INDUSTRY FOCUS
The Dark Side of the Border
- By Ralph C. Jensen
- Mar 01, 2019
Security at the southern border
is critical, but let’s not
talk about illegal immigration.
There is an issue more
compelling and serious than
what you’ve been seeing in the headlines recently.
The inability to foster and promote
security along the border has a profound effect
on the illicit trafficking of children and
women by criminal cartels.
Believe it when the experts describe the
horrors of human slavery and trafficking.
But, who are the experts?
Tim Ballard is a former special agent with
the Department of Homeland Security, who
also spent a year on the southern border assigned
to monitor human slavery and trafficking.
He is now the CEO of Operation Underground
Railroad, a nonprofit program with
international partners designed to rescue children
from criminal trafficking organizations.
“Nobody out there is defending the victims
without a voice,” Ballard said to Sara
Carter, a Fox News reporter, during an interview
on the The Ingram Angle.
A few months ago, President Donald
Trump signed the “Trafficking Victims Protection
Reauthorization Act,” which takes
aim at a $150 billion industry of human slavery.
It is estimated to effect 30 million people
worldwide. That’s right, our porous borders
contribute to the human trafficking disaster.
“We’re talking about, in many cases,
women and children grabbed, thrown into the
backseat of a car, or thrown into a van with no
windows, with no—any form of air,” President
Trump said. “Tape put across their mouths…”
While my thoughts may sound a little
political, the truth is: this is a huge security
issue and a gruesome reality.
“Traffickers don’t go through checkpoints;
they go through the emptiest spot
they can find, with no walls, with no fences,”
President Trump said.
Maybe Trump is being overly dramatic
and maybe he has been watching too many
movies, such as Sicario, which is a recent film
depicting the horrors of human trafficking.
Ballard says that the President is not being
overdramatic. The scenes depicted in the
movie do not mirror the violence happening
at the border.
“What happens to victims is far worse
than what you see in Sicario,” Ballard said.
Carter described an encounter with a victim
of child sex trafficking, and the horrors a
14-year-old girl faced.
“I can’t even imagine that anybody would
even joke about this,” Carter said.
Let’s rethink the conversation we are having
about border security, security in general
and the proposed border wall. I’m not casting
a vote one way or another. That is a decision
for law makers to address. However, let’s
consider the plight of the innocents who are
snatched away from a childhood and thrust
into a darkness so obscene and wicked the
mind cannot fathom its difficulty.
This article originally appeared in the March 2019 issue of Security Today.
About the Author
Ralph C. Jensen is the Publisher of Security Today magazine.