When “Rescue” Is Rebranded: Compass Connections Takes the National Hotline

After nearly two decades under Polaris, the National Human Trafficking Hotline has a new operator: Compass Connections, a San Antonio nonprofit with deep ties to child welfare, foster care, and adoption. On paper, this looks like a routine management change. But for those of us on the ground - sex workers, survivors, and people criminalized by “anti-trafficking” systems - it’s not just paperwork. It’s a shift in power. Hotlines are never neutral. They decide who gets believed, who gets funneled to police, and whose stories vanish.