All Episodes
Previous Next
July 2, 2023 - Info Warrior - Jason Bermas
59:33
Operation Underground Railroad Is Full Steam Ahead With The Sound Of Freedom | MSOM Ep. 778

Watch FIRST at www.AmpNews.us Mon - Fri at 6:00pm eastern

|

Time Text
Kids Found: 288 Stories 00:05:35
Welcome to Making Sense of the Madness.
Today we are going to be talking to two individuals working with Operation Underground Railroad, rrescue.org, Carlos Maza and Tyler Schwab.
There's a lot going on there.
It's not just about making films, documentaries, and rescuing children.
It's about getting them back on their feet afterwards and so much more.
We'll be back after this.
Over the past week or so, this program and AMP News has tried to amplify the fact that The Sound of Freedom is going to be airing on July 4th around the country and around the world.
And we hope that this is not just a movie, but a movement, because the message in this picture is so important.
We need to reach beyond those that are already aware of the human trafficking that is going on in this country and around the world and make our friends, families, and neighbors aware as well.
Because this is not a left or right issue.
It is a right and wrong issue.
It is an issue we should all be concerned about because it is truly about the children.
This isn't political rhetoric.
I'm not running for something.
These aren't empty promises.
Instead, we've been talking to an organization that is boots on the ground, actually rescuing children and rescuing the minds of those that have been brainwashed by the establishment media to believe this isn't a problem.
It doesn't really exist.
No, it's only conspiracy theorists that talk about child trafficking.
And now with this A number one production, we hope to take the world by storm.
So let's take a look at this trailer for The Sound of Freedom.
How many pedophiles you caught?
288.
How many kids you found?
It is the fastest growing international crime network that the world has ever seen.
it has already passed the oliva arms trade and soon it's gonna pass the drug trade because you can sell a bag of cocaine one time with a child five to ten times a day god's children are not for sale how long you been doing this 12 years now?
How many pedophasy come 288?
What kids have you found?
For homeland security, you know we can't go off rescuing Honduran kids in Colombia.
Which means she'll disappear for good.
Imagine walking into a room right now, seeing an empty bed.
What we do.
You quit your job, and you go and rescue those kids.
At this moment, she could be a block down the road, or she could be at Moscow, Bangkok, LA.
She's a major operator.
It's all rebel territory.
No one goes in.
Not the army, not the police, not us.
What if this is your daughter?
There's no Marine unit coming.
You're on your own.
This job tears you to pieces.
And this is my one chest.
Put those pieces back together.
When God tells you what to do.
An estimated 2 million children are trafficked every year, and we can help them.
Sound of Freedom is based on a true story about real-life heroes saving kids from the dark world of child trafficking.
We know this is heartbreaking and it hurts to look at, but the first step in helping these children is hearing their story.
Not enough people know this problem exists, and even fewer people are willing to do anything about it.
Our goal is to inspire 2 million people to attend the film's opening weekend to represent the 2 million trafficked children around the world.
To spread the word, Angel Studios set up a pay-it-forward program where you can pay for someone else's ticket who might not otherwise see it.
If the ticket price is stopping you from attending, claim your free ticket.
At angel.com/slash freedom, Sound of Freedom opens the week of July 4th.
Hear Their Story 00:02:19
Every parent, every adult, and every teenager in America should be there to see it.
If millions of us come together today to see this film, we could propel the movement to help save millions of children around the world.
You can send the message that God's children are no longer for sale.
A powerful film with a powerful message.
And again, not just a movie, but something we hope to spark a movement.
To talk about that on the other side, we will be joined by two members of Operation Underground Railroad.
Back after this, it's Making Sense of the Madness.
In today's world, taking care of your health has never been more important.
But sometimes it's not easy to find the time or the resources to see a practitioner in person.
That's why AMP is proud to offer Global Tech MD Telemedicine.
With just a few clicks, you can connect with a health practitioner from the comfort of your own home.
And for a limited time, you can get your first month of Global Tech MD Telemedicine for just $9.95.
After that, it's only $29.95 per month.
But that's not all.
Global Tech MD offers both traditional telemedicine and alternative method plans, starting at just $69 per month.
So whether you're looking for traditional telemedicine or holistic approaches to wellness, AMP and Global Tech MD has you covered.
Visit ampnews.us to learn more about Global Tech MD Telemedicine and their affordable health plans.
Your health is our priority, and we're here to help you live your best life.
Operation Underground Railroad is the organization.
Rrescue.org is the website, ourrescue.org.
That's where you can find tickets to the upcoming premiere of Sound of Freedom.
To talk about that and much more, we have two members of the organization, Carlos Maza and Tyler Schwab, both join us.
Law Enforcement's Brave Mission 00:12:03
Gentlemen, first off, thank you for joining us.
But before we get into the film, I'd like to get a little bio on how you guys got involved in this.
Carlos, you have an esteemed career in law enforcement, customs, homeland security.
What brought you to the organization?
You know, it seems like there's always destiny, huh, on where you end up.
I retired a few years back as a deputy director for international operations at Homeland Security Investigations.
And I have been doing some work throughout most of Latin America.
And OUR leadership reached out to me in interest to want to bring me aboard based on my international operational experience.
And as such, I ended up in this job a couple of years ago.
And I have to say that it's probably one of the most gratifying jobs I and as well as the team I manage have.
It's a great job.
Let's talk about that team that you manage.
Take us through an average day in your workplace, in your world.
Yeah.
So, you know, we try to enable our law enforcement partners throughout South America and any type of operation that could result in the rescue of a victim of trafficking.
So, I mean, just as we speak right now, we're coordinating with our Colombian counterparts to rescue some 20 to 50 victims of human trafficking.
Many of these girls are Colombian nationals that were lured by traffickers.
So this is your typical weekly type of work I'm involved in with my team from day to day.
I think it's so important that you guys work hand in hand with law enforcement in whatever country that you're in and you're now acting as some type of vigilante group.
That's such an important thing to illustrate is that you're going in there and you're really trying to make a difference.
This isn't like the movies, pardon the pun, although the movie that, you know, people are going to watch is more like reality and how this thing gets done.
Now, Tyler, you're on the other end of this.
You know, after these people are rescued, obviously they need help.
And I think that people have a certain idea of what a prostitute is that is not based in reality.
Often these people are trafficked at a very young age and the age range that you deal with spans very widely, correct?
Yes, sir.
And, you know, I'm glad you brought up that point about, you know, people's misconception about sex work and prostitution, because I was one of those people not too long ago where I assume that a lot of those women, some of those children were in it because they wanted to be in it.
But, you know, the more knowledge I gained, the more people that I talk to, there's no little girl that grows up and says she wants to be a sex worker.
And the adults that you interact with, oftentimes they're forced to be there, or they have a strong history of sexual abuse to where it made me realize that, you know, prostitution isn't the world's oldest profession.
It's the world's oldest oppression.
It's men purchasing women.
And it's an impression that's existed since the beginning of time.
And yeah, one thing I love about our organization is like in the movie that people will see, Sound of Freedom, you know, Jim Caviso and the actors, they talk about, you know, saving these kids around the world, saving these kids in the United States and Colombia and Haiti.
But OUR as a whole, like we support survivors of all ages.
If a law enforcement entity comes to us and says they have a group of women who are over the age of 18 that are being trafficked, we'll also support and we'll also help.
And yeah, on the aftercare side, it's all about creating a path forward that allows healing, that cultivates safety, and that allows empowerment.
And the range of ages that we work with, the oldest survivor that we work with here in Latin America is around 82 years old.
And the youngest survivor that we have currently in our care is a 19-month-old baby.
It's incredible that we could even be talking about an infant in this manner.
But if you've actually looked at the hard reality of this, that is happening.
How do we reach people that think that this is too dark?
Obviously, this movement is, in my opinion, a tool to do so because so many people want to shy away from this.
The mainstream media says it's a conspiracy theory.
You guys can tell us firsthand, this is not a conspiracy theory.
Instead, this is an international multi-billion dollar business, correct, Carlos?
Without doubt, I think we all recognize here that the driving force here is the money.
This is all focused on one thing: that's profits.
And that's another point where my experience is a career federal law enforcement investigator.
I specialized in following the money to get to the networks.
And we try to give this sort of guidance as well to all of our law enforcement partners around the globe.
You can go ahead and rescue a group of victims, but you want to get to the network because just as Tim says, he may rescue one, but if he's got a chance to cast his net out there into the sea and catch as many or rescue as many children as he possibly can, and then we sort them out to determine, hey,
who are just nothing more than innocent victims of some sort of an enticement of a party versus children that have been trafficked?
But if we don't give, you know, if we don't make an effort to rescue as many children as we can, you know, we are, you know, I mean, could you imagine just you rescue 10 children, you don't have access to interview them, get more detail, and then later you find out that, hey, there were more children in the other room that the cops failed to identify,
or the cops didn't take advantage of the expertise that exists to go ahead and identify these networks.
So I clearly focus in on that full picture.
So not only do we do a rescue, but boy, we just continue to push and push and push the need to follow up on the intelligence that comes out of that rescue to ultimately determine and identify there are more victims out there.
In your opinion, how widespread is that type of behavior activity or malfeasance in not exploring these investigations further and finding out whether or not there are more children, whether or not there are more Madams, whether or not this is a larger victim.
Is that a common occurrence?
Well, here's my observation in years of dealing, and I think Tyler is well recognized.
Our partners abroad are basically tied down into focusing in what's happening in their backyard.
And because of the limited funding, funding does not exist in their budget for them to get out of their particular area of residence and focus in on these groups.
And so I don't call it malfeasance on the part of these individuals, these law enforcement officers.
I almost think that it's a malfeasance on a part of their political focus, maybe not wanting to bring attention to this program because it may be bad for tourism.
But, you know, I am definitely concerned as to guys, you know, OUR, we will help you.
If you have the interest to pursue this, we want to collaborate and we want to rescue as many as we can.
So again, I can tell you, and I won't answer for Tyler, but I think he'll say the same thing.
And that is, our law enforcement partners clearly welcome the help and will expand their cases as far as they can take it.
Tyler, what is your experience with working with law enforcement officers around the world?
Well, I would second what Carlos said.
I think he's totally spot on.
Where I would say confidently that the law enforcement individuals that we are blessed to work with at OUR are some of the bravest individuals that we've ever met that have dedicated their lives often for pennies to rescue the children like in their backyard.
And so for us, it's an honor.
I think I speak for Carlos's team and as well for my team for Carlos to be able to see the gaps in their rescue capabilities, help fill those gaps with everything that looks like, whether it's funding, whether it's undercover operators, where it's different kind of consulting technology.
And then on the aftercare side, to almost partner with them so that the survivors see us as one team of like, look, here's what we can offer you.
Like, you want to go to school?
Like, we can help you go to school.
You want to get those tattoos removed that the trafficker placed on you.
You want medical care.
We can get you housing for a little bit to really meet them where they're at with our law enforcement partners so that our partners can rescue these survivors out of these situations and also be able to confidently offer them support after the fact.
Going after the bad guys is, you know, I think that's the best way to eventually prevent this is arrest enough of the bad guys, publish their faces everywhere so it creates enough fear to where people aren't engaging in this, but also making sure that the survivors are taken care of.
And I think people would realize that it's not a conspiracy thing is when it hits close to home.
That it would happen so much more often than people would think the people that are closest to us.
It doesn't have to be the guy at Target in the white van that's kidnapping kids.
It could be an uncle.
It could be a pastor.
It could be your own mother.
One of the saddest things that happened during the pandemic is At the end of every year, we kind of look at our caseload and how the survivors are doing, but also who the bad guys were.
And in 2020, you know, one of the saddest numbers that came out of our stats in 2020 was that of the cases that were referred to us in 2020, about 75% of the traffickers that year for us were the survivor's own mother.
And so it's not a conspiracy thing.
It's happening closer to home than I think we would all want to admit.
And it's being perpetrated by the people that are most closely associated with these survivors and these victims.
Perpetrators and Accountability 00:15:10
It's truly disturbing that anybody could do that to their own child, let alone any child.
We have to take a quick break when we come back.
I want to talk more about the film, The Sound of Freedom.
You can get your tickets and find out where the screenings are over at OURrescue, Rrescue.org.
We'll be back after this.
It's Making Sense of the Madness.
Banks are supposed to be the safest placeholders for cash in the world.
But in 2022, that changed.
The Federal Reserve pulled out 2.5 trillion of liquidity out of the banks.
And the Fed also changed the requirements so banks don't need to keep any funds on hand.
This means banks are starved for liquidity and have now become very dangerous places to hold your assets.
Get out of the system with the world's safest and most private assets, silver and gold.
Call Kirk Elliott PhD at 720-605-3900.
RateLock is an innovative new feature that allows you to lock in your rate of return at any time during the year to lock in these volatile upswings to the market.
And unlike CDs and money market accounts, they accumulate tax deferred and can participate in the upside of market indexes.
And they're probate free and they can provide income that you can't outlive.
Let a company you can trust help you select a rate lock annuity that's right for you.
Call the Cleveland Insurance Group at 844 USA 2024.
That's the Cleveland Insurance Group at 844 USA 2024.
the cleveland insurance group 844 usa 2024 if you're a lion we get to support operation underground railroads rescue efforts of people who need it the most the innocent who have had every ounce of freedom taken from them This is the second fundraiser we're doing with Operation Underground Railroad.
And the first one, man, Team Freedom, we blew it out of the water.
We far exceeded our goal.
And I think we can do even better this time because the lions of the world care about freedom.
And because they're lions, not just their own freedom, but the freedom of other people.
But first, let me share with you what first got me started supporting Operation Underground Railroad.
As you might know, I've got a beautiful little boy.
He's two and a half.
And last year, I was looking at in his precious blue eyes and of course seeing how innocent, helpless, and quite frankly powerless he is, yet how beautiful he is.
Here is a child of God.
I'm entrusted to be the steward of his soul.
And I realize the innocent children and sex trafficking, they are the same thing.
They are someone else's little boy or someone else's little girl.
And I just thought if my child was, God forbid, ever taken into sex trafficking, I would want the lions of the world to step up and do something because my son deserves it and realizing other people's sons and daughters, they deserve it.
That's why I decided I have to get involved supporting the Operation Underground Railroad rescue efforts.
There's charities I've supported along the way still do and they're important, but the work that Operation Underground Railroad is doing, it is the most important cause that's ever touched my heart.
And Operation Underground Railroad has a proven track record of success when it comes to protecting the innocent.
So far, they've rescued over 6,000 survivors of sex trafficking and put in jail over 4,000 perpetrators.
So not only do they set up operational efforts to locate rings and find the criminals and find out where this is happening, but then they perform the rescue missions where their team, they go into harm's way, putting their lives on the line to save the lives and give the freedom back to the innocent.
And then they don't stop there.
All importantly, they also provide aftercare for the victims.
Because as you can imagine, there's physical and psychological harm that these innocent have incurred.
And they help the victims rebuild their lives.
Now, these victims, they would otherwise have no hope.
They would be in the worst situations we can possibly imagine and they would be completely hopeless.
But fortunately, there's hope because Operation Underground Railroad exists.
They're putting their lives on the line to save the innocent, but they couldn't do it without supporters like you and I, without the lions of the world who say freedom matters.
And it doesn't just matter for me because I'm selfless.
I have a big heart.
I realize protecting the innocent, their freedom, and giving their freedom back to them, that matters.
Fantastic message from JP of JP Awakens.
I couldn't agree with him more.
This is not a political issue.
This is not a left or right issue.
This is truly an issue about humanity in general, children, and us stepping up to shine a light on the darkness and hold these people accountable.
You know, that was one of the things that you were talking about before the break, Tyler, is that we have to show these people to others for who they are.
And when they are indeed arrested for these crimes, it can't be a slap on the wrist.
These people need to be put away in jail forever.
How do you think we can get to that level of accountability?
Because we surely haven't seen it yet.
And often these people are recycled through the system just to commit these horrific crimes again.
It's a good question.
People have asked this question a couple of times of like, how does someone end up being a trafficker or a pedophile?
Like what goes into their head?
And honestly, I don't know.
And I don't want to know.
I can't conceive why someone would do that, why they would go down that road.
And so it's not a headspace everyone to get into.
I do know that I think the best prevention is a solid prosecution, a solid, like a show to the world that like, hey, we take this crime serious.
And if you commit this crime, not only are we going to put you in jail for a long time, we're also going to take all your money, as well as give justice to the survivors.
And so I think one way that our partners utilize that portion of OUR is they involve us in that whole process from the time that the arrest happens from the time to the prosecution happens.
You know, we get perpetrators from all over the world.
We get perpetrators from the United States.
We get perpetrators from Europe, from South America, from the Caribbean, from everywhere.
When a trafficker is from the United States, we have a system in place to where we'll work with the Department of Justice, with their attorneys, with different agencies around the United States to ensure that these guys pay for what they've done, that they serve a sentence, that the survivors are given their chance in court to speak, to share their truth.
We're also given a chance to speak to talk about what their lives looks like now after having to interact with this trafficker, after what he did to them.
And then we also employ the help of our attorneys as well.
They can help walk the Department of Justice through taking these guys' stuff, essentially, through restitution.
And, you know, as my colleague Carlos said, a lot of it is about money.
And if you attack their money as well, it's a solid prevention effort.
And I'll leave it to Carlos to talk about some of the cases that we've worked in Latin America and how justice has happened in certain cases here in Latin America.
But I believe personally, I've seen a lot of prevention efforts.
I've seen a lot of people invest a lot of financial resources into prevention.
I think people knowing about the crime is a great prevention.
So you can watch your kids.
You can know what those grooming tactics look like.
Social media awareness, but then a really good prosecution and making sure that prosecution is spread all over the news.
I believe is the best way to prevent this crime.
Carlos, what are your thoughts on the accountability and the operations that Tyler just discussed?
You there?
Oh, we lost.
I'm sorry.
It looks like we lost Carlos.
I guess we're going to go with you then, Tyler.
Hey, it's on the fly.
Oh, there he is.
Carlos, you're back.
Excellent.
On the issue of accountability, where are you at?
And what are some of these operations where you have been able to hold these people accountable?
Jason, can you repeat the question, please?
Absolutely.
We were just talking about the accountability of these perpetrators and some of the operations that you've been involved in to hold them accountability or accountable.
And really, it's an issue for me that these people ever get out.
You know, Tyler talked about going after them financially.
And yes, I think they should lose everything they own or they're connected to.
But at the same time, I think they should spend the rest of their lives in prison.
We need to treat this like a murder charge because they're taking these children's lives away.
Yeah.
So let me tell you, I listening to Tyler, what came to mind, and Tyler now may remember this, a mother, 18-year-old mother, and I think she was married or her partner was a 20-some-year-old Venezuelan in Peru.
Two-month-old baby, they were actually producing child sexual abuse material where this, could you imagine a two-month-old baby?
And both of them were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment, a perpetual life sentence in Peru.
I have to give credit to the Peruvian authorities, their judicial system, the fact that they also recognize the severity of this horrendous crime.
So that has definitely impressed me.
Now, what else do we do at OUR?
On my team, I actually have a former federal judge from a Latin American country.
He's retired, and he is actually my liaison with the judicial system, the prosecutors, the judges.
And we work with the judiciary sector to ensure that they also have the tools and necessary support to be able to pursue these cases to the full extent of the law.
And where laws are lacking, we also go and engage the politicians in those countries and make efforts to go ahead and bring to their attention these horrendous crimes.
But the laws are not in place to support law enforcement or the prosecutors or the judges to convict or to at least sentence them to harsh long-term sentences.
So this is something we also are very proactively involved in.
And we take a great deal of pride in the fact that we engage everyone.
We work with our cops, we work with our prosecutors, judges, the Supreme Court members, and the politicians to try to bring this into their complete view here to focus incorrectly on how to sentence these people.
Well, that's why your organization is so vital and people need to financially support it.
That's why we played that clip of JP.
Let's talk about that support.
We'll get into the movie in the next segment.
But how can people support you guys directly?
Because obviously there is no end to these victims and the help they need.
You have to probably be somewhat selective in the cases that you're able to take and engage.
How can the average person get involved, Tyler?
Well, I think the most important way is to donate, obviously, like going to our website, becoming a monthly donor, five bucks a month, $10 a month, whatever people are allowed to give.
You know, there's other ways to support as well, like volunteering in your community, even like becoming a foster parent.
Like a lot of the survivors that we support here in the United States end up through the foster system and are looking for good homes of families that are functional, that care about kids.
And I always push the donation thing because that's obviously like what our work lives off of is we try to not take any government.
We're privately funded.
And like those numbers have, they have meaning for me.
I've been around this for so long of what when people donate, what that actually looks like.
And so like if people donate $5 a month, I was on a rescue in Peru a few years back and we hit a, we were on this rescue and there was this 15 year old girl who was about eight months pregnant that was rescued during this operation, 15, 16 years old.
And when we were speaking with her, it was, she was like, I'm starving.
The traffickers haven't fed me in three days because they want me to look thinner for my exploitation.
And so the first thing we did is we went and got her some fried chicken, like at this spot next door and at five bucks, got her fried chicken and she had that thing eaten in a matter of like two and a half minutes.
So when people donate five bucks a month, that's what that five bucks means to me.
When people donate $50, if they have the ability to donate $50, we had a case of a survivor that was not rescued by OUR that was referred to our aftercare team because she needed help.
She was a 22-year-old Venezuelan survivor from the Dominican Republic and she had constant vaginal pain because of her exploitation.
Her body couldn't handle the abuse that was happening to it and she had an infection.
And so she had to have a vaginal cleaning to be able to rid herself of that pain and rid herself of that infection.
And it cost $50.
And so when people donated $50 to us and we gave that $50 to her, what that means is now a life free of pain and now those infections don't turn into STDs.
When people donate $600 a month, what that means to me is that we get to reunite families.
You know, a lot of the work that we do in Latin America is reuniting families with adult survivors who are trafficked outside of their home country, are rescued by law enforcement, but want to go back home to their kids.
And so over like one of the numbers that I'm most proud of here at OUR in Latin America over the last two years, we've been able to reunite 170 families across Latin America.
And so when someone gives $500, they help reunite families.
And so those monetary amounts, they mean something to Carlos and myself because we see the impact that those donations make, whether it be as small as $5 a month or whether it be as big as $500 a month.
Supporting Rescues Abroad 00:02:11
And so the best way to support the work that we're doing is to go to OERrescue.org and become a monthly supporter.
Well put and eloquently expressed.
Carlos, what do these donations mean to you?
Again, you know, it's it's it allows us to do what we do now, and that is to engage, collaborate, enable.
We enable our law enforcement partners around the world through this funding.
I mean, it's just, you know, as a former U.S. government employee, my ability to actually move about the globe totally dependent on budgets, availability of funds, and prioritizing how those funds are used.
So, you know, within OUR, I mean, you know, how do you prioritize?
When you get a call from your law enforcement partner in Peru about they have a 13-year-old girl kidnapped from Ecuador being exploited by a transnational criminal organization in Peru, but they have no way of getting from Lima to the specific city this girl's in to rescue her.
They can't depend on the local cops in that community because those cops have been contaminated by this transnational criminal organization.
And so, you know, we are able to immediately launch an operation supporting them so they can get from point A to point B, rescue this victim, get Tyler's group involved in providing any aftercare to the survivor.
So this is all, I'm able to do this without thinking because, you know, we have donors like those watching this show that support our work.
We have to take a quick break.
When we get back, we're going to talk about the sound of freedom.
Sound of Freedom 00:13:39
rrescue.org, OURrescue.org is where you can find out more and you can donate to this very, very active organization that is out there shining a light on the darkness and rescuing children back after this.
It's Making Sense of the Metals.
Hello, I'm Mike Lindell, and my employees and I want to thank each and every one of you for your continued support.
With everything going on right now, your rest is so important.
That's why we're having the biggest MyPillow sale ever.
Not only are my bed pillows as low as $19.98, but you can get the best body pillows ever.
Regular $89.98, now only $29.98.
So go to mypillow.com or call the number on your screen.
Please order now while quantities last.
We are back.
It's making sense of the madness, the sound of freedom premieres worldwide July 4th.
Tickets are on sale over at rrescue.org.
Gentlemen, what can you tell me about the genesis of this film and your thoughts on the power of a Hollywood style production to bring people into this information and hopefully get them active as well?
Tyler?
Well, I think first and foremost, I think productions like this are good to get the conversation going about human trafficking.
I think movies about human trafficking, stories about human trafficking, I think those are good as far as like people talking about it and knowing what exactly is going on.
Like any Hollywood production, OUR put out a nice statement yesterday on our social media of when they go to Sound of Freedom to know what's true and what's not true as far as like what actually happened in Sound of Freedom.
But I can tell you on the aftermath side of Sound of Freedom that Carlos and I are still very active with our partners in the city where it happened and the aftermath of the case.
And just a really beautiful, just kind of full moment, full circle moment for me as an aftercare professional is, you know, on this operation, there's this girl who's portrayed in the movie.
When she was rescued on this island, she was, you know, the traffickers called her the perfect victim because she had the appearance of a 12-year-old girl, but in reality, she was 22 years old.
And so when these operations would happen, when these rescues would happen, and she would be recovered by police, they would find out that she was actually 20 years old and not 12.
They would release her and then the traffickers would pick her up again.
And the Sound of Freedom, which is depicted in the movie, was the last time that she was ever trafficked.
She was trafficked from ages 11 till she was 22.
And, you know, we've worked with her for a while.
She has a sewing business in this city selling clothes and bathing suits based on the color of the beach in her city.
And about a month ago, she got a contract from the Colombian military to make the uniforms for all their new recruits, which is game-changing money for her.
It's a game-changing contract.
But the healing moment that it provided is very beautiful because, you know, like Carlos said, like Tim has mentioned, OUR, we're not a bunch of vigilantes.
We're not those that just go in and rescue on our own.
We want to have societal change and see that full impact.
And for this survivor, the Colombian military was actually part of her rescue.
They provided some of the boats that allowed our partners, our operators, to go to this island and rescue this girl.
And so for her now, 10 years later, to get the military contract to provide the, to make the uniforms where she gets paid for the new recruits of the people that helped provide for her rescue is a very beautiful moment, a very economically empowering moment.
And it just goes to show that the sound of freedom continues to echo even 10 years after it actually happened.
Well, I would say that it's also a moment of redemption and really triumph over almost impossible odds of abuse and not only, you know, surviving, but now thriving in a situation that was probably once unimaginable.
So, I mean, that says it all about your organization.
Carlos, what are your thoughts on the film?
You know, my thoughts on it is, I mean, this film is going to should open up everyone's eyes, those that go out and see it.
I mean, it's just, yeah, there's some Hollywood in the movie, but for the most part, it clearly defines who Tim Ballard is, his love for children,
his focus to not only rescue, you know, children in his days as a federal law enforcement, U.S. law enforcement officer, but also to highlight the frustration that U.S. law enforcement officers also have.
And that is, you know, there is a group of U.S. Homeland Security investigation personnel that travel abroad in search of sexual tourists, American citizens that travel abroad for the purposes of having sex with minors.
That's a federal violation in the U.S.
But if there is no U.S. nexus, if that violator is not a U.S. citizen, the U.S. law enforcement officers has no jurisdiction to continue his investigation, which is a collaborative effort with the host nation.
So they're not in there working alone.
But just, you know, in the movie, Tim, the actor will portray Tim, will show his frustration for the fact that he sees these children.
They're in front of him, but he can't do anything to rescue them because those violators are not American citizens.
What is so wonderful about this film and about this, my OUR as an organization is that it doesn't matter who the victimizers are.
We collaborate with those host nation law enforcement officers to empower them to rescue those children.
So that is, you know, I hope that this is what people see from the movie is the fact that OUR enables and empowers our law enforcement partners around the globe to rescue these children.
And if I may, again, as a former federal law enforcement officer, one of the most enabling parts of this role is Tyler's side of the house, the aftercare side.
I, as a law enforcement officer, a former law enforcement officer, as well as those out there now, when they rescue these children, they can't, you know, before we came into their lives here, their big concern was, you know what, we arrest the bad guy.
Now we take the bad guy through the judicial process of prosecution and everything.
We have no time for those survivors that have been rescued.
So when we actually let them know, not only are we going to support you on that operation, but hey, there is a side of OUR that will provide the aftercare for these survivors.
You just would not believe how it lights up their eyes, the law enforcement counterpart's eyes, to know that, wow, really.
And then it's so gratifying for them to see that when they rescue these girls, OUR comes in, partners with the local authorities, social services, and so on to provide some sense of aftercare and ultimately repatriation for these girls.
So to me, I hope that people gather this from the movie.
So I'm looking forward.
I'm looking forward to the end results from this.
Well, that's why you guys are a game-changing organization, as illustrated by Tyler's story, is that you are helping people pick up the pieces after the fact.
You talked about some of the challenges, obstacles, and frustrations on your end, Carlos.
What are those same things that are happening on your end, Tyler?
Because there has to be just so much coming at you all the time.
There's really an endless supply, unfortunately, of people who have been victimized by this.
Yeah, you know, that's a really good question.
And I'm glad Carlos is on the call as well.
Just, you know, one of the challenges that we have is oftentimes we get some of these guys that slip through the system.
And so, as far as like a there, I don't know if I quite understood this, not even five, ten years ago, but the amount of healing that comes once a perpetrator has been held accountable is such a, it's so transformational for the survivors in our family.
And it's something that, like, like Carlos has mentioned, like, they hit on like all the time of like, let's make sure that we get more intel.
Let's make sure these guys stay in jail.
And just because of the amount of healing and peace it provides, not only to like our team, but our survivors is so gratifying.
And we have a few cases, you know, across the region where we come across someone who's especially dangerous, especially wealthy, really slippery, and sometimes they slip through a certain system.
And so Carlos and his team, like they do a lot for us as far as making sure that those cases aren't forgotten.
And even though those survivors are safe and they're getting help, if their perpetrator is still free, him and his team are still knocking doors of like, hey, don't forget about this guy.
Hey, don't forget about this guy.
This guy's still around.
This guy needs to pay for what he's done.
And so one of the problems that we've had on aftercares is being solutioned by members of our counterparts and our rescue team and our operations team is holding these people accountable.
And I think for other challenges as far as like aftercare, just the amount of men out there who are looking to exploit kids.
We had a case of a survivor who is one of the most brave and wonderful individuals I've ever met.
She was 14 at the time that she was abused.
It was by an American citizen, by a school teacher in Texas.
And she worked through it with us through the whole process to make sure that this guy ended up getting a good sentence, is now rotting in jail in Austin, Texas.
And our legal team took a bunch of his money.
But even now, she still gets requests on social media from Americans wanting to meet up with her, wanting to send pictures.
So she's blocking these men and reporting these men.
And for her, she thought that the guy that hurt her was the only bad guy out there.
And we're coming to find out that it's not, that it's so prevalent.
There's so many people that are looking to engage in this type of behavior.
And it's the transnational groups, it's the organized groups, but it's also your regular Joe's.
It's your taxi cab driver from Fort Lauderdale.
It's your school teacher from Austin.
It's the guy that owns a construction company in Philadelphia.
So for me, just personally, that's something that's always disheartening and concerning of just how many people there are that are looking to engage in this type of behavior.
And then for our survivors, you know, the path of healing is never straight.
It always has its ebbs and flows.
It's almost like going on a hike where sometimes the path is easy, sometimes the path is hard.
And we work through it in a trauma-sensitive way to when a survivor is having success, that we're the biggest cheerleaders.
That we're supporting them, that we're letting them know how proud we are of them and how wonderful it is to see them so independent.
And when the inevitable stepbacks happen, that we're there for them, that we don't abandon them, and that we help correct that behavior without putting blame on them.
And, you know, the path of healing will never be straight, but it's a path that we're all walking together.
We have to take one more break, final segment with R Rescue.
Operation Rescue's Impact 00:06:41
That's Operation Underground Railroad, Rrescue.org.
After this, it's Making Sense of the Madness.
Hey guys, Justin here with the Satellite Phone Store, and today we're gonna talk about EcoFlow's solar panel options.
Designed for portable power, these foldable solar panels come with a kickstand case for easy transportation, setup, and protection.
Each panel uses an MC4 universal connector for wider compatibility and makes it super useful for charging a variety of devices.
And if you're interested in making a purchase or you'd like more information, please visit satellitephonestore.com or sat123.com.
Operation Underground Railroad is the organization.
Rrescue, OURrescue.org is the website.
In this final five minutes, gentlemen, what would you like to leave my audience with?
Obviously, we want them to get out to this film on July 4th.
We want people to share this information.
You guys are working with Angel Studios to not only put out this film, but documentaries that are exposing the corruption around the world.
Carlos, what would you like to leave the audience with?
You know, more than anything else, I just want the audience to know that their contribution, if they're actually contributing now, donors, is daily helping us to be able to enable our law enforcement partners around the world.
And if they're not, we hope that this film will also enlighten them as to the risk that children face every day, anywhere in the world.
I mean, here in the U.S., just like anywhere else in the world, children are vulnerable and they're vulnerable to not only those social media sites, but also to their own neighbors and others.
So I hope that this film will enlighten them as well as to the need to be more proactive in their care of their children and supervision of their children.
Tyler, before the break, you were talking about the ups and downs of these survivors and really what is a constant reminder to some of them that evil lurks in the world and that they can never really truly escape their past, just deal with it.
What would you like to leave my audience with?
You know, I think three things I think I would leave your audience with is for one, just if they're already supporters of OUR, just a massive thank you.
Thank you for your support and what you're doing for us.
I just got a note from my contractor in Peru who's at a cultural celebration now because OUR helped fund $300 to set up some sewing machines in this aftercare home so that the survivors can make their own clothing, their traditional Peruvian clothing, and then sell that clothing as a way to make money later on.
And they're doing a cultural celebration because of these sewing machines that cost $300.
And so the impact it's having, like Carlos had mentioned earlier, is almost hourly where you get notifications of even projects you may have forgot about because there's so much going on of how meaningful it is to the survivors.
Two, just how just how prevalent this is.
Like it's something that's, I think when people watch the movie, they'll get a, they'll get a, the message is it's so urgent.
It's happening right now.
It's happening to 2 million kids.
It's happening to 40 million individuals across the world.
Like the need to fight modern day slavery is urgent and we need their help now to help combat this.
And then three, that there is hope.
There is hope and there's good things happening.
And just a couple of weeks ago, one of the most probably most profound moments of my whole career happened of I had two survivors with me in New York City.
It's a case that's been going for a while involving two American citizens who would organize sex parties in Colombia.
And those, with our partnership with the Department of Homeland Security, these two individuals were brought to justice and are now facing time in jail.
And these two brave survivors who were trafficked at age 14 and 15 traveled to New York, looked a federal judge in the face and told the judge what their thoughts were, what this guy did to her.
They told the trafficker to his face how much they hated him and how much they hope that he rots in jail.
And, you know, we shared that sentiment, like myself and those survivors.
And to see the impact of what's taken place in just four years, where four years ago, these survivors were being trafficked by these two men in these disgusting sex parties to now seeing these men in handcuffs and seeing these two amazing professional survivors speak to them and speak in a federal court in the United States of America on their hope that justice is served.
It was such a powerful moment for me of empowerment to where these survivors are speaking for themselves, they're healing, they're moving forward, and they are now the most dangerous person in this room.
It's not the trafficker, it's them.
And their influence made it happen to where these traffickers will spend the next 15 years in jail.
And so there's hope.
There's hope, there's healing, and this is what it looks like when people donate to us immediately and then when people donate to us in the future and the ways that those donations can impact survivors, not just now, but also four, five, 10 years from now.
Tyler, Carlos, thank you so much for joining us.
Your organization is truly doing God's work.
Rrescue, OURrescue.org is where you can find out everything about Operation Underground Railroad and help them out financially or any other way possible.
Reach Freedom-Loving Americans 00:01:53
This has been Making Sense of the Madness.
I am Jason Burmes.
We'll see you on the flip side.
Get more
out of your AMP NEWS experience with AMP Insider, with seven pillars of focused information, including health and wellness.
Receive essential courses on nutrition with the Sherwoods.
Find comprehensive strategies for prevention and reversal of cancer.
Get discounts on products and supplements.
Even download e-books.
Support the mission of AMP with a subscription for $9.95 per month.
Get the first month for $1 by using promo code AMP888.
Welcome to a new era of connecting patriots.
Amp Insider.
Reach a loyal demographic of freedom-loving Americans who vote with their dollars.
Promote your Patriot business on AMP News.
Export Selection