Homeland Security Secretary Says More Than 148,000 Unaccounted-for Migrant Children Have Been Found as Hundreds of Thousands Remain Missing
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin announced that the Trump administration has located more than 148,000 unaccounted-for children who entered the United States illegally.
"We are taking historic action to protect one of the most vulnerable victims of the Biden Administration's open border crisis—migrant children," Mullin wrote on Aug. 3. "We have already located over 148,000 of these children, and we will not stop fighting until every last one is rescued."
Mullin referenced a post by President Donald Trump earlier this week that included a graph citing Department of Homeland Security (DHS) data showing that approximately 12,000 missing children were located between February and July.
According to the DHS figures shared by the president, about 330,000 migrant children remained unaccounted for as of July.
A report released last year by the DHS Office of Inspector General found that approximately 448,000 unaccompanied minors crossed into the United States from Mexico between fiscal years 2019 and 2023. The children were transferred from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
The report also identified significant gaps in the data concerning children released into HHS custody. In some cases, listed addresses were blank, undeliverable, or missing apartment numbers. The report further noted that ICE failed to issue approximately 233,000 notices to appear for minors, documents that would have scheduled their immigration court hearings with the Department of Justice.
Under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008, unaccompanied children who enter the United States illegally are generally placed into U.S. government custody. The law also provides them with certain legal protections while they remain in the country.
The legislation requires the government to provide legal representation for unaccompanied children placed in deportation proceedings. It also allows them to be released into the care of a qualified sponsor, such as a relative living in the United States, while their immigration cases continue.
According to the law, these provisions are intended to protect children "who had escaped traumatic situations such as armed conflict, sweatshop labor, human trafficking, forced prostitution, and other life threatening circumstances."
In June, federal prosecutors charged three illegal immigrants with participating in a conspiracy to smuggle more than a dozen children into the United States, according to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.
During a news conference, Blanche described the defendants as "super sponsors" and said that thousands of similar cases are currently under investigation by the Department of Justice and the DHS.
"This is one example, one indictment, but it is not unique," Blanche said. "There are over 15,500 super sponsor cases that we have identified."
Explaining how some children are brought illegally into the United States, Blanche said that "criminals calling themselves sponsors trafficked these children to the border, usually committing fraud to do so, and oftentimes the children were abused, assaulted, and certainly exploited."
"In some cases, individuals would sponsor multiple children, which required them to lie to government personnel and on government forms, claiming they were close relatives when in fact they were not," he said.
