American Thought Leaders - Alina Habba Reveals New Executive Orders Are Coming to Counter Human Trafficking

Episode Date: March 14, 2025

Half a million unaccompanied minors entered the United States between 2019 and 2023, and experts fear many of them have been trafficked. And that does not include the children who crossed the border with individuals falsely claiming to be their family members. So where are all these children now?Alina Habba, who is currently serving as counselor to the president, says she’s working with the different agencies involved to identify and rescue trafficking victims and prosecute the perpetrators.“I am drafting a couple executive orders regarding that currently that I think will be important to properly get this moving for those kids,” she says.In her role advising the president, Habba says she’s focused on human trafficking and Iraq. Habba is the daughter of Chaldean Catholics who fled Iraq in the 1980s.We dive into her work today and get an update on the status of the long-awaited Epstein files.Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

You are listening to American Thought Leaders. If you enjoy our content, please leave us a 5-star rating on this platform. I've seen that there were children that were placed in fake sponsor homes under HHS, and then they would go visit to see if these children were safe and the children were not there. In this episode, I'm sitting down with Alina Habba, counselor to President Donald Trump. 500,000 unaccompanied minors entered the United States between 2019 and 2023, and experts fear many of them have been trafficked. And that does not include the children who crossed the border with individuals claiming to be their family members. So where are all these

children now? I am drafting a couple executive orders regarding that currently that I think will be important to properly get this moving for those kids. In her role advising the president, she told me she's focused on human trafficking and Iraq. We dive into her work today and get an update on the status of the long-awaited Epstein files. This is American Thought Leaders, and I'm Jan Jekielek. Alina Habba, such a pleasure to have you on American Thought Leaders. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Well, and of course, congratulations for becoming the counselor to the president.

Why don't you just tell me what that means to be in this role? I'm obviously a senior advisor to President Trump, as I've been for some time. And it's not to be confused with White House Counsel's Office. I don't act as an attorney for White House Counsel's Office. But I am a senior advisor, so I'm involved in a lot of things. I sit in on a lot of meetings and have my opinion heard when needed or asked for, and I get to work on a great portfolio as well that I got to select. Well, so one of the key things, and I've seen you talk about this with passion, like you want to make your mark in this, is to make a dent in this whole human trafficking question. Give me a sense of where we're at right now.

I've been working extensively over the past few weeks with Tom Homan, Christine Ohm's team, Department Department Homeland Security, and as well with RFK with Secretary Kennedy, because there are so many parts of our government that touch on this. There's obviously cybersecurity issues, there's the trafficking themselves, the border patrol, customs, you know, etc. And then there's course, the enforcement, which is DOJ. So where we're at is that the last administration left us in shambles, left these children in shambles. A lot of them were trafficked, misleadingly trafficked over the border when the borders were wide open, were displaced from their families, and then found themselves in vulnerable positions

where they were sex trafficked, labor trafficked. I call it really human extortion. Um, it's not just trafficking. It's, um, everything there's cyber trafficking. So I've spent the past, uh, almost two months now really understanding where this country is, how bad this is. And now we're in the phase of, let's get these kids home, let's get them better, let's capture their captors, and let's prosecute the johns that

are sick, that are pedophiles. And this is not just minors. These are adults as well. The numbers that I've heard, it's about a 500,000 unaccompanied miners. There are still others that came in, you know, accompanied. And I heard something to the tune of 80,000 that may have actually been at least found, maybe not physically, but just their locations are known. Is there an update on the status of that? Well, we're in the process of getting some more homes. So I won't disclose because it's, you know, obviously, we're in the process of getting some more homes, so I won't disclose because it's, you know, obviously we're in the process of getting warrants and things of that nature, but we've done a tremendous job already. One of the key things that this administration did that

Joe Biden's administration neglected to do and actually changed from the first Trump administration was DNA testing. So they removed the testing. They got rid of coming in with their alle uncles, whomever, and we' to verify that the people them into this country we we're not purchasing Child in for malicious reasons.

since we came into office, put back in the DNA testing, made sure that we are checking to make sure these children have relations to the individuals that are claiming to have some. Just to be clear, you want to focus specifically on the child trafficking question? No, I'm focused on human extortion, which includes child trafficking. It's any individual, no matter what age, that is being sex trafficked, that is being financially extorted via means of cyber, Skype, for instance, and Johns that are Skyping with minors, and sometimes it's transnational,

to have a cyber interactive, which is something I really didn't understand until I came here, cyber interactive pornography, dictating for others to hurt children, sick, sick things that are unfortunately a reality of the world that we're living in. So it's much broader than that. It's not just child trafficking. It's really human extortion. Some are forced into labor that come

in because they need money and in ungodly conditions. All of that. I really appreciate how you were saying that this is a complex issue that involves multiple agencies working together, different databases, there's a complexity of getting the information together. I'm aware of at least some cases where there's even kids that have deportation orders against them. I'm sure that'll be resolved, but just because of that complexity of the different agencies looking at the whole question from different angles. Yeah, and I think there's one part too that I haven't discussed, which is under Secretary Kennedy, which is the rehabilitation, the placing these children in homes, sponsor homes. Again, another disaster from the last administration.

I've seen that there were children that were placed in fake sponsor homes under HHS, and then they would go visit to see if these children were safe and the children were not there. So effectively they were being re-trafficked. We're working extensively with both public and private sector individuals that are willing to help get these children's safety, get them rehabilitated, which includes therapy, which includes medical treatment, and get them into secure homes. And that's something, again, the Biden administration just completely screwed up for lack of a better word. And to take a child who's, for instance,

sex trafficked and then tell them that we're going to save you and then put them in a sponsor home and then have them re trafficked is the single most failure, the largest failure of an administration, in my opinion. You are taking these kids out of one problem and putting them into another. And it's just absolutely negligent. You have this huge passion for this issue. And I can see that I've watched a few of your interviews on the topic and so forth. A few weeks back, you made some comments around Andrew Tate. And I know you've also said that you want to see the wheels of justice grind. That's my understanding of your comedy. People have a lot of

questions. People are coming to me knowing that I'm interviewing you. They're asking me questions. I wanted to give you a space just to kind of say your piece. What do you think of the situation overall? What about the comments that you made? Well, the comments I made really have to do with justice. I think everybody is entitled to be innocent until proven guilty. As somebody who was a defense attorney for President Trump, you know that's what I believe in. I do not believe in anything other than that.

Now I will say this. The accusations against the Tate brothers are stomach churning. They are disturbing. And as I will say, and I've said many times since then, that is for the court to handle, and they should handle it. Basically, people have told me you said you're a fan or something like that. Yeah, what I said was it's some great manipulation. So the Tate brothers, you know, have a tremendous social media presence in terms of, and what we were discussing with politics in the UK, he was talking about running. And I am always passionate about people that are vocal against certain things. Now that is very separate. I want to be very clear than accusations of human trafficking,

accusations of anything, rape, whatever the accusations are against them. You have to put that in one bucket and that really is a very disturbing charge. Now, I don't know the status of it. I'm also a lawyer. I know better than to talk about somebody's case. But I will say that it is, there is no part of me that condones at all that behavior. Everyone asks you about the Epstein files. I think whatever you come on, because obviously this is highly pertinent to the human trafficking issue. How have things come? I know that you're staying on top of this. I know you're speaking with the attorney general and Cash Patel, of course. What's the update today? You know, the truth is I'm not coordinating with them on their process. That's for them to do that

separate and apart from what I do. Obviously, I see them in passing. I say, do we have an update? And they explain that they're going through the files. So what I try and do as a voice for them is explain to the American people patience. And I've said this time and time again. I understand the urge for immediate transparency to immediately tweet screenshot, send out information. But when you are part of again, law and order, and you are doing an investigation, which this is an investigation. You have to look at the files, you have to look at what prior attorneys did for the DOJ, where we landed, you have to look at testimony. There is a lot there and it would be irresponsible, frankly, for them not to take it seriously, to take their time, despite the pressure from the American people

to get it immediately. We are committed to transparency and I think the best I can do for those people that are frustrated is explain that, in any case with human trafficking, in any case with minors, with individuals that have been violated, that have been put through trauma, you have to do a couple of things.

You have to protect them, number one. You have to go through and make sure that you're not exploiting them. And then, of course, again, with accusations, you have to make sure, and this is what we're committed to, to vetting accusations that are and are not verified. You know, just because you're in a Rolodex, does that mean you went to Epstein's Island? No. Just because you were in a flight lock, does that mean? I don't know. They have to do their process. You can't assume, and this goes back to what I was saying, you have to go through a process. And I believe in law and order. I believe justice will be served

to the people that deserve it. And we believe in that. Cash and Pam are very serious about creating a pattern in this country that has been missing for four years, where the American people can trust the justice system is being responsible. We're not going to be off the cuff. We're not going to shoot from the hip. We're going to look at things methodically and take them very seriously. And unfortunately, that takes time. I can also see why you might be very sensitive to guilt by association and so forth. Yeah. And by the way, that goes back to, that's exactly what I speak to. I truly understand that everybody, complaints get filed and people jump to conclusions.

And people want to see, I see this a lot on Twitter, where are the arrests? Well, again, you have to go through a process. You have to make sure that you are vetting it. We are not Letitia James. We are not Alvin Bragg. We are going to look at things properly, look at all the evidence, and bring charges where charges are due. And that will be across the board.

That's not just an Epstein thing. That's a problem because for four years, America was so used to people politically motivated, just flying off the cuff, filing a complaint against somebody, and then you tarnish their name. And you have to deal with the repercussions of that when you lose in case or you lose it on an appeal. And that's just not how we're going to be. We're going to bring cases that are vetted, but that should be brought. That's the reality. Alina, in learning about you a bit more, I learned that you're Chaldean, which is quite amazing. We cover a lot of persecution of minority groups around the world here at the Epoch Times. Of of course, how the kids fit into that. We've worked on stories with Assyrian Christians as well. Can you briefly tell me about that? Because I

understand Iraq is somehow going to fit into your portfolio as well. So I can't help but notice that there's this connection. Yes. Well, obviously, my family was Well, obviously my family was the minority. We are Christians from Iraq. My parents are from Baghdad. And when Saddam was in power, there was obviously, as there is frankly now, a problem with minority religions being pushed out and persecuted. As you saw, they were burning churches, they were shooting individuals. And as we're seeing right now with Syria, it's kind of history repeating itself.

So yes, that's very sensitive to me. I am a first generation American. I do not believe in religious persecution. I do not believe in persecution of anybody based on a fundamental factor of who they are. And I mean that in terms of people that are just existing as a Catholic or a Christian or Chaldean or a Syrian, you know, it's funny. Everybody wants to put me in a bucket and say, oh, she's she's this I've always said I'm a Middle Eastern Catholic woman.

My family is religious. They important. And in these countries, unfortunately, we're seeing them be silenced, and not just silenced, attacked. And you can't have it no matter what your religion is. I really stand by that. I'm married to a man who's Jewish, and I support his religion as well. I sit in temple, I host Passover. But it's called respect, and respect for different opinions and faiths. How does Iraq fit into your portfolio? Obviously, I have ties there from my culture. But I think more importantly, the Middle East in general is a troubling area that could be thriving to some extent if they could get out from

under some of the regimes, some of the radical religions that are also attacking and persecuting them. Iraq, obviously, at one point, a long time ago, was a country with infrastructure, with business, and is no longer. And it's kind of been one of those countries that I think has been left. There's so much room for improvement there. American relations with the Middle East is important for the world. It's important for us to have good relations with everybody.

And as the president has made clear, we do not want wars. We do not want to see anybody go through any kind of troubling time such as Syria, but we're not babysitters either. And I know there was frustration in the past, and I'm going back a decade, you know, where we did come in and disrupted some countries and these things. And those administrations made decisions based on their facts at the time. But I think now it's a good time to start to really make sure that, and you've seen this with tariffs, you've seen this with reciprocal behavior that the president has talked about. We need everybody to be on the same page. We do not want to see people suffer, but we're putting America first. And Iraq is surrounded by countries that are in danger. We are seeing obviously militia groups that are frightening. And we have to be a strong example and work with these countries.

You mentioned Syria. This is kind of a case in point. A lot of people were happy to see this horrific Assad regime collapse, but now we see a new regime killing quite a few people out of different minorities, including Christians. And of course, the State Department has made statements on this as well. I guess this is a case in point. I don't know what your thoughts are here. Yeah, no, I think exactly right. I mean, they're surrounded by Syria. They have Iranian influence there. They have a lot of things that are a danger to the world, and you have to strengthen relationships in vulnerable places to protect not only our country, but the world. I think

that it's very simple. We're America first. For a change, we're America first. We're not going to be sending our people over into, you know, we're not sending money anymore to Ukraine. We're not sending our people over to fix other people's problems, but we will not allow the world's demise because a administration turned the cheek and pretended something wasn't happening. That is, you know, there are parts of this world that are in danger and look at the videos from Syria. That

is just so upsetting to me. That's history repeating itself. As you heard Secretary Rubio mentioned, we do not condone that. We have a UN for a reason. We have a strong president for a reason. And as he always says, peace through strength. I know you have to catch a plane. Your schedule is changing all the time. I just want to ask you a couple of quick questions, maybe a little more fun. What were your five bullets for this week? Well, unfortunately, mine I can't discuss. I had a lot more than five. I can give you general topics. I had several meetings on human trafficking. I am drafting a couple executive orders regarding that currently that I think will be important

to properly get this moving for those kids and attended several events. I mean, I do TV. I do so many things. I mean, I think if you took my five bullets and just looked at how many times I'm on shows during the day, there's five. But a lot of my meetings are top secret. So I can't discuss it on TV. But my portfolio is tremendous. It's robust. I'm happy to be here.

I'm happy to be doing some good for this country. And I'm excited to save some kids. Well, I'm excited also to connect you with a few people that are doing amazing work in this counter-child trafficking space. It's something we've been covering a lot on the show. The second thing, and this is one of our ops people suggested, I want to ask you, what would be a crazy efficiency move you would like to whisper into Doge's ear along the way here as we finish up? A crazy efficiency move. I mean, I wish there was a way to defund corrupt AGs and DAs. That's just

because—and judges. I think that there's serious problems in our justice system. And if there was a way that we could expose and remove judges that were funneling, that had family members that were taking money or had influence or peddling or campaign influence and took them off the bench, that would make me very happy. And that might not be a massive cut, but for me, it's more of a principle. I really hate what I saw the last four years. And it's really what drove me to come here into DC, to leave my family, to sacrifice some time to really spend here

doing some good because we got to get the wheels back on track. Well, Alina Habba, it's such a pleasure to have had you on. Thank you. Thanks for having me.