North Austin News

WASHINGTON – On September 13, U.S. Congressman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) — chairman emeritus of the House Committee on Homeland Security — provided remarks at the committee’s hearing titled “An Unbearable Price: The Devastating Human Costs of the Biden-Mayorkas Border Crisis.” McCaul questioned witness Tim Ballard, a former special agent for the Department of Homeland Security, where he was assigned to the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force

Full exchange below:

McCaul: Mr. Ballard, thank you for being here and all the witnesses. …

I was a federal prosecutor [for] many years; I was chair of this committee. HSI does some great work. And the movie — Sounds of Freedom — very moving. … God’s children are not for sale. They’re not. And what we see with the trafficking is one of the worst sins that I’ve seen in my lifetime, where children are property, and they are trafficked.

And I want to thank you for your heroism and the job you did to save those children.

The problem is we have more children now trafficked than ever before. Would you agree that this is probably one of the worst human trafficking events of your lifetime right now?

Ballard: Absolutely.

McCaul: On day one, this administration rescinded a policy that was working. It was called Remain in Mexico. And you know how political asylum works. They couldn’t touch base in the United States; there was no catch and release. … And it worked.

One day one it’s rescinded, and guess what happens? The flood gates [open]. And every border patrol agent I talk to — and I’m from the great state of Texas — will tell you that there was a direct cause and effect.

But it’s not just human trafficking. Now we have almost 100,000 deaths due to fentanyl [this year], which unfortunately, Ms. Snodgrass knows only too well.

Have you ever seen anything worse from an opioid epidemic in your lifetime?

Ballard: No.

McCaul: What’s worse is when the kids get here, guess what? They have no legal status, so where do they go, Mr. Ballard – the women, the girls? Where do they go?

Ballard: They have to be released to HHS, where they wait for any sponsor to come and pick them up and take them home. 

McCaul: And a lot of times, these sponsors have maybe 15 different children, and guess what they’re doing? Sex trafficking.

They’re bringing it now inside the United States of America. And guess what, where do the young boys typically go? They don’t have a home. Maybe they have a sponsor, but guess what happens to them?

Ballard: Well they’re exploited [for] labor, sex. Any kind of exploitation is available, and they have no name, no number, no identity. They are the perfect victim of any kind of exploitation within this country because no one even knows they exist. 

McCaul: The perfect victim, both the girls and the boys. And the boys, I would argue, go to MS-13, where they’ve got to pay back their debt to the cartels. This is a racket, and it’s sanctioned by this administration. In fact, it was created by this administration. Would you agree with that?

Ballard: The policies absolutely made this possible. Absolutely.

McCaul: The policies. You know when I was a federal prosecutor, there’s aiding and abetting. Complicit with an offense. Would you consider these policies to be aiding and abetting the criminal conduct that we’re seeing? 

Ballard: Absolutely, especially since the administration has been told and warned and told again that that’s what they’re doing. And if they continue doing it, absolutely, I’d say they’re absolutely aiding and abetting, and they’re complicit in this.

McCaul: And Secretary Mayorkas knows better. I’ve known him for a long time. … He was a U.S. attorney like I was in the border state of California. He knows exactly what he’s doing, but he’s disregarding the truth, and he won’t change the policy that’s causing so much harm and destruction to this country.

Would you say that Secretary Mayorkas is complicit with the human trafficking, with the fentanyl, with the sex trafficking, with the deaths?

Ballard: Because I’ve seen him be questioned in hearings, both Senate and House, and I know that he now knows because I’ve seen it, I have to say unfortunately yes. He would have to be complicit in it.

McCaul: Have you ever seen the death rate higher than it is today of people just trying to get to the border?

Ballard: Never. It’s never been this high.

McCaul: Because there are so many of them. Because we’re open for business. That’s the sign the administration put on the border: “We’re open for business; come on in.”

And once you touch base in the United States, guess what? Catch and release. My first bill in Congress 20 years ago ended catch and release, and guess what, we’re back to it again.

It’s a failed policy. It doesn’t work. We finally had it fixed, and then this administration comes in, and they screwed it all up. And it comes at a high price. 

Too many people are dying from overdose. Ms. Snodgrass, my heart goes out to you. My children have been to five funerals already of their friends [who died from fentanyl].

[There are] too many human trafficking cases, and we just opened up the United States to be a big criminal conspiracy network. Is that correct, Mr. Ballard?

Ballard: Yes.

Original source can be found here.