Tim Ballard, the former Homeland Security agent and undercover operative whose experience rescuing child sex trafficking victims inspired the film “Sound of Freedom,” joined Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., Tuesday in demanding the Biden administration find the estimated 85,000 unaccompanied minors who crossed the southern border and remain unaccounted for in the U.S.
At a press conference outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., Smith announced new legislation dubbed the “Safeguarding Endangered Children, Unaccompanied and at Risk of Exploitation Act of 2023” or as the “SECURE Act of 2023.”
The bill aims to compel the federal government to report on efforts to locate, establish contact with, conduct wellness checks on, and investigate any suspicion of human trafficking related to the approximately 85,000 unaccompanied migrant children released from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) custody “with whom subsequent contact has been lost.”
