WASHINGTON (TND) — The chairmen of three major House GOP committees on Monday demanded answers on the release of unaccompanied migrant children at the southern border.
The lawmakers penned a letter to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHS) Deputy Assistant Secretary Robin Dunn Marcos. It follows an audit conducted by DHS Inspector General Christi Grimm, which highlighted concerns in screening sponsors to care for children who arrive in the U.S. unaccompanied. The audit found the department neglected to complete required wellbeing checks in 22% of cases and 35% of case files “contained legibility concerns.”
Reps. Mark Green, R-Tenn., Clay Higgins, R-La., and Dan Bishop, R-N.C., said they demand an explanation for the findings regarding the “unaccompanied alien children” (UAC).
“UACs remain highly vulnerable to human trafficking, and many are placed into the hands of human smugglers and cartel members in their journey to illegally cross the Southwest border,” they wrote. “The sheer number of UACs encountered and subsequently released to sponsors and the inability to contact these ‘lost’ and severely vulnerable children, the Committee finds imperative to examine ORR’s screening capabilities for both children and sponsors.”
The representatives followed up by demanding documents to illustrate the shortcomings in DHS’s sponsor screening initiatives and issued a deadline of August 26.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott last week directed the state’s Health and Human Services Commission to collect information on the cost of public hospital use by migrants. The state says it will then use the findings to seek a reimbursement from the Biden administration.