The Biden White House released a shocking 300,000 unaccompanied migrant children in the U.S., and many thousands are completely unaccounted for.
That’s the testimony before Congress on Wednesday from Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra. This staggering total of minor children were dispersed over the past three years under the Democratic administration.
He further told Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) that HHS is under no obligation to follow up on the welfare of these kids. However, he claimed the agency attempted to place several phone calls to the children and their sponsors to check on their safety.
The data presented to Congress by Bacerra aligned with previous HHS numbers that showed 392,000 children released to sponsors since Oct. 2020.
That period included the last four months of the Trump administration.
From Biden’s inauguration to Jan. 2024, Customs and Border Protection figures show that 464,000 unaccompanied minors were intercepted at the Mexican border. The Democrat reversed Trump’s pandemic policy of sending the minors back to Mexico.
Incredible line of questioning from @RepLisaMcClain.
Sec. Becerra admits that HHS loses contact with 20% of unaccompanied migrant children once they leave federal custody.
WATCH: pic.twitter.com/YKMuL7Bm1L
— House Committee on Education & the Workforce (@EdWorkforceCmte) June 13, 2023
It is important to note that no previous administration, including two-term presidents, released this number of undocumented minors into the country.
This is largely due to the abandonment of Trump’s successful policy of sending these vulnerable minors home. But Biden’s Department of Homeland Security changed the protocol, and migrant children began showing up alone at the border in much greater numbers.
The previous records of unaccompanied minor children arriving at the southern border were 68,000 in 2014 under former President Barack Obama and 80,000 in 2019 under the Trump White House.
Procedure then called for these minors intercepted by Border Patrol to be transferred to HHS custody within 72 hours.
However, the sheer numbers allowed into the country by the Biden administration forced a policy change. Officials erected tent cities to house the young arrivals at several locations along the southern border.
Another HHS policy deviation meant that the vetting and screening process for accepting minor children was expedited. The specific sponsor undergoes a criminal background check, though other household members are not required to be screened.
Incredibly, the sponsor nor any other persons living in the residence undergo an offender registry check.
