(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Marshals Service rescued and located 200 missing or endangered children over a six-week period, the agency announced on Monday.
“Operation We Will Find You 2” focused on several hot spot cities such as Phoenix, Arizona, and Miami, Florida, where there were kids missing, it said.
“Whenever a child is missing, whether we cannot explain how they went missing, whether we think it was a family abduction, or whether it’s a runaway, they are at risk of being in danger and at risk of being trafficked, at risk of being hurt, we need to take it very, very seriously,” U.S. Marshals Service Director Ronald Davis told reporters on Monday.
The Marshals worked with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) to help find and locate the children it was tasked with finding.
The number of children rescued is still “just scratching the surface,” Davis said.
With technical assistance from NCMEC, 123 children were removed from dangerous situations, and 77 were found in safe locations, the agency said.
“Our kids are our most precious asset,” he said. “We need to make sure that all of them have an opportunity to grow in a safe environment. I think that is our obligation.”
Davis said the Marshals Service has run the operation six times previous to this one and, so far, it’s located 546 children in 2024, which is a higher number than last year at this time, but lower than the nearly 950 children recovered in 2021.
Michelle DeLaune, the president of NCMEC, said his organization is “incredibly grateful” for the work of the Marshals Service in locating the missing children.
The Phoenix area saw the most children rescued over the six-week period, officials said.
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