Under the Biden Administration’s misguided open borders agenda, not only did an unprecedented number of illegal adults enter the United States, but one of the most disturbing issues was a rise in the number of unaccompanied children brought across the southern border. Thanks to President Donald Trump’s commitment to a secure border, the number of unaccompanied children brought to the United States illegally without a guardian has plummeted according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data.
Thanks in large part to a porous border and the impression on foreign nations that the United States would not turn away illegal aliens at the border, tens of thousands of unaccompanied children began to arrive at the border shortly after President Joe Biden took office in January 2021. According to CBP statistics, by March of 2021, CBP detained over 18,000 unaccompanied children.
According to CBP data, 110,672 unaccompanied minor children were encountered nationwide by border patrol and field operations in FY 2024 before the Trump Administration took control. In 2023, that number was 137,992 unaccompanied children. In just the first three months of 2023, over 26,000 unaccompanied minor children were encountered.
President Donald Trump reversed this disturbing trend and drastically reduced the number of unaccompanied children brought — or trafficked — across the border without a parent or guardian. President Trump’s border security border policies, including strengthening the border and making it clear to other nations that the United States will deport illegal aliens upon arrival, have worked exceptionally well to curb illegal encounters, including the trafficking of unaccompanied children.
In December of 2025, the most recent month for which statistics are available, border patrol encountered 6,858 unaccompanied minor children at the southwest border. Compare that number to the numbers of unaccompanied minor children encountered by border patrol during the peak of the migrant flood under Joe Biden. CBP numbers show that in March of 2022, close to 19,000 unaccompanied children were encountered by border patrol. In FY 2025, a total of 29,584 unaccompanied minors were encountered at the border, down from 110,672 in FY 2024.
What is more, a majority of the children apprehended under Biden were from non-contiguous countries, largely from South America, which meant the United States was not able to return them to their home country and was forced to place them into the hands of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). A 2008 law forces the U.S. to sort migrant children into those from “contiguous” countries, meaning Mexico or Canada, and those from anywhere else, as explained by Andrew R. Arthur, Resident Fellow in Law and Policy at the Center for Immigration Studies. Those from Mexico or Canada can be directly returned to their home countries, while those from South America and elsewhere must be handed into the hands of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR).
Thanks to President Trump’s bold commitment to border security and clear communication to the rest of the world that the United States will deport illegals brought into the country, the number of unaccompanied children brought over the border, often by the hands of criminals and traffickers, has fallen significantly. In FY 2025 less than 30,000 children were brought across the border without a parent, compared to 110,672 in 2024. Children brought over the border without a guardian are often in an extremely vulnerable position, and many are victims of trafficking and other crimes. Rather than opening the border and encouraging criminals to traffic children across the border, President Trump slammed on the breaks and is drastically reducing the number of children put in danger.
Manzanita Miller is the senior political analyst at Americans for Limited Government Foundation.
