DHS Says It Has Located 146,000 Migrant Children Lost During Biden Admin

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin announced Thursday that the Trump administration has located at least 146,000 migrant children who were previously unaccounted for after entering the United States illegally during the Biden administration.

Speaking at a press conference alongside federal officials, Mullin said the administration inherited a crisis in which roughly 450,000 migrant children had effectively disappeared from government oversight after being released to sponsors or otherwise leaving federal custody.

According to Mullin, nearly 300,000 children remain unaccounted for as investigators continue searching for them across the country.

The numbers have intensified scrutiny of the Biden administration’s border policies and the federal sponsorship system used to place unaccompanied minors with adults inside the United States.

“We’re investigating reports to where some of these kids claim that they were raped 600 to 700 times,” Mullin said.

“I don’t care who you are. I don’t care if you have kids. You don’t have kids. I don’t care if you’re a liberal, you’re independent, you’re a Democrat. You’re Republican,” he continued.

“If you can’t stand for law enforcement to go find these kids, who are you?”

Mullin also said many of the children are being found in sanctuary jurisdictions, directly criticizing local policies that restrict cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.

“And do you know where we’re finding the most of them: sanctuary cities,” he said.

Federal officials used the press conference to highlight ongoing efforts to identify and recover migrant children who entered the country without parents or legal guardians and were later released to sponsors.

The issue drew national attention after the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General released an August 2024 report examining the federal government’s handling of unaccompanied minors.

The inspector general found that between fiscal years 2019 and 2023, more than 448,000 unaccompanied migrant children were transferred from Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody to the Department of Health and Human Services for placement with sponsors.

According to that report, approximately 291,000 of those children were never issued notices requiring them to appear in immigration court after their release. Another 32,000 children failed to appear for scheduled immigration proceedings.

Federal authorities have since been working to locate many of those minors, though officials continue to face questions about the precise status and whereabouts of large numbers of children included in those figures.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche also announced criminal charges Thursday against three Guatemalan nationals in Ohio accused of submitting false information to become sponsors for migrant children and receive financial benefits.

Federal prosecutors allege the defendants fraudulently participated in the sponsorship process intended to place unaccompanied minors with vetted adults while their immigration cases moved forward.

Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa praised the administration’s enforcement push and said warnings about migrant child trafficking were ignored for years.

“I spent YRS sharing whistleblower evidence of migrant child trafficking w the Biden admin while my Democrat colleagues turned a blind eye,” Grassley wrote on social media.

The Trump administration has also directed the Department of Health and Human Services to prioritize investigations involving claims that migrant children may have been trafficked, abused, or exploited after being released to sponsors.

Officials say the effort includes reviewing leads involving sex predators and criminal organizations that may have exploited weaknesses in the vetting process.

Previous records from the Office of Refugee Resettlement indicated that some Biden administration officials prioritized quickly placing children with sponsors.

Former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra was previously quoted as comparing the desired pace of releasing children to an “assembly line,” according to reporting by The New York Times.

The Trump administration argues that this rush to process children contributed to weak screening, inadequate oversight, and insufficient follow-up after minors were released.

The Biden administration previously maintained that many children classified as “missing” had simply lost contact with federal agencies or failed to attend scheduled immigration proceedings rather than being physically untraceable, The New York Post reported.

Federal authorities say efforts to locate the remaining children are ongoing as investigators continue pursuing leads nationwide and prosecuting individuals accused of exploiting the migrant sponsorship system.

For conservatives, the case is a devastating indictment of open-border governance: when Washington abandons enforcement, children become vulnerable, traffickers gain opportunity, and American communities are left dealing with the consequences.

The Trump administration is now attempting to clean up what officials describe as one of the most serious child-protection failures of the Biden border crisis.