Homan Reports Nearly 25,000 Missing Migrant Children Located, 27 Fatalities Confirmed

Border czar Tom Homan told Fox News on September 19 that under the Trump administration’s directive, federal agents have tracked down just under 25,000 of the roughly 320,000 unaccompanied minors who went missing after crossing the U.S. border, though 27 have since died during the manhunt.

The announcement comes amid intense scrutiny of the post-Biden border handoffs, where critics decried lax vetting of sponsors. Homan framed the recovery of young migrants as a top priority, arguing the prior administration’s rapid release policies created a humanitarian crisis that compromised child safety.

Key Developments

• Nearly 25,000 missing children located out of approximately 320,000 reported lost
• Twenty-seven recovered minors confirmed dead during investigations
• Rescue efforts focus on sex-trafficking and forced-labor victims, with Homan pledging exhaustive pursuit of all leads

In descending order of detail- Homan reiterated that President Trump tasked him with securing the border, overseeing the largest deportation campaign in U.S. history, and leading the search for missing children, with the latter designated “priority one” upon his return from retirement. He detailed that some minors were found in exploitative circumstances, including forced labor and sex-trafficking rings, prompting immediate rescue operations.

During discussion of procedural failures, Homan criticized the previous administration for halting DNA testing and prioritizing rapid sponsor releases without adequate background checks, which he said enabled hundreds of thousands of children to vanish into “unvented” placements within days of border processing. He described the recovery effort as arduous-tracking digital trails of sponsors who are often undocumented themselves, and combing through leads ranging from grocery stores to car washes.

Homan insisted that the Trump administration will not relent until every missing child is located or every lead exhausted, underscoring that “this is a moral imperative” that transcends political divides. He vowed to continue expanding investigative resources, digital forensics, and interagency collaboration until “we find each and every one” of the missing minors.