Trump Admin Finds More Than 129,000 Missing Migrant Children
The Trump administration has located more than 129,000 migrant children who were previously unaccounted for under the Biden administration, according to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Noem announced the development Friday on X, stating that the children were found after “the Biden administration lost them” and many had suffered abuse, trafficking, or exploitation. “We will continue to ramp up efforts and will not stop until every last child is found,” she said.
A federal source told The Daily Wire that investigators combed through immigration court records and data from United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to track the children. The figures only include children who were located through their immigration hearing appearances.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration confirmed that 62,000 children had been found. The new tally more than doubles that number, bringing renewed attention to the fallout from Biden-era border policies.
By law, Border Patrol must transfer custody of unaccompanied migrant minors to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which is responsible for placing the children with sponsors inside the United States. However, under the Biden administration, nearly 500,000 unaccompanied minors crossed the southern border, many of whom were reportedly placed with poorly vetted sponsors.
Whistleblowers within HHS warned that sponsors were often not required to show up in person and that some may have been traffickers or members of criminal organizations. These warnings were supported by an inspector general’s report released last year, which documented wide gaps in sponsor verification and follow-up.
The same report found that 291,000 children were released without court dates. An additional 32,000 minors with scheduled hearings failed to appear, raising concerns that tens of thousands were effectively lost in the system.
The Trump administration has now made it a top priority to identify, locate, and account for all missing children and to reform vetting procedures to prevent future abuse.