House Republicans pressed Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra on Wednesday to provide an answer for losing track of thousands of unaccounted migrant children and fumbling the vetting process that allegedly has allowed some minors to be sent to gang members and even a strip club.
Becerra testified that his agency follows “child welfare best practices” with “extensive” background checks that would not allow a child to be placed with someone “engaged in criminal activity.”
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) asked Becerra about the possibility of children ending up with MS-13 gang members as sponsors.
“But if you don’t do the vetting right, you don’t know if they’re engaged in criminal activity. That’s how you end up with an MS-13 gang member as the sponsor,” the Arizona Republican said in the hearing. “That’s how you end up with pedophiles getting 20 children in the same home … The vetting has been crappy. That’s the bottom line.”
The HHS secretary denied any knowledge of this circumstance. However, the Washington Examiner reported in July that documents from HHS showed that two unaccompanied migrant children went to live with a sponsor who had ties to a convicted criminal MS-13 gang member, according to a Senate investigation.
“Mr. Secretary, how can you credibly claim that HHS is working to protect these children? …A ‘vetted sponsor’ that rapes and murders the people that they’re entrusted to? …That’s what you think is appropriate care for these children?” pic.twitter.com/WaqezbLQ6c
— Rep. Chip Roy Press Office (@RepChipRoy) November 20, 2024
HHS whistleblowers have revealed in recent months that there is a lack of vetting and screening of adult sponsors for these children.
Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) grilled the HHS secretary on Wednesday over the criminal checks of the sponsors.
“Do you do the full criminal history checks for the potential sponsors of these children?” the Texas congressman asked on Wednesday.
“Well, yes, we follow child best practices,” Becerra responded.
“Right, the answer’s no?” the Texas congressman asked again.
“It’s a yes, we follow child welfare best practices,” the secretary repeated.
“That’s not my question,” Roy said.
Roy pushed back on Becerra, noting that HHS does not carry out FBI criminal history checks on all potssible sponsors. The Texas Republican also estimated that the unaccompanied missing migrant children are likely over 400,000.
HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra cannot answer why he placed unaccompanied children with sponsors whose address was a strip club.
He also cannot explain why he allowed them to be pimped out by individuals with no family ties to them.
This is a sickening failure of oversight. pic.twitter.com/ozD8JBBaoB
— Rep. Tom Tiffany (@RepTiffany) November 20, 2024
Becerra admitted that they “lose custody” of the children when they hand them off to a sponsor.
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Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-WI) questioned the HHS secretary about why unaccompanied minor children were settled at a strip club in Florida and then pimped out by an “aunt” who has no relation to them at all.
Becerra denied knowledge of the story that the congressman shared of the unaccompanied children.
