Tom Homan told viewers on America Reports exactly what many Americans already feel: “I don’t know what the hell the Biden administration was thinking” as he slammed the hollow excuses and tragic human consequences of the open-border policies we’ve endured. Homan didn’t mince words — he warned that the crisis at the southern border has produced staggering numbers of unaccompanied children lost in Washington’s paperwork and policy failures, and he demanded the federal government be held responsible for the chaos.
The administration’s own oversight numbers show the scale of the problem, but context matters: reports have highlighted that roughly 291,000 unaccompanied minors did not receive formal notices to appear in immigration court and another roughly 32,000 failed to show, figures experts say are being conflated with children literally “missing.” Critics who try to sanitize the truth argue this is a paperwork problem, not a human-safety problem, but Americans know that paperwork is meaningless when children are vulnerable and unaccounted for.
Whatever you call it, the Department of Health and Human Services currently manages thousands of unaccompanied children in custody and long waits for follow-ups prove the system is broken; ORR reports show thousands in care at any given time and a process that too often loses contact after placement. Independent investigations have documented runaway calls, unexplained disappearances, and a baffling lack of clarity about who is responsible for tracking these kids once they’re placed with sponsors. This is not an abstract policy debate — it’s a life-or-death reality for vulnerable children that our government has mishandled.
Tom Homan and other border hawks are right to point out the policy choices that created this mess: reversing proven Trump-era tools like Remain in Mexico and loosening enforcement didn’t happen by accident — it was a political decision that invited cartels, smugglers, and chaos. Those who insist that opening the border would be compassionate are ignoring the human wreckage it leaves behind: abandoned children, trafficked victims, and overwhelmed communities paying the price. The administration needs to stop defending its choices and start restoring law and order at the border.
Beyond the humanitarian angle is the national security dimension Homan has repeatedly warned about — lax enforcement and mass releases create fertile conditions for smugglers, fentanyl traffickers, and potentially hostile actors to exploit weaknesses in our system. Every American who cares about safety should be alarmed that these policy shifts have coincided with record flows of drugs and ambiguous vetting of who is getting released into our country. This is common-sense stuff: secure the border, vet entrants rigorously, and prioritize the safety of U.S. citizens and children alike.
If the Trump administration’s plan to mobilize ICE and other agencies to locate and, where appropriate, deport unlawfully present children is controversial, it’s only because Washington has allowed the problem to fester so long that tough decisions are inevitable. The administration says it has already located and begun addressing many of the cases previously labeled “missing,” though fact-checkers caution that some of those numbers have been presented without full context. Whatever the politics, the priority for patriotic Americans must be saving kids and restoring accountability, not playing games with statistics.
Hardworking Americans deserve a government that defends our borders and protects children, not one that offers excuses while the crisis deepens. Demand transparency, demand results, and demand that Washington stop treating security as optional — because until we restore control at the border, more children will suffer and more communities will pay the price. The time for hollow apologies is over; it’s time for decisive action and real leadership that puts America first.
