The Polaris Project, a nonprofit that administers the National Human Trafficking Hotline, regularly fails to refer tips to law enforcement for investigation. That was the charge from whistleblowers who appeared before a Senate Judiciary Committee. The testimony confirmed an earlier complaint from a bipartisan group of state attorneys general.
The Polaris Project in 2023 received almost five million dollars in government grants, according to the charity’s IRS filings.
In a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy, whose agency oversees Polaris’ use of government funding, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley presented the evidence turned over to Congress by an anonymous employee of Polaris and detailed the allegations.
The whistleblowers’ disclosures, Grassley wrote, “appear to confirm the allegations that Polaris is not reporting instances of potential human trafficking to law enforcement.”
A second whistleblower reported to the committee a separate February 2025 tip alleging a victim and her minor sister were being held by two potential traffickers in the US. However, the potential victim stopped communicating because of “safety concerns,” the records show. Polaris workers labeled the case “Work Not Required” and described the status as unclear since the potential victim stopped responding.