Because Tim Ballard stands at the center of a very disturbing topic that evokes strong feelings — child trafficking — it’s difficult to get clear, unbiased information about him, his past, his present, or his organizations — there are several at this point — or separate him from “Sound of Freedom.” In a 2019 Fox News article Tim Ballard discusses having worked for Homeland Security for 12 years along the U.S.-Mexico border while stationed at Calexico, California. In the article he described human trafficking as “the fastest growing criminal enterprise on the planet” and the U.S. as “one of the highest, if not the highest, consumers of child sex.” He stressed the need for a Trump-era border wall, a sentiment he repeated on The Daily Signal in June ahead of the launch of “Sound of Freedom.” “Those kids pray for a wall,” he said. “The wall will save their lives.”
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When Ballard wrote his Fox News article in 2019 he’d already headed up Operation Underground Railroad (O.U.R.) for five years. O.U.R. in its early days, he said, helped a 13-year-old girl from “Central America” dubbed “Liliana” escape sexual slavery somewhere in New York City. Another O.U.R. event — which featured Ballard collaborating with Columbian authorities — rescued 29 under-18 children from the sex trade, as a mini-feature on CBS Evening News shows, via YouTube. Around the time Ballard stepped away from O.U.R. the organization claimed to have rescued over 6,000 kids and arrested 4,000 traffickers.
