U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE

56–816 WASHINGTON : 2024

CHILDREN ARE NOT FOR SALE—GLOBAL EFFORTS 

TO ADDRESS CHILD TRAFFICKING 

HEARING 

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON GLOBAL HEALTH, 

GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND 

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS 

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

ONE HUNDRED EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS 

FIRST SESSION 

SEPTEMBER 14, 2023 

Serial No. 118–116 

Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs 

( 

Available: http://www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/, http://docs.house.gov, 

or http://www.govinfo.gov 


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COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

MICHAEL T. MCCAUL, Texas, Chairman 

CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey 

JOE WILSON, South Carolina 

SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania 

DARRELL ISSA, California 

ANN WAGNER, Missouri 

BRIAN MAST, Florida 

KEN BUCK, Colorado 

TIM BURCHETT, Tennessee 

MARK E. GREEN, Tennessee 

ANDY BARR, Kentucky 

RONNY JACKSON, Texas 

YOUNG KIM, California 

MARIA ELVIRA SALAZAR, Florida 

BILL HUIZENGA, Michigan 

AUMUA AMATA COLEMAN RADEWAGEN, 

American Samoa 

FRENCH HILL, Arkansas 

WARREN DAVIDSON, Ohio 

JIM BAIRD, Indiana 

MICHAEL WALTZ, Florida 

THOMAS KEAN, JR., New Jersey 

MICHAEL LAWLER, New York 

CORY MILLS, Florida 

RICH MCCORMICK, Georgia 

NATHANIEL MORAN, Texas 

JOHN JAMES, Michigan 

KEITH SELF, Texas 

GREGORY MEEKS, New York, Ranking 

Member 

BRAD SHERMAN, California 

GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia 

WILLIAM KEATING, Massachusetts 

AMI BERA, California 

JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas 

DINA TITUS, Nevada 

TED LIEU, California 

SUSAN WILD, Pennsylvania 

DEAN PHILLIPS, Minnesota 

COLIN ALLRED, Texas 

ANDY KIM, New Jersey 

SARA JACOBS, California 

KATHY MANNING, North Carolina 

SHEILA CHERFILUS-MCCORMICK, Florida 

GREG STANTON, Arizona 

MADELEINE DEAN, Pennsylvania 

JARED MOSKOWITZ, Florida 

JONATHAN JACKSON, Illinois 

SYDNEY KAMLAGER-DOVE, California 

JIM COSTA, California 

JASON CROW, Colorado 

BRAD SCHNEIDER, Illinois 

BRENDAN SHIELDS, Majority Staff Director 

SOPHIA A. LAFARGUE, Minority Staff Director 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON GLOBAL HEALTH, GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND INTERNATIONAL

ORGANIZATIONS

CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey, Chairman 

MARIA ELVIRA SALAZAR, Florida 

AUMUA AMATA COLEMAN RADEWAGEN, 

American Samoa 

FRENCH HILL, Arkansas 

RICH MCCORMICK, Georgia 

JOHN JAMES, Michigan 

SUSAN WILD, Pennsylvania, Ranking 

Member 

AMI BERA, California 

SARA JACOBS, California 

KATHY MANNING, North Carolina 

MARY VIGIL, Subcommittee Staff Director 


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C O N T E N T S 

WITNESSES 

Page 

Tim Ballard, Senior Adviser, The SPEAR Fund ................................................... 13 

Jeanne Celestine Lakin, Survivor-Expert .............................................................. 22 

Jennifer Podkul, Vice President of Policy and Advocacy, Kids in Need of 

Defense .................................................................................................................. 27 

APPENDIX 

Hearing Notice ......................................................................................................... 61 

Hearing Minutes ...................................................................................................... 63 

Hearing Attendance ................................................................................................. 64 


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CHILDREN ARE NOT FOR SALE—GLOBAL 

EFFORTS TO ADDRESS CHILD TRAFFICKING 

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2023 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON GLOBAL HEALTH, GLOBAL HUMAN

RIGHTS, AND INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS, COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS, Washington, DC. 

The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 12:12 p.m., in Room 

2200, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Christopher H. Smith 

[chairman of the subcommittee] presiding. 

Mr. SMITH. Good morning or afternoon, I should say. This hearing of the Subcommittee on Global Health, Global Human Rights, 

and International Organizations will come to order. Over 20 years 

ago, the U.S. Congress approved and the President signed legislation, historic bipartisan legislation that I authored, known as the 

Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, a comprehensive whole 

of government initiative to combat sex and labor trafficking in the 

United States as well as around the world. 

The TVPA created a bold domestic and international anti-human 

trafficking strategy and established numerous, dozens and dozens 

of new programs to protect victims, prosecute traffickers, and to 

the extent possible, prevent human trafficking in the first place, as 

we all know, the three Ps. Though it’s hard to believe now, my legislation was met with a wall of skepticism and opposition, outright 

opposition, dismissed by many as a solution in search of a problem. 

The administration even argued in this room as well as in 2172 

that we didn’t need a TIP Report which goes out every year. 

We did not need to have any sanctions or naming of countries 

with egregious records. It’s all on the record. And somehow all of 

that would be counterproductive. And I’m a great believer that 

when you fight human rights and combat human rights abuses for 

human rights and combat abuses, you’ve got to name names. 

You got to be specific if you hope to effectuate change. And we 

pressed on again in a bipartisan way. And we were able to get the 

legislation over the goal line and into law. 

At the time too, many people thought when we said trafficking, 

including a number of U.S. attorneys that I talked to about what 

were they doing, they said, you’re talking about weapons, right? 

You’re talking about drugs, right? And I said, no, we’re talking 

about human beings. 

There was this sense that what’s that, human trafficking? It was 

kind of sad. I started working on this issue in 1995. It wasn’t until 

five years later that we actually got the bill enacted into law. 


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Reports of vulnerable persons, especially women and children, 

being reduced to commodities for sale were often met with surprise, 

incredulity, or indifference. The bill was signed into law on October 

28th. And within a year, and I did a number of oversight hearings 

as well, nobody was arguing that the Trafficking Victims Protection 

Act and especially the three Ps was flawed, unworkable, unnecessary, or especially counterproductive. Everybody seemed to then be 

on board. 

Today we will examine—again, examine child sex and labor trafficking, a particularly devastating and egregious form of human 

trafficking that targets the most vulnerable among us. Tragically, 

this heinous crime has become more prevalent in recent years. 

Child predators it turns out are everywhere on the prowl, kidnaping, buying, or renting children to exploit. 

The child predators never waste a crisis and are especially 

skilled at taking advantage of conflict, poverty, lawlessness, poor 

governance by governments, corrupt officials including at the police 

level—especially at the police level. They take advantage of IDPs, 

refugees, and migrants. During the COVID–19 pandemic, and we 

held a series of hearings in this committee on this, we found the 

child predators found new and devious ways via the internet and 

social media to groom and to sexually harm children. 

On any given day, over 27 million people around the world—and 

there are varying estimates, but that’s one of the estimates given 

by the U.S. Department of State—are enslaved in forced labor or 

sex trafficking. It is estimated nearly a third of all trafficking victims are children. But we believe that the true number is likely to 

much, much higher. 

To combat child sex tourism in 2016, I authored the International Megan’s Law. After eight years of argument and callous 

disregard for child victims, it passed the House three times with 

huge bipartisan majorities but was blocked by the Senate. International Megan’s Law was finally adopted in the Senate and signed 

into law. 

International Megan’s Law seeks to protect children from sex 

tourism by notifying destination countries when convicted 

pedophiles plan to travel. The penalty for failure to disclose is identical to their failure to disclose to their local-state law enforcement, 

up to ten years in prison. When they say, I’m going to this country, 

X, Y, or Z, they have to tell us that. 

If they lie, they could be prosecuted and, like I said, get up to 

ten years in prison for it. So we’re very serious. This child sex tourism has got to be stopped, and one way of doing is to say, you tell 

us where you’re going. We inform the country of destination. 

We have the Angel Watch program that’s doing a magnificent job 

on that. And then they’re free to say, you’re not coming in or you 

can come in and we’ll watch you like a hawk. A number of countries, there’s been more than 20,000 notices made to other countries. 

We’ve asked that it be a sense of reciprocity. We wrote it right 

into the law. We haven’t gotten a lot of people telling us in other 

countries, so-and-so is coming who we convicted as a pedophile. I 

wish we could get that, and we’re still pushing for that so we can 

be on guard or making them inadmissible to the United States. 


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Megan Kanka on who each and every one of our states has a 

Megan’s Law, she was a 7-year-old little girl who lived in my old 

hometown of Hamilton. I know the parents very well. I worked 

with them on Megan’s Law as well as International Megan’s Law. 

She was sexually assaulted and murdered in 1994 by a convicted 

pedophile who lived across the street. Nobody, I say again nobody 

knew who he was. He was actually handing out fliers, have you 

seen Megan, as part of the search when she went missing and he 

had brutally raped her and then buried her in a shallow grave. 

He’s in prison and hopefully will never get out. But that led to 

Megan’s Laws everywhere. And I had a meeting about 12 years 

ago. I always meet with delegations when they come in and we talk 

about trafficking. 

This one was from Thailand. And I asked them, what would you 

do if you knew a convicted pedophile who was coming to Bangkok 

or Phuket or any of the other places where child sex tourism is 

very, very prevalent. They said, we wouldn’t let them in. 

That day, we started drafting the legislation. And again, eight 

years later, we finally got it enacted into law. I just have right here 

because we were very concerned that they would lie and not get 

caught as to where they’re going, they’ll say they’re going to 

Narita, to Japan, and they’re really going somewhere else like Malaysia or to Cambodia or to Thailand. 

We got the legislation to include that the passports will have to 

have this inscription on it. The bearer was convicted of a sex offense against a minor and is a covered sex offender pursuant to the 

U.S. code. And we know that many of the people at the border now 

are looking for that. 

They see that, and they say, get out of here. You’re not coming 

in to abuse our children because we know that these are very 

rampant. And very often these sex tourism things are just horrible. 

We also know and all of you know that, especially our very distinguished witnesses, that refugees, migrants, and internally displaced children are especially vulnerable to trafficking. And then 

traffickers take advantage of conflict and chaos to target young victims. We are seeing this in Ukraine where it is estimated over 90 

percent of the Ukrainians fleeing Putin’s war are women and children and that more than half of Ukrainians children have been displaced by conflict. 

Thousands of Ukrainian children have been forcibly removed 

from their homes and from orphanages and taken to Russia in 

mass abductions. Part of Putin’s genocidal plan to erase the 

Ukrainian culture. Tragically, the problems of child trafficking is 

rampant right here in the United States, right under our nose. 

A lot of our law enforcement are working hard to combat it. But 

it’s happening right here with American children. Now we know 

there’s a serious family concern that unaccompanied minors coming 

across our southern border, many of them from Central America 

and South America, may be the new victims. According to U.S. 

Customs and Border Protection, at least 345,000 children from 

other countries have crossed the U.S. southern border unaccompanied since 2021. 

These unaccompanied minors are especially vulnerable to traffickers. And shockingly, Department of Health and Human ServVerDate Sep 11 2014 08:19 Dec 06, 2024 Jkt 056816 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 E:\HR\OC\A816.XXX A816

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ices has lost contact with at least 85,000 of these children after 

placing them with sponsors in the United States. I would note parenthetically and I work very closely intercountry adoption as well 

as adoption domestically. 

There’s a great vetting process to ensure that who is applying to 

be a parent of an adopted child gets a home study, gets all kinds 

of due process, due diligence to ensure they are who they say they 

are and the child will be in a good home where he or she or they 

if it’s a group of siblings will not be hurt. What kind of due diligence is being done for these children as they’re handed off? I’ve 

heard so many anecdotal stories that have just—were chilling 

about how low the bar is in order to procure one of these children. 

And that’s the word that I use because I think some of this obviously is human trafficking. The U.S. government has a responsibility to protect these vulnerable children and to fully vet the sponsors. Without any means to contact these children, many of whom 

endured countless risks to reach the U.S. border, I put in our last 

hearing that we had with Ambassador at Large Dyer that the 

President of Guatemala told me that about 80 percent of the 

women and young girls making their way up the border—to our 

border are sexually assaulted, 80 percent. 

Tim, you brought out, and I hope you bring out in your testimony 

about these other Central American Presidents who are speaking 

out and saying, these are our kids. Whether they’re ultra left or 

ultra right as Presidents, they’re concerned that their kids are 

being maltreated in the most ruinous ways as they make their way 

to the U.S. Without any means of contact, these children, many of 

whom endured countless risks to reach the U.S. border could be in 

immediate grave danger and at risk of death, child sex exploitation 

and abuse, severe forms of trafficking and persons including forced 

labor and of course sex trafficking. 

Earlier this week joined by 22 sponsors, I introduced H.R. 5415, 

the Safeguarding Endangered Children, Unaccompanied and at 

Risk of Exploitation Act or the SECURE Act to compel the federal 

government to report our efforts to locate, establish contact with, 

conduct wellness checks on, and investigate any suspicion of 

human trafficking related to the approximately 85,000 unaccompanied minors where ORR has lost contact with. It is imperative 

that the executive branch locate and assess the well being of these 

minors. And we must inform our border security policies—reform 

them so that this ends. 

We are joined here today by an outstanding group of witnesses. 

I’ll give a proper introduction to each of you. You are just amazing 

leaders, including a man whose life experience provided the foundation for the recently released file, Sound of Freedom, Tim 

Ballard. The Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy did a premiere 

for members of Congress, and many members came. 

And even though for my wife and I it was the second time that 

we saw it, I had tears in my eyes about the heroic things that Tim 

did and the kids, the plight of those kids, in this case, kids from 

Colombia. On May 14, 2015 in this room, Tim Ballard testified at 

one of my human rights committee hearings. He told us how he 

had served for 12 years as a special agent for the Department of 

Homeland Security’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force 


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and the sex tourism [inaudible] and worked as an undercover operative infiltrating organizations at home and abroad that were abusing and trafficking children. 

Tim told us, however, that he often felt helpless, his word, ‘‘by 

the fact that the vast majority of the child victims that we would 

find fell outside of the purview of the United States. And unless we 

could tie it to U.S. travel to the case, I would not be able to rescue 

the children,’’ close quote. Working with the Colombians, for example, Tim pulled off one of the largest rescue operations ever, more 

than 120 victims, children as young as 11 in just one day. 

An example of working with local law enforcement like in Colombia and with many of our folks that were just absolutely motivated 

to rescue children, 120 victims in just one day. Tim’s heroic lifesaving work—and it was very, very dangerous, continues to be, rescuing children from the cruelty of sex trafficking, almost always at 

great physical risk to himself and his colleagues—is the stuff of legends. I said it the other day, we often use the word, hero. 

We use it too much I think sometimes in Congress. We’re all legends in our own mind after all. But this man is a hero. And you 

ladies are heroes on the front line fighting so hard. 

The Sound of Freedom tells his true story. It not only informs 

and educates, it motivates and is going all around the world motivating and informing people to take stronger action and to be 

aware situationally. I would also like to extend a very special 

thanks for Jeanne Celestine Lakin, a courageous survivor expert 

who joined us today to share her very personal perspective, what 

impact these crimes have on children, and what more we should be 

doing to prevent them. 

I’ve always considered it essential to listen to the voices of survivors. We all believe that. And in the process of developing the 

Trafficking Victims Protection Act, it was survivors who moved the 

needle and convinced lawmakers that the legislation was necessary. 

Our bill was dead. The administration was against it. And then 

we had victims come and testify, including two especially persuasive women who have been forced into prostitution trafficking in 

Moscow. And they told their stories. 

I met with them in 1989 along with my wife. And it was just 

mind boggling what they had been through. And you could’ve heard 

a pin drop when they told their stories. 

And people said, wait a minute. We need to do something about 

this. So thank you. Thank you very much, Ms. Lakin. And I’m so 

happy to welcome and we’re deeply grateful that Jennifer Podkul, 

Vice President of Policy and Advocacy of Kids in Need of Defense 

will shortly testify as well. 

And I will introduce her more robustly in a few moments. But 

I want to thank you, all three of you for your leadership. I’d like 

to yield to Ms. Wild. 

Ms. WILD. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. And thank you 

so much to our witnesses. Coincidentally, the timing of this hearing 

is occurring just as I’ve returned from Nepal with several of my 

congressional colleagues where we had a number of visits with 

young women in particular who were survivors of trafficking as 

well as meeting with USAID employees and NGOs who are workVerDate Sep 11 2014 08:19 Dec 06, 2024 Jkt 056816 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6602 E:\HR\OC\A816.XXX A816

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ing very hard to combat child trafficking in particular but also trafficking of women. 

And it was a very sobering trip and really just made me realize 

how extensive the problem is around the world. Mr. Chairman, you 

mentioned that trafficking often thrives in places of conflict and 

chaos. I’d add to that, that trafficking thrives in places with extreme poverty which is really tragic. 

We spoke to people whose parents had essentially acquiesced to 

their young daughters being taken away for what was 

euphemistically called education or a job. We talked to one young 

woman who had survived trafficking but had been taken away 

from her village at age 8 and was injected with something that 

caused her to go into early puberty. And it was really just a terribly difficult thing to listen to. 

So I feel incredibly strongly that combating the scourge of human 

trafficking particularly among children but all of human trafficking 

should never become a partisan issue. It’s one of those core priorities where we can and must continue to find common ground. We 

can’t let this tragic issue fall into the pit where partisan divide 

causes important causes to be relegated to the cutting room floor 

as we have seen all too often. 

And I hope that we can all come together in the name of humanity and decency and protection of children to cross that divide. Addressing the root of this issue requires being willing to engage in 

tough, robust, and effective diplomacy and partnership with partners and allies bilaterally as well as in international forums. And 

one of the things we have to be prepared for is that often in countries where trafficking is particularly prevalent, there will be great 

denial of that at the governmental level, in very uncertain terms 

that it’s not happening there. 

And we just need to be able to look past what we often do in the 

name of diplomacy, accepting what a government official in another 

country tells us to really look at what is happening around the 

world. And it requires consistency in how we report on countries 

regardless of geopolitical considerations. We cannot show favoritism in this issue to countries that we may have an allied relationship with because we’re worried about upsetting a balance of trade 

or some other issue. 

It’s absolutely too important. And this issue, in my view, 

supercedes all other considerations. And it requires being willing to 

take on powerful interests here at home quite honestly particularly 

when it comes to some disturbing recent reports that we have seen 

of the prevalence of child labor in corporate supply chains, including among some very profitable corporations doing business here in 

the United States. 

And I don’t mean to suggest that we are at the heart of the problem. But I think it’s very, very important that we not close our eyes 

to any evidence of child trafficking in particular, human trafficking 

in general. So to all the advocates and the survivors who may be 

watching this hearing, wherever you are, please know that you 

have an ally in me and my office and this subcommittee. 

With that, I thank you, Mr. Chairman. I look forward to working 

together on this. And I yield back. 


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Mr. SMITH. Thank you very much, Ranking Member. I’d like to 

yield such time as you may consume to Ms. Radewagen. And thank 

you for being here. 

Mrs. RADEWAGEN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I also want to 

thank the ranking member for holding this important hearing. Mr. 

Ballard, I have several questions for you, but they’re sort of interwoven. But let’s start by, can you tell us more about what you 

learned about the crime of child trafficking as an agent for the Department of Homeland—I’m sorry. Erase all that. 

But I wanted to just take the opportunity to thank the chairman 

and the ranking member for holding this tremendously important 

hearing. And I particularly want to thank the witnesses for appearing here today to share all this very, very important information 

with us. 

Mr. SMITH. I’d like to yield to Ms. Manning. 

Ms. MANNING. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman. Thank you to 

Ranking Member Wild. Thank you for your remarkable words on 

this critically important heartbreaking problem. And Chairman 

Smith, I would just like to thank you for your many, many years 

of tenacious work on this issue, more than 20 years of work. 

And I just want to congratulate you on your achievements because I think without your work, we would not have some of the 

laws in place that are hopefully having an effect on getting to this 

issue. So thank you for all of that. I guess I want to start with Ms. 

Podkul. Can you talk to us about how has human trafficking 

evolved—thank you. With that, I yield back. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you, Ms. Manning. And thank you, Ranking 

Member Wild. Let me introduce our three distinguished witnesses 

beginning first with Tim Ballard who is senior advisor to the 

SPEAR Fund which combats all forms of human trafficking. 

Mr. Ballard previously spent over a decade working as a special 

agent on some of the background I already shared with the committee and with the audience where he was assigned to the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, an undercover operative. 

And again, I would encourage people to watch Sound of Freedom 

to get a sense of what it is really like to be on the front line to 

plan, to do all of the intel that was necessary how to best rescue 

those children with the greatest possibility of them as well as the 

rescuers not getting hurt. I mean, the traffickers did think nothing 

of committing murder. 

They rape. They also murder. So I’m so grateful, but I hope people will take the time to look at that and watch that very, very 

powerful movie. 

Now we’ll hear from Jeanne Celestine Lakin, who is a survivor 

of child trafficking and an expert on the vulnerability of children 

to trafficking and the impact that it has on their growth and development and what can be done to protect and prevent this crime. 

Ms. Lakin serves as the chair of the International Survivors of 

Trafficking Advisory Council, for the Organization for Security and 

Cooperation in Europe’s Office for Democratic Institutions and 

Human Rights. And parenthetically, I serve as the special representative for the Parliamentary Assembly of Trafficking as the 

special rep. 


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So she’s a colleague as well but working with ODIHR and deeply 

appreciate that work. She’s an award winning author of A Voice in 

the Darkness, a memoir of a Rwandan genocide. And I just got a 

copy and will read it, probably in October when we have a break. 

And she wrote, as a survivor of the genocide in Rwanda, we all 

remember the Tutsis and Hutus and the horrible bloodletting that 

may have been prevented but it wasn’t by the international community, the UN, and the United States. But she’s a survivor. So 

thank you for being here. She obtained her MA in public administration and public policy from Eastern Washington University. She 

founded the One Million Orphans initiative dedicated to providing 

sustainable support to the world’s most vulnerable children. 

And we’ll hear from Jennifer Podkul what happened is an international human rights lawyer and expert on child migration in the 

United States. Prior to joining Kids in Need of Defense, Jennifer 

was a senior program officer at the Women’s Refugee Commission 

where she researched issues facing vulnerable migrants seeking 

protection in the United States and advocated for improved treatment. She is a national expert on issues affecting immigrant children, has published articles, handbooks, and reports on U.S. immigration law, and she presents regularly as an expert at various 

conferences, briefings, and professional training and includes 

speaking to us here on the subcommittee. Thank you. She co-authored Forced from Home: The Lost Boys and Girls from Central 

America and was a contributing author to Childhood Migration and 

Human Rights in Central and North America: Causes, Policies, 

Practices, and Challenges. 

Thank you, each of you. Please take up to ten minutes. If you 

need a little more, that’s fine. And any additional materials you 

want to be included in the record, without objection will be so ordered. 

STATEMENTS OF TIM BALLARD, SENIOR ADVISOR, THE SPEAR 

FUND; JEANNE CELESTINE LAKIN, SURVIVOR-EXPERT; JENNIFER PODKUL, VICE PRESIDENT OF POLICY AND ADVOCACY, KIDS IN NEED OF DEFENSE 

STATEMENT OF TIM BALLARD 

Mr. BALLARD. Chairman Smith, Ranking Member Wild, and 

members of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee, it’s an honor to 

present to you this statement. Human trafficking is real. It’s tragic. 

And I’m grateful this committee is willing to bring attention to how 

human trafficking is the largest and fastest growing criminal enterprise in the world, how United States actors have played a role 

in that growth, and what we can do to end trafficking in our time. 

Human trafficking is a global humanitarian crisis with the U.S. 

State Department estimating that there are over 27 million global 

victims of human trafficking at any given time. Tragically, some 

people in the media and in Washington, D.C. have tried to minimize the impact of human trafficking and the destruction it creates, especially in the lives of innocent children. Regardless of ideology or party label, I believe every member of this committee and 

good people everywhere can agree that human trafficking is a 

plague and an evil that must be eradicated. 


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Evidence of this can be seen in the response to the new movie, 

Sound of Freedom, that has been a surprise box office success and 

is sparking a national conversation on child sex slavery and trafficking. American people on all sides of the aisle are realizing that 

ending human trafficking is not a political debate. It is the moral 

imperative of our time and our nation is not alone in this mindset. 

In my career, I’ve traveled extensively around the globe, most recently for the international release of the film, Sound of Freedom. 

I have met with heads of states and government officials in countries we count as close allies who share with great sadness the impact and the scourge that human trafficking is having on their own 

borders. They understand the magnitude of the evil that trafficking 

represents and share their strong conviction to work with the 

United States in bringing powerful solutions to the fight against 

human trafficking. 

The conclusions I offer today in this testimony are based on my 

professional experience as an anti-trafficking operator, both as a 

U.S. federal agent and the leader of an anti-trafficking NGO. After 

starting my professional career with the CIA, I transferred to the 

Department of Homeland Security. At DHS, I spent 12 years as a 

special agent and undercover operator for Homeland Security investigations. 

For 10 of those years, I combated sex trafficking on the southern 

border and became one of the country’s foremost experts on the 

issue of trafficking through years of undercover work and research 

and investigation. After leaving the federal government, I’ve continued the fight against human trafficking, first as the founder and 

CEO of the anti-trafficking organization Operation Underground 

Railroad, also as the CEO of the Nazarene Fund, and now as a senior advisor for the SPEAR Fund which is an organization that 

funds and collaborates with a coalition of experts, operators, organizations, and concerned citizens around the globe to end human 

trafficking. Through my experience as a federal agent, I’m working 

with several of these NGOs. 

I work closely with the heads of every U.S. agency whose job it 

is to find and rescue children being trafficked across our border as 

well as working with government officials and law enforcement 

agencies from around the world. But our federal agents and local 

law enforcement along with anti-trafficking agents around the 

globe work with professionalism and dedication. Their tireless efforts result in not just disrupting the flow of human trafficking but 

rescuing those who have become victims of human trafficking. 

I would like to share two recent experiences that’ll highlight the 

role the U.S. currently shares in aiding human trafficking in the 

world while also showing what is possible if we redouble our efforts 

and lead other countries in the fight against human trafficking. 

First, the United States is generally understood to be the number 

one consumer of child exploitation material in the world and a 

major contributor to the abhorrent sex tourism agency around the 

globe. And policies here at home have a ripple effect throughout 

the world. 

Earlier this month, I had the heartbreaking conversations with 

President Castro in Honduras and President Giammattei in Guatemala. It was clear from my conversations with each President that 


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U.S. policies are forcing our neighbors into crisis. The leadership 

in these pathway countries are working hard to warn their people 

against the dangerous practice of submitting to smugglers and traffickers. 

However, contrary to their pleas, the current administration’s 

make it too alluring. And the smugglers or traffickers who can 

make up the 14 million dollars a day are way too convincing. So 

alluring and convincing in fact that the Council on Foreign Relations reported that the northern triangle countries of El Salvador, 

Guatemala, and Honduras account for three-quarters of unaccompanied children apprehended at the southern U.S. border in fiscal 

year 2022. 

Sadly, U.S. government policy is currently reinforcing those numbers, creating havoc and making the anti-trafficking efforts of countries like Honduras and Guatemala more difficult. In contrast of 

this, recent operation efforts not covered widely in the news show 

it was possible with close international cooperation between multiple governments and NGOs. During the earlier days or the early 

days of the Russian invasion, I was alerted about women and children who were being victimized and being trafficked outside of 

Ukraine. 

For human traffickers, geopolitical events like natural disasters 

or like the war in Ukraine are sometimes and sickeningly referred 

to as harvest time by the traffickers because of their ability to easily prey upon vulnerable women and children. After recognizing the 

need in Ukraine, I began looking for an NGO that was on the 

ground in Ukraine that had the legal right to be there and had 

strong working relationships with the local government and proper 

authorities. Little did I know at the time that leads uncovered during our work in Ukraine and in eastern Europe would lead to a rescue operation represented by several NGOs including Operation 

Underground Railroad, Aerial Recovery, Free a Girl, and other organizations which because of operational security can’t be named 

at this time. 

I led this operation beginning in Ukraine. We went through three 

continents, six countries, and we identified a pedophile organization, actually a political organization of organized pedophiles in 

Holland who were fugitives. And they were hiding in Latin America while working to smuggle more victim children into their arms 

and into the possibility of being trafficked in these countries. 

We were able to identify the leader of this group. And he was 

hiding in Mexico City working with Mexican officials. He was arrested last summer. And that led us to fund his lieutenants, also 

fugitives from Holland for crimes against children, who had stood 

up a sex hotel in a little village called Canoa in Ecuador working 

with the National Police of Ecuador and with the U.S. embassy, 

HSI, who supported greatly in this operation. 

We were able to dismantle that organization completely. And 

both those pedophiles have been convicted and serving significant 

prison sentences in Ecuador. We also identified two other Dutch 

pedophiles as part of this group that we worked to get them back 

to their country where they are facing the charges there as well. 

All this we did in four short months and was able to rescue 900 

orphans out of Ukraine during the invasion. The only reason, the 


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only way we could do this was by private-public partnerships, multiple NGOs, multiple government organizations, government agencies all working together. That’s how you move fast. That’s how you 

rapidly rescue and protect children. 

But make no mistake, the war against human trafficking cartels 

and their allies, it’s going to be long. It’s going to be difficult. It’s 

a hard fight, but I believe we can win if we work together. 

The first step in that fight is ensuring U.S. policies that make 

human trafficking more difficult and not easier. I would be remiss 

if I didn’t mention the plight of 85,000 unaccompanied immigrant 

children that according to HHS were in the government’s care 

handed over to sponsors with minimal vetting and now cannot be 

accounted for. We have in large part thanks to the whistleblower 

at HHS, Ms. Rodas, who’s here. 

I was so happy and surprised to see her here. It’s thanks to her, 

her efforts and courage to stand up and sound the alarm about 

what was happening, that these children were being released way 

too rapidly and without the proper vetting. Congressman Smith’s 

the SECURE Act in particular will help find these kids that this 

administration has claimed on record that it’s not their problem 

anymore despite these children being at great risk of sexual abuse 

and other forms of exploitation. 

Secondly, the U.S. can re-double our commitment in the international enforcement efforts. The Presidents of Guatemala and 

Honduras both share the value they see in policies like International Megan’s Law which allows the U.S. to alert our allies 

when registered sex offenders are entering their countries. In fact, 

I told both Presidents—I didn’t bring it up, Chairman. They 

brought it up. 

And they said, that law, International Megan’s Law, wow, thank 

you. And I said, well, I know the person who wrote that and sponsored that. In fact, I had the privilege to actually testify before 

Congress. 

And they were so proud and they gave me the numbers of how 

many alerts they’re getting from the U.S. government. And they 

know it’s preventing child sex abuse. And so from the Presidents 

of both Honduras and Guatemala, they sent me to thank you, 

Chairman Smith, and all those who sponsored that bipartisan bill 

because it’s saving lives. 

And it taught me an important lesson. What you do in the halls 

of Congress despite what others might say actually does work, actually can do tremendous work in saving lives. And so all the more 

reason to be here and to continue to support this next piece of legislation, the SECURE Act. 

As I shared earlier, the United States is generally understood to 

be the number one consumer of child exploitation material in the 

world and a major contributor to the abhorrent sex tourism industry around the globe. Now it’s up to us to solve this problem. Too 

often people say in this country, this is a problem far, far away. 

This is a problem that we have nothing to do with. 

Well, that’s not true. Not only are we—according the State Department, the TIP report, we’re in the top three countries for—destination countries for human trafficking. We create so much of the 

demand. 


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We so often are the tourist abusing children, so it is our problem. 

And we must solve that problem right here. Countries around the 

world are in fact looking to us and looking to you to solve this problem and end this horrific plague that really is the slavery of children. Thank you. 

[The statement of Mr. Ballard follows:] 


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Mr. SMITH. Thank you so very much, Mr. Ballard. I would note 

parenthetically when you did testify in 2015, you gave our bill a 

major, major boost. Given your background when you said pass it 

because it had passed the House three times, it did help over in 

the Senate. So thank you. 

Mr. BALLARD. Thank you. 

Mr. SMITH. Ms. Lakin. 

STATEMENT OF JEANNE CELESTINE LAKIN 

Ms. LAKIN. Chairman Chris Smith, Ranking Member Susan 

Wild, distinguished members of the subcommittee, thank you for 

this opportunity to testify before you here today. My name is 

Jeanne Celestine Lakin, and I’m deeply honored to be here as a 

witness in the subcommittee hearing on child trafficking. I’d like 

to express my gratitude to the subcommittee for addressing this 

critical issue on child trafficking and it’s devastation impact it has 

on children, particularly children of refugees. 

I testify here before you today as a proud American, also as a 

survivor of child trafficking and a survivor of Rwandan genocide 

against Tutsis. I am one of the lucky ones who found safety here 

in the United States. After losing my family and also losing my 

home and experiencing the depth of inhumanity and suffered unimaginable violence, I call on all of you to ensure that children who 

are coming from armed conflict are protected from human trafficking. 

I also want to call on all of you to implement policies, especially 

immigration reform, that really embodies humanity. I believe that 

we all should protect our borders, yes, but also to look at the people 

who are crossing the borders or people who are fleeing the conflicts 

as we see it today. When I came to the United States, I was a 14- 

year-old. But it took me about 14 years to actually become a U.S. 

citizen, and that is just such a long time waiting. 

A lot of people are exploited during that phase because they wait 

without documentation and they’re vulnerable. And that’s women 

and children. I come to you with true faith that as decision makers 

in this room that you will do everything in your power to ensure 

that children are protected from human trafficking, not only here 

in the United States but all over the world, especially again looking 

at the war torn countries, looking at those countries where they 

have conflict where children are fleeing, where women are fleeing 

and girls. 

The Bible in Psalms 82:3–4 tells us, give justice to the weak and 

the fatherless. Maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. 

Rescue the weak and the needy. Deliver them from the hands of 

the wicked. 

I believe in this Bible verse. I live by it every day. And that’s 

why I’m sitting here today testifying. And that is why chartered 

One Million Orphans. 

Will you join me to create laws and implementing policies to protect children, children who are scarred by the loss of their mothers 

and children who have been scarred by the loss of their fathers, 

and the children who traffickers seek to make profit off their little 

bodies? I have faith that we can restore their faith if we all come 

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ly to have a place or system to support people who have been victimized. 

A lot of times people don’t realize that me as a survivor, not only 

was I raped but I was also traumatized from what I’ve seen. So we 

need to find a system that supports, that addresses mental health 

for the victims as well, also for the survivors. UNODC, a 2020 

Global Report on human trafficking estimated that 65 percent of 

trafficked were women and girls. 

And 92 percent of those individuals were trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation. And again, you’re looking at more 

women and girls. We know that in Rwanda, for example, rape was 

used as a weapon of war. 

It is the same thing that is happening in Congo right now. It’s 

the same thing that is happening in Ukraine. It’s the same thing 

that is happening is South Sudan. 

More so to say when women are fleeing, they leave even—when 

they’re being trafficked, they’re leaving behind those vulnerable 

children. I had many opportunities to speak to women who are fleeing Ukraine. And their bravery, their courage, they speak about 

their husbands fighting in a way or their husbands who have been 

killed. They talk about also the journey to making to a safe place 

and how tough that’s been, and those women and girls are even 

more so vulnerable. 

As a chair of OSCE, the Office for Democratic Institutions and 

Human Rights, International Survivors of Trafficking Advisory 

Council, also known as ISTAC, I serve with 20 other members, survivor members. And today I am here to represent all of them. 

Those survivors have encountered inhumanity. 

But they speak, they work to make sure that they make a difference in the world. One of my suggestions for the group is there 

was a book that was put together, the National Referral Mechanism by survivors. And that book, I believe, that should be in every 

single country really because it puts out a framework and also 

ways to identify and a way to provide resources to support survivors and victims. 

I just want to bring this attention to OSCE region on child trafficking. According to 2020 UNODC Global Report on Human Trafficking in Persons, 40 percent of all global human trafficking cases 

occurred in OSCE region. I want you to pay attention to this number. 

Out of the 40 percent, 27 percent were the cases on children, 

human trafficked children, 27 percent. Girls represented 16 percent 

and 11 percent represented the boys. While human trafficking a lot 

of times we talk about labor trafficking and also sexual exploitation, a lot of times we miss that in this report, 10 percent of 

those that were trafficked, 10 percent of those children were trafficked for the sake of harvesting their organs. And many of them 

do not survive. 

So we see that children in institutions, children who are in alternative care, runaway youth, unaccompanied children, separated 

children, children with disabilities, children who belong to national 

minorities such as Romas and Sintis, and also children in armed 

conflict, all of these children become very vulnerable. And we need 

to find a way to be united behind them. I also want to bring this 


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tragedy to—to highlight the tragedy that I’ve seen coming from 

Ukraine, of course, that’s been forced deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia. 

As a mother, I cannot fathom not seeing my boy again. Many of 

these children have been indoctrinated against Ukraine and some 

of them have had their document changed and have been adopted 

by Russia. These children are not going to be able to reunite with 

their families. 

Before I share my lived experience, I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Chairman Smith for leading the way in 

uniting OSCE States on protecting Ukrainian women and children. 

Thank you for the work you do. Your unwavering commitment and 

leadership in combating human trafficking here in the United 

States and around the world is truly remarkable and has made 

such an impact and it’s going to continue to make an impact. 

So as survivors of human trafficking, we want to thank you, 

Chairman Smith, for the work that you are doing today. I want to 

share my story really quick. But I want you to know that my story 

is not a unique story. 

It is a story of a Ukrainian girl. It is a story of an Afghan girl 

or a boy. It is a story of many children around the world. It’s story 

of refugee boys and girls fleeing from different places like Ethiopia, 

South Sudan or boys fleeing from Venezuela or a little girl fleeing 

from Myanmar. 

I grew up in a Christian family. I had ten siblings. My parents 

really served the community. They embodied the humanity. They 

served tirelessly to the community. 

But when 1994 genocide came knocking on our doors, my parents 

were—I don’t want to say it this way. But I believe they were a 

bit naive. They didn’t believe—because of the work they’ve done in 

the community, they believed that we would be safe. 

The propaganda campaign were on radios. They were on television, the ideology of hate. We went from being part of the human 

family to being called things like cockroaches and snakes and everything else except humans. We had been dehumanized. 

And one of the things, again, I advocate for in terms of immigration reform, as I was filling out forms before I received my U.S. 

citizenship, when you fill out forms that says you’re an alien, for 

me that was trigger because in my own country, I was called the 

alien, the other. So as decision makers, policy makers, I will call 

on all of you to changes those forms. People should not be referred 

to as aliens. 

But in the course of three months in 1994, my parents divided 

us in groups of three children. I ended up with three-year-old twin 

sisters. We lived in the bushes in the swamps. We ate plants. We 

ate grass, drank red water. 

All around us we heard killers, inciting things to kill us because 

we were supposed snakes and cockroaches. At the end of the genocide—actually, before the genocide, I had witnessed my father 

being killed with machetes in the streets. My father was my hero. 

Before the end of the genocide, I had seen my mother’s—witnessed my mother’s dead body and my three-week-old little brother. Give me a moment. I’m sorry. 


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At the end of the genocide, I was captured by a man who not 

only physically abused me but verbally and sexually raped me as 

a nine-year-old. This man decided that he would actually migrate 

to Congo with me. And it was in the Congo where he was negotiating with adult men how much money I was worth, to be sold into 

marriage. And at that time, I was ten-years-old. 

I ran back from Congo, made it to Rwanda. I grew up in a family 

where I had everything a child could’ve dreamed up. My parents 

were business people. 

By the end of the genocide, I was a homeless kid in the street 

begging. So as you make policies, as you write laws, keep in mind 

the human aspect. Keep that embodiment of humanity as you 

make these decisions because girls like myself, children like myself 

should not go through what I had to go through. 

Came here to the United States. I was placed with a family who 

also sexually abused me as well. So it wasn’t once, I was, like, God, 

how much more can I take? But I’m here because I believe that we 

have to be the voice of the voiceless. 

And Chairman Smith, I appreciate what you said about vetting 

system. We need to have screening system to families who are receiving migrant children are vetted just like families that are 

adopting because it’s easy to say you might have the same DNA 

or somehow matching DNA or related to this person. It doesn’t 

mean that person is a safe place for a child. 

That’s something that really people need to look into. Another 

thing that I really would encourage you to do is to really as you 

make these policies and these decisions to have survivors like myself be in a room because I believe lived experience speak volumes. 

And by giving me a platform today, you have given a voice to 

countless survivors and victims today. So thank you so much. 

[The statement of Ms. Lakin follows:] 


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Mr. SMITH. Thank you so very much, Ms. Lakin, for your courage, for your wisdom, your resilience, your faith. You’re truly an inspiration. Thank you so much. 

I’d like to yield to our final witness, and thank you for your testimony. 

STATEMENT OF JENNIFER PODKUL 

Ms. PODKUL. Thank you. Thank you, Chairman Smith and Ranking Member Wild. My name is Jennifer Podkul. I’m the vice president for Policy and Advocacy at Kids in Need of Defense. I’m grateful for the opportunity to speak to you about KIND’s mission, to 

ensure the protection of unaccompanied and separated children. 

Early in my legal career, I solely represented trafficked children 

and their complex legal matters. My clients are from around the 

world. They’re from Mexico, Russia, Thailand. And they had survived brutal exploitation as domestic servants, as farm workers, 

and some in the sex industry. 

All of these cases had one thing in common. Close collaboration 

between experts was key to ensuring that these children were safe, 

that they could begin their healing, and that they could thrive in 

their communities. In my current role at KIND, I have the honor 

of working with attorneys and social workers around the world, implementing through partnerships a child-focused iteration of the 

three Ps, the prevention, prosecution, and protection that’s outlined 

in Mr. Smith’s landmark bill, the Trafficking Victims Protection 

Act. 

As you’ve seen in my written testimony, my colleagues are doing 

tremendous work in Mexico and Europe to collaborate with government officials, law enforcement officers, and child protection professionals to prevent child trafficking and then to serve survivors. 

Prevention of child trafficking is a priority. By the time we have 

to intervene, children have already experienced harm. 

In KIND’s experience, prevention work requires meaningful relationship building to identify and then to work to reduce children’s 

vulnerabilities. We’re conducting trainings and partnering with 

community-based organizations in Central America, Mexico, and 

Europe to provide children with information about their rights and 

how to seek assistance if ever necessary. Although we’ve made 

progress on many fronts, there’s more that needs to be done to protect children. 

First is set forth in the TVPA. The U.S. government should make 

every measure to ensure kids are connected to attorneys. Having 

been the only trusted adult in a child’s life when I served as their 

attorney, I can tell you that counsel is a crucial tool to identifying 

and helping a child that’s being exploited or who’s at risk. 

Second, the government should institute safe return and reintegration programming that’s outlined in the TVPA for unaccompanied children who can safely return to their country’s of origin. 

Integration services can decrease the likelihood that a child will be 

compelled to attempt another dangerous journey to the United 

States. Third, to ensure unaccompanied children are screened at 

the border for trafficking concerns, the Department of Homeland 

Security should assign state licensed child welfare professionals to 

help administer those screenings. 


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I applaud Representative Salazar and Representative Jacobs bipartisan leadership in ensuring that proper funding for child welfare professionals is in the fiscal year 2024 budget. Fourth, the administration should immediately ramp up and Congress should 

provide the necessary resources for the Central American minors 

program. This is in-country processing program. 

It enables certain vulnerable children to apply for potential relocation to the U.S. as refugees. This is a lifeline for children who 

are in danger who may otherwise have no choice but to make the 

hazardous trek to the U.S.-Mexico border. Fifth and finally, the 

U.S. should increase funding for programs that prioritize building 

capacity abroad. 

As an example, KIND and its partners in Europe have supported 

efforts to provide refugee children and family services and coordinated support hubs, otherwise known as blue dots. They’ve been 

created by government authorities in partnership with UNICEF 

and UNHCR. At these sites, children can register protection authorities and receive basic needs. They get legal information and 

then they can get help with family reunification. 

This model should be replicated in other areas of the world. This 

is a very difficult topic, and there are a lot of very tragic stories 

that we all hear doing this work every day. So I just want to end 

my testimony with a story. 

A few years ago, I was in National Airport and I heard somebody 

yell my name. So much to my surprise, a young woman came running at me. And I realized it was a former client of mine. 

So this girl who had become a delightful woman had come into 

my office seeking help when she was a child. And at the time, she 

didn’t even realize the horrors that she experienced had a name. 

It was human trafficking. 

So during our joyful reunion in the airport, I learned that due 

to the hard work put in by my social work colleague, the intrepid 

prosecutor who was willing to go after a diplomat who was exploiting her, and this girl’s bravery and tenacity, she had been able to 

craft this life that was filled with formal education, dignified work, 

and limitless possibilities. It’s a reminder that when children are 

given the chance at safety and security, their resilience knows no 

bounds. Thank you. 

[The statement of Ms. Podkul follows:] 


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Mr. SMITH. Thank you so very much for your leadership and for 

making such a difference. I’ll begin some of the questions. Ms. 

Lakin, you talked about the importance of faith. 

I was visiting a shelter, a Christian shelter in Goma in Congo 

where virtually every woman there had been raped, often gang 

raped by these paramilitaries and by government troops. And the 

transition within their hearts and souls, the trauma doesn’t go 

away. But the ability to cope and overcome and have renewed hope 

and faith does when there’s faith involved. 

I met a number of the women. I spent hours talking to them, almost all listening. I didn’t ask questions. They just spoke and I 

took notes. 

And their lives were restored. But obviously with a huge, huge 

trauma that, like I said, never goes away like you deal with such 

agony as well. In the help that we do provide, shelters, I’ve been 

in shelters all over the world in Bolivia, in El Salvador, in Ethiopia, faith-based shelters. 

In Peru, they have a number of shelters there. And I’ve always 

been incredibly impressed and I often get into arguments with 

some of the people at the OSCE, not you. They think that having 

a faith-based component which psychologists can do great work, 

psychiatrists can do great work, social workers, great work. 

But almost like with Alcoholics Anonymous, there is that next 

step where faith in God certainly helps to overcome and to find a 

new way forward. And the outcomes are so much better when 

there’s a faith-based component. And yet there’s hostility to that 

among many. 

My counterpart in the OSCE years ago with the Parliamentary 

Assembly for the OSCE, she was with the OSCE itself, was openly 

hostile to a faith-based component. And I said whether it be Judaism, Christianity, Islam, or any other faith, but having that comfort that comes with it. So if you could maybe speak to that as part 

of the healing process because what I’ve learned from—every law 

we write and every bill, every initiative is trauma informed. 

And you are informing us again as you have been doing and others. When you get to the healing process, it seems to me without 

that next step doesn’t happen. And I too love the psalms. Psalm 82 

is a great one and 73 and 37 are two of my favorite. 

And for those who have been so horrifically injured, even David 

said that he almost lost his way until he came into the sanctuary 

of the Lord. Then he learned what would happen to them and that 

God does hold you in the palm of his hand, even though it doesn’t 

seem like it so often. So if you could speak to that part of the healing ministry that’s so needed for trafficking. 

Ms. LAKIN. Thank you, Chairman Smith. That is very important. 

It was also very important for me too. After the genocide, the way 

I describe the way I walked out of that genocide, I had survived 

but I was mentally dead like the Walking Dead, the movie. 

Literally, my soul was dead because everything that I had witnessed. And I battled depression, PTSD, trauma, you name it. I 

could’ve taken every pill on the market. Nothing would’ve been 

able to help me except the way God saved me. 

I grew up again in a Christian family with the value of faith was 

very, very important. And I remember just having this conversaVerDate Sep 11 2014 08:19 Dec 06, 2024 Jkt 056816 PO 00000 Frm 00052 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6602 E:\HR\OC\A816.XXX A816

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tion with God because I was, like, God, you saved me. But I feel 

like I am dead inside. 

And I was, like, why would I have survived such tragedy to be 

walking around with a dead spirit to the point I couldn’t feel. When 

you walk outside, you feel the sunshine and you feel joy. There was 

no joy in my heart. 

I felt like I had descended basically rock bottom after surviving. 

And so I spent time praying and asking God to free me. And that’s 

why I feel like really shelters that are faith-based are the most 

helpful. 

Counseling is great, and I encourage people to seek counseling 

for professional work. But having that touch with our creator is so 

powerful beyond what most people can imagine. When I prayed 

and I asked God to free me, he said directly through the Holy Spirit. He said, forgive them, so clearly. 

Forgive the people who have raped you, the people who have 

done a number on me, the people who have killed my family. Forgive them. And I said, God, I do not have the capability to forgive 

such inhumane. 

But if you want me to forgive, I want you to give me the strength 

to be able to do that. And honestly when I said that back to God, 

he gave me the strength where I said I forgive you for raping me, 

forgive you for killing my family. I forgive you for the reasons that 

I am an orphans, helpless in the streets. 

And I felt, like, as if I was flying high in the sky. That was the 

freedom. And so I do encourage to have faith-based organizations 

supporting these people who have been broken to where we cannot 

see. 

I serve as a manager of disability services at the college in Texas. 

When we don’t see the physical disability, we assume people are 

fine. But there’s a lot of disability that we may not be able to see. 

There’s a lot of broken that only God can heal. Thank you. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you. We will have votes around 1:40. I understand I have a lot of questions. I’ll just do one, now and then yield 

to my colleagues. And this would be to Mr. Ballard. 

We had Cindy Dyer, a master at large for trafficking. And again, 

I wrote the law that created that position. And I have great respect 

for her. 

She gave tremendous testimony. But I did say before she came 

in that I’m going to ask you about the 85,000 unaccompanied minors that have gone missing under the administration’s watch. And 

I asked her that question after—I’m not a gotcha kind of chairman. 

I want real answers. So I told her beforehand I was going to ask 

it. And she didn’t know. She said, call Homeland Security. 

We’ve called Homeland Security. We don’t get any answers. So 

we have this bill as you know. And you were very much a part of 

helping to draft it—I thank you, Mr. Ballard—called the SECURE 

Act which would penalize the FBI, Homeland Security, and HHS 

for unobligated funds, money in their bank account, 100,000 dollars 

a day if they do not provide every 60 days a very important report 

on exactly what they’re doing to do the welfare and whereabouts 

of these children. 

And it seems to me that how dare we look the other way. I mean, 

that was on May 12th we had that hearing. We’ve been reaching 


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out non-stop and it’s crickets. And it drives me a little bit crazy to 

think these kids could be sexually exploited as we’re meeting here 

or labor or sex trafficking. So your thoughts on that. 

Mr. BALLARD. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a lot of thoughts 

on this. I first think of my—I have two adopted children who are 

migrants from Haiti. I have seven biological and two adopted. 

These are two children that we rescued in February of 2014 from 

a trafficking organization. And we decided, my wife and I, to bring 

them home and adopt these 2, 2 of the 28. I was shocked and even 

a little frustrated though I shouldn’t have been at the process that 

the State Department put us through to be vetted to receive two 

precious children. 

I appreciated it. I thought, wow, the U.S. government really 

cares. They really care to make sure—I saved them for heaven 

sakes. And I didn’t get any shortcuts. 

Home studies, background checks, and I thought this is wonderful how we as a nation value the lives of foreign children even, 

even foreign children who are coming into our homes. I think of 

what would happen having worked in law enforcement in some capacity over 20 years. I can tell you if a child unaccompanied 

showed up in New York City or Washington, D.C. or you name the 

city and that child showed up unaccompanied, alone, what would 

happen to that child once the authorities were notified? 

That child would be protected. I know this. I’ve watched them do 

it. If someone comes and says, I’m the sponsor guardian of this kid, 

they’re not going to release that kid. 

We’re talking again background checks, DNA testing, extensive 

research because this is a precious child of God. So the question I 

have for the administration, why would you not afford the same 

protections to a foreign child whose inside of our country? I don’t 

care how they got there. 

Let’s worry about that later if they’re here. They’re here right 

now. Why on earth would you not afford the same protections? 

I’ve seen the process. I’ve been on the border. I was ten years as 

a special agent there. I’ve been there since that time watching 

what happens. 

These children have to be released. And by the way, the people 

I’ve talked to that where their uniform, the people at HHS, they 

don’t like it either. I’ve talked to them, talked to Ms. Rodas about 

it. She works there. 

They don’t like it. They don’t like that they are by mandate, by 

policy, forced to pick up the phone and call a number that’s the 

sponsor. And they don’t that they have to use taxpayer dollars to 

then send that child to the unvetted sponsor not knowing whether 

or not they are, in fact, part of the final leg of a child trafficking 

experience. 

Why is the suicide rate up higher than ever at Border Patrol? 

Because they are being asked and even compelled to be part of a 

child sex delivery service. That’s where we’re at right now. 

This needs to stop. And we can do it. The SECURE Act is the 

best first step here. We need to do it and we need to do it now. 

I was with the President of Honduras last week, President Castro, amazing woman. She wept as she told these stories. The very 

next day I was with President Giammattei in Guatemala. 


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And here’s what’s interesting. Children over politics, that’s how 

it should be. I think in this country, it’s politics of children. 

President Castro is a devout socialist. President Giammattei is a 

devout conservative. And they said the same thing to me. That 

didn’t matter at all. 

What mattered was the lives of children. President Castro is 

heading up to the border in a few weeks. There’s 3,000 children 

from Honduras that are in the care of HHS. She’s scared to death 

of their plight. 

She wants us to find their families. I agree with her. I don’t care 

if the families are in the U.S. or outside of the U.S. Reunite them 

with their families. 

And she said, well, the administration is telling me, don’t worry. 

They’re getting fed. They’re getting educated. She’s, like, I want 

them to be with their moms and dads. That’s where I want them 

or find a loving home for them somewhere else if there is no mom 

and dad. 

She’s coming up to the border. I was so proud of her. And with 

tears, she said this to me. President Giammattei told me about a 

program he’s launched called [speaking foreign language] which is 

to say making visible what is invisible. 

And it’s a warning to the people, don’t go with the slick salesmen 

coyotes. They give a good pitch. Oh, you can’t pay now? You can 

pay later. Yeah, with your body which we’re not going to tell you 

about until maybe you get to around Guatemala or Mexico and 

close to the border. 

And then after that, who knows what’s going to happen to you. 

But don’t worry. There’s a sponsor who will pick you up. This s sick 

that we are participating as a country in this is sick. 

Mr. SMITH. Ms. Wild. Thank you very much. 

Ms. WILD. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Ms. Podkul, I read your 

testimony with great interest and listened to what you had to say 

today, particularly your references to this blue dot program that 

KIND has implemented along with, I understand, partners in Europe have also assisted. And based on your testimony, I understand 

that these sites are situated at different border locations to best 

serve children who are fleeing or displaced by the situation in 

Ukraine where they can register with protection authorities, can 

receive some basic necessities, medical aid, information counseling, 

and assistance in locating and reunifying with family. 

Can you quantify in any way how successful this program has 

been in assisting vulnerable Ukrainian children? And it doesn’t 

have to be in terms of numbers. But give us an idea of how effective this has been. 

Ms. PODKUL. Sure. Let me describe kind of what it looks like because when I went to the Romanian border with Ukraine as soon 

as the war broke out to see what was going on, we knew women 

and children could leave and men could not. So we went to see, are 

there separated children? We’re talking to children on the move. 

So when I was there, you cross into the border into Romania, 

this was a time of chaos, right? This was at the very beginning of 

everything, lots of people leaving as quickly as they could get out. 

There was a host of services that had been set up. 


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So there were tents and it was all different kinds of people and 

churches, individuals wanting to help, and a lot of good hearted 

people, not necessarily official organizations, a lot of good hearted 

people. Probably also a lot of nefarious people there as well. And 

it was just a lot of chaos. 

And so people coming out, they were tired, they were hungry. 

The kids needed snacks. So it was important to get help to them. 

And it was confusing. Who’s the right person to go to? Which tent 

do I go to? 

There’s all these people offering to help. So the blue dot is intended to be kind of a physical something that people can see easily and know that these are run by U.N. agencies. These are trusted partners and entities, and it’s a physical space. It’s, like, you 

can go inside so people aren’t harassing you, right? 

You don’t have people just walking up to you, hey, I can help 

you. Hey, I can get you a hotel room, right? You’re safe. It’s quiet. 

You can charge your phone. You can get oriented. These are the 

rules and policies in this country. This is how you would register 

the child protection agency. What do you need? 

Ms. WILD. And this is only unaccompanied—— 

Ms. PODKUL. What questions do you have? 

Ms. WILD [continuing]. Minors? 

Ms. PODKUL. It’s for children and families. 

Ms. WILD. Okay. 

Ms. PODKUL. So families can take advantage of this too. So it’s 

funded and supported by UNHCR, the refugee agency, and 

UNICEF, the U.N. agency to protect children. So they do this jointly and then they collaborate with groups. So for example, we have 

colleagues who are working in those to provide the legal assistance. 

And so to give information, what is your right? The child should 

have a guardianship. They’re allowed to have temporary protection 

right now throughout Europe. 

They’re allowed to enroll in schools. So they need to understand 

what their options are. So these kinds of hubs, it’s a way to make 

sure that in a moment of chaos, somebody is very clear who are the 

safe actors. 

What are their rights? What’s available to them? So that they get 

put into the registration systems and referral systems that these 

countries are setting up because we all know, right, the exploitation that thrives in the shadows and in darkness. And so getting 

kids into these official systems and channels is going to be the best 

protection for them. 

Ms. WILD. So my follow up to that is, is this blue dot process 

being used elsewhere in the world? 

Ms. PODKUL. Yeah, so it actually started before—— 

Ms. WILD. Right, in 2008, right? 

Ms. PODKUL [continuing]. The Ukraine emergency. Exactly. Later 

in 2000s, it’s in different places in Europe. And I think right now 

the question is where else could we be implementing this knowing 

there’s so many children on the move. 

Ms. WILD. And so that was my question. Is it being used at all 

in Central America? 


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Ms. PODKUL. I don’t know of any blue dot facilities that are set 

up in Central America. There’s a virtual version of it. So people 

who have mobile phones can get at least some information. 

There are other entities and programs in which governments are 

collaborating with service providers to do similar things. I use this 

as an example because this was funded by U.N. agencies. And so 

they have kind of a global perspective on best practices which has 

been particularly useful. 

Ms. WILD. And how critical has the role of UNICEF and UNHCR 

been in this work? 

Ms. PODKUL. It’s been incredibly important. I mean, they are 

able to bring authority and work with governments to really identify best practices. When you have entities, civil society organizations and international organizations like these U.N. organizations, 

they have an understanding of best practices and also how to collaborate with each government, right? 

Each system—each government is going to have their own system and their own laws. So they’re going to know in that local context what are the available protections. It’s very important that 

they’re able to expand their services to meet the demand, right? We 

know the number of children on the move is incredibly high all 

over the world. And so in order for them to be fully resourced to 

do this in all places and respond to children—— 

Ms. WILD. Well, that’s what—— 

Ms. PODKUL [continuing]. It’s very important. 

Ms. WILD [continuing]. I was asking you because I saw evidence 

of the great work they were doing in Nepal also. And it does occur 

to me that it would be very useful to have them on the ground in 

Central America given what we know to be a crisis there. And I’m 

very deeply concerned about reductions in funding to those agencies which I think would greatly affect their ability to provide these 

services from everything I understand. 

So I hope that we will continue to provide funding. I think this 

hearing is a really good example of why certain forms of foreign aid 

are so essential. I mean, we often have to justify foreign aid to taxpayers and otherwise. 

But I think that this kind of hearing sheds light on where a lot 

of that foreign aid is going. So thank you very much. With that, 

I’m going to yield back for the moment. I know we have votes coming up. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you. I’d like to yield to the chairwoman of the 

Western Hemisphere Subcommittee, Maria Salazar. 

Ms. SALAZAR. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I think it’s laudable, and I congratulate you for putting this hearing together. And 

to Mr. Ballard, you were the guy. I watched the movie three, four 

years ago, the first cut in Miami, Florida. 

And you really caused a major impression. It’s a thorn in my 

back that I’ve had ever since I learned about this phenomenon that 

we just do not know about. This movie has put this issue in the 

forefront, and we have to thank you. 

May the Lord pay it back to you in health, to your ten children, 

because this is—there are no words to describe. And I think Chairman Smith and myself, we are committed to do something about 

it, whatever that is. And to you, Ms. Jeanne Celestine, thank you 


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for sharing your pain with us, Mrs. Jennifer for wanting to help 

those kids. 

So I have many questions. I know that we’re going to be called 

for votes at anytime. But I introduced an immigration reform recently, the only immigration reform law that has been presented in 

Congress this cycle. 

And it’s basically an immigration bill. And one of the main topics 

that I addressed thanks to the movie is to impose a minimum penalty of 25 years to those who are convicted of child sex trafficking. 

That’s one thing. 

The other one is to give a better, more rigorous training to the 

Border Patrol agents in trying to spot where those child sex traffickers are, specifically including what you said about that just because they give you a phone number, you’re giving the child back 

to the trafficker. We are, the United States of America. What? 

So not only that, taking care of our own agents but then going 

to the transnational criminals, the smugglers, back where it starts 

and creating processing centers to weed out and come to the conclusion whether that’s the uncle or the father. So basically, the Dignity Act, I just want you to remember it. I want to work with you 

because everyone talks about the mess of the border and that we’re 

having all these illegals and fentanyl and everything coming in. 

But not everyone mentions the child sex traffickers. And unfortunately, no one says either that we’re the number one market. So 

that means that we have—the consumers are here among us. 

That’s another—that’s—no words to describe it in a public hearing 

of the United States Congress. So I would like to ask you what do 

you think we could do now? What’s the number one step we could 

take as legislators to help this issue? 

Mr. BALLARD. When we passed the SECURE Act which holds accountable the agencies. So no longer can they lose the children. 

And no longer could they say not our problem. It’s devastating to 

hear that Chairman Smith had to call multiple times and he heard 

nothing back from these agencies. 

The other thing is we need to enforce our border. There’s been 

this myth that somehow it’s a mutually exclusive proposition to be 

for border enforcement and pro-migration. I don’t understand that. 

I’m very pro-both. I’m for big walls. I know walls is a cuss word 

these days because somehow this got political. 

[Simultaneous speaking.] 

Mr. BALLARD. It wasn’t political, by the way—— 

Ms. SALAZAR. Structures and cameras and drones. 

Mr. BALLARD. It’s everything. It’s virtual walls. 

Ms. SALAZAR. It’s technology. It’s technology. 

Mr. BALLARD. It’s technology. I worked under two different administrations of two different parties on that border. And they all 

built more border protection, and everyone was thumbs up about 

it because it rescues children. 

We have to explain the concept of it forces the flow of movement, 

children being trafficked or drugs to a single place where dedicated 

women and men in uniform are trained to identify the child. Why 

is this so controversial? We use it everywhere we go, museums, 

amusement parks, concerts. 


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It’s okay for everybody else to do it. But all of a sudden, it’s 

somehow bad or racist. I don’t understand it. We’re rescuing children from foreign countries. 

That’s our goal. For ten years as an anti-trafficking operator undercover on that border, that was my goal, to rescue children from 

foreign countries so they wouldn’t get into the hands of our 

pedophiles. And so I never understood—— 

Ms. SALAZAR. Also, those kids are from Latin America. 

Mr. BALLARD. Correct. 

Ms. SALAZAR. They belong to my region. They’re Latin American 

kids that are being trafficked into the United States. 

Mr. BALLARD. Correct. So let’s give them the hope of one last 

window of opportunity before they’re stuck into a very dangerous 

situation in that port of entry. 

Ms. SALAZAR. Give me an example, a regular example of what 

happens with that child that is let’s say it’s stolen from Honduras, 

from Colombia. 

Mr. BALLARD. Sure. 

Ms. SALAZAR. It winds up at our border. And then what happens 

when they come into the United States? 

Mr. BALLARD. Okay. So this is an important point. I learned this 

from the President of Honduras last week. These kids are coming— 

the families are coming through. A lot of them passed through the 

Darien gap. And it’s a jungle. It’s horrible. 

And by the time they get out and land in Honduras, the families 

leave their kids. They can’t stand watching their kids suffer anymore. They put them in some kind of a very insecure kind of arrangement with a foster situation or something. 

And that’s what makes them so exposed and available, the 

coyotes and traffickers, who say, oh, it’s so easy to get them at this 

point. They bring them up. Oftentimes, they’ll use these kids once 

they get there. 

And the abuse is extensive by the way on the way up. And once 

they get there, sometimes they’re used as pawns. There’s something called the Flores Settlement which was well intentioned, but 

the traffickers are always looking to exploit even well intentioned— 

in this case, it’s a court decision. 

A child with a family member must be permitted within 72 hours 

inside the United States. I get that. It sounds great. Except they 

start using these kids as pawns and pairing up false families, pairing up a child with the clients. Call this woman mom, call him dad, 

and you’re going to get right in. Well, Border Patrol is sort of noticing the same kids were coming in with different parents. 

Ms. SALAZAR. And no DNA testing anymore at this hour. 

Mr. BALLARD. At the time, it was implemented. My understanding was that it was taken away. The ranking member Thompson from the hearing yesterday at Homeland Security said it is actually still there. So I’m investigating what’s true. 

But it has to be implemented if it’s not. And so then the child 

whether they’re used as a pawn in that strange loophole, eventually at any point during this process a sponsor can call in or show 

up. And it’s very minimal—— 

Ms. SALAZAR. And they’re picked up by the trafficker. Then what 

happens next? 


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Mr. BALLARD. Well, and I’ll say this before that. It’s more difficult to adopt a cat from a shelter in my opinion than getting a 

child out of HHS into our country. And then after that, we don’t 

know because they won’t pick the phones up. 

But I’ll tell you what. In a country that probably has more 

pedophiles than any other country in terms of just shear numbers, 

based on the fact that we consume more child exploitation material 

than any other country, it’s very concerning. There’s a case recently 

where 100 children were sent to the same address by HHS in San 

Antonio or Austin, I believe. 

One hundred kids to an address, I don’t think that was a well 

intentioned sponsor. They’re going to do something with those children, whether it’s slave labor, whether it’s sexual exploitation. But 

here’s the problem. Now these kids are identityless. 

They don’t speak the language. They don’t have a name. They 

don’t have any way to identify, and they’re gone. And so this is our 

responsibility to protect these children just like we were protecting 

the other children. 

Ms. SALAZAR. The American news media, have they been receptive to your statements? Have they called you to do interviews and 

put this out there—— 

[Simultaneous speaking.] 

Mr. BALLARD. No, no. In fact, they just like to say things like, 

Mr. Ballard is wrong headed thinking that there’s any kind of trafficking going on at the border. They make a statement like this 

without backing it up with anything. I don’t know why they don’t 

want to have the conversation. 

These are children. This is not partisan. It shouldn’t be partisan. 

And I can’t figure out why they don’t want to talk about it. 

Ms. SALAZAR. These are Latin American kids. 

Mr. BALLARD. They’re Latin American children. And the reason 

I left the government frankly was because as Congressman Smith 

knows is because I didn’t care. Human trafficking, child trafficking 

knows no borders and bounders. 

Unfortunately, bureaucracies do. And that’s why I left. I couldn’t 

handle the bureaucracy. I couldn’t handle the fact that I was told, 

you can save this kid but not that kid. And so that’s why I left, 

so that I wouldn’t have any jurisdictional or bureaucratic limitations. And I wish our policies conformed to that way of thinking as 

well. 

Ms. SALAZAR. Of course. Human rights is across the board. 

Mr. BALLARD. Correct. 

Ms. SALAZAR. Not only for some and not for others. Thank you 

very much. We are going to regroup and try to—we’ve created this 

bill to find where those 85,000 kids are at. Because according to 

your information, it was in the first 30 days of the Biden administration when the border was more opened. That happened during—— 

Mr. BALLARD. That’s correct. 

Ms. SALAZAR [continuing]. A 30 day period. 

Mr. BALLARD. That’s a correct. And I like the idea of streamlining our immigration laws. Make it easier. I want more asylum. 

I want more immigrants. I suggest long term can we not put our 


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asylum and immigration courts—this may sound like a logistical 

nightmare. 

But if we can get those as an attachment to our embassies in 

these Central American countries. Imagine you deincentivize the 

traffickers. You stop the wind out of the sails of their criminal networks. 

And the honest and good people who want and need to come to 

the United States, make it quick. Make it fast. Don’t make them 

take a 3,000-mile journey. 

Let them go to the embassy and get asylum immediately. And we 

can help them with passage. I love this idea what I just learned 

about called the Central American minors program. How amazing. 

Let’s help these children. Let’s help them get safety. Let them 

have the American dream. I agree with that. I mean, I’ll look into 

that. And thank you for bringing that up. I didn’t know about this. 

So there’s so many things we can do. 

Ms. SALAZAR. Thanks to you, sir. Yield back. 

Mr. SMITH. I yield to the chairman of the Africa Committee, Mr. 

James. 

Mr. JAMES. I seem to think that the administration would care 

more about these kids if they weren’t Black and Brown. Maybe 

they can prove it to us. 

Ms. SALAZAR. Yes. 

Mr. JAMES. Prove me wrong. As the chairman of the Africa subcommittee, I’ve made ending child slave labor a top priority. In 

fact, my BRIDGE to DRC Act supports efforts to remove child slave 

labor from U.S. supply chains. 

In addition to my amendment to H.R. 1 which would reshore critical mineral mining and refining back to the United States, the 

BRIDGE to DRC Act also goes a long way in ending child slave 

labor and sex trafficking. In March, I asked Secretary Blinken directly for his commitment to work with me on efforts to address the 

issue of slave labor during his testimony before the House Foreign 

Affairs Committee, and we are still working with the administration on their compliance with his agreement. 

This is a matter of morality and critical importance regardless of 

where a child happens to be born. America wants to be the shining 

city on the hill. They want to be the beacon of hope for the world. 

We have to start acting, and I need your help. Can you share 

your assessment of the current administration’s national action 

plan to combat human trafficking for all children regardless of 

whether or not they’re Ukrainian, South Sudanese, North Sudanese, Guatemalan, Venezuelan, all children. Can you give your assessment? 

Mr. BALLARD. Well, I don’t hear it very often coming out of the 

administration. The agencies continue to do their wonderful work. 

They want more resources. I spent the last ten years trying to get 

resources to law enforcement offices, state mostly because the federal government won’t take our grants. So we send them to task 

forces. 

There’s not enough resources, and that’s been a problem in every 

administration, by the way. I don’t think it’s a new problem. But 

I would love to see the President talk about it all the time. 


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Mr. JAMES. Not enough resources. So that might be an indication 

that resources we do have are spread too thin. What are the initiatives or organizations that are doing a good job that should get 

more resources? And in your opinion, what are some organizations 

that seem to be a waste of time and money? 

Mr. BALLARD. Well, I’ll tell you that in my opinion the solution 

is going to be a private-public partnership. I’ve worked on both 

sides of that fence. I’ve been a government agent. I’ve worked as 

a private citizen. 

There’s so many things that NGOs can do that governments can’t 

do. And of course, there’s many things, of course, that governments 

can do that NGOs can’t do. Together, we can pretty much do everything. 

That was the example I gave with the operation I led out of 

Ukraine last year. We had, I think, five, six NGOs working with 

six different agencies of different governments. It’s amazing in four 

months we were able to do that many rescues. 

We need a better partnership. We need to get funding. Even 

more to the government agencies, to NGOs, NGOs are miracle 

workers. I’m telling. The NGOs are the ones—— 

[Simultaneous speaking.] 

Mr. JAMES. What are the barriers? Is the State Department getting in the way of the effectiveness of NGOs? 

Mr. BALLARD. I don’t know because I’m not qualified to answer 

that question. I’ve never dealt with the State Department in terms 

of funding anything. But I wish they would send a lot more funding 

to NGOs. 

Mr. JAMES. This question is for the entire panel. What areas are 

you seeing of government inefficiency and what areas is the American government, most notably the administration, erecting barriers to saving children? Where can Congress help tear down barriers to saving children? 

Mr. BALLARD. Well, I mean, first and foremost, I’m going to go 

to the border. I’ll go out to the border first. The barriers are horrifying in my opinion right now simply to rescue children, meaning 

not enough resources are being sent to take care of those kids. 

We’ve talked about that at length I think already today. So that’s 

the first thing, and that’s where my focus is. My expertise isn’t as 

much inside the United States or on the aftercare side in terms of 

getting grants, getting money. 

But I do know this, that the NGOs that I work with, that I’m 

most impressed with are way underfunded, especially because of 

the inflation and economic problems. Donations are down. I wish 

the U.S. government would rely more on private groups and NGOs 

who in my opinion have probably the most expertise in them. 

And there’s so many organizations now over the last ten years 

that I’ve been so impressed with. And I just wish we could—that’s 

the SPEAR Fund’s whole model that I advise on is finding organizations, aftercare, and rescue intervention. And get them the resources they need. And I think the U.S. government should put 

more faith in NGOs. 

Mr. JAMES. Agreed. Mr. Chairman, I am a father first. I’m an 

elected official second. And when I think of child trafficking, only 

two words come to mind: pure evil. 


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It’s unconscionable and I think that we all agree that someone 

could do this to a child. We talk about demon possession being relegated to the past, most notably our Bible stories. But I’ll tell you 

the battle is not in the physical world and these people who perpetrate this evil on children are demon possessed. 

And we must make sure that we eradicate to the best of our ability any barrier that comes between saving children’s lives and the 

platform that we have today. So I know my time is limited. I wish 

we could get to more questions. But I appreciate you all being here 

today, sharing your personal stories. And please count on me as an 

ally to support any way that we possibly can. 

Ms. PODKUL. If I may, Representative—— 

Mr. JAMES. Yes, please. 

Ms. PODKUL [continuing]. James respond to your question too. I 

think thinking about when we do give aid to other countries and 

the programs that Department of State or USAID are implementing, I really think focusing them on youth protection, right, 

and gender-based violence. Those have been key drivers and root 

causes of what we’ve seen, both children having to flee in the first 

place and also areas where there could be a lot of prevention and 

protection for children. 

So I think when we are looking at the programs that we’re funding, making sure that there’s a real eye to youth protection centering it on those principles, and also on gender-based violence, I 

think we can go a long way to prevention which is what we all 

want in the first place. So no child ever has to experience any of 

these harms. Thank you. 

Ms. LAKIN. Thank you. I think really [inaudible] is the screening 

process when you have children who show up on our borders and 

there’s no tracking system from origin country to the destination 

country. As you talked about, this is where we miss many children 

because if they’re not being tracked, if there’s a screening system 

where that says you’re from this place and you’re being placed from 

this place. 

One thing I can share with you really quick is that right after 

the genocide, my siblings were given to random people who have 

never been vetted with no social workers to follow up. They 

could’ve been dead. Nobody would’ve asked questions. 

When I was a 10-year-old, I was put into a place. I had my first 

job as a 10-year-old. The woman abused me at every level. Nobody 

would’ve asked questions. 

But if there was that tracking system that this child, this orphan 

is placed in this home and this person has gone through the background check, I think that would be great. The other thing that I 

believe that we need to really have a place and a platform for survivors to be part of decision-making because I think those voices 

are lacking. I think we have survivors come and maybe give a talk 

and so forth. 

But I think they need to be part of the decision-making as well 

to be hired in the decision-making. Also trauma informed is something that most people don’t talk about. Not anybody could just 

deal with somebody who has survived this kind of trauma. 

People need to be trained and trauma informed on how to address these issues. My last request would be really to have busiVerDate Sep 11 2014 08:19 Dec 06, 2024 Jkt 056816 PO 00000 Frm 00063 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6602 E:\HR\OC\A816.XXX A816

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nesses, schools, and airport to have where there’s a poster says— 

gives information on how to report human trafficking because individuals who are coming in and do not have information, that really 

puts them at a higher risk. Thank you. 

Mr. JAMES. Okay. I think that we are going to try to show a 

video quickly of an example that we got from—this is later? All 

right. Well, I’ll just say this. Whether or not—we’re dealing with 

votes right now. I think we need to get going. 

But from what I’m hearing, very helpful. NGOs are extremely 

impactful because they have the accountability, transparency, and 

focus on outcomes that it does not seem the federal government is 

acquainted with. And we should support those initiatives, also 

trauma informed treatment and processes for lessons learned and 

gender-based violence and a focus there. That’s extremely helpful 

and I appreciate your feedback. Thank you for your time today. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you. 

Mr. JAMES. Mr. Chairman, I yield back. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. As we leave, 

we are late for a vote. And I think we’ll make it. Just very briefly, 

thank you, Ms. Lakin, for bringing up the issue of organ harvesting. 

For three years, I tried to get a bill passed to stop organ harvesting. It was bipartisan. As a matter of fact, Ms. Manning is one 

of the co-sponsors on the bill. 

It passed 413 to 2. It’s sitting over in the Senate now for six 

months and I can’t get it out on the floor for a vote. And it has 

real penalties for those who with intent procure forced organ harvesting organs. 

It focuses absolutely on China, but the rest of the world would 

be covered by this legislation. And we can’t get it out of the Senate 

Foreign Relations Committee. I thank you again for your extraordinary testimonies, and we are adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 1:49 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.] 


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