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.
Politics
Trump claims Biden lost track of over 300,000 migrant children. Here's a fact check
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.
"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.
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.
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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.
Republicans have repeatedly alleged the Biden administration lost track of hundreds of thousands of unaccompanied minors. But experts say they're distorting the facts.
www.cbsnews.com