Homan says 145,000 of the 300,000 'missing children' from the Biden era have been located

Authorities have located more than 145,000 unaccompanied immigrant minors who were missing under the Biden Administration, border czar Tom Homan said Friday. The figures come from joint investigations by ICE, the FBI and the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR).

"Through their outstanding efforts, they have so far been able to locate more than 145,000," the official reported in X. At the moment, Homan has not provided details on the situation or status of the minors.

"President 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," he added.

According to Homan, federal agencies "continue to tirelessly to run down hundreds of thousands of leads and work numerous investigations to locate more than 300,000 unaccompanied alien children that the Biden Administration turned over to unvetted sponsors, lost track of, and weren’t looking forward."

"Until every last child is found"

After taking office in January of last year, the Trump Administration initiated a series of actions aimed at locating and tracking these minors. By December, federal agencies had "located more than 129,143 unaccompanied children that the Biden Administration lost," Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said.

"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," she added in a message posted on X.

Tens of thousands of minors left to fend for themselves

In a statement issued last November, DHS reported that ICE had launched a joint operation with state and local authorities to conduct welfare checks on 450,000 undocumented immigrant minors, many of whom would have been turned over to criminal child exploitation rings.

"Secretary Noem is leading efforts to rescue and stop the exploitation of the 450,000 unaccompanied children the Biden administration lost or placed with unvetted sponsors. Many of the children who came across the border unaccompanied were allowed to be placed with sponsors who were smugglers and sex traffickers."