The Trump administration is blasting the Miami Herald for what it calls a “disgusting and dishonest” attempt to spin efforts to recover missing migrant children as a deportation scheme.

The clash comes after a report painted federal officers as villains for trying to locate the more than 300,000 unaccounted-for minors who vanished under the Biden administration’s lax migrant release system. According to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., many of these children were released to so-called sponsors without even the most basic background checks. The result? A logistical and humanitarian nightmare.

In one shocking case cited by Kennedy, a single adult managed to pick up dozens of children using different aliases and was allowed to take them to places like strip clubs and abandoned lots. “These kids weren’t misplaced,” Kennedy emphasized. “They were essentially trafficked with the government’s blessing.”

Now that the Trump administration is actively trying to locate them, legacy media outlets are accusing DHS of conducting a mass deportation operation. Officials inside DHS say that’s not only false—it’s reprehensible.

“The suggestion that this is about deporting kids is a deliberate lie,” said one senior official. “This is about rescuing children from predators and criminals who should never have had access to them in the first place.”

The Biden-era system, built around speed and optics, completely collapsed under scrutiny. Case workers were told to move children through the system as quickly as possible—security was secondary. No fingerprints. No home checks. No idea where the kids were actually going. And now, the Trump administration is trying to put the pieces back together.

Critics say the media, desperate to avoid any acknowledgment of Biden’s failure, is attacking the very people trying to solve the crisis. According to sources familiar with the effort, the DHS isn’t targeting the children themselves but focusing on verifying their safety, confirming their identities, and checking whether they’re victims of trafficking or abuse.

That nuance didn’t stop the Miami Herald from claiming the effort was about deporting children. A DHS spokesperson fired back: “The Herald is trying to flip the script on who failed these kids. The Biden administration lost them—we’re trying to save them.”

Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress are backing the effort. They argue that the Biden-era sponsorship system essentially greenlit trafficking and abuse on an industrial scale. With few rules and almost zero oversight, predators had a free pass to grab children and disappear.

“This is what happens when you prioritize optics over outcomes,” said one GOP lawmaker. “Biden’s team wanted to look compassionate, but all they did was open the floodgates to abuse.”

The effort now involves cross-agency coordination between HHS, DHS, ICE, and local law enforcement. Officers are combing through records, tracking down fake sponsors, and following leads on missing children. The administration insists every step is being taken with the best interest of the children in mind.

But media outlets continue to amplify accusations from left-wing activists that the effort is about “targeting immigrants.” Officials inside the administration call that framing not just false but dangerous—because it discourages people from cooperating and delays efforts to reunite children with safe, verified guardians.

“This is exactly why people don’t trust the media,” said another senior DHS official. “They’d rather help Biden save face than help find a missing 10-year-old.”

The administration says it will press on with the mission, regardless of media backlash. “These kids are out there,” said Kennedy. “And we’re going to find them—even if the press wants to pretend they never existed.”