March 6th, 2019
Testifying: Tim Ballard
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Human trafficking is real, it’s tragic, and I am grateful this Committee is willing to learn more and to understand more about this horrific practice…
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At the DHS, I spent 12 years as a special agent and undercover operator for Homeland Security Investigations. For 10 of those years, I was combating 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, research and investigation.
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Part of the job … is to recognize and fight human trafficking. To understand just a little about the issue it is important to understand that there are an estimated 40 million modern-day slaves worldwide with children making up an estimated 10 million of these victims.1
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The US is also one of the wealthiest nations in the world, creating fertile ground for child traffickers who are trying to get their product to this lucrative illicit market.
The State Department has reported that roughly 17,500 people are smuggled into the United States annually, many of which are women and children that are forced into the commercial sex trade.2 About 10,000 children a year suffer the horrors of commercial sexual exploitation in the United States.3
1 – Guardian, Feb 25, 2019
2 – Trafficking in Persons Report, US Department of State, June 14, 2004
3 – Indianapolis Star, Feb. 1, 2018