Tim Ballard, Senator?

Senator Tim Ballard, Republican from Utah? When Mitt Romney announced his retirement from the Senate, several people started to ask that hypothetical question, in all seriousness. Fox News started asking that question the next day, in fact. Two questions suggest themselves. First, how likely is Tim Ballard to win election to the Senate? Second – and more important – what would a Tim Ballard Senate term look like?

Tim Ballard and his activities

Tim Ballard, of course, was an investigator for the Department of Homeland Security’s investigative unit. In that capacity he closed several cases of the trafficking of children into the United States. But one fine day, one of his cases asked him to rescue his sister – still in captivity. His superiors were not willing to pursue the matter, because that involved carrying the investigation to Colombia. So Ballard made a fateful decision – to leave his job and track the little girl down on his own.

He convinced the Colombian police to set up a “sex hotel” on an offshore island, to lure traffickers, their clients – and their victims. That operation brought the rescue of over 120 victims, both adults and children, and the capture of several suspects. Enough of those suspects “sang” to give him leads to the little girl. Eventually his friends found her, and brother and sister reunited at last.

These are the facts behind the sleeper hit of the summer, Sound of Freedom. At last report this film earned $183 million in the U.S. and $27.6 million elsewhere. Not bad for a film that cost slightly more than $14.5 million to make! (And $5.5 million to market, chiefly by word-of-mouth, without the massive billboards typical of movie marketing today.) This performance is the more remarkable, considering the obstacles it has faced. This includes shelving of the picture by The Walt Disney Company, and a “panning” by a reviewer who seeks to normalize pedophilia.

Further obstacles

The obstacles to Sound of Freedom continue. The two largest Internet streaming services have turned it down. (But VUDU by Fandango is taking preorders on the purchase of “lifetime” individual viewing rights on its platform.) Though it is still playing in U.S. theaters, box office performance figures since September 12 are lacking. And its message seems to have fallen on deaf ears. California refuses to increase the penalties for child trafficking into or within that State.

Nevertheless, Director Alejandro Monteverde told Variety that Sound of Freedom might have a sequel. This would focus on Haiti – a country notorious as a hub and a source for child sex trafficking.

Moreover, its message might not excite a positive response in California, but it is clearly resonating elsewhere. President Trump screened Sound of Freedom about two weeks after its opening and said he would seek a death penalty for child traffickers.

Last Wednesday (September 13), Tim Ballard testified before the House Homeland Security Committee.

In addition to the emotion-provoking – and hard-to-believe – statistics he cited, he charged that 85,000 immigrant children are now missing after authorities “returned” them to their “sponsors.” He effectively asked the Members of Congress, “Where are they?” Then he dropped this dark hint as to why they could disappear so readily:

It’s more difficult to adopt a cat from a shelter in the United States than it is to go down and take one of these children out of the custody of [the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services] and claim that I’m the sponsor.

Nor has President Trump ignored the issue since the mass screening. He vowed to reinstate Title 42 regulations that, he said, were effective in rescuing children from such activity.

Senate prospects

Without question, Tim Ballard has raised his profile significantly with The Sound of Freedom and following its release. Though he founded Operation Underground Railroad, he has since left that organization. He now advises the new SPEAR Fund, which seeks to bring together all organizations concerned with combating the trafficking of children and adults. This can involve their rescue and caring for them afterward, helping them to heal the deep psychic wounds they’ve suffered.

Ballard explained why he can never involve himself in direct rescue ever again. Simply put, he has blown his cover six ways from Sunday. Sound of Freedom is part of the reason – perhaps Jim Caviezel’s make-up to portray Ballard was “too good.” But, beginning shortly after the film’s release, Ballard said several “big names with pull” asked him about a Senate run. Since Mitt Romney decided not to run again, the interest has exploded.

Tim Ballard would face off against four other candidates in the Republican Party. Only one (Mayor Trent Skaggs of Rockingham, Utah) has announced. But another (Brad Wilson, Speaker of the Utah House) has a record warchest and over 60 endorsements from fellow legislators. Moreover, Ballard would face renewed scrutiny of the operations of Operation Underground Railroad. He is out of favor with the Mormon Church and its current President/Prophet, perhaps because that officer believed the hype surrounding a now-closed investigation. But he does appear to have a powerful endorser: Sean Reyes, Attorney General of Utah.

Tim Ballard would shake up the Senate

Tim Ballard would come to the Senate with his own agenda, apart from his expected support of Donald Trump’s agenda. And if his testimony is any guide, he would shake up the Senate and all of official Washington.

He definitely would support building a physical barrier or barriers along the U.S.-Mexican border. One Mexican administration after another, wants immigration to flow freely. That country relies on remittances from its immigrants in America, remittances that often come from American “welfare.” But the Presidents of Honduras and Guatemala have a far different attitude. Their children are winding up subject to sexual exploitation. Anything that forces a trafficker to take his chances slipping children through a controlled portal of entry, is all to the good. In fact, Ballard accuses the White House of becoming a “pedophile delivery service” with its open-border policies.

Consider this exchange between Ballard and Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.), Chairman of the Committee:

Q. Are the catch and release policies of [DHS] Secretary [Alejandro] Mayorkas facilitating the trafficking of people and children?

A. Absolutely.

Q. So word it another way, there are cases of human trafficking and sex trafficking of minors that are occurring that would not be occurring if these policies were not in place?

A. That’s correct.

Q. [And do you believe that] Mayorkas knows there are human trafficking cases happening because of his policies?

A. I do believe he knows that.

So logically, if Rep. Green preferred Articles of Impeachment against Mayorkas, a Senator Ballard would vote to convict. Ballard would also push the Senate itself to investigate.

Explain this!

More to the point, a Tim Ballard for Senate campaign would make human trafficking an election campaign issue. This can only redound to his, and Trump’s credit. President Trump was the first, and only, President to do anything to combat human trafficking. But President Biden rescinded several policies Trump had put in place to combat the practice. This included DNA testing to “vet” those claiming to be a child’s relatives at the border.

Let Biden, and Ballard’s likely opponent, explain that, if they:

1. Dare, and
2. Can.

Note that, perhaps because the government of Mexico has taken such a cavalier attitude, Eduardo Verástegui, producer of and cast member in Sound of Freedom, has formally registered to run for President of Mexico.