GUARD Against Trafficking Founder Ali Hopper Testifies on Exploitation of Immigrant Children

Exploitation of Immigrant Children at the Border

• 🎯 Ali Hopper, President and Co-founder of Guard Against Trafficking, testified before the House Homeland Committee about the severe exploitation of immigrant children at the southern border.
• 💔 She shared harrowing personal accounts, including holding a child left to die by a cartel and children given sponsor information by cartels.
• ⚠️ Hopper highlighted that children are being neglected, abused, or trafficked within a system meant to protect them, questioning the role of OR (Office of Refugee Resettlement).

Systemic Failures and Mismanagement

• 💰 Over $20 billion has been spent on the UAC (Unaccompanied Alien Children) program since 2008, with nearly $14 billion in the last six years alone, yet hundreds of thousands of children remain unaccounted for.
• 🔍 No-bid, billion-dollar contracts with little oversight have been awarded, turning influx facilities into transportation hubs and fueling a system hijacked by criminal networks.
• 📈 An organization named Endeavors saw its revenue surge from $65 million in 2019 to $1.18 billion in 2022, largely due to federal contracts, while its CEO's salary significantly increased.

Abuses and Safety Protocol Breaches

• 🚨 At Endeavors' Pico, Texas facility, auditors found disturbing issues, including male staff in female dorms and an employee leading teenage girls in sexually explicit routines.
• 🚫 Auditors were blocked from reviewing child sponsor placements, and children nearing 18 were released early to avoid ICE transfer.
• ⚠️ Similar patterns of prioritizing speed over safety and output over outcomes were observed across multiple OR facilities, creating conditions exploited by cartels.

Cartel Infiltration and Weak Vetting

• 🗺️ Cartel operatives confirmed infiltrating ORs along smuggling routes, transforming humanitarian pathways into trafficking pipelines.
• 📝 Weak sponsor vetting is a major issue, with an HHS audit finding 70% of sponsor applications to be fraudulent, making post-placement welfare checks nearly impossible.
• 🕵️ Intervention on a farm in the Midwest led to the discovery of approximately 117 unaccompanied children believed to be trafficked, sparking a current investigation.

Call for Accountability

• ⚖️ Hopper emphasized that this issue is not about politics but about protecting children and confronting modern-day slavery.
• ✅ She called for accountability and decisive action when policies enable exploitation, ensuring such harm does not happen again.