Academy Award-winning actress Mira Sorvino of the acclaimed "Sound of Freedom" film, a heart-wrenching movie spreading awareness about the enslavement, abuse, and exploitation of sex-trafficked children worldwide, was the frontline speaker at CPAC's summit Thursday in the nation's capital addressing how human trafficking can be combatted at home and abroad.
Alongside survivors, policy experts, non-governmental organizations (NGO), elected officials, and leaders from both the U.S. and Mexico, Sorvino spoke at the international forum, hosted by the Conservative Political Action Coalition (CPAC) Foundation's Center for Combating Human Trafficking, where the attendees discussed efforts to end modern-day slavery across the globe.
"If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong..." Sorvino, a child-protection advocate, declared, quoting President Abraham Lincoln.
In the "Sound of Freedom," based on the true account of ex-federal agent Tim Ballard, who has dedicated his life to rescuing children from the clutches of sex traffickers, Sorvino plays an integral role as the heroic protagonist's supportive, steadfast wife.
As child trafficking remains the world's fastest-growing $150 billion criminal enterprise, Ballard's nonprofit organization, titled Operation Underground Railroad (O.U.R.), is dedicated to saving children everywhere from the sprawling sex-slave trade.
Despite the Left's fear-mongering crusade to smear the anti-child trafficking thriller as part of some far-right propagandist "QAnon conspiracy," the faith-based film is still securing a strong showing at the box office weeks after its release on Independence Day.
"This brings me to why we need to do this together: The only prerequisite for action is having a beating human heart, not a red or a blue or a purple or an orange, not a politically affiliated one. It doesn't have to belong to any creed. We just have to be a human being who can feel empathy for others who have had all of their rights stripped from them," Sorvino, who, outside acting, is a United Nations goodwill ambassador for the Global Fight against Human Trafficking, said, urging bipartisanship on the issue.
So, "instead of combining forces, we weaken them," Sorvino noted, as an interpreter translated from English to Spanish. "And, who are the victims? The most marginalized, vulnerable members of our society. Children, abused in the home or the foster-care system. Women and girls, who comprise almost 75 percent of worldwide victims. The homeless. Those with mental disability..."
"These are the people who on our watch are being brutalized by the coldest and cruelest of money-making schemes, in which humans are pawns afforded no dignity, empathy, or human rights," Sorvino continued in her call-to-action. "These are the victims of modern slavery. And, they are waiting for us—all of us to do something greater [...] They are waiting for us to rise up in collective anguish for their pain and suffering and work together for their good [...] to access the better angels of our nature."
Other notable speakers at Thursday's one-day summit inside the U.S. Capitol building included human rights activist Rosi Orozco, a former congresswoman from Mexico; Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN); Rep. Carol Miller (R-WV); Fox News contributor Sara Carter; Christopher Landau, former U.S. Ambassador to Mexico; Bill Woolf, ex-Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) acting director for the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ); Texas Public Policy Foundation senior director of immigration Ken Oliver-Méndez; and Office of the Virginia Attorney General director of anti-human trafficking Tanya Gould, a survivor of sex trafficking.
"This is a moment to start a movement," Orozco said in her introductory speech singing high praise for "Sound of Freedom." However, she stressed that the Angel Studios production, while "so well-done," is "not reality. The reality is worse," she added.
Blackburn discussed human trafficking by the numbers, citing U.S. Department of Homeland Security data. "Every two minutes, a child is bought or sold for sex trafficking in this country," Blackburn said, pointing at Tennessee Bureau of Investigation statistics.
"This scourge against our children is from El Diablo—it is from the devil. And, there are forces around the world that trying to make it normal, to make it commonplace, to make it in every home," Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) remarked, joining the panelists.
Starting off our day Saving God’s Children with @RepScottPerry and a Congressional conference to combat human trafficking @CPAC pic.twitter.com/yBOeMlrY7L
— Matt Schlapp (@mschlapp) July 27, 2023