Tom Homan: Government found 145,000 missing children

Tom Homan claimed that the Trump Administration tracked down more than 145,000 children who entered the country illegally and were missing. The 'border czar' referred to the issue of missing children during his participation in the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) held in Dallas, Texas.

Over the past four years, millions of people illegally entered the United States, prompting President Donald Trump to make the border issue one of the pillars of his presidential campaign. Indeed, he promised to close the border, carry out a "massive" deportation campaign and another to find the children who entered the country and whose trail was lost.

Homan participated Wednesday in the second day of the popular conservative conference, where he was interviewed by Mercedes Schlapp. During the conversation, he was asked about the southern border and specifically the issue of children.

The 'border czar' referred to the logistical difficulties of locating minors that, he said, the Biden Administration was not even working to find.

"I explained to the president, they don't have the digital footprint, so we've got to count on the digital footprint of who they're released to, these unvetted sponsors. And when we started this operation, we quickly found out, number one, they weren't vetted properly, number two, the addresses were never verified," the official explained.

The official also explained that many of the children were in poor health conditions due to labor or sexual exploitation.

Moments later, he highlighted the work of law enforcement and gave the number of children located since January 2025: "The men and women of ICE and FBI have been busting their butt trying to find these kids, and they found right around 145,000 missing children. And let me say something, that's 145,000 missing children that the last administration lost and weren't even looking for. And did we rescue them all? Look, some of these children were with their parents just hiding out, but many, too many were victims of sex trafficking, being sold for sex, and being in forced labor," he added.

In 2025, Homan said they estimated the existence of "300,000" missing children.

Regarding the figure, the border 'czar' referred to a report published in August 2024 by the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General (DHS).