House Republicans grill HHS Secretary Becerra over migrant children: ‘Would not want to be you’

House Republicans grilled Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra on Wednesday over his agency’s failure to account for thousands of unaccounted migrant children and the process used to vet their sponsors amid concerns of exploitation and abuse. 

Speaking before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement, Becerra testified about his department’s Refugee Resettlement Office, which is charged with caring for and placement of unaccompanied migrant children.

Republican subcommittee members accused the Biden administration of rushing migrant children out of HHS custody and into the hands of unvetted sponsors who sometimes exploit and abuse them while not conducting adequate background checks. 

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HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra testifies during the Senate Finance Committee hearing titled “The President’s Fiscal Year 2025 Health and Human Services Budget,” in Dirksen building on Thursday, March 14, 2024.  (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

“How can you say that the No. 1 priority is the safety of these unaccompanied children when you’re placing them in sponsors’ homes that occasionally have had criminal gang affiliations because there are no proper background checks?” Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., asked. 

Becerra said his agency follows “child welfare best practices” that include “extensive” background checks. 

“No sponsor would be allowed to take a child if we have information that shows that they are engaged in criminal activity,” he said. 

Health Secretary Xavier Becerra testified before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement on Wednesday.  (House Judiciary GOP/X)

Lawmakers, however, said thousands of violent criminal illegal immigrants and unaccompanied migrant children have been released across the United States under the Biden administration’s watch.

They cited the murder of Laken Riley, a Georgia college student killed by an illegal immigrant, and the 2022 killing of Kayla Hamilton in Maryland by Walter Javier Martinez, who was in the country illegally from El Salvador. 

Martinez was taken to the ORR as an unaccompanied child despite a previous arrest in his home country.

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“One call to Salvadoran authorities would have confirmed this and an association with MS-13,” said subcommittee Chair Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif. “Instead, Martinez was released into our country with no questions asked. He has since admitted to four murders, two rapes and additional other crimes.”

Other cases include the killing of 11-year-old Maria Gonzalez, who was found by her father last year sexually assaulted and strangled in her home.

Her alleged killer, Juan Carlos Garcia-Rodriguez, illegally entered the U.S. from Guatemala in 2023, but was allowed to stay in the country via a sponsor in Louisiana.

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Migrant children stand in line at a “tender-age” facility in San Benito, Texas in 2019.   (AP Photo/Eric Gay File)

In the case of vetting unaccompanied children, the Department of Homeland Security performs that task, Becerra said. HHS vets potential sponsors once the child is in its care, he said. 

“HHS’s custodial responsibility and overnight for unaccompanied children through ORR ends once we place the child with an appropriately vetted supervisor,” the secretary stated. 

Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas., noted that the Biden administration admitted more than 100,000 refugees in the past year alone, compared to 12,000 in 2020 under President-elect Trump. 

“Under the Biden-Harris administration, Americans are left behind while the needs of ‘new’ Americans are pushed to the front of the line,” said Hunt. “Americans are sick and tired of being treated like second-class citizens in our own country.”

When asked what he would do differently after four years, Becerra failed to answer the question.

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“Do you understand how this affects the lives of a population that you’ve placed that is approaching the size of the state of Wyoming?” asked McClintock. “Some of them: innocent, defenseless children. Others: gang members who are 17-years-old or pretending to be 17.”

“Mr. Secretary, when the history of this administration is written, I would not want to be you looking back at what historians say about your tenure,” he said before adjourning the hearing.