Death to child traffickers – Trump

Former President Donald Trump, after hosting a screening of the movie The Sound of Freedom, made an electrifying pledge. He will ask Congress to specify the death penalty for traffickers – of women or children – caught at the border.

The specific death penalty declaration

President Trump, in a video today, made the pledge while also giving his own critical review of The Sound of Freedom.

“I will urge Congress to ensure… anyone caught trafficking children across our border receives the death penalty immediately,” he said. He also said this would apply whether the victims are women or children. “Women as you know are number one in trafficking. Children are actually number two,” he went on.

“When I’m back in the White House, I will immediately end the Biden border nightmare that traffickers are using to exploit vulnerable women and children. We will fully secure the border. I will wage war on the cartels just as I destroyed the ISIS caliphate, 100% gone, 100% destroyed. They’ve come back now because we have a weak administration,” he said.

Trump spoke of using Title 42 of the U.S. code to return rescued children to their families back home. He also mentioned the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act of 2018. That bill, as amended (2022), remains in force today. It authorizes multiple grants to combat trafficking for sex and labor. Trump estimated the total grant value at $430 million.

About The Sound of Freedom

The Sound of Freedom tells the story of Tim Ballard, formerly an investigator for Homeland Security Investigations. He now heads Operation Underground Railroad, which he founded. This film, which cost $14.5 million to make, has grossed $104.6 million so far. Yesterday it came in at the top of the charts, except for pre-sales of the movies Barbie and Oppenheimer. Its earlier number-one competitor, Mission Impossible Seven: Dead Reckoning Part One, finished second.

Actor Jim Caviezel, who portrays Ballard in the film, actually compared Trump to Moses in an interview yesterday.

Oh, yeah. We have to do a lot more. And we got to start with Donald Trump. Well, he’s got to be in there because he’s going to go after the traffickers.