The Trump administration has launched a new initiative to clean up the mess that the Biden administration made by losing hundreds of thousands of unaccompanied minors who crossed the southern border between 2021 and 2025.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced a new initiative in which the agency will work with local and state law enforcement to conduct welfare checks to protect the minors from abuse and exploitation.
From the press release:
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) launched an initiative with our state and local law enforcement 287(g) partners aimed at protecting the 450,000 unaccompanied children (UAC) illegally smuggled over the border and placed with unvetted sponsors under the Biden administration.
This new law enforcement partnership, known as the UAC Safety Verification Initiative, represents ICE’s commitment to protect vulnerable children from sexual abuse and exploitation through collaboration with 287(g) law enforcement partners. The primary focus of this initiative is to conduct welfare checks on these children to ensure that they are safe and not being exploited.
The Biden administration's open border policies empowered human and sex traffickers. The Trump administration is taking a sledgehammer to human trafficking rings and ensuring these children who were smuggled across the border are not being abused.
“Secretary 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," said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. "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 UAC Safety Verification Initiative began on November 10 in the state of Florida and will begin rolling out with other 287(g) partners across the country.
ICE announces a new operation were the will be conducting welfare checks on the 450,000 THOUSAND children that Biden let in with traffickers, gang members and abusers. pic.twitter.com/kgy0erwlXw
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) November 17, 2025
The DHS Office of Inspector General released an alert in August 2024 showing that ICE was unable to monitor all unaccompanied migrant children released from custody. Earlier reports from 2023 revealed that the Health and Human Services Department (HHS) lost contact with over 85,000 foreign minors over the past two years.
Immigration authorities under the Biden administration encountered almost 530,000 unaccompanied minors at the southern border. This was more than double the numbers from the Obama administration and President Donald Trump’s first term, according to congressional testimony.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) reported that 11,488 minors were placed with sponsors who were not subject to background checks or fingerprinting.
Congressional hearings held in 2024 showed that HHS officials instructed the Office of Refugee Resetttlement to prioritize speed rather than safety when placing migrant children with sponsors. In fact, witnesses told Congress that the office told employees to place these children with sponsors even when there was evidence that they were affiliated with gangs. Some even told lawmakers that HHS officials retaliated against them when they raised concerns about the children's safety.
One of the most significant problems with former President Joe Biden’s immigration policies is that they made adults and minor migrants more susceptible to being trafficked. His administration did little to stop this. It will likely take an ongoing effort to protect those who may have already been victimized.