Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told the Senate Judiciary Committee under oath on Tuesday that the Biden administration had directly funded individuals who were actively trafficking unaccompanied migrant children. The testimony, delivered during an oversight hearing on 3 March 2026, drew immediate attention across party lines.
'The government was paying individuals that were knowingly trafficking them and abusing them. That has stopped,' Noem said. She also revealed that roughly 145,000 children who had been lost under the previous administration had since been located. 'Unaccompanied alien children were lost by the Biden administration, not tracked. We've located about 145,000 of them,' she said.
