DHS Leads Efforts to Rescue Child Victims of Sex and Labor Trafficking

The Trump Administration has located 13,000 children who came across the border unaccompanied

WASHINGTON –Secretary Noem is leading efforts to rescue and stop the exploitation of the 300,000 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 actually smugglers and sex traffickers. The Trump Administration has located 13,000 of these children.

In March 2025, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) identified a backlog of more than 65,000 reports regarding children who came across the border unaccompanied that were ignored during the Biden administration.

Since discovering this, HHS stood up a triage center and modernized outdated software systems to triage and action all reports. As of July 24, 2025, more than 59,000 of the backlogged reports have been analyzed and processed, resulting in more than 4,000 investigative leads, including fraud, human trafficking, and other criminal activity.

“The evil of human trafficking cannot be overstated. It’s modern-day slavery. By leaving our borders open and even encouraging people to come here illegally, Biden enabled the largest human-trafficking operation in modern history,” said Secretary Kristi Noem. “We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to eradicate human trafficking operations targeting the United States. Under the leadership of President Donald Trump, and working together at every level of government, we can win this fight. And we will.”

 Below are examples of DHS law enforcement’s heroic actions rescuing children:

• On June 16, 2025, during a HSI worksite enforcement operation targeting employers and subcontractors who knowingly hire illegal aliens, HSI Mobile identified and rescued a child and arrested eight foreign nationals for violations of immigration law. The child was found to be working among adults and was believed to have never attended school since entering the United States two years ago.
• On May 28, 2025, HSI New York special agents arrested an adult male subject from Ecuador at his residence for violations relating to the sexual exploitation of a child. New York received information related to a 15-year-old female who was apprehended near El Paso, Texas, after illegally entering the United States. At that time, she was pregnant with the adult male’s child and had been in a relationship with him in Ecuador since the age of thirteen. The subject organized the smuggling of the young teenager across the U.S. border to engage in sexual acts. The subject’s mother sponsored her after her illegal entry, and the subject continued his relationship with the children, living together with his mother in Harlem.   
• On May 12, 2025, HSI Austin reported the identification and rescue of a child, the arrest of two Guatemalan nationals for violation of immigration law, and the initiation of an HSI-led investigation of state and federal charges of human trafficking and statutory rape. During a welfare check, HSI Agents, with the assistance of the FBI, identified a pregnant 14-year-old female residing with an unrelated adult male sponsor, later determined to be the biological father of the unborn child.
• On May 1, 2025, HSI Newark conducted a welfare check in East Orange, NJ. Three minors, ages 17, 16, and 15, were encountered at the residence and were observed to not be attending school. During the check, it was determined the sponsor was not living with the minors. They were living in filthy conditions with active mouse infestations. The residence was void of food. An HSI forensic interview of the minors revealed alleged verbal, physical, and sexual abuse of the three minors, along with potential labor exploitation.
• On June 24, 2025, HSI Nashville reported the identification of one child victim and one adult victim of labor trafficking. During an immigration court proceeding, the child victim disclosed that she and her 18-year-old brother had been forced by their sponsor to work to pay off their smuggling fees and to pay the sponsor's household expenses.

BOTTOM LINE: President Trump and Secretary Noem take the responsibility to protect children seriously and will continue to work with federal law enforcement to reunite children with their families.

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