In a shocking announcement that included reports of serial child abuse, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said June 11 that federal agencies have located more than 146,000 of the unaccompanied migrant children who had gone unaccounted for after entering the U.S. during the Biden administration.
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, speaking at a Department of Justice (DOJ) press conference alongside Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, said nearly 300,000 children of the estimated 450,000 missing migrant children who went missing under the Biden administration are still unaccounted for.
Mullin said the Trump administration has begun uncovering “horrific things that took place under the Biden administration,” which the secretary accused of allowing 450,000 kids “to go missing throughout this country.” He called the previous administration’s actions “true neglect at best and criminal at worst.”
“President Trump has made it a point to go find these kids,” Mullin said.
“We found 146,000 kids so far. Some of these kids claimed that they were raped over 600 times. I don't care who you are. If you can't stand for law enforcement to go find these kids, who are you?” @SecMullinDHS pic.twitter.com/hsgIea2NOT
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) June 11, 2026
According to Mullin, agents continue to locate children through wellness checks, door knocks, and coordinated efforts involving DHS, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Department of Health and Human Services, and other agencies. Mullin accused the previous administration of allowing unvetted sponsors to take custody of children without conducting adequate followup wellness checks.
“Some of these kids claimed that they were raped 600 to 700 times,” Mullin said.
“I don’t care who you are,” he added. “I don’t care if you have kids; you don’t have kids. I don’t care if you’re a liberal, you’re an Independent, you’re a Democrat, you’re a Republican. If you can’t stand for law enforcement to go find these kids, who are you?”
Many of the children, he added, have been found in “sanctuary cities” – Democratic strongholds where local officials have adopted a policy of non-cooperation with federal immigration enforcement efforts. Federal agents are now able to operate in such areas “because of President Trump’s leadership,” Mullin said.
“We have mayors like Mamdani in New York who want to say ‘You're not welcome.’ As a mayor, he knows what's happening on his own streets. He knows who he's harboring. And at this point, [he is] abetting by saying that we can't go operate,” Mullin argued. “We're going to go find the worst of the worst. We're going to rescue as many kids as we possibly can.”
Mullin pledged to continue operations to locate the remaining unaccounted-for children, prosecute traffickers, and target “super sponsors” who took in multiple children.
“As a father of six with three young girls, I will do whatever I have to do. I will move Heaven and Hell to go find these kids,” he said.
During the conference, Blanche also announced the indictments of three Guatemalan nationals living in Ohio, whom officials described as super sponsors. They are accused of exploiting sponsorship loopholes — often by using fraudulent forms of identification and claiming to be a child’s family member — to smuggle and gain custody of more than a dozen children.
“Oftentimes, the children were abused, assaulted, and certainly exploited,” Blanche said.
Blanche said the DOJ is tracking 15,500 cases involving super sponsors. Officials say the cases are connected to hundreds of thousands of migrant minors smuggled into the U.S. between 2021 and 2024.
“I think I’m stating the obvious,” Blanche said, “but when the government fails to protect our borders, it is the most vulnerable who suffer.”
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