Statement

On this National Missing Children’s Day, we remember every child who has gone missing and not yet come home—each one a cherished soul and a profound loss felt by families across our Nation. Today, we renew our solemn obligation to fight for their safe return with every resource our great country has to offer.

Under the previous administration, 4 years of radical open-border policies resulted in hundreds of thousands migrant children lost or placed with unvetted sponsors. Many of them were unaccompanied minors who were trafficked across our border alone, frightened, and vulnerable and delivered into the hands of sex traffickers and human smugglers by my predecessor’s weak and dangerous policies. This was a betrayal of the most innocent among us, a modern-day exploitation that scarred a generation of children who deserved protection and were met with unimaginable suffering and abuse.

My Administration is acting with unwavering resolve to reverse this injustice and bring each of these children home. We have launched an unprecedented initiative with State and local governments to find the thousands of missing children and safely return them to their home countries, and we will not rest until every last one is safe. We have sealed our borders and deployed our brave ICE officers to arrest the heinous illegal alien predators who prey on children and fuel human smuggling operations, dismantling their networks and ensuring those who place children in harm’s way face the full weight of American justice. We have restored strength to our law enforcement, equipping police and federal agencies with the funding and tools they need to hunt down predators and put them behind bars, and in every community across America, we are driving down crime rates to historic lows—a reality that keeps American families and their children safe from harm.

As we commemorate this National Missing Children’s Day, we hold the children who have yet to come home close in our hearts and remain firm in our promise to their families that we will never stop fighting for their return. We will chase every lead, pursue every investigation, and leave no stone unturned until America’s children are safe, protected, and free.