Trump Launches New Program to Stop Missing Foster Children from Being Trafficked

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—President Donald Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services has launched a new program to locate missing foster children, The Daily Signal can first report.

The agency’s Administration of Children and Families has piloted a new program in Mississippi to rescue foster children before they are trafficked. About 60% of all child sex trafficking victims have spent time in the child welfare system. About 23,000 kids went missing while in foster care in 2024.

“One of the largest pipelines to domestic trafficking is vulnerable youth who have experienced foster care,” Assistant Secretary of Health for the Administration of Children and Families Alex Adams told The Daily Signal in an interview. “Our primary goal is to prevent that from happening.”

The new program, Operation Hope, has already located 13 missing foster children in the Magnolia State and brought them to safety. In just 48 hours, 87% of Mississippi’s missing foster kids were rescued.

Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch said her goal is not just to locate vulnerable youth, but also to create a model for other states to use.

“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,” she said.

Adams said the program will be replicated across the country. ACF and Fitch are both seeking other states that are willing to implement Operation Hope.

“We’re going to be looking for supportive law enforcement partners, specifically partnerships with attorney general’s offices to expand this,” Adams said. “We’ve got a turnkey model of great federal resources with state and local law enforcement to replicate what we did in Mississippi in pretty short order, so we’re going to be looking for active partners on that at the federal level.”

Mississippi was a natural fit to pilot the program because Fitch has been “an absolute champion throughout her term for vulnerable youth,” Adams said.

“I know Attorney General Fitch is going to be reaching out and encouraging other states to do so as well, and offering some of the expertise her agency has developed as a template to other states as well,” Adams said.

HHS implemented “Project Hope” in Kansas and Missouri during the first Trump administration, locating 42 missing youth.

The president is now relaunching Operation Hope as a trauma-informed, law enforcement-led operation to locate and recover missing youth before traffickers can reach them.

Adams said his “Home for Every Child” campaign aims to prevent entries into foster care and place children who do need to enter the system in family settings where they are less vulnerable to traffickers. For those who do go missing, Adams’ mantra is “leave no one behind.”