Stolen Lives:
America's Human Trafficking Crisis
Featuring experts, survivors, and frontline responders exposing the realities of human trafficking in America.
The Exodus Road is honored to be featured in this groundbreaking documentary exploring the scope, impact, and fight against human trafficking across the United States.
Don't Miss It
How to Watch
The documentary premieres Sunday, May 31, 2026 at 7:00 PM MT on Newsmax.
Visit Newsmax Documentary PageAbout the Documentary
Shining a Light on a Hidden Crisis
Human trafficking is one of the fastest-growing criminal enterprises in the world, and it's happening in communities across America. Stolen Lives: America's Human Trafficking Crisis brings together survivors, law enforcement, nonprofits, and technology leaders to expose the scope of this crisis and highlight the people working to end it. The Exodus Road is proud to contribute our frontline perspective to this critical conversation.
Featured in the Documentary
Meet Our Contributors
Laura Parker
CEO & Co-Founder, The Exodus Road
Laura shares The Exodus Road's mission-driven approach to combating trafficking through strategic partnerships, survivor care, and community awareness.
Matt Parker
Global Ambassador, Cellebrite
As Co-Founder of The Exodus Road and Global Ambassador for Cellebrite, Matt brings a unique perspective on the role of technology in identifying and rescuing trafficking victims.
Preston Goff
VP of Global Communications, The Exodus Road
Preston provides insight into how The Exodus Road raises awareness and mobilizes communities to join the fight against human trafficking.
What the Documentary Covers
Topics Explored in the Film
Stolen Lives travels from the hidden corners of online predation to rural communities, federal courtrooms, and the long road of survivor recovery. Here's what the documentary explores — and where you can go deeper on each subject.
The Invisible Crime
Human trafficking is the recruitment, transportation, or harboring of people through force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of exploitation. It takes many forms — sex trafficking, labor trafficking, forced marriage, and organ trafficking — and it hides in plain sight in every community across the United States. The documentary opens by defining the crime and revealing how often it goes unrecognized.
What is human trafficking?Digital Predation
Traffickers now recruit, groom, and exploit victims through social media, online gaming, and messaging apps. Sextortion cases targeting teenagers — particularly boys — have surged in recent years, with devastating consequences. This section explores how online exploitation works, why children are uniquely vulnerable, and what families need to know to keep their kids safe.
How online exploitation happensSex Trafficking in America
Sex trafficking is the use of force, fraud, or coercion to compel another person to engage in commercial sex acts — and any commercial sex act involving a minor is automatically trafficking under U.S. law. From hotels and truck stops to private homes and online platforms, this section examines how sex trafficking operates inside American borders and who is most at risk.
Sex trafficking: How it operatesMaking Trafficking Dangerous
Most traffickers operate with near-total impunity. The Exodus Road partners with law enforcement to investigate trafficking crimes, build prosecutable cases, and turn arrests into convictions. This section follows the painstaking work of undercover investigation, digital forensics, and inter-agency cooperation that makes trafficking a high-risk crime — and frees survivors in the process.
How investigations stop traffickersRural America's Hidden Crisis
Labor trafficking is the most common form of human trafficking globally — and experts believe it's more prevalent than sex trafficking inside the United States. It surfaces in agriculture, hospitality, construction, domestic work, and food service, often in small towns and rural counties. This section uncovers how forced labor hides in everyday industries and the workers who power them.
Labor trafficking: Hidden in plain sightThe Road to Redemption
Ending trafficking takes more than rescue — it takes prevention, trauma-informed aftercare, and communities equipped to spot the warning signs. From survivor restoration to school-based prevention programs like Influenced, this section spotlights the people, programs, and partnerships building a future where exploitation has no foothold.
How communities can prevent traffickingHave Questions?
Frequently Asked Questions
You can watch live on the Newsmax cable channel (check your local listings) or stream through the Newsmax app, available on iOS, Android, Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and at newsmax.com. The documentary will also be available for on-demand streaming after its premiere.
The documentary features interview segments with Laura Parker (CEO & Co-Founder), Preston Goff (VP of Global Communications), and Matt Parker (Co-Founder). Matt appears specifically in his role as Global Ambassador for Cellebrite, a digital intelligence company whose mobile forensic technology plays a critical role in trafficking investigations.
We operate from hub offices in the United States, Brazil, India, Thailand, and Latin America, with successful trafficking cases in over 20 countries. To date, we've helped free 6,300+ survivors, arrest 2,000 traffickers, provide aftercare to 2,700 survivors, and train 65,000 people to recognize and prevent trafficking.
You can also use your voice on social media to spread awareness. Find us on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, TikTok, Threads, and X.
This means that befriending and supporting anyone who is part of these at-risk groups is an extraordinarily important way of combating human trafficking. Learn more about who trafficking victims are.
Find additional resources on our Get Help page. For more about how to notice red flags, read our article about warning signs.
Types of human trafficking include sex trafficking (forced sexual services or non-consensual imagery for profit), labor trafficking (forced work without adequate compensation or safety), forced marriage (coerced arrangements where someone profits from the exchange), and organ trafficking (taking and selling a victim's organ).
Reports of sextortion increased by 156% in 2025, with schemes overwhelmingly targeting teenage boys. Tragically, the immense distress sextortion causes often leads to self-injury or suicide.
Labor trafficking can take the form of debt bondage, forced labor, and child labor, and frequently occurs in industries like agriculture, domestic work, restaurants, and cleaning services. Learn more about forced labor in the United States.
