Critics of former President Joe Biden's lax immigration enforcement policies often decried how those policies seemingly overlooked or even allowed for the exploitation of unaccompanied migrant children by traffickers in terms of forced labor and/or sexual abuse.

During a recent speech, Border Czar Tom Homan shared the distressing story of a 14-year-old female migrant child who was found living in Texas with two unrelated adult males and was likely a victim of sex trafficking, Breitbart reported.

While that child has been rescued and is now safe in federal custody, Homan revealed that there are likely thousands more unaccompanied migrant children who ended up in similar situations thanks to Biden's policies, and that saving those children from their horrible fate is what drives him and other agents to keep working despite the terrible emotional and mental toll.

Homan shares heartbreaking discovery of sex trafficked migrant children

On Friday, Border Czar Homan addressed the annual 2025 National Policy Conference in Washington, D.C., hosted by the Republican National Lawyers Association, and spoke on some of the many difficulties and grim realities that federal agents faced while searching for upwards of 300,000 to 500,000 unaccompanied migrant children who'd gone missing during the Biden administration.

He shared his belief that many of those children were being exploited as forced labor, or worse, ended up victimized by sex traffickers, such as the 14-year-old girl who was recently rescued and is now receiving care and treatment after she was found living with two adult men in Texas.

Those kinds of discoveries impose a serious toll on the emotional and mental health of federal agents, and Homan insisted, "Despite what the media says, we are not heartless, we care about these kids."

"I’m a father, and the reason I’m so emotional and headstrong on this issue is because I dealt with dying children throughout my career," he added. "I have held dying children."

Why are so many migrant children missing?

Among the biggest problems federal agents face in attempting to locate the estimated hundreds of thousands of missing migrant children are a distinct lack of verified identifying information for those children, the lack of proper vetting for sponsors who gain custody of them, the lack of adequate communications and information-sharing between various federal agencies, and too few agents to handle the massive number of cases.

Such were the findings of a March 2025 report from the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General's Office, which exposed the fact that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are simply incapable of effectively monitoring the location or status of "unaccompanied alien children" after they've been released from federal custody.

That report concluded, "Without an ability to monitor the location and status of UACs, ICE is unable to facilitate court appearances and has no assurance UACs are safe from trafficking, exploitation, forced labor, or involvement in criminal activities that may pose a risk to local communities."

Homan reveals major differences between Trump and Biden administrations

It wasn't all bad news in Homan's speech, however, as The Center Square reported that he revealed a nearly 97% decrease in illegal border crossings since President Trump took office, falling from an average of 12,000 apprehensions and 1,800 "gotaways" per day during the Biden-Harris administration to fewer than 200 apprehensions and 40 gotaways per day currently.

He also spoke of how the new administration is working to "flood the zone" with federal agents in Democrat-run "sanctuary" jurisdictions, how agents were mostly focused on apprehending criminal illegal aliens but were authorized to arrest and deport any illegal noncitizen they encountered, and how the disruption of the prior status quo had human traffickers and Mexican drug cartels "going broke."

The RNLA heralded Homan's "emotional, patriotic address" to a "packed house" at the conference, and noted how thrilled he was -- "like a kid in a candy store" -- to be working under Trump and his serious policies on enforcing existing immigration laws.

As for the incessant criticism and demonization he receives from oppositional Democrats and their media allies, Homan quipped to the audience, "The hit pieces keep me going. I'm a little pissed off right now because there were no protestors outside when I walked in."