How many missing children has ICE recovered since their raids began in 2025

1. The concrete recoveries that are documented: local operations and DHS announcements

Three multi‑agency operations and a DHS announcement in the sources provide concrete counts: HSI El Paso’s three‑week “Operation Lost Souls” recovered 70 missing children in West Texas (ages 10–17) and identified victims of trafficking and abuse ^[1], a Southern New Mexico operation located 78 minors and formally recovered three of them while locating 75 others from an 80‑person list ^[2], and a DHS release described ICE rescuing 27 trafficking victims, including 10 children under 12, during an August 2025 investigation in Nebraska (which the agency framed as dismantling a trafficking ring) ^[3].

2. Adding up the documented rescues: a conservative, source‑based total

Counting only the explicit “recovered” or “rescued” children reported in those operations yields a conservative minimum of 83 children recovered by ICE/HSI operations in 2025 (70 from El Paso + 3 from New Mexico + 10 in the Nebraska trafficking case) as reflected in the agency releases and DHS statement ^{[1] [2] [3]}. This figure excludes the larger number of minors “located” (for example, 75 located in the New Mexico operation) and any recoveries not publicly reported in the supplied documents ^[2].

3. Why larger claims of tens or hundreds of thousands are disputed

Claims that hundreds of thousands of unaccompanied children were “missing” or later “found” rest on different metrics and are heavily contested. A DHS OIG review and subsequent analyses showed ICE transferred some 448,820 unaccompanied children to HHS ORR between fiscal years 2019–23 and highlighted limitations in ICE’s ability to monitor all releases, producing counts of untracked or not‑served cases — roughly 32,000 who missed court dates and 291,000 who were not issued Notices to Appear as of May 2024, sometimes aggregated to about 323,000 — but experts warn it is a stretch to call that whole group “missing” and point out data and definitional gaps ^{[5] [6] [7]}. Fact‑checking organizations and reporters flagged assertions that the Trump administration “found” 75,000–80,000 or 129,143 missing children as lacking publicly available supporting data in the cited materials ^{[4] [8]}.

4. Data gaps, definitions and competing incentives that complicate totals

Much of the confusion stems from differing definitions (“missing,” “not accounted for,” “not issued NTA,” “did not appear”), poor information sharing across agencies, and politically charged narratives that weaponize incomplete OIG findings for enforcement or advocacy aims ^{[5] [6] [7]}. ICE and DHS releases emphasize operational rescues and welfare checks ^{[3] [8]}, advocacy groups stress potential exploitation risks and procedural harms when sponsors are undocumented ^{[6] [9]}, and some partisan outlets amplify unverified large totals without transparent methodology ^[10].

5. Bottom line: what can responsibly be asserted from the supplied reporting

From the supplied, attributable sources, ICE/HSI operations in 2025 can be tied to at least 83 recovered children (70 in West Texas, 3 recovered and 75 located in New Mexico operations, and 10 children rescued in a Nebraska trafficking case), while broader claims of tens of thousands recovered lack corroboration in the provided material and are disputed by fact‑checkers and the OIG’s findings about data limitations ^{[1] [2] [3] [4] [5]}. The absence of a centralized, publicly released tally in these documents means any larger headline number should be treated with caution until DHS/ICE or an independent auditor publishes a transparent, methodologically sound accounting ^{[5] [4]}.