FBI Director Kash Patel said more than 6,000 children have been located so far this year, a 25 percent increase over the same time last year.

In an exclusive interview with The Epoch Times’ Jan Jekielek, Patel cited the figure when he was asked about the FBI’s involvement in recovering children who went missing after crossing the border.

“If this mission was failing, then how have we found the most children ever in the history of the FBI than ever before?” Patel said in the interview premiering on The Epoch Times at 5 p.m. ET on Nov. 29. “Because this FBI cares about going after and protecting children and finding children and reuniting them with their families, and we’re going to continue to do that.”

During a congressional hearing in September, Patel told lawmakers that the bureau had found more than 4,700 children at the time, which Patel said was a 35 percent year-over-year increase.

The FBI also arrested 1,500 child predators, a 5 percent increase over last year, he said in September. Another 300 human traffickers were arrested, a 10 percent increase, he said.

In recent weeks, the FBI and other officials announced that they had located and recovered hundreds of missing children in separate operations.

Around 122 children were located across Florida this month, officials said, while Attorney General Pam Bondi said on Monday that more than 100 were located in Memphis, Tennessee, over a two-month period.

In October, local FBI officials announced that 10 missing children were located across Hawaii as part of a state and federal effort.

Aside from the FBI, White House border czar Tom Homan confirmed this past week that about 30,000 missing illegal immigrant children have been located by the Trump administration so far this year.

The comments come as the Trump administration has surged federal agents and National Guard members into multiple major U.S. cities, including Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Memphis, as part of a crime and immigration crackdown.

Since taking office a second time, Trump has vowed to boost public safety and promoted the FBI’s Operation Summer Heat. Trump has also suggested implementing similar actions in Baltimore, New Orleans, New York, San Francisco, and Boston.

Democratic elected officials in some cities rejected suggestions that their residents need federal assistance. “Crime is at its lowest point in decades, visitors are coming back, and San Francisco is on the rise,” San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie said earlier this year.

Overall, around 30,000 children were reported missing in 2024, said the FBI, which cited data from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, a private nonprofit organization that sometimes works with federal law enforcement agencies.

Around 90 percent of cases in 2024 were resolved, the FBI said in a report in September.