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Federal agents have located more than 145,000 illegal alien children whose whereabouts were unknown under the Biden administration.
Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan announced that multiple agencies—Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the FBI and the Health and Human Services Department’s Office of Refugee Resettlement—were continuing their efforts to locate “more than 300,000 unaccompanied alien children” who had been lost by the system under the Biden administration.
“Through their outstanding efforts, they have so far been able to locate more than 145,000,” the Homan said on X.
“President [Donald] Trump promised that we would find these children, and under his strong leadership and with his unwavering support, the patriots at these, and other partner, agencies have been—and will continue to do—just that.”
Homan did not provide any further details about the children.
The Trump administration’s focus on these missing children was prompted by an August 2024 report by the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Office of Inspector General, which stated more than 323,000 illegal immigrant children were unaccounted for in the US.
Of those, more than 291,000 unaccompanied migrant children had not been served court notices by ICE as of May 2024, while another 32,000 were served notices to appear in court but failed to do so.
Efforts to locate the missing children began as soon as President Trump returned to office in January 2025.
In December, federal agencies announced they had located more than 129,143 illegal immigrant children.
“Too many of these children were exploited, trafficked, and abused. We will continue to ramp up efforts and will not stop until every last child is found,” Noem said.
ICE also launched an initiative with state and local law enforcement in November to conduct welfare checks on 450,000 illegal immigrant children who were placed with unvetted sponsors by the Biden administration.
DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said more than 24,400 of those children have been located through visits and door-to-door checks.
“Many of the children who came across the border unaccompanied were allowed to be placed with sponsors who were smugglers and sex traffickers,” McLaughlin said.
“We’ve jump-started our efforts to rescue children who were victims of sex and labor trafficking by working with our state and local law enforcement partners to locate these children.”
“President Trump and Secretary Noem are laser-focused on protecting children and will continue to work with federal, state, and local law enforcement to reunite children with their families,” she added.
