By Milt Harris ——Bio and Archives--July 23, 2023
American Politics, News | CFP Comments | Reader Friendly | Subscribe | Email Us
The last thing that Joe Biden will ever be compared to is a magician. Absolutely nothing that has happened during his tenure as President would be considered magical. A circus for sure, enchanted, not a chance.
That said, this administration does have a knack for making things disappear. The most recent case of “now you see it, now you don’t shenanigans,” has to do with the information that quietly disappeared from the anti-child sex trafficking page on the Justice Department’s webpage.
Sometime between late April and Late May, approximately two-thirds of the information on the website page simply went away. The missing information included data on “Child Victims of Prostitution,” “Sex Trafficking of Minors” and “Domestic Sex Trafficking of Minors.”
No-one can deny that much of this information is directly related to the Biden border policies or lack thereof. So removing information that the administration deems to be incriminating would be par for the course. The DOJ claims that the information was a matter of routine updating in accordance with its 2023 “National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction” statement, which is a report to Congress. The report is designed to prevent child sexual exploitation from occurring so as to protect children from sexual abuse, trauma, and exploitation.
OK, so if that’s case, why would you remove that information in a report to Congress, unless a decision was made to hide the truth about the gravity of the situation?
In an interview with the New York Post, a spokesperson for the DOJ stated that:
“In the course of the Department publishing the most recent National Strategy, related content on various Department webpages was updated. Just as it has during previous administrations, the Department continues to place a very high priority on and devote substantial resources to fighting child exploitation and child sex trafficking, both domestically and internationally. To suggest otherwise is simply false.”
Updating is one thing, eliminating pertinent information for the sake of saving face is another. Not surprisingly, the modification raised a great deal of criticism. Roger Servino, Vice President of Domestic Policy for the Heritage Foundation, labeled the changes as typical of Democratic administrations.
"For some reason, people on the left get really uncomfortable and defensive talking about child sexual exploitation. Republican administrations direct more resources to child and human sex trafficking, and then Democratic administrations pull that back. They treat it almost as a distraction from some things they consider to be more important. The fact that these issues get pulled back under Democratic administrations is contemptible.”
Servino’s opinion is that of an insider. He served in the Trump administration and as a member of the DOJ in the transition from the Bush to Obama administrations. He stated that such a website change is time consuming and would require scrutiny, "so this clearly had to go through several layers of review."
His description of one of the removed sections is disturbing to even imagine. He described the “Domestic Sex Trafficking of Minors” as "Pimps and traffickers sexually exploit children through street prostitution, and in adult night clubs, illegal brothels, sex parties, motel rooms, hotel rooms, and other locations throughout the United States."
Zack Smith also works at the Heritage Foundation as a legal fellow. In an interview with the Washington Examiner, he lamented how the administration’s despicable border policies create what he referred to as the "perfect conditions to allow human trafficking to flourish, to allow sex trafficking and child exploitation to flourish.”
“Many of these progressive prosecutors say it's a victimless crime, so-called quality of life crimes. Policies that the Biden administration are pushing from a criminal justice perspective under the guise of supposedly reforming the criminal justice system are actually creating the conditions again for all kinds of human suffering, including human trafficking."
The changes also raised the ire of Republican Representative Anna Paulina Luna of Florida. She believes that the website omissions are directly correlated to a New York Times report that approximately 85,000 immigrant children were either lost or released by the government. Some of which were sadly forced into child labor.
Support Canada Free Press
In a statement, Luna ripped the administration. "DOJ's blatant move to distance Joe Biden's harmful policies from the global crime of sex trafficking should be no surprise to any of us who have seen the blatant sexualization and abuse of children this administration is comfortable with promoting."
Victor Marx is the leader of the “All Things Possible Ministries.” He is also a victim of child sexual abuse and he shared some thoughts with the New York Post.
“It’s heartening to see a commitment to addressing this grave issue, both domestically and internationally. However, the recent changes to the Department’s website, particularly the removal of specific sections related to child sex trafficking, have raised valid concerns. The message we’re sending to our children and the criminals, and the women at large that are concerned is the administration doesn’t care.”
“I think they’re trying to lower their culpability and responsibility. They’re having to lower and lessen their footprint and their position on this because believe me, it’s horrible and stories are going to start to come out.”
Marx also had an interesting observation, suggesting that the website changes seem to coincide with the release of the movie “Sound of Freedom” that deals with the issue of child trafficking at the border.
Biden’s border policies have been disastrous since day one. Instead of being honest about their failures and making the necessary policy changes, the administration has chosen to sweep the issue under the rug. The exploitation and trafficking of children is not a political issue and won’t go away. This is not an “out of sight out, of mind issue” and the sooner Biden learns that, the more children will be saved.
View Comments
Milt spent thirty years as a sales and operations manager for an international manufacturing company. He is also a four-time published author on a variety of subjects. Now, he spends most of his time researching and writing about conservative politics and liberal folly.