Exclusive: Trump’s Advisor Alina Habba Sounds Alarm on ‘Human Extortion’

WASHINGTON—The Trump administration is committed to taking decisive action against one of the nation’s most pressing yet overlooked crises: human trafficking.

In an exclusive interview with The Epoch Times, Alina Habba, senior advisor to President Donald Trump, shared the administration’s plan and her role in addressing this critical issue. But as Habba sees it, this isn’t just about human trafficking—it’s about “human extortion,” a more encompassing term that includes everything from sex trafficking to cyber activity and forced labor.

“I’m focused on human extortion, which includes child trafficking,” she said in an interview with Jan Jekielek, senior editor at The Epoch Times and host of “American Thought Leaders.”

Habba emphasized that her efforts focus not only on children who are victims of trafficking but also on any individual, regardless of age, who falls victim to sex trafficking, financial extortion through cyber means, or modern slavery.

Habba, 40, who served as Trump’s defense attorney in recent years, now works as a counselor to the president, collaborating closely with government agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Department of Justice (DOJ), and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). She is currently drafting a series of executive orders aimed at strengthening regulations and protecting the victims of human extortion.

In her view, the crisis reflects the widespread abuse of vulnerable individuals who are coerced and exploited, often in ways that the public is barely aware of. Habba pointed to examples like cyber-interactive pornography that encourages people to hurt children, calling it a “sick” and disturbing reality of today’s world.

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She also noted that the issue worsened during the border crisis under the Biden administration.

Many children were, misleadingly, trafficked over the border, she said.

“They were displaced from their families and then found themselves in vulnerable positions where they were sex trafficked and labor trafficked.”

Since Trump took office, Habba said she has spent nearly two months fully understanding the scale of the problem. The administration is now focused on bringing these children home, providing them with necessary care, capturing their traffickers, and prosecuting those responsible—particularly pedophiles.

A DHS report from August 2024 revealed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) transferred over 448,000 unaccompanied migrant children to the HHS between fiscal years 2019 and 2023. The Office of Refugee Resettlement, a division within HHS, is responsible for placing these unaccompanied children with sponsor homes in the United States. However, the report indicated that ICE was unable to track the location and status of all the children who had been released from HHS custody.

While Habba declined to provide exact numbers, she stated that the absence of familial DNA testing had led to a surge in child trafficking.

In 2023, the Biden administration revoked a Trump-era program that required rapid DNA testing for illegal immigrants crossing the border. Without this measure, she said, individuals were entering the country with alleged relatives—such as parents, aunts, or uncles—without any verification. As a result, it was impossible to determine whether those accompanying the children were associated with cartels or engaged in human trafficking.

The Biden administration reportedly did not provide specific reasons for ending the program, only stating that it was not renewing the contract with the private company doing the tests.

Since Trump’s return to office in January, the DNA testing program has been reinstated. However, Habba said there are still other critical issues to address.

She mentioned that some migrant children were placed in “fake sponsor homes” by HHS. When officials visited these homes for safety checks, they found that the children were no longer there.

“So, effectively, they were being re-trafficked,” Habba said.

Habba told Jekielek that her comments had been manipulated and taken out of context. She clarified that her support for Tate was based on his political views and should be viewed separately from the accusations being made against him.

“The accusations against the Tate brothers are stomach-churning. They are disturbing,” she said. “There is no part of me that condones at all that behavior,” she said of the reports. The Tate brothers are contesting the allegations being made against them.

Habba also provided an update on the long-awaited Epstein files.

She said that Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel are leading the investigation to review the files and thoroughly vet the accusations.

“We are committed to transparency,” Habba said, urging Americans to be patient during the process.

“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.”

Habba also discussed her upbringing and family, identifying herself as a Middle Eastern Catholic woman. Her parents, both Chaldean Catholics, emigrated from Iraq to the United States in the early 1980s to escape persecution in their home country.

“My family is religious. They are very involved in the church, and I’m proud of that,” she said.

Trump praised Habba when announcing her appointment as counselor to the president, highlighting her dedication and loyalty.

“She has been unwavering in her loyalty, and unmatched in her resolve—standing with me through numerous ‘trials,’ battles, and countless days in Court,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Dec. 8, 2024.

“As a first generation American of Middle Eastern Heritage, she has become a role model for women in Law and Politics, most recently being named Chaldean Woman of the Year.”