Migrant children trafficked, sent to strip club; Republicans press Xavier Becerra for answers
The U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra was pressed by lawmakers about the agency's sponsor-vetting process as a report claims that the Biden administration settled unaccompanied minor children at a Florida strip club where a woman posing as an "aunt" pimped out children.
During a U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Tom Tiffany, R-Wis., questioned the HHS secretary about a Florida grand jury report accusing the agency of sending migrant children to a Jacksonville strip club.
Becerra replied that he did not have any information on the case but promised to review it and get back to the Republican lawmaker. He testified that his agency follows "child welfare best practices" and conducts "extensive" background checks, adding that the office would not allow a migrant child to be placed with someone "engaged in criminal activity."
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The HHS Office of Refugees and Resettlement did not immediately respond to The Christian Post's request for comment.
"ORR is comprised of a dedicated team of career federal staff that works closely with grant recipients and contractors, all of whom are committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of every child in our care," Becerra stated in his written testimony.
"I have met some of the children we serve and many of the dedicated professionals who serve them, and I have witnessed firsthand the commitment and devotion of our staff," he added. "Providing for the safety and well-being of children in our care is not only ORR's congressional mandate but also the Office's guiding principle. This goal is reflected in our policies, our people, and our efforts to strengthen the program every day."
The hearing examined what Republican lawmakers say are the failures of the HHS Office of Refugee Resettlement, including the "fast-tracking the release of gang-affiliated and criminal unaccompanied alien children" and the agency's "prioritization of speed over safety" in the placement of unaccompanied migrant children.
Whistleblower reports allege that ORR has lost thousands of migrant children or allowed them to fall into the hands of potential criminals.
In March 2023, a Florida grand jury accused the Biden administration of "facilitating the forced migration, sale, and abuse of foreign children, and some of our fellow Florida residents are (in some cases unwittingly) funding and incentivizing it for primarily economic reasons." The grand jury's 46-page report detailed the HHS' process for facilitating the transport of migrant children into Florida and claimed that witnesses described how some sponsors used the address of a Jacksonville strip club and open fields.
The grand jury's report outlines the allegations of abuse facing these unaccompanied children, including the claims that one child was "pimped out" by an "aunt," others had been sold for sex and some dropped out of school to pay smuggling debts.
"As one witness reported, they were told after voicing concerns that 'we can't judge where people are forced to live' — while being ordered to force a child to live in such circumstances," the grand jury report stated.
In Wednesday's House hearing, Becerra was asked if he disputed the Florida grand jury report, to which he replied he had a "number of issues" with the report. Tiffany asked Becerra to share at a later time all the issues Becerra has with the Florida report.
"The important thing about Florida is that it took action to unlicense centers that provide care," Becerra said.
One whistleblower told lawmakers earlier this year that she knew of at least one case where over 300 children were sent to live at a Texas apartment where human trafficking took place.
When Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, grilled Becerra Wednesday about the criminal history checks for potential sponsors, the HHS secretary again insisted that the agency follows "child best practices." The Texas lawmaker pressed Becerra again, and the official provided the same answer.
"How can you credibly claim that HHS is working to protect these children?" Roy asked, noting that the number of lost unaccompanied migrant children is likely over 400,000.
According to a June statement from ORR, more than 400,000 have been released into the United States to live with sponsors. In February 2023, The New York Times reported that the agency had lost track of at least 85,000 children.
"Which you are dismissing? That they are lost?" Roy continued.
Another lawmaker who questioned Beccera, Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., asked about the possibility of a child ending up in the custody of an MS-13 gang member.
Earlier this year, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, released documents that showed HHS released two unaccompanied minor children to a sponsor with ties to the international criminal gang.
Despite receiving a report that a female adult sponsor for the children was in a relationship with a member of MS-13 in California, the HHS allegedly disregarded this information, according to the documents. The agency sent the two children to live with the woman in September 2021.
During the Wednesday hearing, Biggs noted that Becerra claimed the HHS' focus is on safety, not speed.
"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," Biggs said.
"That's how you end up with pedophiles getting 20 children in the same home," he continued, stating that the vetting process has been "crappy."
As The New York Times reported in February 2023, the Biden administration pushed to move children quickly through the shelter system. Becerra told Congress in 2021 that he did not want children to "languish there."
Kelsey Keswani, a former HHS contractor, told the outlet that 20% of kids had to be released each week; otherwise, you would get "dinged." Other staff members alleged that Becerra repeatedly pushed them to release children faster.
"If Henry Ford had seen this in his plants, he would have never become famous and rich. This is not the way you do an assembly line," Becerra said in a recording of a 2022 staff meeting provided to The Times.
Samantha Kamman is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter: @Samantha_Kamman
