Federal Government Launches Operation to Find Missing Foster Children, 13 Recovered

The Trump administration has launched a pilot program to locate missing foster children, and 13 children have already been recovered in Mississippi, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said on May 18.

HHS said the program, called “Operation Hope” and first implemented in Mississippi, is a law enforcement-led operation aimed at locating and rescuing missing foster children before predators do.

Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch said in a joint statement with HHS officials that the pilot program was intended to help shape similar efforts in other states.

“Over the past several weeks of planning and in the execution of the operation last week, it was always our intention not only to locate vulnerable Mississippi youth but also to create a model that can be used in other states,” Fitch said.

“There are children all across this country who live without hope, but through partnerships like this we can show them that we care, that they matter, and that they deserve hope.”

The department said that already as a result of the operation, the 13 children have been located, provided with support services, and brought to safety in Mississippi.

HHS Inspector General T. March Bell said the children’s disappearance calls for a rapid and multi-faceted response from law enforcement.

“Operation Hope underscores a core commitment of my office: missing foster children must be protected and brought to safety,” Bell said. “The progress in Mississippi demonstrates what unified action can achieve, and it should serve as a model in other states.”

According to HHS, the operation builds on “Project Hope,” an initiative launched during President Donald Trump’s first term that led to the recovery of 42 children in Kansas and Missouri.

Last year, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement launched an initiative with state and local law enforcement to conduct welfare checks on 450,000 unaccompanied illegal immigrant children who the agency said were placed with unvetted sponsors under the Biden administration.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a November 2025 statement that the initiative aims to ensure the children are safe and protected from exploitation.

“Many of the children who came across the border unaccompanied were allowed to be placed with sponsors who were smugglers and sex traffickers,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said at the time.

In January, border czar Tom Homan said U.S. authorities have located more than 145,000 illegal immigrant children who were previously unaccounted for under the Biden administration.

Homan said those instances came as Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the FBI, and the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement continue efforts to locate “more than 300,000 unaccompanied alien children” who he said had been “turned over to unvetted sponsors and lost track of” under the Biden administration.