7,200 Trafficked Children Have Been Rescued in Trump’s Second Term, FBI Says

Authorities have rescued 7,200 children from traffickers and predators under the current administration, a 42 percent increase from the prior administration, according to a June 25 update posted on X by FBI Director Kash Patel.

“3,500 predators/traffickers locked up. A 102 percent increase from the previous administration,” Patel said. “If you mean to bring harm to the most precious and innocent among us (our children) We Will Find You!”

A video shared with the post said authorities launched “massive task forces” across federal and local agencies, “kicking down doors and shattering trafficking networks from the inside out.” Eight of the FBI’s 10 most wanted fugitives were captured in 17 months, nearly twice the number of arrests during the Biden administration.

“There’s nowhere left for these predators to hide. People can argue all they want, but the numbers don’t lie. With the FBI leading the charge, the hunters are now the hunted, and our families are finally protected,” the video stated.

In March, Patel said that the FBI had arrested 1,700 child predators in 2025, taken into custody more than 300 human traffickers, dismantled networks related to the online predator group 764, and terminated more than 3.8 million pedophile accounts on the dark web.

“We rebuilt the FBI, surging agents out of D.C. and into communities, expanding intel sharing, and deploying cutting-edge tech and AI to hunt predators faster than ever,” Patel said. “Under President [Donald] Trump’s leadership, we remain relentless in protecting children and will not slow down.”

In a Sept. 10, 2025, post, the FBI said that almost 30,000 children were reported missing in 2024, citing data from the Congress‑authorized nonprofit National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).

More children are also being subjected to financial sextortion, the NCMEC said in a June 25 statement. Sextortion refers to threatening or blackmailing children with the possibility of publicly sharing their nude or sexual images.

Last year, NCMEC received more than 50,000 reports of financially motivated sextortion cases, up from 36,000 reports in 2024.

The organization said that offenders are now moving conversations with targets more quickly to private messaging and encrypted apps. This makes it difficult to detect such incidents.

“When talking to the children in your life about the dangers of financial sextortion, remind them that if this should ever happen to them, they need to get help before deciding whether to pay money or comply with the blackmailer. Cooperating or paying rarely stops blackmail,” NCMEC said.

“Victims of sextortion may feel overwhelmed or that there is no way out, but there is hope. If this happens to a child in your life, remember that the blackmailer is to blame, not the child. Even if they made a choice they regret, what the offender is doing is a crime.”

Making Coercion a Crime

To protect children, Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) is championing the Ending Coercion of Children and Harm Online Act, a bipartisan legislation aimed at prosecuting online child predators, according to a June 3 statement from the lawmaker’s office.

There has been an increase in online criminal networks trying to coerce children into harmful and abusive behaviors, the statement said, citing NCMEC.

However, there is currently “no clear law that addresses online coercion of a minor to harm themselves or others,” the statement said.

This makes it difficult to hold such perpetrators accountable for such actions. The bill seeks to explicitly make it a crime to coerce a minor online to commit violent acts against others or themselves.

“Nothing matters more than the safety and well-being of children, and we must protect every child in Georgia from exploitation and abuse,” Ossoff said. “That is why I am working to pass this bipartisan legislation to make sure that law enforcement can prosecute criminals targeting children.”

Meanwhile, in addition to cracking down on pedophiles and traffickers targeting children, agencies have also had success in combating other criminal elements, such as gangs and drug traffickers.

In a Feb. 15 X post, Patel said that the FBI and partners saw a “record year making America safe again” in 2025, with the national murder rate falling by 20 percent, a 31 percent jump in fentanyl seizures, and a 290 percent surge in gang takedowns.