Operation Underground Railroad

Operation Underground Railroad (O.U.R.) is a United States-based, anti-sex trafficking nonprofit organization founded by Tim Ballard.[1][2] The organization has conducted multiple sting operations, some outside the United States, and donated technological and monetary resources to law-enforcement agencies that combat sex trafficking.[2][3] The organisation has been criticised for its conduct during sting operations and for exaggerated claims regarding its work.[2][4]

Operation Underground Railroad
AbbreviationO.U.R.
Named afterUnderground Railroad
FoundedOctober 2013
FounderTimothy Ballard
Founded atSalt Lake City, Utah
TypeNon-governmental organization, non-profit organization
FocusHumanitarian
HeadquartersAnaheim, California
Area served
Global
Key people
Tim Ballard
Websiteourrescue.org
An Operation Underground Railroad information tent in 2018

History

Operation Underground Railroad was founded in 2013 by Tim Ballard.[5]

Ballard stated that prior to founding O.U.R. he served 12 years as a U.S. Special Agent for the Department of Homeland Security, on the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICAC) and the U.S. Child Sex Tourism Jump Team. According to The Atlantic, "spokespeople for the CIA and DHS said they could not confirm Ballard's employment record without his written permission, which he did not provide."[6]

According to Ballard, he was frustrated with the lack of strategies employed to rescue kidnapped and trafficked children in underdeveloped nations, and the inability to prosecute offenders in non-U.S. related cases.[7][8] Subsequently, he left government service in October 2013 to found Operation Underground Railroad.[7][8][9]

CharityWatch gives O.U.R. a question mark rating because the organization does not disclose financial information.[10] In February 2016, the Justice Department advised members of ICAC against "being involved in, assisting or supporting operations with" O.U.R. The commander of ICAC's Washington branch stated in an email to state and local police that O.U.R. was not affiliated with ICAC and that "no task-force group should partner with O.U.R. or provide O.U.R. with 'any resources, equipment, personnel, training.'"[11]

As the CEO of the organization, Ballard has briefed multiple politicians on the issue of child sex trafficking, including President Donald Trump in January 2019.[12][13] He also trained Imperial County Sheriff’s Office personnel in the use of data mining software, which eventually led to the arrest of a man suspected of distributing child pornography.[14] On March 6, 2019, Ballard was called to testify before the US Senate Judiciary Committee concerning US-Mexico border security and its relation to child sex trafficking.[15]

Also in 2019, O.U.R.'s founder was appointed to the White House Public-Private Partnership Advisory Council to End Human Trafficking.[16] The Council was terminated on September 30, 2020.[17]

Operations

According to the organization, O.U.R. supplies a data mining platform "which they deploy against networks that child traffickers and pedophiles use to communicate with each other.[7][18][9]

International operations

In 2014, O.U.R. participated in a sting operation in Cartagena, Colombia.[19][8] In April 2022, O.U.R. participated in an anti-trafficking summit in Cartagena, Colombia.[20]

In 2022, O.U.R. also provided investigative and undercover support in the arrests of pro-pedophilia activists Nelson Maatman, who fled to Mexico, and Marthijn Uittenbogaard and his partner, who both fled to Ecuador.[21][22]

In August 2022, O.U.R. supported an operation in the Dominican Republic involving raids, the arrest of 14 suspects, and over 200 law enforcement agents.[23]

Law enforcement support

Between 2015 and 2018, O.U.R. donated more than $170,000 to Washington State Patrol's "Net Nanny" sting program. The money was used for "additional detectives, hotels, food and overtime."[11] Sergeant Carlos Rodriguez, the initiator of the sting program arranged positive media coverage for O.U.R.,[11] solicited donations for them,[24] and, upon his retirement in 2019, was employed by O.U.R. as their domestic coordinator.[11]

O.U.R. bought over 50 dogs trained to detect electronic storage devices from Jordan Detection K9 and donated them to police departments in several U.S. States and Thailand.[25][26]

Aftercare

O.U.R. says it runs a non-profit runs an aftercare program,[27] providing medical and psychological services, education, and vocational opportunities to survivors.[28] In January 2022, O.U.R. stated that in 2021 it provided aftercare in 30 countries.[29] In February 2020, O.U.R. paid for the trip to Italy, where her birth family now lives, of an American woman who says she was stolen as a baby from her parents, who were poor farmers in Romania, and raised by adoptive parents in Wisconsin.[30]

According to Foreign Policy, in 2014, "after OUR’s first operation in the Dominican Republic, a local organization called the National Council for Children and Adolescents (CONANI when abbreviated in Spanish) quickly discovered it didn’t have the capacity to handle the 26 girls rescued. They were released in less than a week."[9]

In media

In 2016, The Abolitionists, a documentary produced by Gerald Molen, featured the first operations undertaken by Ballard and Operation Underground Railroad.[31] Another documentary from director Nick Nanton, Operation Toussaint, was produced in 2018 which featured an operation in Haiti that had the support of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse and former US congresswoman Mia Love of Utah.[32] Deseret News movie critic Josh Terry described Operation Toussaint as "an engrossing and expert production" but also said it "feels more like a promotional film than a strictly traditional documentary."[33]

A feature film about Ballard's life, Sound of Freedom, starring Jim Caviezel, Mira Sorvino, and Eduardo Verástegui was announced in 2018.[34][35] The 2018 documentary, Operation Toussaint, and the 2020 documentary, Triple Take, were also based on Ballard's work against sex trafficking.[36][37]

Publicity and celebrity endorsements

Corbin Kaufusi, Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, and Tony Robbins have helped raise funds for O.U.R.[38][39] In July 2021, O.U.R. partnered with a Ft. Myers, Florida, Harley-Davidson dealership in organizing a "freedom ride to raise awareness about child sex trafficking."[40] In 2018, Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin went to Haiti "for a first-hand experience" with O.U.R., which was filmed for ESPN.[41]

Criticism and investigations

The group says it disavows conspiracy theories, though founder Tim Ballard was criticized for refusing to condemn the QAnon conspiracy theory.[42][43][44] In 2022, the O.U.R. falsely claimed that it had entered a partnership with American Airlines.[45]

In a 2020 expose, Vice News says that Tim Ballard embellished O.U.R.'s role in the rescue of a trafficked woman.[2] A 2021 follow-up article further criticized O.U.R.'s practices, including using inexperienced donors and celebrities as part of its jump team, a lack of meaningful surveillance or identification of targets, failing to validate whether the people they intended to rescue were in fact actual trafficking victims, and conflating consensual sex work with sex trafficking.[46] A 2021 article in Slate criticised a 2014 raid conducted by O.U.R. in the Dominican Republic, saying that it was likely to have traumatized the trafficked children. Anne Gallagher, an authority on human trafficking, wrote in 2015 that O.U.R. had an “alarming lack of understanding about how sophisticated criminal trafficking networks must be approached and dismantled” and called the work of O.U.R “arrogant, unethical and illegal".[4]

In October 2020, Utah's Attorney's Office of Davis County started an investigation into O.U.R. The investigation was closed in May 2023 with no charges filed.[47]

References
  1. "Jim Caviezel Exposes Adrenochrome & Child Sex Trafficking". www.brighteon.com. Retrieved 12 May 2023.
  2. Merlan, Anna (10 December 2020). "A Famed Anti-Sex Trafficking Group Has a Problem With the Truth". www.vice.com. Archived from the original on 24 December 2020. Retrieved 24 December 2020.
  3. Hartman, Taylor (October 22, 2021). "Claims of Utah group's involvement in child exploitation investigations under scrutiny". Standard-Examiner. Retrieved April 23, 2023.
  4. Conley, Meg (2021-05-11). "Called by God". Slate. ISSN 1091-2339. Archived from the original on June 2021. Retrieved 2023-05-16.
  5. Hanson, Kurt. "Operation Underground Railroad: Saves lives in ways most can't". Daily Herald. Archived from the original on 2020-11-08. Retrieved 2019-07-12.
  6. Tiffany, Kaitlin (December 9, 2021). "The Great (Fake) Child-Sex-Trafficking Epidemic". The Atlantic. Retrieved April 23, 2023.
  7. Byrne Reilly, Richard (2014-04-26). "Tech startup Operation Underground Railroad is saving kids from human traffickers". VentureBeat. Archived from the original on 2016-06-30. Retrieved 2016-05-16.
  8. Burleigh, Nina (December 14, 2015). "Inside The Fight Against Child Sex Trafficking". Archived from the original on May 12, 2021. Retrieved April 23, 2023.
  9. "The New Abolitionists". Foreign Policy. Archived from the original on 2016-05-16. Retrieved 2016-05-16.
  10. "Operation Underground Railway". CharityWatch. Archived from the original on March 6, 2023. Retrieved April 23, 2023.
  11. Winerip, Michael (September 28, 2021). "Convicted of Sex Crimes, but With No Victims". The New York Times. Archived from the original on September 29, 2021. Retrieved April 24, 2023.
  12. Dinan, Stephen (February 1, 2019). "Border security expert: 'The wall rescued this little boy'". The Washington Times. Retrieved 2019-06-21.
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  21. "'Gevluchte Nederlandse pedofielen opgepakt in Ecuador'". Telegraaf.nl. 24 Jun 2022. Archived from the original on 24 June 2022. Retrieved 6 March 2023.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
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  35. Bond, Paul (15 June 2018). "Blockchain Platform TaTaTu to Co-Finance 'Sound of Freedom'". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2019-06-21.
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  39. Genovese, Daniella (March 6, 2020). "Tony Robbins raises $18M for charity with 60th birthday bash". Fox Business. Retrieved April 23, 2023.
  40. Guerrero, Andrea (July 24, 2021). "Operation Underground Railroad ride set to begin Saturday for human trafficking awareness". WINK-TV. Retrieved April 23, 2023.
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