A prominent activist claimed Wednesday the Biden administration is "incentivizing" child trafficking with its passive border control policies.
Tim Ballard, CEO of Operation Underground Railroad, told Fox News he has spent 12 years on the Mexican border, some of it undercover, battling child trafficking.
"It's exactly as you're describing: The policies of this administration are absolutely incentivizing [it]. It's the wind at the sails of the traffickers. They're being told, 'Come on in, you're going to get in,' which is why the number of unaccompanied minors has tripled in that time period."
Ballard alleged traffickers will connect a known person's name with a minor child crossing the border for them to use as an official "sponsor," and that federal officials, nongovernmental individuals and others will purportedly contact those supposed "sponsors" to have the children united with them.
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"[They] will literally call the phone number — I've watched them do it… " Ballard claimed. "[A]nd someone will come to pick them up or our taxpayers pay for these kids to be delivered to whatever name the trafficker gave the child. It's that simple."
The current paradigm in that regard, he said, is facilitating millions of dollars in windfall for the traffickers.
"[A]nd children are getting hurt in ways that only later we will discover," he said.
Ballard recounted testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee when Vice President Kamala Harris was a Democratic senator representing California.
"They had all the information. They know exactly what's happening, and I can't conclude anything, but that they absolutely know and they're willing to sacrifice children to get these would-be hopeful Democratic voters into the country," Ballard claimed, as Harris is the appointed border "czar" in Biden's administration.
"I can't explain it any other way, and it's dreadful — it's horrifying," he said.
Later, "Jesse Watters Primetime" guest host Rachel Campos-Duffy asked Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., about those issues at the border.
Hawley recounted asking Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, further commenting that the FBI must get involved and locate the 85,000 or more potentially trafficked, "lost" minors.
"We need to have an investigation by the FBI into the Homeland Security Department… to figure out who is facilitating these smuggling rings. Are they deliberately not doing their job or are they deliberately or negligently turning these kids over to smugglers?"
"The FBI needs to get on it and launch a full-scale investigation. Right now, we're looking at the biggest child-smuggling ring and the biggest child labor ring in American history, and this administration is responsible for it," Hawley said.
Hawley called for Mayorkas to be impeached for his conduct in office in purportedly at least passively permitting the crisis on the border.
In response to a grilling from Hawley at an April 18 hearing, Mayorkas said, "The horrific exploitation of children is something we do not condone. You are incorrectly attributing it to our policies."
"I can assure you that we are incredibly dedicated to the safety and security of those children," he said in response to another question from Hawley on the fate of unaccompanied minors.
