Former Republican presidential candidate, businessman and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy is calling attention to human trafficking, a global human rights crisis, by telling a heartbreaking story, inspired by true events, of a young boy whose dreams were minced when he was betrayed and thrown into child slavery in the U.S.
"City of Dreams" follows Jesús, a Mexican boy who was shattered to find his soccer ambitions had ended when he was trafficked across the U.S. border into Los Angeles and forced into sweatshop enslavement.
"I am a father. I’m a father of two sons," Vivek Ramaswamy, executive producer of "City of Dreams," told Fox News Digital during a video interview. "That's one of the things that made this movie so uncomfortable for me because it is about a young boy who, in many ways, reminded me, just in the way he was portrayed in the film and his actual story, his personality and his spark, reminded me of my two boys."
Jesús nearly escapes captivity a few times only to be met again with forced slavery.
"It is something that will take you out of your comfort zone as you learn just about how pervasive this issue really is, not just in other parts of the world, but right here at home in the United States," Ramaswamy said.
"It’s a film that can change lives and save lives," one of the film's producers, Tony Robbins, told Fox News Digital during a phone interview. "Twelve million children are enslaved around the world right now. And so many of them are in the United States, and people don’t even know it."
Robbins said he was inspired to tell a child trafficking story after he aided in the undercover rescue mission of 37 enslaved children, aged 7-14, in Haiti.
"It never has left me," Robbins said.
Incorrectly conceptualizing human trafficking as adult sex labor, Americans are uneducated on the conditions of both adult and child sex trafficking, forced labor and soldiering.
"My view is that it is unconscionable how little Americans know about this issue," Ramaswamy said. "I think it's inexcusable, and I'm not blaming just politicians on both sides. And I do think politicians on both sides deserve blame for how little has been done about this issue, but even about myself."
Ramaswamy said it wasn’t until his presidential bid that he grasped the scale of worldwide modern slavery.
As migrant numbers rise annually, Ramaswamy blames an open southern border for the breadth of human trafficking in the U.S.
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"Let’s be really honest," he said. "These are consequences of many of our failed southern border policies over the last several years."
Under the Biden administration, the number of illegal immigrants who have evaded Border Patrol and crossed the southern border swelled by 183%, which coincided with the end of the Trump administration and the first months of President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris taking office, according to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) report obtained by Fox News Digital in May.
In 2022, illegal immigrants who avoided agents grew by 56% and, in 2023, increased by over 10%, according to the source.
"There's room for new legislation, but the actual little secret here is that existing laws are not being enforced, and that's what I'd like to see happen," Ramaswamy said.
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Sequentially, California, Texas, Florida and New York reported the lion's share of human trafficking victims in 2023, according to the Human Trafficking Hotline.
An estimated 27.6 million people worldwide are victims of trafficking, according to the U.S. Department of State.
Millions of defenseless victims, some barely cognizant, are exploited and coerced by traffickers who profit off adults and children forced into domestic servitude and sex acts, sometimes in their own homes.
"This isn't a black versus white issue," Ramaswamy said. "It certainly shouldn't be a Democrat versus Republican issue. The way I look at it is, if we can't agree on the importance of solving child trafficking, labor trafficking and sex trafficking, then we’re really toast as a country."
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Ramaswamy said he is a concerned citizen who hopes to drive change in the U.S. in "the biggest way possible."
As a result, the "Woke Inc." author and "Truth" podcast host is imploring wealthy philanthropists who have achieved the American dream, activists, politicians and everyday Americans to acknowledge the crisis and propel themselves into solutions by educating themselves.
"The reality is, there is something about the power of a story, the power of a narrative, that can strike you in your heart, strike people in their heart, to take action in a way that they wouldn’t if they were just learning something in a more academic way," Ramaswamy said.
"City of Dreams" was written and directed by Mohit Ramchandani.
During story development, Ramchandani studied human trafficking cases.
"I wanted to tell a human story, and everyone has a dream," Ramchandani told Fox News Digital during a phone call.
Inspired by the 2009 drama "Precious," Ramchandani wrote "City of Dreams" to mirror the cognitive coping behavior of adults and children seeking solace in a happy place.
"I thought it was a really interesting device," Ramchandani said.
"You’re not going to come out of this movie being a scholar on the issue of human trafficking in the United States, but you will come out of this as a human being who is moved," Ramaswamy said.
The film hits theaters via Roadside Attractions Aug. 30.
