US DHS Secretary Mullin Pledges to Locate Migrant Children

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said he will "move heaven and hell" to locate migrant children potentially placed with unvetted sponsors.

The initiative highlights a critical failure in child welfare protocols at the border and sets the stage for a systemic overhaul of how the U.S. government tracks unaccompanied minors.

Mullin said the Biden administration turned a blind eye to sexual-abuse reports targeting migrant children. According to the DHS Secretary, previous border policies allowed unvetted sponsors to take 450,000 children ^[1]. He said this lack of oversight created conditions that left children vulnerable to abuse.

"I will move heaven and hell to go find these kids," Mullin said.

The Secretary said his primary goal is to right the wrongs caused by those policies. He said the current administration must address the gap in sponsorship vetting to ensure children are not placed in dangerous environments. The push for these records follows reports of sexual abuse involving minors who were released from federal custody to sponsors who did not undergo rigorous background checks ^[1].

This effort focuses on the 450,000 children ^[1] who were processed under the previous administration's guidelines. Mullin said the Department of Homeland Security is escalating pressure to identify where these children are currently located and to verify their safety. He said the failure to track these individuals constituted a dereliction of duty by the prior leadership.

The DHS Secretary did not specify the exact number of children currently suspected of being in abusive situations, but he said the scale of unvetted pickups necessitates a comprehensive search. He said the agency is prioritizing the recovery of children whose cases showed red flags during the initial sponsorship process.