Nationwide Research For New CPS To Human Trafficking Pipeline, Documentary Is Underway: First Stop, Oklahoma
A Film Producer Just Spent A Week In Oklahoma Filming For A New DHS To Human Trafficking Documentary
Eric Holmburg is a film producer who recently reconnected with some old friends down south. This reconnection brought him from Ohio to Wagoner County, Oklahoma.
Oklahoma has become increasingly more well known for film production in recent years. From the award-winning film Killers of the Flower Moon with national recognition to the local, also award-winning film Saving Clayton, productions in the conservative state are beginning to put Oklahoma on the map more and more each year.
Child Protective Services Meets Human Trafficking
This new project is said to be a nationwide research project for a documentary. The correlation to be made is between Child Protective Services and Human Trafficking. The networking phase has been underway intensively, starting here in Oklahoma. A good amount of the filming for this project has been completed this past week, taking producers from Broken Arrow to Lane, Oklahoma, among other areas.
The producers seemed to be surprised more and more as the Woolley family’s story continued to unfold in detail before them during brainstorming sessions and meetings that took place right here in Broken Arrow. The larger issue at hand, and the picture to be painted, is how money appears to be the motivating factor for the wrongful displacement of children from their homes.
A Nationwide Crisis
Several calls were made and texts were exchanged across the country as small pieces of this tremendous, and heartbreaking story began to come together. Gabe Woolley, a conservative teacher, and film producer in Oklahoma, reached out to some friends down in Georgia and across to Utah for their potential interest in joining this project. It is, however, still too early to tell exactly where this project will take Eric Holmburg in his investigative journalistic pursuit. Sylvia Beachy is a former case worker with Child Protective Services. She now hosts a podcast titled Rescue the Fosters with her co-collaborators, Danielle Holm and Gino Haddad.
“My roles (in CPS) were all nonprofits in the system. The official title as case worker was Family Consultant with Elks Aidmore. I was also a behavior aide with Family Ties, and Direct Care Staff at Elks Aidmore Group Home for Girls," said Beachy.
Aaron Stevenson was a Department of Homeland Security whistleblower at the southern border. He often warns others of human trafficking in our nation via local Twitter (X) discussion spaces after his experiences within his line of work.
Both of these individuals were contacted this week. Whether this is part of the finalized team that will be interviewed on record, or perhaps a collaborative brainstorming group, is yet to be decided. The direction this film will take at this moment is unknown. It is, however, clear that there is an enormous wealth of knowledge on the corruption of our systems in the United States that ties directly to human trafficking in our own “Land of the Free”.
Increasing Awareness
We saw that there is, without a doubt, a market of interest and advocacy for these types of stories. The film Sound of Freedom, by Angel Studios, rose to great success and shook the nation only a year ago. People throughout the United States and the world are beginning to wake up to the dark side of Child Protective Services in every state. The Netflix film Take Care of Maya recently rose to great success with viewers around the world. A story of tragedy and false accusations in the sunny state of Florida led to Maya’s family winning a large lawsuit against a Florida hospital (involving issues with CPS), as we see in the Law & Crime Network headline: Jury Awards Maya Kowalski’s Family Another $50M in Damages in Lawsuit Against Florida Hospital.
This issue of Child Protective Services pipelining to human trafficking is something that has been on people’s radar more and more in recent years. A 2021 article by Anti-Trafficking International, titled “Foster Care and the Pipeline to Human Trafficking," expresses that Child Protective Services is “...not always safer than the home from which kids are removed.” and estimates that “37.4% of children in the U.S. will be interviewed by CPS by the time they reach age 18.”
The Border Crisis
The border crisis, with the Mexican cartel, and others, certainly plays one of the most prominent roles in the outcome of human trafficking.
An article titled How Porous Borders Fuel Human Trafficking in the United States, expressed that “…In the U.S., immigrants, especially immigrant women (and children), make up the largest portion of trafficking victims…”
However, it is not just individuals coming in from other countries that are being trafficked, that is, exchanged for profit. If we were to close the border, allowing no entry and exit, the industry would still be in business via our own children in the U.S. That is potentially the larger aspect of this upcoming film project that Eric and his colleagues are working on right here in Oklahoma, among other states.
This is an editorial article based on a combination of opinions, research, and personal experiences.
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