Overview

• More than 448,000 unaccompanied children were transferred to HHS between 2021 and 2024, and thousands became unaccounted for after release to sponsors.
• In February, ICE and DHS located just 12,347 of 50,000 sponsor addresses for missing children and arrested roughly 403 sponsors on fraud or child endangerment charges.
• President Trump’s administration ordered CBP officers to offer migrant teens aged 14 to 17 from any country the option to voluntarily depart the United States.
• The Department of Homeland Security publicly rejected reports of rapid child deportations, insisting the policy solely broadens voluntary returns beyond Mexico and Canada.
• The DHS inspector general testified that agencies still cannot reliably track unaccompanied minors after transfer to HHS custody, underscoring persistent oversight gaps.