WASHINGTON – Republican lawmakers pressed Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra over concerns that the department may be prioritizing speed over public safety when placing unaccompanied migrant children with sponsors during a House Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee hearing on Wednesday.
An unaccompanied alien child (UAC) is defined as anyone under 18 who arrives in the U.S. or at the border without a parent, guardian or legal status. Children can also be designated as UACs if their parents are under investigation or facing criminal charges.
Chair Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., opened the hearing by accusing HHS of losing track of an estimated 150,000 UACs since January 2021.
In her opening statement, Ranking Member Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., said the hearing would likely serve as another opportunity for Republicans to “rant” about how the Biden administration had “purposely created a border crisis” and “lost tens of thousands of children.” She argued that these claims were false.
“Let’s be clear, these children are not lost,” Jayapal said. “HHS legal authority ends once an unaccompanied child is united with a sponsor.”
Lawmakers zeroed in on background checks, questioning Becerra about a provision in an April 2024 rule that said unaccompanied children would be released to sponsors after a background check, but without a full FBI fingerprint check.
When Becerra defended the department’s procedures, stating that they conduct full criminal background checks and check the sex offender registry, Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, called his description “rather slippery” and cited the April rule to challenge his testimony.
Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., doubled down on Roy’s line of questioning, repeatedly asking Becerra whether he would defend the current wording of the rule or if he believed it should be changed.
Roy and his Republican colleagues pointed to the murders of 20-year-old Kayla Hamilton and 11-year-old Maria Gonzalez, two cases where the suspects were undocumented immigrants, as examples of the risks posed by insufficient background checks.
In the case of Hamilton, whose killer was an MS-13 gang member placed with a sponsor in Maryland, according to a local news outlet, McClintock pressed Becerra on why background checks aren’t conducted for the UACs themselves. He argued that many UACs are “17 years old and sometimes older, pretending to be 17, with gang affiliations.”
Democrats on the subcommittee largely allowed Becerra to finish his responses, even when interrupted by Republican members. Rep. Lou Correa, D-Calif., asked the secretary what the department needs in order to ensure the proper care and protection of migrant children.
Others raised concerns about President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet picks. Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., criticized Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s nominee to replace Becerra as HHS Secretary, questioning his qualifications to safeguard children.
“Do we really believe the man nominated to lead HHS, whose views contributed to the preventable measles deaths of dozens of children in Samoa, would adequately protect children in this country?” Nadler asked.
