WASHINGTON — President Trump has signed Senator Josh Hawley’s (R-Mo.) measure to combat child exploitation into law as part of the broader reconciliation bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security. Now, DHS will have access to $108.5 million to hire 200 new child exploitation investigators and analysts. Prior to this measure being enacted, DHS only had seven full-time specialists to identify these victims.
“My legislation with Tim Tebow to rescue thousands of kids from online child exploitation was just signed into law by President Trump. I want to thank the President for leading on this vital issue. This is the largest surge against child trafficking ever by the federal government,” said Senator Hawley. “Time is of the essence. Let’s rescue these children.”
“Right now, 89,000 unidentified image series of children being sexually abused have been seen by law enforcement — but these children have yet to be identified and are still waiting to be found due to resource and manpower shortages,” said Tebow, Founder and Chairman of the Tim Tebow Foundation (TTF). “Every day we don’t act is another day they’re in harm’s way. Today, we acted. I am grateful to our congressional leaders for getting this lifesaving legislation over the finish line, and to the law enforcement who never stop fighting for these kids. My prayer is that hope is renewed for many more boys and girls, and that their stories will be different because of this legislation. When we come together, real change can happen — and this is just the beginning.”
DHS’ Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) plays a critical role in combating child exploitation online, but currently lacks the resources to fully execute its mission. In a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing chaired by Senator Hawley in March, Tim Tebow—the Heisman Trophy winner who now leads the Tim Tebow Foundation and its work to end child exploitation—described how HSI’s lack of staff for these cases hampers its ability to identify and find the exploited children who appear in child abuse images. Tebow told the subcommittee that 338,000 unique IP addresses have downloaded, shared, or distributed child rape images in the United States in just a matter of months, and as many as 89,000 unidentified child victims appear in these horrific materials. However, DHS currently employs only 7 full-time specialists to identify these victims.
Senator Hawley’s provision, modeled on the Renewed Hope Act, will provide HSI with a generational investment to both identify and rescue these unidentified children. The provision allows HSI to:
- Hire 40 new forensic analysts at the Victim Identification Laboratory at the Child Exploitation Investigations Unit of HSI.
- Hire 30 new child exploitation investigators at the Victim Identification Laboratory of the Child Exploitation Investigations Unit of HSI.
- Hire 130 additional forensic analysts and child exploitation investigators at the offices of the Special Agents in Charge.
- Establish a dedicated training program in victim identification for federal, state, and local law enforcement to better coordinate investigations.