House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Greene (R-Tenn.) subpoenaed Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra late last week to provide documents regarding the whereabouts of thousands of immigrant children in the United States. .
in letter Green, who informed Becerra of the subpoena, wrote in August that he was requesting documents related to the “screening, vetting, and monitoring” of sponsors of unaccompanied children by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) within HHS. .
Since then, ORR has not provided “satisfactory responses” to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) investigation, Green wrote.
Last week, HHS finally complied with DHS' August request for documents, sending the agency 717 pages of documents, 400 of which “contain nothing but public information,” according to Greene's letter.
“HHS's prolonged and completely inadequate production of the response is a clear attempt to unnecessarily waste committee staff time, waste limited government resources, and impede legitimate Congressional oversight.” “This is a comprehensive initiative,” the letter added.
The subpoena orders HHS to send the requested documents regarding unaccompanied minors and their sponsors to DHS by 12:00 p.m. on October 3.
Becerra said last year that HHS did not know the status of more than 85,000 unaccompanied minors released from the department's custody, 85% of whom were placed with families in the United States. He said that
a New York Times analysis Some HHS data backs up Becerra's numbers, showing that between 2021 and 2023, the agency was unable to contact 85,000 unaccompanied minors in its custody by phone. I am.
A DHS report released in August claims the number of unidentified and unaccompanied children is far lower than Becerra's 2023 numbers.
According to the report, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) transferred more than 448,000 unaccompanied children from DHS custody to HHS between 2019 and 2023.
But ICE failed to account for the whereabouts of 32,000 unaccompanied minors who did not show up for scheduled immigration court appearances during that period, the report said.
“The available statistics and data regarding UACS are deeply disconcerting and represent a growing humanitarian crisis,” Green wrote.
The Department of Health and Human Services has not yet responded to a request for comment from The Hill.
