US Politics

HHS chief ‘unfamiliar’ with reports that agency can’t contact 85,000 unaccompanied migrant kids

US Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra testifies before the Senate Finance Committee regarding 2024 budget proposals on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on March 22, 2023.

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra on Wednesday told lawmakers he was “unfamiliar with reported statistics that the agency had been unable to make contact with over 85,000 unaccompanied child migrants who had been released to sponsors after being encountered at the southern border.

Secretary Xavier Becerra was asked at a Senate Finance Committee hearing by Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., about details in a New York Times report on migrant children who had been released to sponsors. 

The Times reported that while HHS checks on all minors by calling them a month after being released to sponsors, data showed that over the last two years that the agency couldn’t reach more than 85,000 minors — and lost immediate contact with a third of migrant children.

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US Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra testifies before the Senate Finance Committee regarding 2024 budget proposals on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on March 22, 2023. ((Photo by STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images))

Becerra told Lankford that he is briefed regularly by his staff on the issue of unaccompanied migrant children, but that he had not heard of that number.

“I have never heard that number of 85,000, I don’t know where it comes from and …so I would say it doesn’t sound at all to be realistic, and what we do is we try and follow up as best we can with these kids,” he said.

“Congress has given us certain authorities. Our authorities end when we have found a suitable sponsor to place that child with. We try and do some follow up but neither the child or the sponsor is actually obligated to follow up with us,” he said.

When unaccompanied children come to the border, they are currently turned over by Border Patrol to Health and Human Services (HHS) who will attempt to find them a sponsor within the country — typically a family member.

The Times had reported on how some of those children had been trafficked and ended up being forced to work in dangerous jobs.

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Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., followed up on Lankford’s questioning, and asked what action HHS was taking to make sure children were located and not being trafficked — again citing the 85,000 figure.

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“Those statistics you mentioned, as I said…

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