Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin announced that the Trump administration has located 148,000 missing migrant children.
“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 X. “We have already located over 148,000 of these children, and we will not stop fighting until every last one is rescued.”
Mullin’s comment came in response to President Trump sharing a migrant children chart on Truth Social, writing, “These are the missing children, and we’re not being helped at all by Sanctuary Cities. They’re going out of their way to make sure the children remain missing!” The chart indicated that as of July, more that 330,000 children remain unaccounted for.
Last year, DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari released a report detailing the thousands of migrant children unaccounted for by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) between fiscal years 2019 and 2023.
“From fiscal years 2019 to 2023, ICE transferred more than 448,000 UACs [unaccompanied alien children] to HHS; most were released to sponsors,” the report says. “However, more than 31,000 of the 448,000 children’s release addresses were blank, undeliverable, or missing apartment numbers. ICE also was not always aware of the location for UACs who fled HHS’ custody.”
Cuffari testified before Congress following the release of the report, “This is not simply an administrative problem; it’s a systemic breakdown that poses grave risks to UACs and the integrity of our legal immigration system and can undermine public trust in our immigration and law enforcement institutions.”
Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) praised the Trump administration in June after it indicted three fraudulent sponsors and located more than 146,000 UACs. “I am grateful to the Trump Administration—including U.S. AG Blanche, DHS Sec. Mullin, and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—for their unwavering commitment to securing our southern border and finding and protecting the thousands of unaccompanied migrant children, who were forcibly brought into the United States alone,” he said at the time.
