Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, surrounded by law enforcement supporters at a Georgia campaign event on Thursday, claimed Vice President Kamala Harris' border policies have resulted in the federal government having "lost thousands of innocent children" to sex and human trafficking.
Vance appeared to be referencing a Department of Homeland Security inspector general report released earlier this week.
As of May 2024, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had not served notices to appear on more than 291,000 unaccompanied migrant children, "who therefore do not yet have an immigration court date," according to the DHS watchdog report. An audit revealed ICE transferred more than 448,000 unaccompanied migrant children who crossed the border illegally from fiscal years 2019 to 2023.
However, ICE was not able to account for the location of all unaccompanied migrant children who were released from DHS and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) custody during that time frame and who did not appear as scheduled in immigration court, according to the DHS inspector general's office. ICE reported more than 32,000 unaccompanied minor children failed to appear for their immigration court hearings from fiscal years 2019 to 2023, the report adds.
On the same day Harris is to accept the Democratic presidential nomination, Vance campaigned alongside law enforcement in Valdosta, Georgia, before taking questions from reporters.
One referenced how the speeches Wednesday at the Democratic National Convention centered on the "human aspect of immigration," and included an address from a DACA recipient.
"As a husband of someone who was a daughter of immigrants, how do you look at the deportation plan that Trump… will put in place? Specifically, the detention of families and children?" the reporter asked.
Vance clarified that he is "married to the daughter of legal immigrants to this country, people who respected the country enough to follow the rules before they came."
"You hear Democrats say this a lot, and a couple speakers of the Democratic convention say that Donald Trump wants to separate families, and I don't know how they can say that with a straight face," Vance continued.
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"Our government, under the policies of Kamala Harris, has lost thousands of innocent children to sex trafficking, to drug trafficking, to human trafficking," Vance said. "The party that believes in separating parents from their children is Kamala Harris, because that's what the open border has done. It's separated American citizens from their children. It's separated a lot of illegal aliens from their children. It's not good either way."
"I don't blame these poor children who are being sex-trafficked and drug trafficking by the Mexican drug cartels," he said. "But I don't want to pursue policies that's going to make it easier for the drug cartels to take advantage of those children. We ought to pursue policies that's going to make it harder on the drug cartels, go to war against those drug cartels, don't facilitate their sex trafficking and their drug trafficking."
Fox News Digital reached out to the vice president's office and the Harris campaign for comment, but they did not immediately respond.
Vance wrapped his remarks with a final message to those who have entered the United States illegally.
"Our message to illegal aliens who've come into this country by breaking our laws is, yes, if you came into this country illegally, Donald Trump and I are going to work to send you home because that's what is required if you want to have a real border policy," Vance said. "And our message to everybody who wants to come to this country is come through the right channels, because as soon as Kamala Harris is booted out of office – and it's going to happen in just a few short months – as soon as Kamala Harris is booted out of office, we are not open for business to illegal aliens or to the Mexican drug cartels anymore."
Vance earlier referenced how the event was located not far from where Laken Riley was born and raised. Riley, a nursing student, was allegedly murdered by a Venezuelan illegal immigrant while out on a run.
Former President Trump's running mate described Riley as a "beautiful, beautiful young girl who would still be alive today if Kamala Harris had done her job and not let these drug cartels come into our community."
Former President Barack Obama advocated for securing the border "without tearing kids away from their parents," when addressing the DNC in Chicago on Tuesday.
Obama failed to mention the report, which was released earlier that day,
