As Democrats Rage Over Trump’s ICE Crackdown, The Nation Still Has No Answers For The Children Who Disappeared

Monday, December 8, 2025, 6:45 P.M. ET. 6 Minute Read, Op-Ed, By Jennifer Hodges, Political Editor: Englebrook Independent News,

WASHINGTON, DC.- As Trump Derangement Syndrome continues to grip democrats across the country, Senate and House Democrats continue to be up in arms over President Donald J. Trump’s aggressive nationwide immigration enforcement operations. They denounce workplace raids. They condemn deportations. They warn of “cruelty.” They invoke “human dignity” at every podium.

     They dominate the airwaves with outrage.

     And yet, for more than four years, as the Biden administration quietly lost track of tens of thousands of migrant children, they said almost nothing.

     Now, as the country prepares for Christmas, one question hangs over this entire national debate:

     “Where was this outrage when the children vanished?”

The Phone Call No Parent Or Relative Should Ever Receive;

     At 2:14 a.m., the phone rang.

     On the other end of the line, a federal investigator spoke four carefully chosen words to a waiting mother or relative:

     “We found your child.”

     Not safe.
     Not alive.
     Not coming home.

     Found.

     This is not a story about politics alone.

     It is a story about what happens when an administration loses the children whom they allowed to enter the United States, unaccompanied, and fails to scream loudly enough when it happens.

The Numbers America Was Never Supposed To See;

     Between 2021 and 2024, under the Biden administration, more than 550,000 unaccompanied minor children crossed into the United States and were released from federal custody into the interior of the country.

     Federal oversight later revealed that at least 291,000 of those children were released without even being issued a scheduled immigration court date.

     Tens of thousands were placed with:

• Unverified sponsors
• Incomplete background checks
• No confirmed home studies
• No meaningful post-release monitoring

     Sponsors’ phone numbers disconnected.
     Addresses proved false.
     Follow-up calls went unanswered.

     And yet, the releases continued.

     What followed was not just disorder; it was a cold, calculated, and controlled disappearance.

     By late 2024, internal government oversight quietly confirmed what few in Washington publicly acknowledged:

     The federal government had lost track of tens of thousands of children.

2025: The Recovery Begins, And So Does the Horror;

     In 2025, under renewed enforcement and recovery operations launched by the Trump administration, federal investigators began retracing the steps of those missing minors.

     As of December 2025, authorities confirm that between 22,000 and 30,000 previously unaccounted-for children have been located so far this year through labor investigations, trafficking takedowns, and welfare checks.

     But they were not found with families.

     They were found in:

• Forced agricultural labor
• Meat-packing plants
• Commercial construction sites
• Criminal enterprise safe houses
• Multi-state sex-trafficking networks

     Some were bartered for labor.
     Some were sold repeatedly.
     Some were threatened into silence.

     And some were already dead.

The 27;

     Federal authorities now confirm that at least 27 of the missing children have been found dead after their release into the U.S. interior.

     The causes include:

• Drug overdoses
• Suicide
• Violent assault
• Medical neglect
• Homicide

     Each of those deaths occurred after the child left federal custody.

     Each represents not just a tragedy, but a chain of institutional failure.

     And thousands of cases remain unresolved.

     No confirmed location.
     No verified guardian.
     No closure.

Christmas Without Answers;

    While families across America hang ornaments and wrap gifts, somewhere tonight, a mother stares at a silent phone, uncertain if her child is living, suffering, or buried in a place she will never see.

      Somewhere in America right now, a child who should be writing a Christmas wish list is instead working under coercion, fear, and threat.

     And Washington Democrats debate immigration raids.

The Silence That Still Demands An Answer;

     What makes this crisis so haunting is not only what happened, but how quietly it unfolded.

     There were warnings.
     There were internal alerts.
     There were oversight letters.

     Yet there were no sustained floor debates.
     No emergency joint sessions.
     No weeks of nonstop coverage.

     Children disappeared into forced labor and trafficking corridors —
And the government moved on.

     Now, suddenly, the outrage is deafening.

Enforcement Is Not the Villain, Negligence Is;

     Democrats now argue that enforcement is cruel.

     But what is more cruel:

     Detaining criminals —
     Or releasing a 10-year-old to a trafficker with an unchecked form?

     What is more heartless:

     A workplace raid —
     Or sending a child into forced labor with no tracking, no protection, and no exit?

     Borders are not simply geography.
     They are either barriers to exploitation or doorways into it.

     And enforcement without accountability fails.
     But compassion without enforcement is what created the trafficking corridors.

The Faces Behind The Statistics;

     These were not “cases.”

     They were children who played soccer.
     Children who carried notebooks.
     Children who believed America meant safety.

     Some were raped.
     Some were beaten.
     Some were sold.
     Some were worked until collapse.
     Some never made it out alive.

     And the most brutal truth of all:

     Much of this was preventable.

     Not every crime.
     Not every death.

    But the catastrophic scale of this disappearance was only possible because oversight failed at the highest levels of government.

Not Chaos, Policy Without Brakes;

     This series will show, through federal records, enforcement disclosures, and survivor-support data, how:

• Safeguards were relaxed
• Sponsor vetting was rushed
• Oversight mechanisms were weakened
• Warnings were delayed or buried
• Follow-up enforcement was deprioritized

     This was not a random disorder.

     It was Democrat policy without brakes.

Why This Series Exists;

     Because behind every statistic is a child who thought crossing into America meant safety.

     Because behind every missing file is a family still waiting for a phone call.

     Because behind every political talking point is a human cost that never reaches the podiums.

     This week, Englebrook Independent News will document:

• How these children were placed
• Who received them
• Where they were found
• How they were exploited
• And why accountability still has not fully arrived

Coming Tomorrow;

PART II — “Who Took the Children?”

A deep investigation into the sponsor pipeline, how approvals were rushed, warnings were ignored, and criminal networks exploited federal blind spots.

Editor’s Note;

This investigative series is based on Department of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services oversight data regarding unaccompanied minors released into the U.S. interior between 2021 and 2024, as well as federal recovery operations conducted in 2025. Government disclosures confirm that more than 350,000 children entered the system, tens of thousands were lost to follow-up, more than 22,000 have been located so far this year, and at least 27 deaths have been verified after release. Due to incomplete records and missing sponsor documentation, the full human cost may never be fully known. – Jennifer Hodges, Political Editor, For Englebrook Independent News, All Rights Reserved.