A video posted to social media by a Texas lieutenant in the Department of Public Safety shows a young girl at the U.S.-Mexico border standing alone. She has traveled from El Salvador, and holds just a Post-It note with a phone number on it.
"How old are you?" a trooper asks. The girl holds up two fingers.
A second video posted by the same lieutenant shows 60 migrant children who journeyed by themselves to the U.S. arriving in Eagle Pass, Texas.
Another image shows an accused smuggler running across the border with a 5-year-old in his arms, reportedly paid to bring the girl to her mother already in the states.
The Texas Department of Public Safety, under Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, openly supports President-elect Donald Trump's push to dramatically tighten immigration. Lt. Chris Olivarez began posting photos and videos of child migrants around the time Tom Homan, Trump's point-person on the border, visited Eagle Pass.
"I guarantee some are in forced labor, some are in sex trades," Homan said. "We're going to save those children."
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The arrival of unaccompanied minors is not a new phenomenon. Thousands have journeyed across the Mexican border each year, including during the first Trump term, according to a Scripps News review of data from the Department of Health and Human Services.
The flow of unaccompanied minors, however, reached record highs during the first years of the Biden administration, as undocumented immigration soared. The numbers have fallen since 2022 but remain elevated today.
The federal government tries to quickly place child migrants with a sponsor already in the country, usually a parent or other close family member. The sponsor pledges to care for the minor while ensuring they go through immigration proceedings.
However, it is an approach that does not always work.
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A 2023 joint investigation by Scripps News and the Center for Public Integrity found many children end up disappearing from their sponsor homes. Thousands of unaccompanied minors run away, some winding up in dangerous illegal child labor jobs, or worse.
"They've simply vanished into a dark underworld of sex and drug trafficking, forced labor, gang activity and crime," said Rep. Tom McClintock, R-California, during a November congressional hearing.
McClintock and other Republicans say the Department of Health and Human Services is to blame for failing to properly vet sponsors.
A 2023 report by a Florida grand jury obtained by Scripps News found some sponsor addresses were in fact empty lots or a strip club. One address listed 44 kids assigned to it.
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra says they are doing the best they can with a limited budget.
"What we don't do is short-change the vetting process," Becerra said at a November hearing on Capitol Hill. "We make sure that we follow best practices in the child welfare field.
"We do background checks on every individual," he added.
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Just how many migrant children have disappeared from their sponsors is in dispute. Becerra says a frequently cited estimate of 85,000 missing kids is too high and doesn't account for many children who are safe but just not reachable by HHS officials who make three attempts to contact them.
"They may be at school, they may be at a doctor's appointment, they may not have a phone working anymore," Becerra said.
Homan and the rest of the Trump administration have not yet laid out what their policy will be for those children who make the perilous journey to the U.S. alone.
