{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.tuberville.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/tuberville-britt-call-out-biden-harris-abuse-of-unaccompanied-alien-children-program/", "Tuberville, Britt Call Out Biden-Harris Abuse of Unaccompanied Alien Children Program", "2024-09-24", "2024", "2024-09", "Republican", "Senate", "AL", "Tommy Tuberville", "T000278", "www.tuberville.senate.gov", "tuberville", "https://www.tuberville.senate.gov/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 Today, U.S. Senators Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) and Katie Britt (R-AL) joined U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and 41 bicameral Republican colleagues in signing a letter urging President Biden and Vice President Harris to work with Congress to root out abuses in the unaccompanied alien children (UAC) program and stop the Department of Health and Human Services\u2019 (HHS) cover-up of its gross mismanagement of the program. As an example, HHS has failed to comply with two out of every three Department of Homeland Security (DHS) subpoenas and other information requests issued amid its investigation into more than 100 identified suspicious UAC sponsors.\n\n\u201cAs a result of your open-borders policies, overseen by Vice President Harris, who was tasked with \u2018stemming the migration\u2019 at our border with Mexico, more than 500,000 unaccompanied alien children (UACs) have crossed the southwest border without a parent or guardian to provide care since you took office, a massive increase when compared to previous administrations. These UACs often experience horrible sexual, physical, and emotional abuse on the journey and are victims of cartel trafficking and exploitation, a business that surged an estimated 2,500 percent from the Trump Administration to the middle of your term in 2022,\u201d wrote the Senators.\n\nU.S. Senators Tuberville, Britt, and Grassley were joined by U.S. Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Mike Braun (R-IN), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), John Cornyn (R-TX), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Steve Daines (R-MT), Deb Fischer (R-NE), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Josh Hawley (R-MO), John Hoeven (R-ND), Ron Johnson (R-WI), John Kennedy (R-LA), James Lankford (R-OK), Mike Lee (R-UT), Roger Marshall (R-KS), Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), Pete Ricketts (R-NE), Jim Risch (R-ID), Rick Scott (R-FL), Dan Sullivan (R-AK), John Thune (R-SD), and Roger Wicker (R-MS) in signing the letter.\n\nAdditional co-signers in the House include Representatives Cliff Bentz (R-OR-02), Dan Bishop (R-NC-08), Andy Biggs (R-AZ-05), Ben Cline (R-VA-06), Russell Fry (R-SC-07), Matt Gaetz (R-FL-01), Harriet Hageman (R-WY-At-Large), Wesley Hunt (R-TX-38), Jim Jordan (R-OH-04), Laurel Lee (R-FL-15), Tom McClintock (R-CA-05), Barry Moore (R-AL-02), Chip Roy (R-TX-21), Michael Rulli (R-OH-06), and Scott Fitzgerald (R-WI-05).\n\nRead the full letter below or here.\n\n\u201cPresident Biden and Vice President Harris:\n\nAs a result of your open-borders policies, overseen by Vice President Harris, who was tasked with \u201cstemming the migration\u201d at our border with Mexico, more than 500,000 unaccompanied alien children (UACs) have crossed the southwest border without a parent or guardian to provide care since you took office, a massive increase when compared to previous administrations. These UACs often experience horrible sexual, physical, and emotional abuse on the journey and are victims of cartel trafficking and exploitation, a business that surged an estimated 2,500 percent from the Trump Administration to the middle of your term in 2022. Sadly, the suffering these children endure does not end at the border. Your Administration also fails them when they arrive in the United States by rushing them out 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 continue to exploit and abuse them.\n\nEven as the trafficking business and the number of children entering the U.S. surged, HHS ORR cut back significantly on background checks and vetting procedures to speed up the process, despite knowing children were being trafficked through HHS ORR\u2019s UAC program. Your Administration likewise continued Vice President Harris\u2019s longtime priority of cutting back on information sharing between HHS ORR and law enforcement related to unaccompanied children and sponsors. When the Trump Administration implemented a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) to provide for robust information sharing between the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and HHS ORR, then-Senator Harris called this attempt to protect children and communities \u201coutrageous.\u201d She also introduced legislation in response to the Trump MOA that slashed funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement by $220 million. Her bill was so extreme it failed to allow HHS information to be used by DHS for immigration enforcement even for potential sponsors and household members with convictions or pending charges of child abuse, sexual assault, child pornography, or any other crime. Even House Democrats considered Harris\u2019s approach too radical and added these exceptions to counteract the extreme nature of her legislative proposal. Their approach, unlike Harris\u2019s, allowed HHS information to be used to deport child predators and those convicted of serious felonies. Given her stated policy priorities, it is no wonder your Administration later revoked the Trump Administration\u2019s MOA, seriously hampering the work of law enforcement, and promulgated a final rule enshrining the bar on sharing such information with law enforcement officials.\n\nYour Administration further stripped Customs and Border Protection officials of their ability to conduct familial DNA testing, as was implemented by the Trump Administration to verify adults\u2019 claims that they are related to children they bring across the border. This made the smuggling and trafficking of these kids that much easier. Early into your term, your Administration also canceled protections the Trump Administration proposed to provide post-release services for all children placed with sponsors, including in-person visits and extended follow-up after placement. These protections would have helped ensure children were safe. Instead, the actions of your Administration have been disastrous and now, HHS ORR is actively attempting to cover up the results of its egregious decisions. We call upon you to put an end to that cover-up.\n\nWhen Senator Grassley and Senator Cassidy, ranking members of the Senate Budget Committee and Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, asked HHS ORR contractors and grantees whether they took necessary steps to protect children, HHS obstructed those inquiries, directing the entities not to respond. This included Southwest Key, which Senator Grassley asked, among other things, about its vetting of staff before they have access to minors. The Department of Justice has since sued Southwest Key for turning a blind eye to nearly a decade of child rape and sexual abuse by its staff. During this same time, HHS ORR provided Southwest Key with more than $3 billion to house UACs. These contractors and grantees receive large sums of taxpayer dollars, a lucrative business that has boomed during your Administration. Yet HHS ORR told them not to answer Congress when it asked whether basic protections were afforded to these kids. This is completely unacceptable.\n\nAt the same time, since early 2023, the House Judiciary Committee has sought information on the total number of UACs HHS ORR has lost contact with after placement during your Administration. According to the New York Times, as of February 2023, ORR had been unable to contact at least 85,000 UACs after placement with sponsors, or roughly 34 percent of total UACs released up to that point in your term. Applying the 34 percent figure to the most up-to-date number of 432,938 UACs the Administration has released to sponsors, we estimate ORR has been unable to contact nearly 150,000 UACs through Safety and Well-being calls after their release. When confronted by the House Judiciary Committee with an estimate based on the Times\u2019s findings, ORR did not dispute it. Although the House Judiciary Committee twice subpoenaed HHS for internal agency data relating to the total number of UACs with whom it has lost contact after placement, HHS has refused to provide the subpoenaed data.\n\nUnfortunately, the cover-up does not end there. Recently, DHS informed Senator Grassley\u2019s office that HHS ORR has not sufficiently complied with two out of every three subpoenas and other information requests that resulted from his referral of possible child trafficking rings across the U.S. to DHS in January. By not supplying the information law enforcement requested, ORR denied Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents critical information, including the last known addresses of children and sponsors and the identity of other household members. In part because of HHS ORR\u2019s lack of cooperation, DHS has so far only been able to locate less than four percent of sponsors identified as investigative targets, and a similarly small number of UACs.\n\nAt a recent Senate roundtable forum, \u201cThe Exploitation Crisis: How the U.S. Government is Failing to Protect Migrant Children from Trafficking and Abuse,\u201d senators and members of the public heard from a panel with direct knowledge of this crisis. What the witnesses told the oversight panel was shocking. For example, HHS retaliated against one of the witnesses, Ms. Tara Lee Rodas, after she blew the whistle and tried to stop the placement of young children with a household in Ohio connected to the violent MS-13 gang. In addition, witnesses described how HHS and its contractors prioritized UAC placement speed over UAC safety by failing to verify the legitimacy of identity documents, failing to obtain criminal history from the countries of origin of UACs and sponsors, and failing to conduct legally required home studies for UACs who had endured sexual or other abuse. Other whistleblowers continue to come forward with similar information. Congress has the right to obtain information necessary to conduct oversight of these widespread failures to protect the lives of children without HHS standing in the way.\n\nHHS\u2019s failure to ensure UACs are in appropriate placements and to adequately vet sponsors is harmful not only to the UACs, but also to American citizens. As the Attorney General under the Trump Administration recognized, the UAC program has for years suffered from exploitation by criminals, including \u201cgang members who come to this country as wolves in sheep[\u2019s] clothing\u201d and \u201cuse th[e UAC] program as a means by which to recruit new members.\u201d As the House Judiciary Committee\u2019s oversight has shown, under Secretary Becerra\u2019s leadership, HHS has ignored the potential criminality and gang affiliation of UACs.\n\nIndeed, as revealed in the House Judiciary Committee\u2019s May 2023 interim report, in May 2022, HHS ORR released to a sponsor a UAC with a previous arrest record for \u201cillicit association with MS13.\u201d That UAC, released by your Administration, went on to brutally assault and murder 20-year-old American citizen Kayla Hamilton. Incredibly, HHS noted on several occasions to the House Judiciary Committee its focus on protecting the privacy of Kayla\u2019s murderer. Although local police quickly identified Walter Javier Martinez as the primary suspect in the murder and expressed their concern about the threat he posed to society, according to new investigative reporting, Martinez was placed in a Maryland foster home with other children and enrolled in high school. Later, while in custody for murdering Kayla, the alien authored a letter in which he \u201cadmitted to committing [four] murders, [two] rapes, and additional other crimes.\u201d Martinez has since been sentenced to more than 70 years in prison.\n\nDespite having released to a sponsor a UAC with gang tattoos and a history of \u201cillicit association\u201d with MS-13, HHS told the House Judiciary Committee that it does not have a policy to refer known or suspected gang members to the Justice Department for investigation or, where appropriate, prosecution. At the same time, ORR Director Robin Dunn Marcos, the HHS official in charge of the UAC program, admitted that, while HHS sometimes contacts the consulate or embassy of a UAC\u2019s country of origin or last habitual residence to verify some documents or claimed familial relationships, HHS does not even request UACs\u2019 criminal records. Troublingly, HHS has also admitted that it does not currently have any secure facilities \u201cin-network\u201d\u2014that is, facilities designed for the secure placement of UACs who pose a danger to themselves or others or who have been determined to have a criminal record.\n\nAn August 2024 House Judiciary Committee report highlighted yet another case of UAC criminality, detailing how Juan Carlos Garcia Rodriguez, a UAC from Guatemala released by your Administration, horrifically assaulted and murdered 11-year-old Maria Gonzalez. Maria\u2019s father found \u201chis daughter\u2019s body wrapped in a trash bag and stuffed in a laundry basket that was put beneath her bed.\u201d Garcia Rodriguez was encountered by Border Patrol after entering the U.S. illegally in El Paso in January 2023, smuggled to the U.S. border by a \u201cguide\u201d paid for by his parents. Despite being overheard commenting about his desire to run away while in HHS custody, HHS placed Garcia Rodriguez with an unrelated adult sponsor who had twice previously sponsored unrelated UACs. Unsurprisingly, shortly after the Biden-Harris Administration\u2019s release of Garcia Rodriguez, he became one of the estimated 150,000 UACs with whom HHS has lost contact. Just months after HHS lost contact with Garcia Rodriguez, he ran away from his sponsor. Not long after his 18th birthday, and mere months after his release from HHS custody, Garcia Rodriguez, brutally assaulted and murdered Maria.\n\nThis is not a partisan issue. It can and should bring us together, as we try to protect Americans and UACs placed in HHS ORR custody alike. Your Administration must make changes to its policies and procedures for UACs to end this public safety crisis. It must also take urgent steps to provide information to law enforcement and Congress, to reveal the crisis\u2019s full scope. We request that you immediately instruct HHS Secretary Becerra to take urgent steps to this end: HHS must provide access to the UAC Portal, HHS\u2019s system of record for UACs, to federal law enforcement, HHS\u2019s Inspector General, and Congress, allowing them to quickly conduct investigations and oversee the UAC placement program, and to analyze data regarding suspicious UAC placements; it must fully cooperate with DHS\u2019s HSI and other federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies seeking to locate children and investigate trafficking, smuggling, and other forms of child exploitation; and it must thoroughly respond to congressional oversight requests and instruct HHS\u2019s contractors and grantees to do the same.\n\nHHS must stop its cover-up and cooperate with law enforcement and Congress to end this crisis and protect unaccompanied children and the American people. Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.\n\nSincerely,\u201d\n\nBACKGROUND:\n\nMore than 500,000 unaccompanied migrant children have crossed the southwest border under the Biden-Harris administration, while cartel trafficking activity surged an estimated 2,500 percent. Amid this crisis, the lawmakers note the Biden-Harris administration limited background checks for sponsors of unaccompanied children, cut back on familial DNA testing at the border, and decreased information sharing with law enforcement.\n\nIn December 2023, Senators Tuberville and Britt joined Senator Grassley and 36 colleagues in calling on HHS ORR to overhaul its harmful and deficient policies regarding the treatment of unaccompanied alien children in the U.S.\n\nSenator Tommy Tuberville represents Alabama in the United States Senate and is a member of the Senate Armed Services, Agriculture, Veterans\u2019 Affairs, and HELP Committees.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:46:43Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.tuberville.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/tuberville-britt-call-out-biden-harris-abuse-of-unaccompanied-alien-children-program/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7163728587329388, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}