House Judiciary hearing on Office of Refugee Resettlement recap
Biden's Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra testified
House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement held a hearing on Nov. 20 on the “failures” of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR).
The lone witness testifying was Biden's Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra. His written testimony can be viewed here.
One of the big questions raised was about why unaccompanied minor children were settled at a strip club in Florida, with evidence pointing to those children being trafficked by an "aunt" who has no relation to any of them. Becerra offered zero answers on that front.
One of the most serious exchanges during the hearing was when Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-WI) started to dig into Becerra over his track record given that his agency lost track of over 320,000 migrant children.
“Would you change anything that you’ve done in the last four years, with 320,000 children unaccounted for by your administration?” Tiffany asked Becerra.
“We work tirelessly to strengthen and approve the program of the … unaccompanied children that come before us,” replied Becerra. “And we work really hard to make sure we first and foremost protect the safety and the wellbeing of those kids.Every day is a challenge and we do the best we can."
Tiffany then shifted to a 2023 Florida grand jury report, questioning Becerra on how migrant children supposedly under his agency's care “were pimped out by their aunt, which it turns out the aunt wasn’t even related to that child.”
Becerra replied he didn't remember hearing about that.
“Do you remember the teenage girl that was in a house with unknown men with no private bedroom for her?" Tiffany asked Becerra. "Are you familiar with the sponsors that utilized a strip club in Jacksonville as an address for where this child should be settled?”
Becerra used the common hearing dodge of 'not having the information in front of him' and he would have to get back to Tiffany at a later date.
The same type of questioning and lack of answers happened when it was Rep. Andy Biggs' (R-AZ) turn and grilled Becerra on background checks and other procedures used to place migrant kids and why many of them were being settled with MS-13 gang members and human traffickers.
Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) asked Becerra point blank if he knows where these children are and Becerra's response was stunning, telling Roy that he essentially has no idea where the kids are, stating, "We lose custody of those kids once we find a vetted sponsor."
An extended clip of Roy’s interaction on this line of questioning can be watched on YouTube.
The day before the hearing, Roy sent a letter to Becerra and to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas demanding the Biden administration "preserve all records and evidence related to the missing unaccompanied alien children who have been brought into the United States under the watch of their administration."
Related:
New Report: Two Years of the Biden-Harris Administration's Fraud-Ridden Parole Program
My reporting on the lack of migrant children at the Greensboro ICF.
The full Subcommittee hearing can be watched on YouTube:
MORE TO THE STORY
In related news, The NY Post reported this past week that the Biden administration is loosening border restrictions as Biden prepares to leave office.
"The outgoing administration intends to launch an ICE Portal app starting in early December in New York City that will allow migrants to bypass in-person check-ins to their local ICE office," the NY Post reported, noting later that 100,000 illegal aliens will be included in the first wave of the program change.
This is an outrageous, last-ditch effort made by the Biden-Harris Admin to make the border an even bigger mess before Trump takes office. Good riddance," Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) wrote in a post on X responding to the NY Post report.
Related Reading:
Human trafficking sting results in 8 arrests on charges of soliciting minors for sex
