Government Officials and Contractors Are Surprisingly Indifferent to Human Trafficking

Of all the liberal insanity I have witnessed over the past few years, one of the most bizarre has been the vehement denials that human trafficking is a serious problem. 

I first noticed this when the movie Sound of Freedom came out in 2023. Based on a true story–there is a lot of argument about how closely it hews to the line of reality, but that is true of all “based on real events” movies–the movie follows the rescue of children from slavery by human traffickers. 

The left went absolutely insane trying to debunk the idea that human trafficking even existed, and called anybody who claimed otherwise a Q-Anon conspiracy theorist. 

DEMONIC: CNN talking heads are now saying the anti child sex trafficking movie Sound of Freedom is created out of “BOGUS STATISTICS” and “QAnon Concepts” pic.twitter.com/MfOE70atUp

— Drew Hernandez (@DrewHLive) July 8, 2023

It was a full-court press, with just about every “mainstream” media outlet running segments attacking the very idea that children (or adults) are being trafficked for sex or other purposes. 

It was disgusting. Conservative, moderate, or liberal, we should all be able to agree that sex slavery and the trafficking of people is a very bad thing. 

Right? Right?!

Apparently not. The Biden administration expended a lot of effort importing unaccompanied minors and started handing them out to random people, losing hundreds of thousands of them, and was utterly incurious about what happened to them. It was one of the most evil episodes in American history, and nobody on the left seems to care. 

Well, once again, I find out about, via James Lynch at National Review, another government-related human trafficking scandal. 

Full story @NRO: Nonprofit Running National Human Trafficking Hotline Fails to Flag Tips to Law Enforcement, Whistleblower Alleges https://t.co/VvLeQdVN1M

— James Lynch (@jameslynch32) May 6, 2025

Our tax dollars fund a National Human Trafficking Hotline (see, human trafficking DOES exist, you f’ing liars!), but it turns out that it hasn’t been performing its first and most important task: helping combat human trafficking. 

A whistleblower has come forward to confirm allegations brought by over 40 attorneys general that the nonprofit Polaris Project, contracted by the federal government to run the National Human Trafficking Hotline, routinely fails to pass along pertinent trafficking tips to law enforcement.

Senator Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa), wrote a letter Monday laying out the whistleblower disclosures to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., National Review has learned.

“Legally protected whistleblower disclosures provided to my office appear to confirm the allegations that Polaris is not reporting instances of potential human trafficking to law enforcement,” Grassley wrote in the letter, which NR exclusively obtained.

The letter comes about a month before Polaris’s HHS grant is set to be renewed. In his letter, Grassley cites an internal March 2025 case file for a potential sex trafficking case involving minors that showed “high indicators” of trafficking. The file was created after a potential victim contacted a “signaler” who came forward to the hotline. The case file alleged that the victim was afraid of physical abuse and was being forced to provide sex as an escort in exchange for money. A staffer for Polaris reviewed the case file and labeled it “work not required” meaning the file was closed and law enforcement was not alerted.

Gee. A nonprofit, funded by the government, purposely avoids doing the good work it purports to do. 

Shocking. Have you heard that before? 

These failures are obviously not “one-offs.” You don’t get 40 attorneys general from diverse political backgrounds all coming forward with allegations like this without a serious issue that needs to be addressed. It’s almost as if the nonprofit doesn’t take its task seriously. 

According to Empower Oversight, the whistleblower, a Polaris employee, made disclosures within the organization and to government offices, including the HHS Office of Inspector General and Congress. The person has been placed on temporary administrative leave because Polaris is dealing with “ongoing considerations.”

The disclosures are “consistent with concerns recently expressed by the National Association of Attorneys General, who wrote on April 15, 2025 to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: ‘Without [certain] tips, our law enforcement loses critical leads to dismantling trafficking operations. We also lose valuable leads to rescuing the victims of trafficking and helping them begin the road to recovery,” Empower Oversight President Tristan Leavitt wrote.

The bipartisan group of 41 Attorneys General wrote a letter to Kennedy last month raising the alarm about Polaris’s apparent mismanagement of the hotline. The letter followed a similar warning two years ago that Polaris’s approach to handling law enforcement was leading to delayed reporting from the hotline.

This has obviously been a serious and ongoing problem, and just as obviously the people in the administration who were insisting that human trafficking concerns were a conspiracy theory weren’t very interested in ensuring that the money flowing out the door from HHS was accomplishing the task. It would be interesting to see what connections there are between Polaris and the previous administration. 

“The National Human Trafficking Hotline had long been an integral part of our work, until it was discovered a few years ago that the organization awarded the grant to run the Hotline, Polaris, was no longer sharing tips from concerned citizens and distressed family members with local law enforcement. Without those tips, our law enforcement loses critical leads to dismantling trafficking operations. We also lose valuable leads to rescuing the victims of trafficking and helping them begin the road to recovery,” the AGs wrote.

Polaris has changed CEOs–a move coinciding with the change of administrations. 

I wonder why. 

Forced labor and prostitution among underage migrants have more than tripled under President Biden.

A pistol-packing informant takes The FP’s @Maddie_Rowley_ inside America’s fastest-growing criminal enterprise: sex trafficking: https://t.co/jJWdCc2SJS pic.twitter.com/0cizGrxmdF

— The Free Press (@TheFP) October 14, 2024

It sure sounds like somebody took their eye off the ball–or even, during Biden’s rapid importation of unaccompanied minors from abroad, the goals changed. 

Whatever the case, the Trump administration is renewing the focus on eliminating human trafficking and freeing adults and children who are being shopped around like chattel.