Kennedy Highlights Immigrant Children’s Alleged Disappearance Under Biden
Health and Human Services Director Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has brought attention to the concerning issue of unaccompanied immigrant children reportedly lost during the Biden administration. He expressed worry that the administration prioritized speed over safety in managing these vulnerable children.
In a recent interview on “Fox & Friends Weekend,” Kennedy stated that approximately 476,000 unaccompanied children have gone missing during this period. He suggested that the administration aimed to expedite the process of releasing children from detention, neglecting essential security measures for those picking them up.
Kennedy criticized the Biden administration for overlooking necessary safeguards like DNA testing, fingerprinting, and other identification checks for adults claiming to be the children’s parents. He feels that these measures are crucial for ensuring the safety of the children.
Reflecting on past practices, he noted that during the Trump administration, these safeguards were more rigorously enforced. “We were engaged in income verification, DNA testing, and fingerprinting of every adult who said they were parents. We even knocked on doors to find missing children,” Kennedy explained.
So far, he claimed that federal authorities have conducted about 82,000 home visits, resulting in the recovery of around 22,000 children. He expressed a commitment to continue these efforts over the next few years to locate all lost children.
Kennedy’s remarks echo a broader Republican critique regarding how the Biden administration has handled unaccompanied minors. An August 2024 report from the Department of Homeland Security revealed that between 2019 and 2023, over 448,000 unaccompanied migrant children were transferred to Health and Human Services. However, it noted that ICE struggled to monitor the whereabouts of many children post-release, highlighting lapses in follow-up and record-keeping.
It should be noted that a previous report from the Associated Press clarified that the findings did not indicate that children were necessarily disappearing or being trafficked. Instead, they pointed to systemic failures in tracking and record-keeping processes.
