Human trafficking hotline contractor under scrutiny over 'revolving door' allegations

The Polaris Project, which oversees the hotline that whistleblowers say regularly fails to refer tips to law enforcement for investigation, has longstanding ties to the Department of Health and Human Services office that oversees its grant, raising concerns about whether the nonprofit is facing proper scrutiny for its contract.

Polaris, a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit that administers the National Human Trafficking Hotline, has faced scrutiny from Congress in recent months after whistleblowers came forward alleging that the hotline was failing to report tips to law enforcement over several years, generating concerns from state attorneys general, Just the News previously reported. 

Last month, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, presented evidence turned over to Congress by an anonymous employee of Polaris detailing the prior allegations. The whistleblowers' disclosures, Grassley wrote, “appear to confirm the allegations that Polaris is not reporting instances of potential human trafficking to law enforcement.” 

Grassley’s letter highlighted that earlier this year, Polaris’ hotline failed to report to law enforcement at least two instances of possible sex trafficking involving minors. Polaris says that it “supports survivors’ right to choose what those next steps might be” including reports to law enforcement, “[except] in situations involving potential abuse of a minor or if we believe a person is in imminent danger.” 

The whistleblower evidence follows repeated letters from bipartisan groups of state attorneys general raising concerns with the federal health agency that Polaris was failing to report tips to its hotline despite the million-dollar contract and efforts by past administrations to ensure the nonprofit was better cooperating with local law enforcement. The most recent letter was delivered to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy in February and signed by 41 state attorneys general. 

The revolving door

Since Grassley’s letter, the focus has zeroed in on Katherine Chon, co-founder of Polaris and the Director of the Office on Trafficking in Persons at HHS over possible conflict of interest concerns. Chon’s office is under the Administration of Children and Families, which oversees the hotline and funds Polaris. Before joining HHS in 2015, under the Obama administration, Chon co-founded Polaris in 2002 to “create a world without slavery” that results from human trafficking.

At Polaris, Chon secured millions of dollars in grants annually, starting in 2007, to start up the National Human Trafficking hotline for the Health Department. The Polaris Project in 2023 received $4,831,020 in government grants, according to the charity's IRS filings. 

Just a few years after standing up the project, Chon moved to government service in 2012 under the Obama administration, becoming the Senior Advisor on Trafficking in Persons for the Health Department. In this role she was responsible for assisting department leadership in developing and managing agency-wide human trafficking policy and, specifically, overseeing the grants to her old nonprofit. 

Raising further conflicts of interest concerns, Chon married the Executive Director and longtime employee of the Polaris Project, Bradley Myles, in 2013—shortly after she was appointed to her new role at the Health Department, public reporting and the pair’s LinkedIn pages show. 

“In 2013 Katherine Chon married the CEO who took over the Polaris Project after she left,” said Empower Oversight President Tristan Leavitt in a post to X. Leavitt’s whistleblower protection group is representing one of the anonymous whistleblowers. 

“During her time at @HHSGov her office has approved tens of millions in taxpayer dollars going to the organization her husband led,” Leavitt continued. 

Polaris Project did not respond to requests for comment from Just the News.

"The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) will work with Senator Grassley in the agency's response to questions raised about the National Human Trafficking Hotline,” an HHS spokesperson told Just the News. 

“ACF awards funding on the basis of program policy and evaluation criteria as published in the notice of funding opportunity at the following website: https://www.grants.gov. An integral part of that process includes a comprehensive review of each application by a panel of independent reviewers, which assists us in making funding determinations. All applications receive fair and full consideration,” the spokesperson added. 

Empower Oversight filed a Freedom of Information Act request last week, arguing that Chon’s role in overseeing the grants to Polaris for the hotline is of urgent concern, especially since the grant is scheduled to be renewed soon. The deadline for applications to run the agency’s National Human Trafficking hotline was set for last Friday, National Review reported. But, Leavitt and his group are calling for an extension because of the concerns about Polaris.

Reform attempts failed

“This is a matter of urgent public safety and accountability,” said Empower Oversight President Tristan Leavitt in a statement last Wednesday. “The hotline’s integrity is paramount, and these serious allegations demand full transparency from HHS. The public deserves to know whether the grant process has been compromised.”

Several state attorneys general first brought bipartisan concerns to Congress about Polaris’s management of the National Human Trafficking hotline in 2023. The attorneys general said that Polaris wasn’t fulfilling the job it was tasked to perform under the grant. Specifically, in 2022, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch met with a Polaris executive to “discuss concerns about the lack of adult tips Mississippi was receiving from the hotline,” the letter reads. 

According to the attorneys general, the executive replied that Polaris is “beginning to transition away from serving as a hotline to concentrating on connecting survivors with resources,” despite congressional funding for a hotline. 

Then-Secretary Xavier Becerra said his department would take steps to improve the hotline’s collaboration with law enforcement and that the Administration for Children and Families was “incorporating additional language in the next [funding opportunity] outlining specific coordination requirements with law enforcement.”

But, despite the promise of fixes to the program, the concerns of state attorneys general persisted, and the whistleblower allegations indicate that the attempted reforms of the hotline have so far been unsuccessful.  

The evidence published by Senator Grassley shows Polaris received a report of a “possible [sex trafficking (ST)] situation” in March 2025. The nonprofit’s staff marked the case “Yes” for the involvement of potential minors and determined the case had “high indicators” of trafficking, according to Grassley's review of the case file. The tip also reported that the alleged victim was worried “[s]he’s going to be physically hurt by the pimp running this company,” and indicated the alleged trafficker forces other women to work for him or her.

Despite the seriousness of the allegations, the case file shows a Polaris staff member had reviewed the report and labeled the file “Work Not Required.” The first whistleblower said this designation means the case was closed, and law enforcement was not notified, Grassley wrote.

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 United States. 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 situation as [potential victim (PV)] stopped responding.” 

As in the other case, the designation meant that Polaris did not report the possible trafficking incident to law enforcement and no further action was taken.