Tom Homan reports 157,000 missing unaccompanied minors located

White House border czar Tom Homan stated that approximately 157,000 unaccompanied immigrant children have been located since the beginning of the Trump administration. Homan noted that nearly 300,000 children were lost by the government because sponsors were not properly vetted and failed to respond to communications or check-ins.

Homan reported that nearly half a million children were “smuggled” into the United States during the Biden administration. He explained that while Department of Health and Human Services officials prioritized short detention times, the rapid release of children to unvetted sponsors led to the loss of contact.

Under President Donald Trump’s second administration, Homan has been tasked with three primary directives: securing the border, conducting deportation operations, and locating missing children. Homan expressed caution regarding the difficulty of finding the children, noting that investigators must rely on the digital footprints of sponsors since children lack such data.

Some lawmakers, including Senator Ron Wyden, have criticized the administration’s handling of these minors, specifically regarding plans to deport some children back to Mexico.