Becerra puts onus on Congress over migrant children re-settlement

Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra deflected blame over the exploitation of migrant children Wednesday, saying that his department’s responsibility over a child ends once they are resettled in a sponsor household. 

And he repeatedly noted it was up to Congress to change that reality, if it so desired. 

Wednesday’s hearing of the House Oversight subcommittee on investigations was the latest exploring issues first highlighted in a New York Times investigation revealing the employment and exploitation of migrant children. 

“We can’t go to an employer and say, ‘Hey, you can’t employ this kid, you’re violating the law,’” Beccera said. “What we can do is try to reach the child and the sponsor and say, ‘How are things going?’” But he noted the sponsors aren’t required to respond.

“Our authorities are very limited,” Becerra added. “If you wish to give us further authority, we will absolutely work with you towards that.”

Republicans have focused their criticism on HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement, and they have repeatedly cited a figure in the New York Times that HHS could not reach more than 85,000 children after being placed with sponsors. 

Becerra claimed he was unfamiliar with the statistic at a congressional hearing in March, but on Wednesday sought to explain it, and confront what he called “misinformation.”

“The references in the New York Times article are to voluntary calls we make. We try to reach each child and sponsor three times separately but there is no requirement for the sponsor or the child to answer the call,” Beccera told lawmakers Wednesday. “There could be any number of reasons they don’t pick up but any suggestion that we lost kids is categorically false.”

According to Beccera’s testimony, more than 81 percent of households are reached. He added that HHS is working with the Department of Labor to identify abusive employers and make sure they aren’t sponsors.

Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) said that if appropriate, Congress should “absolutely” expand HHS’ jurisdiction over migrant children following their resettlement. 

Democrats argued Republicans were moving in the wrong direction on the issue, pointing to a GOP funding bill that could cut current spending on the Unaccompanied Children’s Program by $3.3 billion, or 60 percent.

A press release from the office of House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas) said the bill reins in “wasteful bureaucracy” while “enhancing oversight and accountability.”

Though Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) said the eightfold increase in unaccompanied migrant children crossing the border annually makes ORR’s job “a lot more impossible,” Becerra said the funding cuts would only make it harder. 

“Kids are kids. If it’s your child or my child or anyone else’s child, kids deserve our support and care,” Becerra said. “It would be impossible to do that if the cuts that are being proposed in the House Appropriations Committee were to go through.”