The Trump administration has tracked down 146,000 unaccompanied migrant children who came over the U.S.-Mexico border during the Biden administration and were lost after the government released them to unvetted sponsors, according to senior officials.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin announced on Thursday a massive increase in the number of children the government had been able to locate since last summer, when just 22,000 had been found.
“We found 146,000 kids so far. 146,000 kids. We still have nearly 300,000 missing,” Mullin said during a press conference at the Justice Department’s Washington headquarters Thursday morning. “When we start digging into these cases, and you start hearing the absolute horrific things that took place underneath the Biden administration, either true neglect at best and criminal at worst, to allow 450,000 kids to go missing throughout this country.”
Under the Biden administration, more than 10 million foreigners were apprehended attempting to enter the United States illegally from Mexico, including more than half a million children who arrived without a parent or guardian. Those children were released into the U.S., and the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement was responsible for placing each child with a vetted sponsor through court proceedings.
Former President Joe Biden lost track of 88,000 children, according to a 2023 New York Times report. A February 2024 audit by the HHS Office of Inspector General found that the agency failed to conduct timely well-being follow-up calls for 22% of children placed with sponsors, 16% of case files lacked proof that sponsors underwent safety checks, and 19% of children were released to adults before the FBI fingerprint and state child abuse registries shared results with the government about the sponsors.
The Trump administration officials said on Thursday that they were searching for 300,000 unaccompanied children who, a 2024 DHS Office of Inspector General report found, had been let into the country with sponsors that were not vetted, as they should have been.
Angie Salazar, acting director for HHS ORR, said the Trump administration reviewed data provided to the government from child sponsors and found 81,000 addresses were used more than once.
“I’m not indicting, indicting the past leadership right here on this podium, but you also cannot ignore what was an incredible dereliction of duty,” Blanche said.
Mullin added that the government was investigating reports “to where some of these kids claim that they’re raped six to 700 times.”
Blanche and Mullin announced indictments against three illegal immigrant adults from Guatemala accused of trafficking more than a dozen children into the U.S. during the Biden administration.
“The 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,” Blanche said. “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. They would use fake or stolen identities and make other false claims during the application process in order to obtain custody of the children.”
Officials did not provide a breakdown for how the government has handled the 146,000 children who have been located, as far as whether they were rescued, found to be living with a family member, or could face deportation.
Salazar said child victims of trafficking are eligible to apply for certain visas that Congress created specifically for victims of human smuggling.
BORDER PATROL ARRESTS IN FLORIDA QUIETLY SURGE
Since early 2025, the Trump administration has required valid identity documents from sponsors, fingerprint background checks, and DNA testing when a sponsor claims a familial relationship. ORR conducts in-person visits of homes, addresses, and sponsors before releasing a child, as well as identifies sponsors who attempt to take custody of more than one child.
The number of children coming over the southern border has dramatically declined from upwards of 14,000 per month to less than 1,000 per month since President Donald Trump took office in January 2025, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.