President-elect Donald Trump claimed in his Person of the Year interview with Time magazine this week that President Biden's administration lost track of more than 300,000 migrant children who crossed the border unaccompanied, saying many of them are in danger or dead. But experts say he's distorting the facts.
By Laura Doan
"We have 325,000 children here during Democrats — and this was done by Democrats — who are right now slaves, sex slaves or dead," Trump said. "And what I will be doing will be trying to find where they are and get them back to their parents."
Trump repeated similar claims on the campaign trail, and Republicans, including Trump's appointed "border czar" Tom Homan, have echoed similar figures as they call for increased border security.
But immigration experts tell CBS News these claims are misleading and misrepresent government data. Additionally, they say while some unaccompanied minors have become victims of trafficking or other crimes, the government safely releases most of these children to vetted sponsors — often a family member — while their immigration cases play out.
Possible origins of the number
Republicans began making claims that more than 300,000 unaccompanied children had been "lost" after the Department of Homeland Security released a report in August which showed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, did not serve notices to appear in court to 291,000 children between fiscal year 2019 and May 2024.
Additionally, 32,000 unaccompanied children failed to show up for immigration court dates from fiscal year 2019 to 2023.
Notably, around half of this period occurred when Trump was president. The report did not specify the number of children who missed court appearances under each administration.
While the DHS report stated that children who do not attend their court hearings can be at a higher risk of being trafficked or exploited, it did not say that the total 323,000 children referenced are unaccounted for or missing.
The Trump transition team did not respond to a request for clarification on Trump's claims.
Experts point to ICE's "missing paperwork problem"
In response to the DHS report, ICE said delays in issuing court notices to some of 291,000 unaccompanied children may stem from some being eligible to apply for asylum or legal status. In some cases, that process might be allowed to play out before ICE sends them a court date to begin removal proceedings.
"This is not a 'missing kids' problem; it's a 'missing paperwork' problem," said Jonathan Beier, an associate director of research at the Acacia Center for Justice's Unaccompanied Children Program, which helps represent migrant children.
In the cases of the 32,000 minors who missed immigration court dates, experts on immigration law explained that these minors could miss court for numerous reasons, including that they did not receive their notice to appear because ICE did not have their correct address on file.
Sometimes there are communication failures between ICE and other government agencies — including the Department of Health and Human Services, which is entrusted with finding children living arrangements with a shelter or sponsor while they await legal proceedings.
"I think for the most part, many of these children have been placed with loving family members," said Raul Pinto, deputy legal director for transparency at the American Immigration Council.
What we know about claims that unaccompanied children face dangers
Trump also claimed in the interview that hundreds of thousands of children who crossed the border unaccompanied are "now slaves, sex slaves or dead." There is no evidence of anything like this scale of abuse.
By law, after unaccompanied minors from foreign countries are detained at the border, they're quickly turned over to the care Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Refugee Resettlement, which aims to place children in "the least restrictive setting that is in the best interests of the child."
The office attempts to release children to sponsors, which can include parents, relatives and guardians, and federal policy dictates that the government vet these sponsors via interviews or background checks.
Despite these safeguards, some migrant children have ended up in unsafe situations, though the exact number is not known.
It's also protocol for the refugee resettlement office to follow up with sponsors around 30 days after the child's release, but a percentage of these phone calls have gone unanswered during the Biden and Trump administrations.
Both Republicans and Democrats have previously cited these missed calls to make claims that unaccompanied children were lost by those administrations. However, unanswered calls do not necessarily equate to these children being missing or in danger, experts say.
"It does not mean that the child's in an unsafe place. It means someone didn't answer the phone," said Jennifer Podkul, chief of global policy and advocacy for Kids in Need of Defense, an organization providing legal representation for unaccompanied children.
