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The Department of Homeland Security has just seven analysts dedicated to investigating child abuse across the country, according to Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., whose proposal to fund 200 investigators and analysts has become law.
The measure, included in a larger $70 billion reconciliation package to support Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Border Patrol, passed Friday, will invest $108.5 billion in child trafficking and exploitation. Hawley’s office said it would be the largest investment ever made to combat child trafficking.
“The Senate just passed my and Tim Tebow’s bill to rescue thousands of children trapped in sex trafficking,” Hawley told Fox News Digital in a statement.
HAWLEY LAUNCHES GOOGLE INVESTIGATION AFTER ‘SHOCKING’ CHILD ABDUCTION EVIDENCE AT SENATE HEARING
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and NFL quarterback Tim Tebow. Tebow testified March 3 during Hawley’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on crime and counterterrorism by exposing rampant child trafficking. (Getty Images)
“That’s two hundred new police officers to search for and rescue children trafficked to predators and a new system to coordinate local, state and federal law enforcement,” he added. “This is the biggest incident against the federal government against child trafficking. We will not rescue these children.”
The offer, according to Hawley’s office, he was inspired in part for former NFL quarterback Tim Tebow, who testified March 3 during Judge Hawley’s Subcommittee on Criminal and Anti-Terrorism to expose rampant child trafficking.
During his testimony, Tebow said that 338,000 unique IP addresses downloaded, shared or distributed child rape images in the United States over a period of months, but only a select few were being investigated.
MORE THAN 300 ARRESTED IN CALIFORNIA BROADCAST ON CHILD ABUSE CHARGES
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., speaks to reporters on the Senate floor during a vote at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, on March 12, 2026. (Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters)
The grant, based on the Renewed Hope Act, is intended to provide Homeland Security investigative resources to hire 40 new forensic analysts in the Victim Identification Laboratory in the Child Exploitation Investigations Unit of HSI, and 30 new child exploitation investigators in the Victim Identification Exploitation Unit of the Child Investigatory Unit of HSI.
Additionally, it aims to give HSI the ability to bring in 130 additional law enforcement analysts and child abuse investigators, as well as create a training program dedicated to identifying victims of state, federal, and local law enforcement to work together more effectively in investigations.
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Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, speaks to reporters in the hallway of the US Capitol in Washington, DC, Monday, June 2, 2025. (Al Drago/Bloomberg)
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Fox News Digital reached out to the Department of Homeland Security and Tebow for comment but did not immediately receive responses.
