Is the US government using taxpayer money to traffic children? It might seem like a story that is too hard to believe or too sensational, but Project Veritas published this bombshell report after a Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) whistleblower revealed that a taxpayer-funded program is putting migrant children in peril. If the claims are accurate, this could be another egregious example of the current administration’s mismanagement and ineffective policies at the US-Mexico border.
Project Veritas Investigates
Tara Lee Rodas, a program manager with the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity & Efficiency (CIGIE), volunteered to help the HHS process unaccompanied migrant children. She was sent to the Emergency Intake Site in Pomona, CA, where she discovered the current state of the child sponsorship program that would turn out to be highly dangerous for underage migrants.
Speaking in an interview with Project Veritas' James O'Keefe, Rodas explained that the government initiative has resulted in US taxpayer dollars being utilized to "put children in the hands of criminals." In addition, the sponsors, many of whom do not possess "a legal presence in the country," can threaten to deport the migrant children if they do not follow their commands. Rodas noted that she brought her concerns to executives, only to have them dismissed by leadership. Rodas told Project Veritas:
“I said [to the command center executives], ‘We’re getting ready to send another child [to Austin, Texas],’ and they said, ‘Tara, I think you need to understand that we only get sued if we keep kids in care too long. We don’t get sued by traffickers. Are you clear? We don’t get sued by traffickers.’ So, that was the answer of the United States federal government. HHS did not want this information to get out. They knew I had made protected disclosures and they retaliated against me as a whistleblower and had me kicked off the site so I could no longer research the cases."
The investigative journalists visited several addresses to determine if there were cases of human trafficking. A reporter caught up with a migrant female minor who was sexually exploited by her sponsor. “An aunt [sponsored me],” the child told the media outlet, “but she kicked me out of her house. She was pimping me and I didn’t like that. She would pimp me to men. I just escaped one night. I told her, ‘I’m going to the laundromat.’ She went to the laundromat and didn’t find me there. Later on, she called Immigration.”
Project Veritas intends to release more information as the story progresses.
Trafficking Victims Protection Act
The US Senate recently passed the International Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2022. The legislation reauthorizes and bolsters crucial components to fight human trafficking, including better programming, more efficient policies, and greater funding. The bill also proposed new strategies for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to develop better prevention efforts and to alter the Foreign Assistance Act to ensure recipients of US tax dollars maintain successful counter-trafficking programs. It now heads to the House of Representatives for passage.
Every year, it is estimated that as many as 50,000 women and children are trafficked and forced into a wide variety of acts, such as domestic servitude, child labor, and sex trafficking. According to the State Department, government agencies depend on the "3P Paradigm": prosecution, protection, and prevention. This is a framework that the United States and other nations use to combat human trafficking.
Meanwhile, human smuggling has become the norm at the US-Mexico border. Late last month, special agents from the Texas Department of Public Safety Criminal Investigations Division (CID) discovered a tractor trailer with 50 illegal immigrants at a junkyard. The discovery led to five adult males being arrested. Despite indictments, the human smuggling industry at the southern border has remained robust, as law enforcement continually uncovers dozens of migrants every month under similar circumstances.
The border crisis and illegal immigration issue have prompted Republicans to demand Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas resign or face impeachment. "The actions of this administration have empowered cartels, human smugglers, drug traffickers, and terrorist organizations,” said Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).
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