The Government Had No Assurance These Children Were Safe — Still Doesn’t

A federal watchdog says hundreds of thousands of migrant children slipped through Biden-era cracks, and now the Trump team is racing to find out which ones are safe and which ones were preyed on by traffickers.

Story Snapshot

Federal auditors say more than 291,000 migrant children were released without immigration court dates, with thousands more missing hearings.
Watchdogs warn that when the government cannot track these minors, it has “no assurance” they are safe from trafficking or forced labor.
Trump-era leaders Todd Blanche and Markwayne Mullin have launched a nationwide push to locate children released under Biden and vet their sponsors.
The fight highlights a long‑running, broken system that left children unprotected across agencies, and voters are demanding real accountability.

Federal Report Exposes Massive Tracking Failures Under Biden

The Department of Homeland Security Inspector General issued a stunning alert: as of May 2024, Immigration and Customs Enforcement had not given immigration court notices to more than 291,000 unaccompanied migrant children released to sponsors.^[1]^[2] Those children were outside the court tracking system, which is often the only point where the government can see them again and check for signs of abuse or trafficking.^[2] On top of that, at least 32,000 minors who did get hearing dates never showed up, and officials could not account for their locations.^[2]^[3]

The Inspector General warned that because agents “cannot always monitor the location and status” of released children, the government has “no assurance” they are safe from trafficking, exploitation, or forced labor.^[1]^[2] A separate summary reported that nearly 300,000 migrant children in the United States did not have immigration court dates at all, and that every missing appearance raises the risk of children falling into forced labor or commercial sex.^[1]^[6]^[7] Senator Josh Hawley said the findings show “catastrophic failures” to protect vulnerable minors.^[4]^[6]^[7]

How a Broken Sponsor System Put Children in Harm’s Way

Under federal law, most unaccompanied children are quickly transferred from border agents to the Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement, which then places them with sponsors. During the Biden years, that sponsor pipeline exploded, and oversight did not keep up. A 2023 report said the Office of Refugee Resettlement lost contact with more than 85,000 children in sponsor care, even before the new Inspector General numbers on missing court dates came to light.^[6]^[7] That means tens of thousands of minors were living somewhere in the country, with adults the government was no longer checking on.

Researchers and advocates have warned for years that once children leave federal custody, there is no single agency clearly responsible for their safety. One medical journal estimated that between 75 and 80 percent of newly arriving unaccompanied minors are touched by human trafficking networks as they travel, then face a maze of agencies and weak oversight after they cross the border. In 2015, youth in this system spent about a month in custody on average, but fewer than 2,000 home studies were done to check sponsor safety among tens of thousands of placements. Those gaps existed before Biden, but the surge in crossings and looser enforcement made the cracks far wider.

Trump Team’s Nationwide Push to Find ‘Biden-Era’ Children

When the Trump administration returned in 2025, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin faced a grim inheritance: roughly 450,000 unaccompanied children had entered the United States during the Biden presidency.^[5] Blanche and Mullin announced a new “Unaccompanied Alien Children Joint Initiative Field Implementation” order, directing agents from the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and other enforcement branches to track down children released from federal custody.^[5] Their goals are to verify each child’s safety, make sure immigration obligations are met, and investigate whether sponsors have exposed minors to human trafficking or other crimes.^[5]

According to policy tracking documents, the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General found that 31,000 children released from Health and Human Services custody between 2019 and 2023 had missing or incomplete release addresses in government records.^[5] By January 2025, 233,000 children still had not been served with notices to appear, and by October 2024, 43,000 who did receive notices had failed to show up in court.^[5] The Trump administration responded by launching the “UAC Safety Verification Initiative” with state and local law enforcement partners to conduct welfare checks on the roughly 450,000 minors released to sponsors under Biden.^[5] Officials say they have already located thousands of children through door‑to‑door visits.^[5]

Debate Over ‘Missing’ Children and What Comes Next

Some left-leaning groups now argue that the “missing children” numbers have been overstated, saying many children are with sponsors but have paperwork problems or outdated addresses. The American Immigration Council claims the Inspector General report reflects “paperwork gaps, not lost children,” and points out that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is an enforcement agency, not a child welfare agency. But even those critics admit that poor coordination between the Department of Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, and the Justice Department has left serious blind spots in tracking unaccompanied minors.

Conservatives see a deeper issue: a federal system that lost track of its most basic duty to protect children while pushing mass migration and weak border controls. A House letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas warned that since President Biden took office, border agents encountered 473,145 unaccompanied minors at the southwest border and both the Office of Refugee Resettlement and Immigration and Customs Enforcement “lost contact with tens of thousands” of them.^[6]^[7] The letter stressed that children who miss court are at higher risk for trafficking, exploitation, or forced labor and accused Biden policies of encouraging smugglers to use kids as “easy” tickets into the country.^[6]^[7]