Operation Underground Railroad

Operation Underground Railroad (O.U.R.) is a United States-based nonprofit organization which claims to be involved in the rescue of human trafficking and sex trafficking victims, with a special focus on children, and a wider goal of eliminating sex trafficking world-wide. The group was founded in 2013 in Salt Lake City, Utah, by Tim Ballard, a former officer of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

As of April 2020, O.U.R. claimed that they had been involved in the rescue of 3,000 victims and the arrests of 182 traffickers, but these figures are highly disputed.

In 2020, Ballard and O.U.R. were the subjects of several media investigations that detailed Ballard's relationships with corrupt foreign government officials, his history of fabricating rescues and statistics. In October of that year, the Attorney's Office of Davis County, Utah, announced the O.U.R. and Ballard were under criminal investigation.

History

Tim Ballard claims 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 and the U.S. Child Sex Tourism Jump Team. The Atlantic writer Kaitlyn Tiffany wrote in her article about O.U.R., "Spokespeople for the CIA and DHS said they could not confirm Ballard's employment record without his written permission, which he did not provide." 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. Subsequently, he left the government in October 2013 to found Operation Underground Railroad. The organization was founded in Salt Lake City, Utah, but they also have offices in Southern California.

To help raise awareness and support, film producer Gerald R. Molen approached Ballard to document preparation and activity relating to a few covert operations for a feature film. The documentary, titled ''The Abolitionists'', was released in early 2016.

Operations

According to the organization, O.U.R. works with supporting governments and organizations in one or more of the following activities: prevention, discovery, preparation, rescue, victim recovery programs, and fundraising efforts. Their team members are of former military and law enforcement officials including Matt Osborne, Carlos Maza, Francisco Vega, Dean Morgan, and Dodd Dupree as well as other support volunteers. Operations are segments of any coordinated effort, training and/or direct involvement to rescue trafficking victims. O.U.R. states it does not work independently, or without government participation and support. A documentary called “Operation Toussaint” was created in 2018 featuring the operations of O.U.R. in Haiti.

International operations

Outside of the U.S., O.U.R. has participated in an anti-trafficking summit in Cartagena, Colombia. The company has also provided investigative and undercover support in the arrest of Nelson Maatman, a suspected pedophile. 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.

U.S. Law Enforcement Support

O.U.R. works with the Jordan Detection K9 program to provide electronic storage detection K9s, who are trained to sniff out electronics that may have child sexual abuse material or CSAM. As of February 2022, O.U.R. has funded 50 ESD K9s in 20 states, including K9 Hidu and K9 Bear.

Aftercare

The company also runs an Aftercare program, under the leadership of Jessica Mass, through which it provides professional in-country aftercare, including medical and psychological services, education, vocational opportunities, community integration and legal support to rescued children and other trafficking survivors. It also reunites trafficking survivors with their families. As of 2022, the organization has provided aftercare services to survivors or collaborated with other aftercare organizations in 30 countries.

Criticism and investigations

A 2020 ''Vice News'' investigation found a divide between the organization's actual practices and some of its claimed successes. For instance, O.U.R. claimed that it rescued a woman named "Liliana", who according to a court testimony of Timothy Ballard escaped by herself. 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.

The supporters of O.U.R. have also been criticized for promoting the far-right QAnon.

In August 2020, Lynn Packer of ''American Crime Journal'' reported that criminal complaints had been forwarded to the Davis County District Attorney at their office in Farmington, Utah. He alleged that he had spent the last five years investigating Tim Ballard and Operation Underground Railroad. Packer was later interviewed by American psychologist John Dehlin on his Mormon Stories Podcast. Dehlin, who like Packer is an excommunicated member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), asked why such a major "development for the state of Utah and the LDS Church" was not released or "being pursued" by mainstream Utah press. Packer asserted that Utah media and the LDS Church were complicit in legitimizing Operation Underground Railroad with little to no oversight and fact-checking. In October 2020, the Attorney's Office of Davis County, Utah stated that O.U.R. and Tim Ballard were under investigation regarding complaints that O.U.R. had conducted illegal fundraising efforts by fabricating rescues that never took place.

References

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Organizations that combat human trafficking
Organizations established in 2013
Organizations based in Utah
Non-profit organizations based in Utah
Non-profit organizations based in California