Trump didn’t say he’ll prosecute Biden officials for 325,000 ‘missing’ kids, nor are they missing

President-elect Donald Trump and his allies have repeatedly, and misleadingly, said that thousands of migrant children went missing during President Joe Biden’s term. And a recent social media post goes further, claiming that Trump plans to prosecute the Biden administration over this matter. 

The Dec. 2 Instagram post shows a "breaking news" banner and text that says: "President Trump has announced a plan to prosecute the Biden administration for the 325,000 kids that went ‘missing’ into human trafficking & sex slavery during their open border policies." 

An Instagram user commented that this is "One of many good decisions coming out from the NEW Administration."

This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

The claim that Trump made such an announcement isn’t accurate and saying that 325,000 kids are missing and trafficked is misleading. 

PolitiFact found no credible news reports or transition team news releases about Trump saying he’ll prosecute Biden administration officials over the "325,000 kids that went ‘missing’."

We also found no comments about this from Trump’s social media accounts. This wasn’t part of his presidential campaign platform, either. 

We contacted the Trump-Vance transition team, but received no reply.

In a June Fox News interview, host Rachel Campos-Duffy told Trump that the Biden administration "has lost 80,000" of more than 130,000 unaccompanied children who crossed the U.S. border.

"Will the Trump administration commit to finding these children, to finding them and returning them to their families to their countries because many of them have been lost into sex trafficking?" Campos-Duffy asked Trump.

Yes, Trump said, adding "many of them are dead."

Since then, Trump has repeated the claim about the children and has inflated the number in rallies and interviews.

Vice President-elect JD Vance also made a similar claim during the Oct. 2 vice presidential debate.

But that claim distorts what federal data said about migrant children. 

An August federal oversight report said that of 448,000 children arriving alone at the southwest border from fiscal years 2019 to 2023 and released from federal government custody, about 32,0000 had failed to appear for their immigration court hearings. It also added that as of May, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had not served a "notice to appear" to more than 291,000 children. (A notice to appear is a charging document authorities issue and file in immigration court to start removal proceedings.)

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Nancy Pelosi

stated on November 9, 2024 in an interview

“Fewer people came in under President Biden than came under Donald Trump.”

The report said unaccompanied children "who do not appear for court are considered at higher risk for trafficking, exploitation, or forced labor." The report neither states how many children have been trafficked nor says children are missing or dead. 

Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not comment for this fact-check.

An Instagram post said "President Trump has announced a plan to prosecute the Biden administration for the 325,000 kids that went ‘missing’ into human trafficking & sex slavery during their open border policies." 

PolitiFact found no credible news reports or Trump comments confirming such prosecution plans.

The 325,000 "missing" kids figure is also wrong.  

A federal oversight report about children arriving alone at the southwest border said that a federal immigration agency had not served a "notice to appear" to more than 291,000 children. The report said that children who do not appear for court are considered at higher risk for trafficking, exploitation or forced labor. 

However, the report doesn’t say how many children have been trafficked and doesn’t say they’re missing or dead.

We rate this claim False. 

PolitiFact Staff Writer Maria Ramirez Uribe contributed to this report.