House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan subpoenaed Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra for information regarding unaccompanied migrant children (UACs). In the unpublished subpoena, the committee demands documents that will reveal how HHS and the Office of Refugee Resettlement protect children from potentially dangerous adults, and how they handle children that may be a danger to themselves or others.
The subpoena was obtained and reviewed by Straight Arrow News, and it requires the following to be turned over:
- Serious incident reports regarding sexual assault, violence, drug use or suspected gang activity at federally funded facilities, including incidents between a federal contractor and a child or federal employee and a child.
- Documents that reveal how many sponsor applicants provided false information in an application.
- The number of times a DNA test was used to verify familial relationship between a child and their sponsor.
- The number of sponsor applications that were denied based on a past criminal conviction, and the number of applications that were approved despite a criminal conviction including sex related offenses or sex offender status.
- Documents that reveal if HHS has been able to communicate with the children’s parents or the child after they were paired with a sponsor.
- Information on whether the Office of Refugee Resettlement has a policy to refer known gang members to the Justice Department.
- A list of secure facilities where ORR is holding UACs who pose a danger to themselves or who have been charged with a crime and the number of people in those facilities.
The deadline is Tuesday, Feb. 20.
“Since June 2023 we have asked HHS for data and information about HHS policies relating to UAC placement, sponsor vetting, and criminal- and gang-affiliated UACs,” Jordan wrote in an accompanying letter to Becerra. “The response, to date, has been woefully inadequate.”
The committee received a response on Sept. 29, 2023, but described it as “generalized statements” that only touched on a “small fraction” of the requests.
Jordan said the information could be used to make legislative reforms — including enhancing the level of scrutiny applied in vetting UACs and potential sponsors, and requiring minimum standards relating to the referral of known gang members.
