Photo Credit: YouTube / Columbia Heights Valley View Elementary School
(COLUMBIA HEIGHTS, MN.) - During the ICE raids earlier this year in Columbia Heights, MN., seven students were detained by federal agents. Most have returned to the State this month, with one returning to Ecuador with her mother after time in a Texas detention center. However, concerns about ICE and the effects of Operation Metro Surge remain.
Misinformation has been circulating for the past two months about how many “missing” immigrant children were found in the state. The surge in deportations has an impact far beyond undocumented minors; natural-born and even those on temporary visas are becoming concerned they won’t receive asylum when the school term ends.
Photo Credit: YouTube / Tom Homan, Border Czar in Minneapolis, Minn.
This past Feb., Tom Homan, White House Border Czar, claimed that ICE had located 3,364 missing, unaccompanied immigrant children in Minnesota. Placing blame on the Biden administration, claiming the children were “lost” and the administration was not even looking for them. This statement was made during his public announcement of a drawdown of ICE agents that effectively ended Operation Metro Surge in Minn.
Many experts find the claim to be entirely misleading and designed to make the issue look worse than it is. Kim Boche, The Advocates for Human Rights (AHR) Supervising Attorney, pointed out that Minnesota has received approximately 1,000 unaccompanied minors per year since 2021. The latest data for 2025 saw a significant decrease to around 200.
Boche points out that AHR has a team that works exclusively with unaccompanied immigrant children in Minnesota. It provides resources and helps them apply for legal status to remain in the US. A biological parent, relative with legal citizenship, or delegated parental authority assists in making decisions for the child and may delegate a caregiver to take temporary custody of the minor in question.
In the context of a parent being detained or deported during enforcement action, the child isn’t legally considered an unaccompanied minor, as the state of Minnesota claims responsibility for the child, and the minor is placed in the child welfare system. At no point is the child actually “missing.”
Photo Credit: YouTube / Kristi Noem at Minneapolis Press Briefing
Kristi Noem, Special Envoy for the Shield of the Americas, recently made comments during two congressional hearings in Mar. Noem accused the Biden administration of losing half a million immigrant minors and praised her department for finding a fourth of them. That’s simply not the case.
A federal report didn’t conclude the children were “missing.” Instead, it pointed out gaps in tracking and paperwork, which can be attributed to missed court dates, lack of contact, and other factors that can cause temporary tracking issues.
Reports claiming the children were “found,” including those “found” in Minn., are most likely due to authorities visiting a last known address or the child still living in that location. Ultimately, the federal report found the issue to be associated with administrative tracking failures and families failing to continue reporting, not minors disappearing.
To add to or correct any information in this report, please contact me at kristin.h@lead4earth.org and leave a comment below.
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