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As Xavier Becerra looks to move up the polls in the Democratic primary for governor, one of the biggest controversies shadowing his record is the scandal involving missing migrant children during his tenure as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
The scandal stemmed from the massive surge of immigrants, specifically unaccompanied minor children. Shelters became so full that these children were forced to stay in jail-like facilities run by federal immigration officials and eventually in massive tent cities set up in major metropolitan areas.
The images of these children put pressure on the Biden administration to do something, so they reportedly began imposing demands on staffers to begin moving kids quickly out of the shelters and to their sponsors meant to protect the kids from human trafficking or other forms of exploitation, according to a scathing investigation by the New York Times published in Feb. 2023.
“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 told HHS staff, according to the Times, even as HHS was beginning to peel back longstanding protections that had been in place for years, such as certain background checks and reviews of children’s’ files.
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The comment from Becerra to ramp up the efficiency also came after nearly a dozen officials within the HHS division responsible for unaccompanied migrant children expressed concern that child labor trafficking was increasing, adding the system is “one that rewards individuals for making quick releases, and not one that rewards individuals for preventing unsafe releases,” according to the Times.
Data the Times obtained showed, over a period of two years, more than 85,000 children became unable to be tracked by federal officials. However, Becerra contested the unaccompanied minors had been “lost,” arguing they were in the custody of vetted sponsors, but just did not pick up the phone when officials made their follow-up calls. Becerra and his supporters also pointed out amid pushback over the matter that HHS’s legal authority over a child ends once they are placed with a sponsor.
A campaign staffer with Becerra’s team added that the HHS Secretary worked diligently to fix a broken immigration system inherited by Trump, suggesting the blame did not fall at Becerra’s feet.
Meanwhile, in February 2024, HHS’s Office of Inspector General indicated it had indeed found gaps in sponsor screening and follow-up, including missing documentation for required safety checks in 16% of sampled case files and untimely or undocumented follow-up calls in many cases.
At the time those findings were released, the HHS OIG already found in 2022 that guidance issued to speed releases had removed safeguards and may have increased the risk of releases to unsafe sponsors.
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A few months after the Times’ reporting, Republicans in the House subpoenaed Becerra and HHS for records and documents related to the “vetting, screening and monitoring” of sponsors for migrant children. Republicans received hundreds of pages of documents, but argued none were responsive to their concerns before eventually hauling him to Capitol Hill for a hearing.
After House Republicans ordered HHS to produce records by Oct. 3, 2024, the dispute never culminated in a clean public resolution — committees kept complaining the production was incomplete, Becerra was called back to testify, and later watchdog reports — rather than Congress’ subpoena — became the clearest answer on whether the government was reliably tracking unaccompanied minors entering the United States.
“Xavier Becerra failed those kids, failed the country, and failed to do his job,” a Democratic Party campaign strategist told Fox News Digital under the condition of anonymity.
“Becerra was horrible at HHS, and thinking he can become Governor of California after that record is delusional,” the Democratic strategist continued. “Voters deserve better than a recycled cabinet secretary who couldn’t manage his own department.”
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