resources to start the long 

road to recovery, but again we trained local law enforcement with 

investigative techniques and software, and they have called us numerous times to report on their replication of other stings where 

they have taken down other traffickers and saved even more children. 

People ask why the Utah attorney general went to Colombia. My 

reply, number one, because such a high percentage of those travelling abroad for sex parties are American. Some statistics suggest 

80 percent or more of sex tourists may be American. I am embarrassed by that fact, that Americans provide such demand, and I 

feel a responsibility to remedy the scourge that my fellow countrymen have helped to create. 

Secondly, helping to stop human trafficking no matter where it 

exists is vitally important, and to be clear, no State funds were 

used. I was not going down in my official capacity as the attorney 

general of Utah. In fact, nobody knew except for our closest law enforcement partners. 

10

Three, and I think this is critical to this discussion, creating a 

firewall in countries like Colombia and the many other countries 

that OUR and other organizations like them have established to 

prevent future Victor Raxs from entering the shores of the United 

States and my State of Utah. Through the conference of Western 

Attorneys General, I and other State AGs have conducted bilateral 

training with AGs in Mexico and El Salvador to train and coordinate law enforcement resources; and I have met with the Ambassadors of Japan, Peru, the Philippines, and many others, including 

the Philippine Ambassador just again today to discuss further coordination and training. No leader with whom I have spoken from 

these countries is opposed to this even greater coordination as envisioned by the International Megan’s Law. H.R. 515 also wisely provides for adding to the minimum standards for the principal diplomatic tool that the U.S. employs in this area, the Trafficking in 

Persons Report by our State Department, with its various tiers and 

incentives for our sister nations to achieve Tier 1 status. 

So in summary, let me say thanks. International Megan’s Law 

just makes sense. Codifying a requirement to alert law enforcement 

authorities in destination countries will allow our law enforcement 

partners worldwide to be more vigilant when known American 

child sex offenders are entering their countries, sometimes for legitimate travel, but too often for repeat offenses of child crimes, sex 

parties, and sex tours. And it will also provide law enforcement at 

the Federal, State, and local levels here in the United States, a 

much better chance to prevent domestic crimes when convicted 

child sexual abusers from other countries enter U.S. territory. 

Fighting human trafficking is not a Republican issue or a Democrat issue. It is a humanitarian issue. It transcends any political 

differences or ideological divides. Its devastating reach grasps all 

walks of life and needs a united front for us to find success and 

give hope to victims and survivors worldwide. 

I would urge the Senate and anyone listening to this hearing to 

support passage of this law and others aimed at curbing and eventually ending child sex trafficking. Thank you. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you so very much, Mr. Attorney General. And 

thank you for bringing up the International Megan’s Law. It has 

passed the House three times. We believe it will get its hearing 

and will be acted upon by the U.S. Senate. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Reyes follows:]

11


94608a-1.eps
12


94608a-2.eps
13


94608a-3.eps
14


94608a-4.eps
15


94608a-5.eps
16

Mr. SMITH. Megan Kanka—before I go to Mr. Ballard—the 7-

year-old girl who was brutally slain in Hamilton Township, New 

Jersey, my hometown, no one knew that, that pedophile lived 

across the street. He invited her into the house, raped her, and 

then brutally killed her. And that led to the enactment of Megan’s 

Law in all 50 states and the District of Columbia and throughout 

the territories. It is a transformational effort. And the international 

part, as you know, it is all about noticing countries of destination 

of convicted pedophiles. There was a GAO report that found something like 4,500 convicted pedophiles in 1 year alone according to 

the Government Accountability Office, got passports, and they are 

good for 10 years, and then they go about travelling. 

And they travel to places like Colombia, like Thailand, Brazil, all 

over the world; and they abuse children in secrecy. This would empower that government to deny a visa or to watch them very closely so they don’t abuse their kids. So thank you for bringing that 

up as a preventative means of mitigating this horrific crime. Mr. 

Ballard. 

Mr. REYES. Thank you, Mr. Chair. 

STATEMENT OF MR. TIM BALLARD, FOUNDER AND CHIEF 

EXECUTIVE OFFICER, OPERATION UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

Mr. BALLARD. Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, and esteemed members 

of the subcommittee. Thank you very much for this opportunity. 

My name is Tim Ballard. I am the founder and CEO of Operation 

Underground Railroad. I served for 12 years as a special agent for 

the Department of Homeland Security, where I served on the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and the Sex Tourism 

Jump Team. I worked as an undercover operative infiltrating organizations at home and abroad who were in the business of abusing 

children, sexually trafficking them. 

In 2006 with the passage of the Adam Walsh Child Protection 

and Safety Act, Congress opened the doors for U.S. agents to better 

investigate these cases, especially internationally, and I was one of 

the first agents assigned to a team that would go out and use our 

undercover skills to infiltrate these organizations, looking for 

American travelers who were engaging in sex with children. I was 

proud to represent the United States in dealing with this horrific 

issue. However, I often felt helpless by the fact that the vast majority of the child victims that we would find fell outside the purview 

of the United States or for that matter any developed nation with 

the tools that could save them. Unless I could tie a U.S. traveler 

to the case, I would not be able to rescue the children, even the 

ones that we were able to identify as being victims. It is an issue 

of the sovereignty. It is outside of the jurisdiction, and I understood 

that. However, that doesn’t mean that we couldn’t be doing more. 

As an agent, I once had the opportunity to work on a specific 

case in Colombia. I did my due diligence, and as a team we located 

children who were being trafficked. And again, we were told that 

if it was not going to end in a U.S. courtroom, that there were no 

resources available and there was little we could do except send a 

reference, and sometimes that is just not enough. And that was discouraging, and I grew frustrated being told no many times, though 

I understood, clearly understood the reasons why. Because of this 

17

I decided to leave and create Operation Underground Railroad, 

which we did last year. 

We since went back to Colombia as a private organization, and 

as we have talked about and seen on the screens, we were able to 

pull off one of the largest rescue operations that we know about by 

setting up sting operations that consisted of ruse child sex parties. 

We were able to help the Colombians rescue more than 120 victims 

in 1 day. And to see these children, as young as 11 years old, to 

look into their eyes as they are tearful, scared to death, and knowing that they were lured out of this by various means. 

This group in Colombia had actually hired a beauty queen from 

Cartagena who could lend credibility to their ruse and bring these 

children, and they told us as young as 9 years old, they started recruiting them to be models when, in fact, they were being sold and 

raped for money. 

What is most interesting I think about this case in Colombia is 

that Homeland Security agents ended up arresting a American citizen named Dennis DeJesus. DeJesus caught wind of our fake sex 

party in Colombia and was heading down from Florida when U.S. 

agents arrested him. In the end, we got our American. Evidence 

concluded that DeJesus had produced child pornography and had 

traveled previously to Colombia in order to engage in sex with minors. DeJesus pled guilty to child sex crimes in a Federal court in 

Florida just a few weeks ago. This case proved that when engaging 

the problems of international child sex crimes, there is a good 

chance that a nexus to the United States will eventually be made. 

However, I never would have be able to initiate this investigation 

as a U.S. agent due to the fact that the U.S. nexus did not appear 

until the end of the investigation. I also learned that once my team 

initiated this investigation, along with Columbian authorities, the 

U.S. Embassy and the Homeland Security Investigations, Bogota 

office, was more than happy to support the case. However, without 

our private efforts, the resources or the mandate to pull it off did 

not exist with United States assets. This is a matter of frustration 

to many of my former colleagues in the U.S. Government, these 

U.S. agents. They want to do more. They need resources to do 

more, more resources to do more. 

The current approach by the U.S. Government to international 

child sex crimes could use some adjusting. More mechanisms need 

to be put into place so that the U.S. can better engage this problem. Oftentimes it feels like our policies and practices, though not 

our people or our Government agents, take a position that a foreign 

problem is simply not a U.S. problem. However, as the DeJesus 

case proves, when it comes to child sex crimes, this problem is 

international. And the fact that we are talking about child victims 

should cause us on a moral level to find ways to remove barriers 

that prevent international engagement. I have worked with many 

foreign governments, and I have never seen one that does not desire more U.S. involvement when it comes to these specific crimes 

against the most vulnerable souls on earth. 

Speaking of International Megan’s Law, H.R. 515, here is another opportunity, a wonderful opportunity, to attack this problem 

from a different angle. It will help bridge a serious gap. As a government agent, it was always frustrating to know that minus a 

18

crystal ball, it would always be a serious challenge to predict when 

a child sex traveler would cross our borders to engage in illicit sex 

with children. As quoted in the bill itself, legitimate studies have 

concluded that there are close to 2 million children in the world 

currently in the commercial sex trade; and the bill also points out 

that a significant amount of these travelers are from the United 

States. And I for one can testify, I know these stats are true because I have been working in this black market for more than 10 

years. 

In a sad commentary on our society, the reason our cover story 

has worked so well and has been so easily bought by perpetrators 

is due to the fact that we are Americans. These guys, these perpetrators are used to catering to Americans. They are used to selling children to Americans. This is an American problem no matter 

where on earth the child victim happens to be. 

In this country we proudly work under Megan’s Law as a means 

to encourage States to protect children by identifying and monitoring the whereabouts of child sex offenders. As a society we have 

accepted the fact that convicted sex offenders pose a great risk to 

children, and so we make their presence known. Of course, the 

question why would we not offer the same mechanism to our 

friends overseas? And I understand it has passed three times in 

the House. It is time to pass it in the Senate, and I hope that your 

colleagues in the Senate are listening, that they might hurry along. 

We might picture a man who has been convicted of raping children in a foreign country. We might imagine that this man is coming for a visit to our towns, to our parks, and our neighborhoods 

where our children play. Would we not want to know this man’s 

past? Of course, we would. And I assure you that our friends in 

other countries want this information as well, especially the wouldbe child victims of the crimes. 

Advancing this bill is an opportunity to connect law enforcement 

agencies around the world by arming them with actionable intelligence that they can use to prevent child sex crimes from occurring. This bill talks about the Angel Watch Center. The Angel 

Watch Center will be a significant first step in bridging the gap between governments and nongovernment organizations like ours 

that have real experience in rescuing and rehabilitating victims of 

trafficking. 

One of the great benefits of being an NGO is that it allows greater freedom for anti-child crimes experts to move about the world, 

plugging quickly into any government jurisdiction and rapidly 

bringing the tools to fight child crimes into the hands of government officials who need them. We are readily afforded access to information regarding child sex rings that is useful to combat these 

rings. One of the challenges for us of course is, establishing and 

maintaining direct relationships with government officials who 

need and want our services. Through the Angel Watch Center, this 

problem will be helped. This center will serve as a venue where a 

public-private partnership can more easily leverage all the intelligence, ideas, tools, and strategies to best protect children at home 

and abroad. 

Speaking for my organization, we have physically rescued hundreds of victims in the last year alone. Advancing H.R. 515 and creVerDate 0ct 09 2002 12:19 Aug 18, 2015 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00022 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_AGH\051415\94608 SHIRL
19

ating the Angel Watch Center, I believe, could double or triple that 

number for us, and that is just for us. Add to that the many other 

NGOs and other government agencies, foreign and domestic, that 

will participate in the Angel Watch Center, and we will be saving 

more children than ever before. 

Let’s not wait any longer to put this bill into law. The children 

are desperately waiting for us. I know this because I have seen 

them. Thank you very much for this opportunity. 

Mr. SMITH. Mr. Ballard, thank you so very much and again for 

that sacrifice of leaving your employment to take on this private 

sector initiative that has saved, as you pointed out, hundreds of 

victims in the last year alone. That is extraordinary. Thank you for 

that leadership. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Ballard follows:]

20


94608b-1.eps
21


94608b-2.eps
22


94608b-3.eps
23

Mr. SMITH. Well now I will turn to Karla Jacinto, and I thank 

you for being here. Thank you. 

STATEMENT OF MS. KARLA JACINTO ROMERO, SURVIVOR OF 

HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND ADVOCATE, COMMISSION 

UNITED VS. TRAFFICKING 

[The following statement and answers were delivered through an 

interpreter.] 

Ms. JACINTO. Mr. Chairman, and members of the subcommittee, 

thank you for taking the time to listen to my story. My name is 

Karla Jacinto and today I have a voice, but for more than 4 years 

of my life from the age of 12, as a little girl whose mother had 

thrown her out on the streets, open to anyone wanting to take advantage of my vulnerabilities, I fell prey to a professional pimp who 

after 3 months of wooing and me treating me as a princess, 

propped me up on a corner and forced me to work the streets for 

his own gain. For years and years I was coerced, intimidated, 

threatened, beaten, robbed of my children and emotionally and sexually violated time and time again. 

During those years, I was forced to serve every type of fetish 

imaginable to more than 40,000 clients. Of those, many were foreigners visiting my city looking to have sexual interactions with 

minors like me. 

Please try to put yourself in my shoes, broken, abandoned, violated, hurt, denigrated, and enslaved at a time when I should have 

been playing with dolls and looking forward to a fun day at school. 

Today I am thankful to be able to stand before you as a reintegrated woman. At the age of 16, a man that had become a regular client was able to see beyond the short-term pleasure into the 

eyes of a broken girl. He helped me escape and I entered from the 

Fundacion Camino a Casa shelter. There I received the help, care, 

time, attention and love that I needed to put the broken pieces of 

my soul back together. 

I also met Rosi Orozco, who has helped me grow into the activist 

I am today. I am 22, and for the last 5 years, my life has been dedicated to raising my voice to anyone willing to hear that we exist, 

that there are thousands of little girls in my country being used for 

the pleasure of those who only live for their own desires, economic 

gain, and exertion of power. 

It is up to us, both governments and nongovernment organizations to work together to prevent this crime, punish those who commit them, to look and rescue for those who are already caught in 

the web, and to provide the care necessary for their healing and reintegration into a healthy society. No one person can do it himself 

or herself. We are all responsible. We are all affected, and we can 

all do something. 

Today, your people have chosen you to have a position of influence that can truly make a difference. And I hope that my story 

will help you make some choices that will put a stop to this horrible crime. Thank you. 

Mr. SMITH. Karla, thank you so much for testifying and for the 

bravery to come forward and tell your story and to admonish all 

of to us do more to end this cruelty, and to help those who have 

been victimized. So your story will help. 

24

[The prepared statement of Ms. Jacinto follows:]


94608c-1.eps
25


94608c-2.eps
26

Mr. SMITH. I would note for the record that C–SPAN is here 

which means that Americans will have the opportunity to hear all 

of your testimonies. And C–SPAN, you know, is independent. It 

does not cover every hearing. And I am very grateful that they are 

here so that your words will be heard by millions of Americans and 

people around the world. So thank you. 

I would like to now introduce our final witness, Rosi Orozco, 

again a former deputy, author of landmark anti-human trafficking 

legislation in Mexico, and now the president of the Commission 

United vs. Trafficking. 

STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE ROSI OROZCO, PRESIDENT, 

COMMISSION UNITED VS. TRAFFICKING (FORMER MEXICAN 

CONGRESSWOMAN) 

Ms. OROZCO. Mr. Chairman, and members of the subcommittee, 

thank you for this opportunity. Today I am here out of a profound 

sense of obligation to focus on the problem of sex trafficking, especially the reality of sexual tourism and child pornography. As you 

have heard, Karla was a victim of all these crimes at the age of 

12. To establish some context, I will—I should explain a little bit 

of who I am. Thanks to the training I received from your Justice 

Department here in Washington, DC, 2005, all my life now has 

been dedicated to fight human trafficking. In all of its forms. But 

especially that of sexual exploitation of women and, of course, minors. 

First, as a Congresswoman from 2009 to 2012 where I was the 

driving force to establish the general law to prevent, punish, and 

eradicate the offenses of trafficking in persons and to protect and 

assist the victims of these crimes. Since the law took effect in 2012, 

and with the leadership of our President Enrique Pena Nieto, and 

we have reported more than 200 convictions. Mexico now is the 

leader in the prosecution of these crimes in all Latin America. 

More recently, as the president of the NGO Commission United vs. 

Trafficking, we work in partnership with 97 other NGOs, and we 

have made sure that we communicate a clear message to every social, political, business, art, and international platform. 

In Mexico, human beings are not for sale. And we will fight 

against anyone that acts against that fact. Today I am here representing every victim of slavery in my country. Sadly, Mexico is 

a country of origin, transient, and destination of human trafficking 

of women, men, and children, that are being exploited both in Mexico and the United States. It worries so much to all of our NGOs 

that there has been some intention in Congress in Mexico trying 

to knock down the law that protects the human rights of victims 

and punishes criminals. They will try again in September so we are 

working as NGOs to protect the good parts of our law, and reform 

the articles that could be better with some Congresspeople that are 

very committed against human trafficking. 

According to the World Tourism Organization, and the International Labor Organization about 3 million people traveling the 

world look for travel-related opportunities to participate in sexual 

acts with children. Sexual tourism affects more than 2 million children that are obligated to prostitute themselves or work in the pornography industry. Sexual tourism is the principal motor behind 

27

child sexual exploitation. This is a phenomenon that in recent 

years has expanded exponentially throughout the world, especially 

in Asia, and Latin America with Mexico being one of the principal 

countries affected, especially in the northern border towns and 

beach cities. 

Last year your own Homeland Security Department has situated 

Mexico as the number one distributor of child pornography in the 

world. This is largely due to the high demand. Studies demonstrate 

that most perpetrators are coming from the United States, England, Holland, and Germany. In a study done by the American Bar 

Association we know that 47 bands of human traffickers were identified in Mexico, of which the most renowned originate in the State 

of Tlaxcala, and are very well-known for importing their victims to 

the United States. 

I urge you today to make sure that our country will continue 

working together to put a stop to the atrocity of human trafficking 

and in all its forms, all forms of human trafficking by refining our 

laws and committing to communicate and cooperate with each 

other. We can stop the criminalization of victims, work to push 

hard to strengthen the law against providers and consumers, ease 

the path for prosecution of cases, and provide the care that victims 

and their families needs to rebuild their lives. 

We believe that we have been working very well with the Ambassador Anthony Wayne, even his wife is one of the wives of many 

of the Ambassadors that works with Fundacion Camino a Casa. 

Karlita herself has met her. The Polaris Project is doing a great job 

also in a partnership with Mexico now, and you have a great, great 

Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, who is called in Mexico, the 

nightmare of the pimps. And we also have a very good Attorney 

General who will be the nightmare of the pimps soon. She is new 

in office. And also, we have great police who are committed against 

these crimes. 

In truth, my passion is to work directly with the beautiful girls 

that have suffered and been rescued from these horrific crimes. I 

have personally worked with more than 200 victims, shared their 

stories, and witnessed their struggle as they look to reveal their 

lives and heal from the worst pain that can be inflicted on a human 

being, the loss of their freedom and dignity. More than anything, 

they need all of us to be willing to fight for them and they deserve 

to be heard. Just think about this. Most of these girls were suffering from poverty, violence, lack of education, when they become 

targets of criminals that make them also to be their slaves. So 

when the heroes like the people of Operation Underground Railroad rescue them, as a society, we owe them very much. They 

didn’t have what they deserve in our country. They deserve the 

food, the house, the security, and education. And then we see them 

as slaves. Thank you to people like the people that work in OUR, 

thank you for being heroes in other countries. 

We need to work a complete process of reintegration from start 

to finish until they become successful people that we can all admire, like Karla, who is with me now today. She is a survivor of 

human trafficking. She was a sex slave between the ages of 12 to 

16. Seven years ago, Karla was saved by a client who saw her 

beauty instead of his lust. And now she is a worldwide activist who 

28

has spoke twice in front of Pope Francis, has taken and shared her 

story with the Duchess of Cornwall, has been with the ex-President 

Felipe Calderon, and with Queen Noor of Jordan at the Trust 

Women Conference in London, among many other important people. 

We believe that people like Karla, if we don’t help them until 

they are successful, they could kill themselves, or become criminals. When she arrived to the shelter she was full of hate. Now she 

is full of love. We must work to break the vicious circle of lack of 

cooperation between authorities and NGOs. Our mistrust of the 

process that result of people failing to denounce the crime and failure to prosecution. Instead, we must create a virtuous cycle where 

authorities and NGOs like OUR work together, then provide a special and dedicated care to these teams until they become successful 

stories. We need to work together with survivors until they become 

people of admired by society. Only then will more people denounce 

the crime of human trafficking; only then will more criminals be 

prosecuted; only then will more victims be freed; and only then less 

and less people will look for slaves to satisfy their basic instincts. 

Please, do not name the clients johns if they were like the clients 

that Karlita had. They are criminals. They are not johns like they 

were a nobody. We should treat them like criminals. Thank you so 

much for hearing us. 

Mr. SMITH. Ms. Orozco, thank you very much for your leadership, 

both in the Congress as well as now as head of an NGO. Thank 

you so much. You inspire us and, obviously, you have saved many, 

many lives. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Orozco follows:]

29


94608d-1.eps
30


94608d-2.eps
31


94608d-3.eps
32


94608d-4.eps
33

Mr. SMITH. I would like to ask a few questions. We do have three 

votes. If it is okay with you, and I know some of you may have to 

leave, we will take a short recess and come back and ask some additional questions. But just to begin the questioning, and I yield to 

my two distinguished colleagues, Attorney General Reyes, you 

talked about the 120 kids and let me just say, undercover work 

whether it be in Utah, your State or my State, New Jersey, or any 

State in the Union is always dangerous work. But I would be suspect of undercover work in a foreign country where the reliability 

of the law enforcement assets may be questionable. Mr. Ballard 

may want to speak to this as well—how do you vet the law enforcement people that you make a part of your team given the distance, 

or even in Utah. There might be somebody who is complicit in the 

trafficking who would let the bad guys know you are coming, or put 

your very life at risk. 

The 120 kids, what has become of them? The whole idea of recidivism is always a deep concern for all of us. All of you might 

want to speak to that. How do you keep them out of harm’s way? 

I have found, because I have been in shelters all over the world, 

that there needs to be a significant length of time, months doesn’t 

cut it. It needs to be years to really break that cycle and turn, as 

Ms. Orozco talked about, the hate into love and self-acceptance. Because the victims, unfortunately, blame themselves far too often, 

and they are victims. So if you could speak to those two issues at 

the outset and Ms. Bass, I could yield to you now, and then to get 

the questions in because I know Ms. Bass can’t return, and then 

Ms. Jackson Lee. 

Ms. BASS. Well, I want to acknowledge my good colleague who 

is also from your State, Mia Love, Congresswoman Mia Love, who 

just came. So a couple of things. I also was interested in some of 

the same questions that the Congressman asked. I was very interested in what happened to the girls, and also what happened to the 

men. Because, as I watched the tape as it was going, the first thing 

that came to my mind is that do they get released, and then do 

they go back after the girls? You know what I mean? Do they capture the girls? 

And then I would like to ask Ms. Jacinto, if you could please explain when you were rescued, what was it that allowed you to not 

go back? And then I just want to make a brief statement for the 

record. 

Mr. REYES. Mr. Chair, are you ready——

Mr. SMITH. If I could, just because of time, we are joined by Mia 

Love, who is obviously from your State, and a very dedicated Member of the Congress, and caring about these issues, and then going 

to my Democrat colleague, Ms. Jackson Lee. 

Mrs. LOVE. I first of all just wanted to say thank you for the invite and letting me know that our attorney general and Mr. 

Ballard from Operation Underground Railroad is here. The work 

that they do is so incredibly important. It is something that is very 

important in the State of Utah, but also for our Nation and around 

the world. 

This is not based on fiscal issues. This is not based on party 

issues. This is what we have to do, and that is you are protecting 

life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This is a moral issue, 

34

and I wanted to say thank you so much for making this such an 

important part of what you do. 

I have three children, two girls, one boy, and it makes me feel 

better as a parent knowing that there are some good people out 

there doing this work and making sure that the predators know 

that we will not rest. We will be diligent and we are watching them 

and we are putting them out of business. So from the bottom of my 

heart as a parent, as an American who cares about the children all 

around this world, thank you for the work that you do, and thank 

you for this committee for taking this issue so seriously. 

Mr. REYES. Mr. Chair, can we say we are proud of our entire 

Federal delegation especially here today. Thank you, Congresswoman Love. She is not telling you everything. She has actually 

been helpful in a number of ways, including an operation or several 

operations that have occurred in Haiti, given her Haitian heritage 

and we appreciate her support and all of your support, so I just 

wanted to acknowledge her and everything she has done to support 

Operation Underground Railroad. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you. Ms. Jackson Lee. 

Ms. JACKSON LEE. Well, first of all, let me thank you for the 

courtesies extended by both the chairman and the ranking member. Thank you so very much. Quickly to the witnesses, let me 

thank you for your testimony. I just briefly will indicate and ask 

a question, and then hopefully it will go on the record. I am the 

ranking member on the Crime Subcommittee. We want to make 

sure that we have some collaboration with the Foreign Affairs 

Committee for filling in the holes. So my question would be, there 

seems to be a gap as to dealing with those who are not connected 

to the United States. We deal with sex trafficking as the buyer, the 

victim, and maybe in the State. And so my question would be general, and of course to our Congressperson, how do we deal internationally? How do you make sure if there is an international issue 

in New Jersey that you either connect Federally or that your laws 

allow you to reach to be able to ensure that their dastardly works 

are not impacting New Jerseyites, people from Utah, and fill in 

that gap that we don’t miss those who are trying to do devastating 

things to children. 

Lastly, I always mention Boko Haram, way, way, far away, but, 

you know the dastardly things they have done by kidnapping girls 

and we believe it has an international effect. So thank you so very 

much for your service. 

Mr. REYES. Thank you. Are you going to recess now, Mr. Chairman? 

Mr. SMITH. No, we do have a little extra time so if you will begin 

answering the questions——

Mr. REYES. Let me quickly try to address one or some of the 

questions that were posed perhaps at a surface level and then I 

will allow Mr. Ballard who is our operations director——

Ms. BASS. Excuse me, and also Ms. Jacinto, because I know I 

won’t be able to come back, so I just really wanted to hear from 

her. 

Mr. REYES. You know what, I am happy to defer too. Let’s let 

Ms. Jacinto address those things. And then we can come back. 

35

Ms. BASS. My question was whether she could recall one thing 

that really allowed her to be able to stay away, and not get pulled 

back. 

Ms. JACINTO. My daughter. Because she was taken away from 

me when she was born. That is when I really started fighting. 

When she was born, when she was 1 month old she was taken 

away from me, and for 1 full year. 

Ms. BASS. Foster care? 

Ms. JACINTO. No, no, no, the pimp, or the crime organization took 

her from me, extortion, so they could continue. 

When they took her from me, that is what gave me the strength 

to pull through, and one of the regular clients recognized my situation and helped me escape and recuperate my daughter. When they 

gave her back to me she had burns in her cheeks. Every day while 

I was in the shelter, I wanted to learn how to be a good mother 

to my daughter so that our children, because most of the girls that 

are there, we have children, do not fall prey to this crime. 

I would never ever, ever want to go back to that place because 

in that situation you become an object, a sexual object. You have 

no other identity. And that is what makes me stand here today and 

raise my voice to say ‘‘enough.’’

Mr. SMITH. Thank you. We have three votes, like I said, so in 

about 15 minutes or so, we will resume the sitting of the subcommittee. Thank you very much, and we stand in recess. 

[Recess.] 

Mr. SMITH. The subcommittee will resume its sitting, and I do 

want to apologize again for the delay to our distinguished witnesses as well as to the audience. We are joined by Ann Wagner, 

a distinguished Member of the House of Representatives from Missouri, who wrote a major bill that has passed the House, is likely 

to be back in the House after being through the Senate, that criminalizes advertising. And I would like to yield to my good friend 

and colleague for any comments about her bill which I think will 

make a huge difference, and any questions that she might have of 

our panel. 

Mrs. WAGNER. Well, I thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I thank you 

for a lifetime of leadership on this issue for all of those giving a 

voice to the most vulnerable and those who are oftentimes voiceless. I served 4 years as a United States Ambassador in Western 

Europe, and was very familiar with human trafficking vis-a`-vis the 

international aspect of things. But I will tell you, it wasn’t until I 

came home to my own country in 2009, decided to run for office 

myself, put my own name on the yard sign, dug into a few things, 

and realized how prevalent this scourge, this modern-day slavery 

is, and the prevalence here domestically in our own country. This is, domestically, a $9.5 billion business. There are upwards, 

according to the Justice Department, of 300,000, mostly young 

girls, at risk for this. And we as a Congress, other than reauthorizing the fantastic work that Chairman Smith has done, really had 

not gotten up to date on some of the new technologies, and the new 

things going on over the last decade, so I brought this up. I am on 

the Financial Services Committee. I do a lot in defense, and veterans issues, but this, this, fighting this scourge of human trafficking and sex slavery is a passion of mine. And so we went forVerDate 0ct 09 2002 12:19 Aug 18, 2015 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00039 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_AGH\051415\94608 SHIRL
36

ward, introduced several pieces of legislation last Congress. I can 

tell you in January, along with Chairman Smith’s bill and many 

others, we passed 12 pieces of legislation for human trafficking in 

January out of the House of Representatives. The Senate has taken 

a number of them up. They worked things out and four of those 

will be coming back to us next week which we were very excited 

about; things that will bolster law enforcement, and prosecutors, 

and give you, sir——

Mr. REYES. Tools that we need. 

Mrs. WAGNER [continuing]. The tools that you need and that you 

have been asking for. You know, I can’t tell you enough, truly, our 

attorney general of Utah, General Reyes, the kind of work that you 

have been doing to fight this on a day-in-and-day-out basis, but we 

are going to give you some of the tools, the resources, and help 

those victims in terms of safehouses, and education, and awareness. 

My particular piece of legislation is called the SAVE Act, and it 

goes on, and in the last 12 years or so, obviously, the Internet has 

just blown up and skyrocketed. And there are these online predators and advertisers on outlets like backpage.com, and many others 

that make it—I hate to say it but it is the truth—make it as easy 

to order up a young 14-year-old girl to their hotel room as it is a 

pepperoni pizza. It is deplorable. 

So this does not go after the Communications Decency Act. It is 

not going after any kind of freedom of speech issue. This goes into 

the criminal code. And in the criminal code, section 1591, for 

human trafficking there is a litany of words that constitute human 

trafficking. It is things like transporting, harboring, coercing, and 

on, and on, and on. And all we did was simply add advertising. And 

I don’t care whether it is a billboard or a flier, or something you 

see in the back of a magazine or one of these online predators that 

are making, let me tell you, $4 million to $5 million a month off 

of selling our women and children, and young boys too. 

So I recognize the work that many of you are doing from an 

international basis and I support that wholeheartedly. We have a 

number of great pieces of legislation like the International Megan’s 

Law and other things that are so very important to our world society as we fight this scourge. 

But I do want to always remind folks that this is hiding in plain 

sight in our own backyards, in our own cul-de-sacs, in our own 

faith communities, in every school district. And we have to not just 

do things legislatively. We have to lift education and awareness. I 

met with a group of superintendents last week when I was back 

in the district, and I said, you guys are fantastic. You do programs 

about bullying, about heroin, about boundaries, and maybe sexual 

assault, but have we ever discussed sex trafficking? How we ever 

discussed how these predators go online and what they are looking 

for. Maybe that nanny job isn’t a real nanny job. Maybe that modeling job isn’t a modeling job. Maybe whatever it may be, there are 

tools that we need to provide our youth and, frankly, our counselors and others. 

So we are working with convention, and visitor’s bureaus, with 

transportation outlets, with healthcare professionals, obviously, 

37

with our prosecutors and our law enforcement, but I want to take 

it to the next level, which is educational awareness in our schools. 

So I am just so thrilled that after 3 years, we are going to have 

a number of pieces of human trafficking legislation that have 

passed the Senate, are moving back to the House for final passage 

here and I do believe that the President will sign this legislation. 

It is much needed. So I applaud the work that all of you are doing. 

I am so grateful to Chairman Smith for always shining a bright 

light on this issue. And I stand with you both internationally and 

domestically. And I have to tell you, General Reyes, the work that 

you are doing, and your commitment to this cause is absolutely 

head and shoulders above anyone that I have seen, literally, in the 

States, so I thank you, sir. 

Mr. REYES. Thank you so much. Thank you, Congresswoman. 

Thank you Congresswoman Wagner, and we so appreciate your 

fight to get us those tools that we need. It will be effective and we 

will use them. We won’t let them go to waste combating these perpetrators and offenders. I know you are doing the State of Missouri 

proud and we feel that support from you. So let me just tell you 

brava. Thank you for your work. 

And Chairman Smith, if you would like, let me say again, reciprocally, from our vantage point, we applaud everything that you all 

do. But there has been no greater warrior in Congress on behalf 

of fighting for the rights, fighting for these poor innocents than 

you, Chairman Smith, and we really take our hat off to you. 

Mrs. WAGNER. Hear, hear. 

Mr. REYES. Thank you for everything that you have done, not on 

human trafficking, on so many different humanitarian issues, and 

for the time that you have allowed us to have today to hopefully 

educate just a little bit more our peers, our countrymen and our 

fellow men worldwide and women about this issue. 

You had a couple of questions. I am going to do my best to address——

Mr. SMITH. Before you go on, I do hope other attorneys general 

and their staffs get to see this on C–SPAN and perhaps by amplification by the media, because you set a standard, an example that 

needs to be followed. This is a winnable war. We all know that, and 

every effort that is made, every smart effort will lead to prevention 

of trafficking, protection for the victims, and prosecution of this nefarious trade. 

So thank you for your leadership and I would join you in thanking Congresswoman Wagner because she, first, as you know an 

Ambassador and working on the executive branch side, but now as 

a lawmaker is making a huge difference. This is a winnable war. 

So thank you. And we need every State to do what you are doing. 

They don’t all want to go undercover and rescue precious children 

in Colombia. But they can use their tools and their capacity to end 

this egregious practice. So thank you. And I did ask a few questions——

Mr. REYES. I will get to those questions. One thought occurred. 

Congresswoman, if you want some ideas about school programs, 

training on how to avoid being victims of child sexual trafficking 

or being victims of other sex crimes, please come talk to me afterwards. We have some fantastic ones in Utah and we would love to 

38

share them with you. And also, again, notwithstanding the praise 

and the recognition that you gave, I don’t want to accept a disproportionate amount of credit for what my colleagues, my other 

attorneys general throughout the United States are doing, have 

done before me, and will continue to do. There are many great 

leaders on the Republican side, the Democrat side throughout the 

great States of our Nation who have taken a lead on combating 

human trafficking. And so again, on behalf of all of them, our national attorneys general, they are the frontline in many instances 

in this fight, and I want to pay respect and credit, and give credit 

to all of them. 

To your questions, though. You asked what happens to survivors. 

And let me break that down domestically and internationally. Domestically, from our office in the State of Utah, we work with our 

Division of Child and Family Services, we work with nonprofits like 

the Elizabeth Smart Foundation, because in spite of the fact the 

liberating element of these operations gets the lion’s share of the 

media attention, and it is kind of the exciting parts, the stuff you 

see on the news, we all know who work in this area that the true 

heavy lifting comes after the fact when these victims become survivors and then need the resources educationally, training, jobs, 

counseling, treatment, physical and psychological support and it is 

going to take in some cases a lifetime to help them overcome the 

atrocities that they have just endured. And so organizations like 

the Elizabeth Smart Foundation, domestically, safehouses that we 

work with are part of the comprehensive approach that we have 

taken to address what happens to these survivors now that they 

have been liberated. 

Internationally, each country is different. Each country has different resources. Each country has a different capacity to provide 

resources, but one of the things that I admire most about Operation Underground Railroad, is that they will refuse to work with 

a country, or they will even forestall operations until that country 

gives its absolute commitment to give every resource available that 

they do have, to helping the victims once they are liberated. And 

in the case of Colombia, we worked with a humanitarian organization called Renacer, the rebirth, along with the Colombian Federal 

and state resources. So their equivalent to child family services. 

You know, we need to put so much—you mentioned, Congresswoman, safehouses. The reason why only 1 out of every 10 leave 

the life alive is that there is no safety valve for them. They want 

to leave. They want to get away and so often there is no place for 

them to escape and so these safety houses are another way that we 

can help encourage them to leave and give them the protection of 

the State and Federal Government resources. 

The second question, really quickly, that I want to touch on, you 

asked, Mr. Chair, how do we vet our Government partners? And 

to be candid with you, during the entire operation that I was on 

in Colombia, I really was more worried about potential false friends 

in the government maybe turning us over, or turning us into a cartel than I was about the traffickers. You know, neutralized them 

pretty quickly and they weren’t an extreme physical threat. I will 

say this: OUR vets through a combination of their own international contacts, recognizing that many of them used to be former 

39

CIA operatives and members, and have established trusted relationships over decades along with our Federal Government agencies like HSI who help us vet and give us a measure of comfort 

with the actual agencies that we work with hand in hand to take 

down these criminals abroad. 

So the reality has been testified to earlier, is that there are agencies that aren’t as credible, and we do have to worry about them, 

and we are very careful. And there still is an element of risk. And 

no matter how much vetting and due diligence that you do, but 

that is a risk we are ready to accept when it comes to saving these 

little ones and bringing them back to their families. I will let others address the questions too. 

Ms. JACINTO. Congresswoman Wagner, I would like to commend 

the work that you are doing on behalf of me and the girls that I 

now know are in the shelters. I know a very good friend of mine 

called Anita, she is in the book that Rosi provided for you, who was 

sold in advertisements in the newspaper. And it is exactly because 

of Anita’s testimony in our Congress that Mexico has already 

adopted a law against this type of advertising. So thank you for 

working on that. I would also like to thank Tim and OUR and Attorney General Reyes for the work they do. In our shelter in Mexico City, we have a rescued victim that OUR rescued. Her name is 

Bibi. She lives with us, and I work directly with her helping her 

with her whole process. So we are happy to say that there are 

places where the girls that they rescue end up being well taken 

care of. 

Mr. SMITH. Let me just ask what the role in, particularly in the 

healing process. I have actually been in shelters in Russia, Peru, 

Bolivia, Ethiopia, Romania, Ukraine, Italy, Bosnia just to name a 

few of the countries, and I have observed a marked difference in 

terms of the positive impact on women and young girls when there 

is a faith-based component of some kind. Some are run exclusively—in Bolivia and Peru they are run by nuns. And young girls 

in Peru—Greg and I were in the ones in Ethiopia, and Piero and 

I were in the ones in Peru and some of these other Central and 

South American countries. And I was really touched by how the 

healing seems to go so much further when there is a faith-based 

component. 

I am wondering what you think about that. Pope Francis, among 

other distinguished clerics, has made this a high priority, this combating human trafficking and caring especially for the victims. I 

am wondering, you know, what your thoughts on that might be? 

Ms. OROZCO. Well, of course, in Mexico we work with three shelters. The only ones that help victims of human trafficking, and the 

three of them have that component. 

Mr. SMITH. Has what, faith-based? 

Ms. OROZCO. Yes, faith based. And we believe that that is very 

important until they really are successful. I am so proud now of 

Karlita because, you know, they do a book of dreams, and we all, 

these 97 NGOs, we help them to succeed. We also work in jails 

with the pimps. That has been very powerful. If you can watch the 

CNN documentary that is called ‘‘Human Merchandise,’’ you can 

watch one of the pimps who is asking forgiveness to one of the 

friends of Karlita. That also is in the book, Marcella. All of the girls 

40

that you can see in the book are successful victims because all of 

them know now that they are special; that they were created to do 

an important mission now, and because of that, also these pimps, 

Karlita has been in jail with them, and it is very powerful to the 

restorative justice. And they have been able to ask forgiveness to 

the victims. That is powerful too. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you. 

Mr. REYES. Well, let me say this, Mr. Chair, we certainly are 

welcoming to all organizations of whatever background that want 

to join the fight. But so many of our best partners in this effort are 

faith-based organizations and it does have a powerful impact in the 

healing process that I have seen. On a side note, I remember when 

I let my staff know that I was heading down. I have a chief civil 

deputy who is a two-star Army general, somebody that I greatly 

admire, a hero of mine. And he said to me—atypical of his usual 

deference to my position—he said, ‘‘Boy, I wouldn’t send my own 

troops down where you are going. You can’t go.’’ And my response 

to him was, ‘‘General, I feel like God is on our side in this effort, 

and that He will protect us.’’ And that I have counselled with so 

many of those survivors who have said that it was really God and 

faith that kept them alive throughout the process. And so, of 

course, in the healing process, I would expect that God and faith 

would play a critical role, and I am not ashamed to say that. 

I think that that is an important component of it. Whatever 

someone’s conception of what God or faith may be, I think it is critical. 

Last thing, and this is, I guess, the beauty of having C–SPAN 

cover this, I get texts from people saying, oh, you need to cover this 

or that that you forgot to say. In terms of the girls that we worked 

with, many of them were able to get back to their families. And I 

think that is what people were curious about. Did they get home 

to their families? In some sad cases, it was their families that sold 

them in the first place, or the family environment is not a stable 

enough one where we feel comfortable putting them back in that 

environment. And so again, with our Government partners, and 

our nonprofit partners, both domestically and internationally, we 

take a very careful look at making sure we put these children, of 

course, with a deference to their families first, in a situation where 

they can win because the last thing we want to do is liberate them 

and set them up for failure without the resources that they deserve. 

So it is true because people ask, sometimes their families, their 

direct immediate families were the ones that decided to profit from 

them, and so they may go to next of kin. However, I wouldn’t be 

too judgemental. In many cases the families did not know that they 

were putting their children in harms way. In this very case they 

thought they were giving them a chance to make more money in 

1 year in a modeling agency which is part of that culture, beauty 

pageants, than both parents could make an in a decade. And so 

then, you know, why wouldn’t they want to help support their 

number of other siblings, and they innocently let their children go 

to be part of that. 

There are English exchange programs. The women that we help 

liberate in my State, the victims we found out that they thought 

41

they were signing up for a United States cultural program or an 

English language program, and the wily traffickers, the ones who 

are cagier, will often, with a gun to the heads of the victims, essentially figuratively or literally, have them Skype their families every 

month to say, things are going great here. We love it in America. 

Learning a lot. But in the meantime, they are put 10 to 20 in a 

little flat, again beaten, raped, drugged, abused, and forced to be 

prostitutes, and their humanity is taken away, their dignity is 

stripped away. 

So we do everything we can on the back end to give them 

chances to reintegrate and be successes like our hero here today. 

She said she admired us, but she is a real heroine to all of us. So 

again, thank you for your time. Thank you for all of your efforts. 

We hope your Senate colleagues are listening carefully to the testimony today. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you for your strong appeal for the International Megan’s Law. Coming from a person with your experience 

and knowing the direct impact it will have, it is very, very powerful. 

Let me just—I have one final question. I yield to my friend Mrs. 

Wagner for any additional questions she might have. But one of 

the emerging phenomenons that we have seen, is that it is not just 

organized crime, but it is gangs that has embraced human trafficking in a very, very despicable way. We have had a number of 

busts in my own State of organized crime, of that too, but of the 

gangs. And these young girls that are being exploited are 14, 15, 

16 years old and if you could speak to that as an emerging threat 

because this seems to be going from bad to worse. Gangs do bad 

things with drugs, they do bad things relative to violence of other 

kinds and they are now in the trafficking business of human persons. 

Ms. OROZCO. Yeah, also we have that punishment to the people 

who are in organized crime, or gangs that will take these young 

people, like to sell drugs, or to be forced to do crimes, and it is happening in our country. We are fighting against that. And also, we 

are having agriculture people forced to labor, and we just had a 

new girl who also escaped from being forced labor in—it was like 

a dry cleaning. 

Ms. JACINTO. Yeah, a dry cleaning. 

Ms. OROZCO. Dry cleaning, and she was even with chains in her 

body 2 years. She is devastated. It is the worst case, and it is happening and that is why the laws have to be reformed and we congratulate you because we can see in your heart that you have a 

passion to protect dignity and freedom. Thank you. You have the 

same spirit of Abraham Lincoln, and we are very happy to be here 

with you. 

Mr. SMITH. Well, thank you. And thank you for your leadership. 

Mr. REYES. The dynamic you described, Mr. Chair, I believe is 

an accurate one, more and more. In fact, I think the prevalence of 

those who are traffickers is less from large, organized criminal 

structures and rather either smaller gangs or one-off cells. The vast 

majority of those traffickers that we encounter, especially when we 

are doing our operations, are really small. And ironically, and in 

fact in Colombia, the intelligence that we received on that parVerDate 0ct 09 2002 12:19 Aug 18, 2015 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00045 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_AGH\051415\94608 SHIRL
42

ticular cell that we busted came from high-level narcotraffickers. 

And, you know, perhaps there is honor amongst thieves. They said, 

you can handle this two ways: Either we will take care of these 

guys our way, and that might be a lot of collateral damage and carnage or the government can do something about it. And the government reached out to Operation Underground Railroad and said, 

Tim, please come in right now and help us devise a way to go after 

them without endangering other citizens. And so again, to my 

point, it seems to be less and less huge cartels, and much more just 

small organizations. Because historically, the downside has been 

very small. There hasn’t been that much disincentive in terms of 

the laws that have been out there or enforcement. Things are 

changing with the laws that you are helping us pass domestically, 

Congresswoman Wagner. Things are changing, Chairman Smith, 

because of the International Megan’s Law that will hopefully eventually be the law of the land. But I think that was an astute observation that you brought up. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you. I would like to yield to Congresswoman 

Wagner. 

Mrs. WAGNER. And I would agree with you, General, that a lot 

of this is maybe not large cartel business, but it is big business. 

And at the end of the day, it is follow the money. I will tell you 

that here domestically any given pimp generally traffics about six 

to eight women. They make $150,000 to $200,000 a year off of each 

one of those victims. And it is absolutely, as I have said before, deplorable. What lifts me up, though, and gives me great hope are 

people like you, Karlita, and survivors, and people that are willing 

to come forward and tell their stories. 

I have been to the safehomes and the shelters. I have worked 

with these young people. I have been on sting operations myself—

probably not quite on the frontline as you were, General—but I 

have been there when we have saved two young women and caught 

two pimps at the same time. 

Mr. REYES. Congratulations. That is wonderful. 

Mrs. WAGNER. And you know, so we dig in big time. And at the 

end of the day there are things that we can do legislatively, obviously. But education an awareness are absolutely key, and I can’t 

stress that enough. Across the board everywhere, whether it is our 

schools, whether it is in our hospitals, whether, as I said, it is in 

our convention and sports—St. Louis, my hometown, sadly, is in 

the top 20 for human trafficking, mainly because of its logistical location and its interstate access. So there are also things that I 

think that we can do. And we are putting some legislative teeth behind studies and bringing together research and information with 

who the most vulnerable are. Who are the ones that are most likely 

to be victimized, so that we can take care to watch out and over 

them and give folks the resources and the information about how 

to not fall prey to this kind of victimization in the first place. 

So again, I applaud your efforts. It is a labor of love, and one 

that I feel very, very passionately about. I have got a young daughter. I have nieces. I care about their future, the future of all of our 

young children and grandchildren, and I will fight legislatively. I 

will fight for education and awareness on this issue until the last 

breath in my body. 

43

And I thank you, General. I will absolutely get with you. Some 

of my staff is here and we are working, as I said, on some best 

practices and programs for some of the schools. And I think we 

have gotten their attention. So I applaud you and I thank you, and 

I thank you Mr. Chairman, for giving me the latitude and the time 

today to come before you. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you. As we conclude, I will just talk about situational awareness, one of the best practices that is of absolutely 

almost no cost except for the training, and that is to train airline 

flight attendants and as well as the pilots to recognize. A woman 

named Nancy Rivard has come up with—and others—has come up 

with Airline Ambassadors International, a wonderful program so 

that the flight attendants become situationally aware. They become 

eyes and ears during a flight. It ought to be done on trains and at 

bus stops as well. And then law enforcement is advised in a timely 

fashion, in the case of a plane as it lands, to be there, to ascertain 

whether or not there is a trafficking in progress. And there have 

been a number of tremendously encouraging stories where this has 

absolutely broken the cycle. 

Coming out of Haiti, American Airlines was able to break a cycle 

of little children where a pedophile ring was broken. Flights coming 

out of Russia to Chicago where every couple of days there would 

be a number of Russian girls, young girls, teenagers, with one guy. 

There is something wrong with that picture. Turns out it was a 

trafficking ring and the flight attendants were situationally aware 

enough to make sure the pilot called ahead. So it is something we 

need to get in all of Latin America, all of Asia, all of Europe, Africa, so that thousands of airline flight attendants and the pilots and 

crew will be aware of what it looks like not to be law enforcers, not 

to put the potential victims at risk or themselves, but again, to 

phone ahead so that when that plane lands, they are rescued and 

the traffickers apprehended and prosecuted. 

Mr. REYES. Be our eyes and ears. Or theirs. And the trucking association has been terrific partners as well in some of ships and all 

of those together. We need everyone. 

Mr. SMITH. We do. 

Ms. JACINTO. Mr. Chairman, would you mind repeating the person that wrote the program? 

Mr. SMITH. Sure. Nancy Rivard and it is Airline Ambassadors 

International. And we actually at the Department of Homeland Security, have a best practices module, or training capacity called 

Blue Lightning, so that needs to be replicated everywhere, including our own airlines. Delta has undertaken this, but far too few of 

our own airlines, certainly in Mexico, and you know, all of the 

other airlines need to be looking at it as well. Anything you would 

like to say before we conclude? 

Mr. REYES. No. Thank you, again. I would just concur with Congresswoman Wagner that education and awareness ultimately will 

be the biggest deterrent to fighting this. We can’t just investigate 

and prosecute our way out of this problem. And when you are 

ready to come to Utah for an undercover sting, come on out. We 

will get you a flack jacket and we will put you to work, Congresswoman. Thank you. Congressman Chaffetz has been out with us 

several times. 

44

Mr. SMITH. And he does send his best. He is at a top secret briefing right now, or he asked me to convey to you that he would be 

here to welcome you. Thank you so much. 

Ms. OROZCO. We just want to give you our blue heart. This is the 

U.N. blue heart for human trafficking. Humans are not for sale. 

Thank you. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you. And thank you again for your bravery in 

coming forward and telling your story as well. The hearing is adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 5:02 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.] 

(45)

A P P E N D I X 

MATERIAL SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD

46

f


94608n.eps
47

Æ


94608m.eps