Dozens of Senate and House lawmakers unleash on Biden-Harris admin’s child migrant 'cover-up’

FIRST ON FOX: Dozens of Republican lawmakers successful the House and Senate are slamming the Biden-Harris administration's handling of the hundreds of thousands of unaccompanied migrant children who person travel into the U.S. since 2021 – alleging a "cover-up" of accusation and however policies person led to imaginable exploitation.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, led lawmakers successful a lengthy missive to President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, accusing the medication of failing unaccompanied migrant children "by rushing them retired of the custody of your Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) into the hands of unvetted sponsors who often proceed to exploit and maltreatment them."

More than 500,000 unaccompanied alien children (UAC) person crossed the borderline without a genitor oregon guardian since 2021. When unaccompanied children travel to the border, they are presently turned implicit by Border Patrol to Health and Human Services (HHS) who volition effort to find them a sponsor wrong the state -- typically a household member.

THOUSANDS OF MIGRANT KIDS MISSING ACCORDING TO WATCHDOG REPORT, GOP SENATOR SLAMS DHS: ‘RECKLESS DISREGARD’ 

Migrants locomotion on the road done Suchiate, Chiapas authorities successful confederate Mexico, Sunday, July 21, 2024, during their travel northbound toward the U.S. border. ((AP Photo/Edgar H. Clemente))

The missive claims the medication has chopped backmost connected inheritance checks and vetting procedures, arsenic portion of an effort to velocity up the process. They accidental the medication "continued Vice President Harris’s longtime precedence of cutting backmost connected accusation sharing betwixt HHS ORR and instrumentality enforcement related to unaccompanied children and sponsors."

The missive is led by Grassley, and includes Senate Homeland Security Committee Ranking Member Ron Johnson, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, Senate Health, Education Labor and Pensions Committee Ranking Member Bill Cassidy and House Immigration Subcommittee Chairman Tom McClintock. 

The lawmakers constituent to moves by the medication to bounds familial DNA testing, and Trump-era proposals to supply post-release cheque ups for those handed implicit to sponsors.

The contented came into the spotlight past twelvemonth erstwhile the New York Times reported connected however the bureau has been incapable to scope 85,000 minors and mislaid contiguous interaction with a 3rd of them.

HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said astatine that clip that the fig "doesn’t dependable astatine each to beryllium realistic" and "what we bash is we effort and travel up arsenic champion we tin with these kids."

"Congress has fixed america definite authorities. Our authorities extremity erstwhile we person recovered a suitable sponsor to spot that kid with. We effort and bash immoderate travel up but neither the kid oregon the sponsor is really obligated to travel up with us," helium said.

ICE LOST TRACK OF TENS OF THOUSANDS OF MIGRANT KIDS, DHS INSPECTOR GENERAL FINDS

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, was released from a Washington-area infirmary aft receiving attraction for an unspecified corruption his bureau said Thursday.  (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

This year, the Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General sent a study to Congress uncovering that, implicit the past 5 years, much than 32,000 UACs did not amusement for migration tribunal hearings, and that Immigration and Customs Enforcement could not relationship for the determination of each of those who did not appear. 

The lawmakers said that HHS ORR is "actively attempting to screen up the results of its egregious decisions" to rotation backmost vetting, besides accusing the medication of silencing whistleblowers. The missive besides says that DHS precocious informed Grassley's bureau that HHS has not complied sufficiently with 2 retired of 3 subpoenas/information requests from his referral of imaginable kid trafficking rings.

"By not supplying the accusation instrumentality enforcement requested, ORR denied Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents captious information, including the past known addresses of children and sponsors and the individuality of different household members," the missive says.

They besides reason that HHS's alleged nonaccomplishment to vet sponsors has led to the ignoring of imaginable pack affiliations, with nary argumentation successful spot to notation suspected pack members for prosecution oregon investigation. It highlights the decease of Kayla Hamilton, allegedly astatine the hands of an unaccompanied migrant.

HHS CHIEF ‘UNFAMILIAR’ WITH REPORTS THAT AGENCY CAN'T CONTACT 85,000 UNACCOMPANIED MIGRANT KIDS  

"HHS indispensable halt its cover-up and cooperate with instrumentality enforcement and Congress to extremity this situation and support unaccompanied children and the American people," they say. Fox reached retired to the White House and HHS for comment.

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The missive comes arsenic migration remains a apical 2024 issue. Republicans person pointed to the historical situation astatine the confederate borderline and tied it to the "open borders" policies of the administration.

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The medication says that those numbers person dropped sharply successful caller months aft President Biden signed an enforcement bid limiting asylum claims astatine the border. It has called connected Republicans to enactment a bipartisan borderline information measure unveiled earlier this year. Republicans person said that measure volition codify precocious levels of amerciable immigration.