- U.S. “border czar” Tom Homan claimed during a Fox News appearance on Dec. 7, 2025, that the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump had “rescued” more than 62,000 unaccompanied migrant children, a claim Trump repeated on Truth Social on Dec. 12.
- Homan’s claim was based on the assumption that 300,000 migrant children were “missing” in the first place, which is a misleading assessment of an August 2024 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) report that found 320,000 children either never received notices from Immigration and Customs Enforcement to appear in immigration court, or received notices but failed to appear in court.
- His claim that the Trump administration rescued 62,000 migrant children stems from a November 2025 initiative to identify unaccompanied children and vet and arrest their sponsors for alleged crimes, including sex trafficking and other abuse. A DHS news release about the initiative listed more than a dozen arrests but did not detail any other actions authorities had taken.
On Dec. 7, 2025, U.S. “border czar” Tom Homan said during an appearance on Fox News that President Donald Trump’s administration had rescued 62,000 migrant children who were being trafficked for sex, forced to work or otherwise experiencing abuse.
Homan continued, claiming they were among the “over half a million children [who] were smuggled into this country under [former President] Joe Biden,” whose administration allegedly “lost track of 300,000.”
Trump repeated the claim (archived) on his Truth Social account on Dec. 12, 2025.
(Truth Social user @realDonaldTrump)
The claim also spread on several other platforms, including Facebook (archived) and Instagram (archived). The full segment of Homan’s appearance is available on the Fox News site (at 3:28). Homan said:
President Trump committed on Day One that we would do everything we can to find every one of these children [inaudible]. We know many are in sex trafficking, many are in forced labor, many are being abused. I look at the numbers every day. On Friday I looked at the numbers, there’s over 62,000 children found by the Trump administration. Children that weren’t even being looked for under the Biden administration. President Trump saved over 62,000 children’s lives.
The claim has resurfaced multiple times with degrees of variation; for example, we published a story in early 2025 breaking down the claim that Homan said the Trump administration found 75,000 to 80,000 out of 300,000 “missing” migrant children.
There are two parts to this claim: First, did more than 300,000 migrant children go missing? And second, is there evidence to support the claim that the Trump administration then rescued 62,000 children?
The claim that 300,000 migrant children went missing stems from a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) report issued in August 2024, toward the end of Biden’s presidency, that was not about “missing” or “lost” migrant children, but rather about those who had not yet received a notice to appear in immigration court.
The claim that the Trump administration rescued more than 62,000 children is based on a November 2025 initiative to identify unaccompanied migrant children as well as vet and arrest their sponsors. DHS said on Nov.14 that the government had located more than 24,400 unaccompanied migrant children in the U.S. In his Dec. 7 TV appearance, Homan said, “On Friday I looked at the numbers, there’s over 62,000 children found by the Trump administration” — implying the most up-to-date number was 62,000. We also did not find any evidence the Trump administration specifically rescued thousands of children from sex trafficking or forced labor.
Did DHS report say 300,000 children were missing?
The August 2024 report, authored by the DHS Office of Inspector General, said ICE was not able to “monitor all unaccompanied migrant children released from DHS and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ [HHS] custody,” meaning the immigration enforcement agency did not have the capacity to issue notices to — and keep tabs on — all unaccompanied children DHS released or transferred to HHS.
According to the report, between October 2018 and September 2023 (notably, this includes more than half of Trump’s first term), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was not able to serve notices to appear in court to more than 291,000 unaccompanied migrant children. An additional 32,000 children who received notices failed to appear for immigration court hearings. The combined number of alleged missing children, 323,000, aligns with the “more than 300,000 children missing” claim Homan made.
Both Vice President JD Vance and Trump have similarly cited the number stemming from the report, but this is an inaccurate depiction of reality. As Jonathan Beier, an associate director with Acacia Center for Justice’s unaccompanied children program, told Snopes in January 2025, “Children who were never ‘missing’ shouldn’t be described as having been ‘found.'”
Homan himself told The Washington Post in December 2024 that these “missing” children “were probably with their parents or other family members.” The article read:
Homan acknowledged that many of those young people are probably with their parents or other family members, but he said he wants to mobilize nonprofit groups and private contractors to carry out a more concerted effort to track them down. He said he was not sure how he would get additional funding to implement a more rigorous system of oversight.
“I think some of these children will be in forced labor, and some will be in the sex trade,” he said. “I think some will be perfectly fine. We just want to make sure.”
Is there evidence Trump admin ‘rescued’ 62K children?
HHS defines unaccompanied migrant children as being younger than 18, having no lawful immigration status and having no parent or legal guardian available to provide care in the U.S. The government is legally required to release unaccompanied migrant minors it apprehends into the “least restrictive setting that is in the best interests of the child,” which can include “qualified parents, guardians, relatives or other adults, referred to as ‘sponsors.'”
On Nov. 10, 2025, ICE — in collaboration with state and local law enforcement authorities — launched an initiative that it said was aimed at protecting unaccompanied migrant children (UACs) who were “illegally smuggled over the border and placed with unvetted sponsors.” The official purpose of the initiative, formally called the UAC Safety Verification Initiative, was to “locate and conduct welfare checks” on unaccompanied migrant children. It began in Florida, with plans to expand across the U.S.
ICE Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a Nov. 14 DHS news release on the initiative:
Secretary [Kristi] 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. The Trump administration has located more than 24,400 of these children in-person, in the United States, through visits and door knocks. We’ve jumpstarted our efforts to rescue children who were victims of sex and labor trafficking by working with our state and local law enforcement partners to locate these children. President Trump and Secretary Noem are laser-focused on protecting children and will continue to work with federal, state, and local law enforcement to reunite children with their families.
The news release ended by listing examples of “ICE administrative immigration arrests based on sponsors’ criminal activity” on charges including attempted murder, rape, assault, fraud, counterfeiting and possession of marijuana.
Out of the 16 examples, only one linked to further information about the alleged crime. Others did not specify any names, dates or any location beyond the state. Therefore, it was impossible for us to independently confirm the veracity of the examples. In several cases, the news release said the sponsor had been convicted, but in most it mentioned only an arrest — meaning the sponsor had not been found guilty of a crime.
The release said the initiative’s focus was to “conduct welfare checks,” but it did not give any examples of actions beyond the arrests. We wrote to ICE seeking clarification on whether arresting or detaining sponsors was the only method of protecting unaccompanied migrant children and have not received a response. We will update this story if we do.
In sum …
The claim that the Trump administration rescued more than 62,000 migrant children out of more than 300,000 missing migrant children is an unfounded exaggeration.
Homan’s claim was based on the assumption that 300,000 migrant children were missing in the first place, which is a misleading assessment of an August 2024 DHS report that found 320,000 children either never received notices from ICE to appear in immigration court, or received notices but failed to appear in court.
His claim that the Trump administration rescued 62,000 migrant children stems from a November 2025 initiative to identify unaccompanied children and vet and arrest their sponsors for alleged crimes, including sex trafficking and other abuse. That release listed more than a dozen instances in which authorities arrested sponsors but gave no further details about “rescuing” unaccompanied migrant children.
Sources
About the Unaccompanied Alien Children Bureau. 14 May 2025, https://acf.gov/orr/programs/uac/about.
Alvarez, Priscilla. ‘Trump Administration Takes Hundreds of Migrant Children out of Their Homes, into Government Custody | CNN Politics’. CNN, 4 June 2025, https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/04/politics/migrant-children-families-government-custody.
Binder, John. ‘Trump’s DHS Launches Operation to Rescue Migrant Children Resettled with Unvetted Adults Under Biden Administration’. Breitbart, 14 Nov. 2025, https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2025/11/14/trumps-dhs-uacs-biden/.
Cercone, Jeff. ‘Claim about Missing Migrant Children Misleading, Experts Say’. @politifact, https://www.politifact.com/article/2025/jan/28/did-trump-find-75000-to-80000-missing-children-her/. Accessed 12 Dec. 2025.
DHS Office of Inspector General. ‘Management Alert – ICE Cannot Monitor All Unaccompanied Migrant Children Released from DHS and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Custody’. 19 Aug. 2024, https://www.oig.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/assets/2024-08/OIG-24-46-Aug24.pdf.
Editor, Stefan Becket Managing, et al. Read the Full VP Debate Transcript from the Walz-Vance Showdown – CBS News. 2 Oct. 2024, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/full-vp-debate-transcript-walz-vance-2024/.
‘FACT FOCUS: Claims That More than 300,000 Migrant Children Are Missing Lack Context’. AP News, 2 Oct. 2024, https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-misinformation-migrant-children-missing-7ab0cea2fd2238346197429e952baa8b.
‘Homan Says Trump Border Crackdowns Rescued 62,000 Migrant Kids “Ignored” under Biden | Fox News Video’. MovingImage. Fox News, 7 Dec. 2025, https://www.foxnews.com/video/6386153716112.
ICE and State, Local Law Enforcement 287(g) Partners Launch Initiative to Protect Vulnerable Children the Biden Administration Allowed to Be Placed with Unvetted Sponsors | Homeland Security. https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/11/14/ice-and-state-local-law-enforcement-287g-partners-launch-initiative-protect. Accessed 12 Dec. 2025.
Liles, Jordan. ‘Misleading Rumor Claims Trump Admin Found 75K-80K “Missing” Migrant Children’. Snopes, 28 Jan. 2025, https://www.snopes.com//news/2025/01/28/trump-75000-children-found/.
Sponsors and Placement. 21 July 2021, https://acf.gov/orr/about/ucs/sponsors.
– YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9k4AfmeKRA. Accessed 12 Dec. 2025.
