In a move that should rattle most Americans, President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ) quietly erased large portions of its website pertaining to child trafficking. This comes amid growing public awareness and warnings that the horrendous crimes are increasing in the U.S.
The agency purged information on the practices on multiple pages involving trafficking. It also deleted a section cautioning that trafficking of minors may entail “the cross border transportation of children.”
Part of what was deleted warned readers that “traffickers recruit and transfer children across international borders to…exploit them in another country.” These criminals, the site formerly noted, could be individuals operating alone or organized groups.
It previously told of the practice of throwing children into unfamiliar settings and cultures, often with false identification.
There may also, the DOJ once warned, be language barriers preventing the children from seeking help to escape.
DOJ Quietly Removes Child Sex Trafficking Information From Its Websitehttps://t.co/UjaFZyQULY
— Lara Logan (@laralogan) July 13, 2023
For conservative critics of the administration and anyone with a sense of decency, these moves speak volumes of misplaced priorities in Washington, D.C.
As Roger Severino, Heritage Foundation Vice President of Domestic Policy noted, “For some reason, people on the left get really uncomfortable and defensive talking about child exploitation.”
Severino observed that Republican presidents put more time and resources into stopping child and human trafficking. These efforts, however, often unravel as Democrats in charge will rein them in.
He further accused Democrats of seeing trafficking as a “distraction” and called the deemphasizing of protecting children “contemptible.”
Yet another section of the DOJ website that disappeared concerned domestic human trafficking. It previously warned that “pimps and traffickers exploit children through street prostitution and in adult night clubs,” as well as hotels and motels.
Severino declared that removing such material from the Justice Department’s website is a strenuous process. In that case, it obviously had to be approved on several levels.
Another critic, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), linked the DOJ’s eradication of trafficking information to the Department of Health and Human Services losing 85,000 migrant children released from U.S. government custody. This disturbing data was reported by the New York Times.
Luna released a statement slamming the Biden administration for its “harmful policies” enabling the “global crime of…trafficking.” She accused the White House of being “comfortable” with the current criminal situation.
