Tens of thousands of unaccompanied migrant children have been located by the Trump administration so far, White House officials announced in a news conference on June 11.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said that the administration has found “146,000 kids so far” as he spoke during a news conference at Department of Justice (DOJ) headquarters alongside acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.
Mullin said that after investigations into the cases, “horrific things” were uncovered that took place during the prior presidential administration and that it was ”either true neglect at best and criminal at worst … to allow 450,000 kids to go missing throughout this country.”
“Some of these kids claimed that they were raped 600 to 700 times,” he said. “I don’t care who you are. … If you can’t stand for law enforcement to go find these kids, who are you?”
Also during the June 11 news conference, Blanche said the DOJ is currently tracking 15,500 “super sponsor cases” connected with thousands of minors. Blanche disclosed this information while announcing the indictments of three illegal immigrants who participated in an alleged conspiracy to traffic more than a dozen children into the United States.
In some cases, children who were being trafficked by “sponsors” were abused and advised to lie to U.S. government officials by using fake or stolen identities and making false claims, among other criminal behavior, he said
“I think I’m stating the obvious, but when the government fails to protect our borders, it is the most vulnerable who suffer,” Blanche said.
Mullin said that most of the missing migrant children were located in cities with “sanctuary” policies. Loosely defined, a sanctuary city or jurisdiction is an area where local law enforcement and officials are generally precluded from cooperating with federal immigration authorities such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or Customs and Border Protection.
Last year, the DOJ released a list of what it said were cities and states that implement sanctuary policies, including New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Seattle, Portland, California, New York state, and New Jersey.
Those policies have been flagged by Mullin in recent months as he warned that he could remove customs officials from major U.S. airports in those cities.
“We are currently—which we’re not initiating yet—but we’re currently drawing up plans,” he told Fox News’s “The Sean Hannity Show” in late May.
He also said that customs officials should not be “processing international flights” in sanctuary jurisdictions because federal immigration law isn’t being enforced.
Mullin specifically mentioned New York City on June 11 as an area with sanctuary policies.
The White House’s border czar, Tom Homan, also warned that a large number of ICE agents could be deployed to New York City and New York state after New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a measure in May that would block state and local officials from cooperating with immigration agents for law enforcement purposes.
“I want to be very clear about the fact that I believe that ICE raids are cruel, they are inhumane, they do nothing to serve in the interest of public safety,” New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in response to Homan’s remarks. “I’ve shared that directly with the president. I’ve shared that in public. It is a feeling that many New Yorkers share.”