Tim Ballard disinformation grifter?
Testimony before Congress
Tim Ballard
CEO/Founder
Operation Underground Railroad March 26, 2019
Chairwoman Rice, Ranking Member Higgins, and Members of the Border Security, Facilitation, and Operations Subcommittee, it’s an honor to present this written statement. Human trafficking is real, it’s tragic, and I am grateful this Subcommittee is willing to learn more and to understand more about this horrific practice occurring along our southern border.
The focus of my testimony will be on the children who are caught in this terrible web of human trafficking. Although I will discuss varying aspects of trafficking and border security, but I hope we will always bring the focus back to helping the rescuing the children who are the victims.
To that end, I strongly desire not to sound political or partisan in my tone or my substance. 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. Because this is such an important and tragic issue, it’s not fair and it’s not right for these modern day slaves to be caught in the middle of a political battle.
The conclusions I offer in this testimony are based on my professional experience as an anti- trafficking operator and based on actual cases that have occurred along our southern border. After starting my professional career with the CIA, I transferred to the Department of Homeland Security. 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.
Since leaving the federal government, I have continued the fight against human trafficking as the founder and CEO of the anti-trafficking organization Operation Underground Railroad, or O.U.R. Working hand-in-hand with law enforcement agencies around the world, Operation Underground Railroad has rescued 1,765 victims and assisted in the arrest of nearly 900 traffickers. O.U.R. continues the fight to end human trafficking with full-time operations in 20 countries and 22 states.
Through my experience as a federal agent and as CEO of O.U.R., I have worked closely with the heads of every U.S. agency whose job it is to find and rescue children being trafficked across the southern border. These agencies under the jurisdiction of the Department of Homeland Security include Customs and Border Patrol, Immigration and Customs, and Homeland Security Investigations.
Our federal agents who work our southern border are women and men of the highest integrity and dedication. Their efforts protect us daily from the myriad of different dangers found coming into our country. Our agents exist to protect, not to judge, not to discriminate, and not carry out a political motive. They follow the laws they have sworn to uphold and they deserve a debt of gratitude from each of us as they help keep us safe.
https://www.congress.gov/116/meeting/house/109140/witnesses/HHRG-116-HM11-Wstate-BallardT-20190326.pdf