© Evan Vucci, APPresident Donald Trump listens as Timothy Ballard, CEO of Operation Underground Railroad, speaks during an event on human trafficking in the Cabinet Room of the White House, Friday, Feb. 1, 2019, in Washington
Critics have recently rejected the idea that building, expanding or strengthening a barrier or "wall" along our southern border would do anything to combat sex trafficking. Though many of these critics do noble work in various capacities, even in the human trafficking space, they all have one thing in common:
they have never utilized the wall to rescue sex trafficking victims and therefore they do not understand its power for good, its power to rescue trafficked children.In contrast to the critics, I worked 12 years as a special agent/undercover operator for Homeland Security Investigations, 10 of which included a tour combating sex trafficking on the southern border. Since that time I have continued the fight as CEO of the anti-trafficking organization Operation Underground Railroad, or O.U.R. Furthermore, 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. In fact, I was with them all in the White House just a few days ago discussing how border barriers help combat trafficking.
Altogether, we are the ones - and the only ones - who have utilized or are utilizing the border wall to rescue children. We are the experts. And we all agree that the building, expansion and strengthening of the border wall has been one of many effective tools, and will continue to be an effective tool, in the rescuing of trafficked children.
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