The Biden administration’s Department of Health and Human Services is not requiring criminal records from illegal immigrants under the age of 18, a senior Health and Human Services official said. New York Post Recently reported.
Last June, Robin Dan MarcosThe HHS official told the House Judiciary Committee that the department does not require complete background check information for unaccompanied alien children. She testified that HHS contacts the juvenile’s home country consulate or embassy to request any information.
“These policies encourage criminals.”
Marcos is Deputy Assistant Secretary for Humanitarian Assistance and Director for Refugee Resettlement in the Department of Health and Human Services’ Bureau of Children and Families.
A member of the House Judiciary Committee told Marcos: “You just said, [the Office of Refugee Resettlement] Contact the UAC consulate and the UAC’s home country to verify the UAC’s date of birth, birth certificate, and whether the UAC is suspected to be an adult under the circumstances.”
“What else does ORR verify with consulates? What other types of information?” the committee member asked.
“I think it’s my birth certificate and my ID,” Marcos replied, in testimony obtained by The Post.
Asked whether HHS “requires consulates to provide criminal records from home countries,” Marcos said, “No.”
Unaccompanied children, including those under the age of 18, are transferred to the custody of ORR, which is responsible for providing food, shelter and medical care for minors. ORR is also responsible for finding sponsors to care for the children while they are in the United States.
The ministry has been repeatedly criticised. Addressing the illegal immigration crisisHHS has been accused of having a “culture of prioritizing speed over safety,” particularly in regards to how it chooses sponsors for minors.
HHS Whistleblower Tara Lee Rodas The ministry claimed that 85,000 unaccompanied foreign children were placed with sponsors and then “immediately lost contact.” Among the so-called vetted sponsors, the ministry said, were “criminals, human traffickers and members of international crime organisations.”
According to a report from the Washington Post, 70% of children reported missing as of fiscal year 2023 were over the age of 15. The majority of the minors were boys.
The House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement report The congressman on Monday accused Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra of creating a “toxic situation” that puts Americans and UACs at risk.
“As Committee and Subcommittee oversight has shown, these policies have encouraged criminals, such as the illegal immigrants who commit murders with MS-13. Kayla Hamilton“They were ordered to come to the southwest border with the knowledge that they would likely be released into the country. Sadly, the Biden Administration has not given the necessary attention in the case of the UAC that killed Kayla Hamilton, and instead has reinforced the very policies that allowed her killer to roam free,” the report said.
Hamilton, 20, was raped and murdered by a 17-year-old MS-13 gang member who had been admitted to the United States by the Department of Homeland Security and placed in the custody of a sponsor. The suspect had previously been arrested in his native El Salvador for gang affiliation, information that was only confirmed after Hamilton’s murder, the commission report noted.
Some adult illegal immigrants pose as children when crossing the border illegally.
Simon Hankinson, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Center on Border Security and Migration, previously told The Blaze News, “You’d be surprised how many of these people were 17 when they were arrested. There’s no way to know for sure because they have no identification and Homeland Security has willfully waived DNA testing and no bone density or other testing. This is a perfect bait for transnational criminal organizations (gangs) like Tren de Aragua and MS-13 to recruit members.”
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