House Committee on Homeland Security Chair Mark Green (R-Tenn.) subpoenaed Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra late last week for documents on the whereabouts of thousands of migrant children in the United States.
In a letter informing Becerra of the subpoena, Green wrote he previously requested documents in August on the “vetting, screening and monitoring” of unaccompanied children’s sponsors by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) within HHS.
Since then, Green wrote, ORR has given the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) “unsatisfactory responses” to their inquiry.
Last week, HHS finally responded to DHS’s August request for documentation and sent the agency 717 pages of documents, 400 of which contained “nothing more than publicly available information,” according to Green’s letter.
“HHS’ protracted response and wholly insufficient production constitute a clearly deliberate effort to unnecessarily expend Committee staff time, waste limited government resources, and frustrate legitimate congressional oversight,” the letter adds.
The subpoena gives HHS until 12:00 p.m. on Oct. 3 to send DHS the requested documents on unaccompanied minors and their sponsors.
Last year, Becerra said HHS did not know the status of more than 85,000 unaccompanied minors entering the country who had been released from the agency’s care but said that 85 percent of them had been placed with family members in the United States.
A New York Times analysis of HHS data supports Becerra’s numbers, showing that between 2021 and 2023, the agency was unable to contact 85,000 unaccompanied minors under its care via telephone.
A DHS report published in August claims that the number of unaccounted for, unaccompanied children is far lower than what Becerra said in 2023.
The report states that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) transferred more than 448,000 unaccompanied children from the custody of DHS to HHS between 2019 and 2023.
But ICE has been unable to account for the location of 32,000 unaccompanied minors who did not show up to scheduled immigration court appearances during those years, the report reads.
“The available statistics and data regarding UACS are extremely disconcerting and represent a growing humanitarian crisis,” Green wrote.
The Department of Health and Human Services has yet to respond to a request for comment from The Hill.