Vanished.

SCRIPTURE:  For with much wisdom there is much sorrow; the more someone adds to knowledge, the more someone adds to grief. Ecclesiastes 1:18 ISV

THREE RECENT HEADLINES & SOME MISSING INFORMATION:

“California Assembly committee blocks bill that could have sent human traffickers of kids to prison for life. ‘Horrible!’ someone yelled as victims sobbed at the dais.” Fox News, July 11, 2023

EXCLUSIVE: Biden’s DOJ Eliminates Language on Child Sex Trafficking from Government Website … – After Losing Track of 85,000 Migrant Children.
Gateway Pundit, July 11, 2023

“California Democrats deserve to be embarrassed for bungling sex trafficking bill”
The Sacramento Bee, July 14, 2023

QUOTE MISSING FROM DOJ WEBSITE: “Some of our most vulnerable children also face the threat of being victimized by commercial sexual exploitation. Runaways, throwaways, sexual assault victims, and neglected children can be recruited into a violent life of forced prostitution.”
Deputy Attorney General James Cole, May 17, 2011

ALSO MISSING FROM DOJ WEBSITE SINCE MAY 12: 3 SECTIONS TITLED “International Sex Trafficking of Minors,” “Domestic Sex Trafficking of Minors,” and “Child Victims of Prostitution.”

THOUGHT: In January, The New York Times reported that unaccompanied minors were placed with human traffickers by the Biden administration. In February, it reported “exploited” migrant children were working in “brutal jobs across the US” in violation of child labor laws. In August, it reported “the White House and federal agencies were repeatedly warned of risks” to children and the “warnings were either ignored or missed.”

U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley has written to the FBI asking it “to find out where the 80,000-plus children are that this administration has lost.” The answer? “They don’t know. The kids are in danger. The kids are in slavery. They are being exploited. And it should not happen in the United States of America,” he said.

A grand jury convened in Florida last year by Governor Ron DeSantis concluded that the federal government’s management of unaccompanied children’s release and transport resulted in “facilitating the forced migration, sale, and abuse of foreign children.” The process “exposes children to horrifying health conditions, constant criminal threat, labor and sex trafficking, robbery, rape and other experiences not done justice by mere words,” said Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody when announcing the findings in April.

In May, the DOJ quietly removed three sections and a 2011 quote from it’s website. Today when I tried to access the page from the search tool on that site, the link to child sex trafficking wasn’t even live. I had to cut and paste it into my browser to pull up what still remains. If you didn’t know it was missing, you might not think twice, but once you know what has been eliminated, you just want to ask, “why?” Why does our federal DOJ need to remove information about how they define and see the crime of child sex trafficking, both internationally and domestically?

In July, (after the launch of the summer blockbuster, The Sound of Freedom, which has grossed more than Indiana Jones or Mission Impossible as of last weekend, although it was suppressed for five years before its release) the Public Safety Committee of the California state legislature stopped a bill that had been passed unanimously by its senate; a bill that would keep sex traffickers of children in prison for life: on an eight-person committee, six democrats voted to stop the bill’s progress to the full house. The public outcry was so great that even Gavin Newsom stepped in urging the committee to reconsider, which they did. It is now passed into law. But I still want to ask “why?”

Why is there such a fight against common sense and moral law? And how is it that six (or one, or two) people can so effectively stop what we the people know to be right and pure and true? Why isn’t government protecting the most vulnerable people among us, the children? And how can we trust they will care for any of the rest of us?

I don’t have answers, but this I know: increasing knowledge brings increasing sorrow.

PRAYER: Oh God, I am sorry about this world and its sin. For these more than 80,000 children in our country who have vanished. I imagine the heavy load that Jesus bore on the cross for all of this ugly sin – my own and what is all around me. While I am glad he did, my sorrow grows with every new day. I long for you to move, to deliver us, to bring justice, to make things right. Your kingdom come; your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.