Horrific child trafficking continuing to grow in Riverside UNCOVERED!

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00]Let me give you an example of trafficking in Riverside. A month ago, I was coming from an event at night driving through Riverside into Orange County. On the freeway, I saw a woman running across the highway waving her arms. She had been trafficked. She was running away from her captors. And it wasn't a one-off incident, it turns out.

[00:00:21]500 people were identified for child trafficking in Riverside. 42 arrests have been made. Think about the fact that you have a child psychologist in every school. This guy is learning all of the children's patterns, all of the parents. And he's knowing, you know, what kids could get snatched. Maybe the ones going to after-school programs. 33% of the people who traffic kids are their own parents.

[00:00:45]>> The ring was ginormous, and this isn't the first year that this ring has been exposed. 6,000 children every year go missing in Riverside. Right. And they have reports that it's like there could be thousands that are runaways, but also that doesn't even seem realistic. They probably are being trafficked or groomed, and the runaway is just them I mean, it's it's not a coincidence that there's a giant trafficking ring here in Riverside. And what I can't figure out is why haven't we made this in our district more of an issue that is at the forefront. Why aren't parents more up in arms? Why is this kind of crime happening in Riverside? And we did a little bit of research.

[00:01:27]>> First, what we can do is we can reauthorize and we can modernize the Trafficking Victims Protection Act because it's already in place, but it sucks. And Dr. Leslie, didn't you tell me that 1/3 of children trafficked are actually sold by their parents? It's especially in California. We're going to make survivor services mandatory, not optional. We need to fund national trafficking housing programs.

[00:01:52]>> Why aren't we treating this like the national emergency that it is?

[00:01:56]This only be sold once, but a child's body can be sold over and over again.

[00:02:01]That was in an Epstein email, and that's why we're talking about trafficking. I think it's key to understand that we're not just talking about children as well.

[00:02:08]Like the recent things are about children, but you know, teenagers, women are trafficked, boys, young men are trafficked, and we don't have enough education on who's selling them, how they're being groomed, who's buying them, and who they are. And then we don't have enough trauma-informed treatment for trafficked victims once they're returned, if they're returned at all.