Critics lambasted President Joe Biden’s Justice Department after information regarding child sex trafficking was apparently scrubbed from the website.
According to a report published Tuesday by the New York Post, nearly two-thirds of the text on the web page devoted to child-sex trafficking were removed, with archived screenshots viewed via the Wayback Machine suggesting that the majority of the changes were made between April 21 and May 28 of this year.
Among the sections of text that were cut were “International Sex Trafficking of Minors,” “Domestic Sex Trafficking of Minors,” and “Child Victims of Prostitution” — and according to a statement from the Justice Department, all changes were part of simply “updating” the site to reflect the 2023 National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction.
“In the course of the Department publishing the most recent National Strategy, related content on various Department webpages was updated,” the DOJ told the Post. “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.”
Jaco Booyens, who runs a ministry dedicated to fighting exploitation in the United States — particularly near the southern border — told the Post that he saw a link between the Biden administration’s lack of a cohesive border policy and the information’s sudden disappearance.
“I was not shocked at all. The reason it happened, the way it happened has a lot to do with the border. It has a lot to do with the timing that there’s a general awareness on human trafficking,” he said. “We know the effect of trafficking across the border of women and children. And so to deprioritize it … it’s absolutely moving in the wrong direction. It’s nefarious. This is not a political issue. It should never be a political issue. This is an issue of human dignity and human life. And it’s a humanitarian issue.”
Victor Marx, who runs All Things Possible Ministries and is a survivor of child sexual abuse himself, noted the timing of the “updates” and how they coincided with the release of the Angel Studios film about child sex trafficking, “Sound of Freedom.”
“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,” he said.
“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,” he added.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) took aim at the Biden administration in a press release, saying, “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.”
“This also prefaced the Sound of Freedom release, a film that has underscored the horrific violation of human dignity by the international sex trade and the perpetrators of it,” she concluded.
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