NEW INFORMATION AND TESTIMONY FROM BIDEN ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS REVEAL DISREGARD FOR POTENTIAL GANG AFFILIATION OF UACS
Interim Staff Report of the Committee on the Judiciary and Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement U.S. House of Representatives June 17, 2024
1
E
XECUTIVE
S
UMMARY
Incentivized by the Biden Administration’s open-borders policies, increasing numbers of unaccompanied alien children (UACs) have traveled to the southwest border since 2021.
1
Since January 20, 2021, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has encountered more than 8 million illegal aliens along the southwest border, more than half a million of whom have been UACs.
2
Under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008, UACs from non-contiguous countries who are encountered along the border are referred by CBP to the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which is charged with the care and placement of UACs.
3
As UAC encounters continue to escalate, so too has the pace of UAC referrals from CBP to HHS. In total, more than 400,000 UACs have been released to sponsors during the Biden Administration,
4
up 100 percent compared to all four years of the Trump Administration combined.
5
Most of these UACs are teenage boys, not infants or small children. According to HHS data from FY 2023, nearly 70 percent of referred UACs were 15 or older, whereas just 19 percent were under 12.
6
HHS data show that males accounted for 61 percent of UAC encounters in FY 2023, 64 percent in FY 2022, and 66 percent in FY 2021.
7
While UAC releases have soared to all-time highs, under the leadership of HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, ORR has “par[ed] back protections that had been in place for years[,] including some background checks and reviews of children’s files.”
8
HHS’s failure to adequately screen sponsors pre-placement and monitor UACs post-placement has resulted in the exploitation of UACs, including UACs working in dangerous jobs that children are legally prohibited from doing.
9
As the Judiciary Committee and Immigration Subcommittee’s oversight has shown, HHS’s failures have also led to the release of UACs who have gone on to commit egregious crimes against Americans.
10
As revealed in the Committee and Subcommittee’s May 22, 2023,
1
U.S. Customs and Border Prot.,
Sw. Land Border Encounters
, U.S. D
EP
’
T OF
H
OMELAND
S
EC
., https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/southwest-land-border-encounters (last accessed May 15, 2024) [hereinafter CBP Sw. Land Border Encounters]; Griff Jenkins (@GriffJenkins), X (June 6, 2024, 10:30 AM).
2
Id
.
3
William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008, Pub. L. No. 110-457 § 235, 112 Stat. 5044, 5077 (2008) (8 U.S.C. § 1232(b)(1)).
4
Off. of Refugee Resettlement,
Unaccompanied Children Released to Sponsors by State,
U.S.
D
EP
’
T OF
H
EALTH AND
H
UMAN
S
ERVS
., https://www.acf.hhs.gov/orr/grant-funding/unaccompanied-children-released-sponsors-state (last accessed May 14, 2024).
5
Id
.
6
Off. of Refugee Resettlement,
Fact Sheets and Data
, U.S.
D
EP
’
T OF
H
EALTH AND
H
UMAN
S
ERVS
. (Oct. 13, 2023), https://www.acf.hhs.gov/orr/about/ucs/facts-and-data. In fiscal year 2022 just 15 percent of UACs referred to HHS were under the age of 12, while 13 percent were between 13-14 years old, 36 percent were 15-16 years old, and 36 percent were 17 or older.
7
Id
.
8
Hannah Dreier,
Alone and Exploited, Migrant Children Work Brutal Jobs Across the U.S.
,
N.
Y.
T
IMES
(Feb. 25, 2023), https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/25/us/unaccompanied-migrant-child-workers-exploitation.html.
9
Id
.
10
See, e.g.
,
H. Comm. on the Judiciary, Interim Staff Rep., The Murder of Kayla Hamilton: A Case for Immigr. Enf’t, and Border Sec. (May 23, 2023).
2 interim staff report, the UAC charged with murdering 20-year-old Maryland resident Kayla Hamilton was first “arrested in El Salvador for his ‘illicit association’ with the dangerous MS-13 gang” “[y]ears before coming to the U.S.”
11
Tragically, this information was only verified after the fact when “[l]aw enforcement officials investigating Kayla’s murder” merely made a call to Salvadoran officials, who alerted the officers to the alien’s criminal history.
12
Moreover, “[l]aw enforcement officials investigating Kayla Hamilton’s murder also noticed the alien’s gang tattoos, a fact not disclosed in the alien’s case file held by HHS or in the alien file.”
13
As the Attorney General under the Trump Administration recognized, the UAC program has for years suffered from “exploitation . . . by gang members who come to this country as wolves in sheep[’s] clothing” and “use th[e UAC] program as a means by which to recruit new members.”
14
Contrary to the Trump Administration’s approach, which focused on rooting out gang members from the UAC program, new information and testimony from Biden Administration officials reveal the Administration’s disregard for the potential gang affiliation of UACs. According to new, nonpublic information uncovered by the Committee and Subcommittee:
•
HHS “did not conduct any audit of [the case] file” for the UAC who murdered Kayla Hamilton.
15
•
Despite having released Kayla’s murderer, an alien with gang tattoos and a history of “illicit association” with MS-13, to a sponsor, HHS told the Committee that it does not have a policy to refer known or suspected gang members to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for investigation or, where appropriate, prosecution.
16
•
ORR Director Robin Dunn Marcos, a senior HHS official in charge of the UAC program, admitted that, while HHS contacts the consulate or embassy of the UAC’s country of origin or last habitual residence to verify certain documents or claimed familial relationships, HHS does not even request UACs’ criminal records from UACs’ home countries.
17
11
H. Comm. on the Judiciary, Interim Staff Rep., The Murder of Kayla Hamilton: A Case for Immigr. Enf’t, and Border Sec. (May 23, 2023).
12
Id
.
13
Id
.
14
Attorney General Sessions Gives Remarks to Federal Law Enforcement in Boston About Transnational Criminal Organizations
, U.S.
D
EP
’
T OF
J
USTICE
(Sept. 21, 2017), https://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/attorney-general-sessions-gives-remarks-federal-law-enforcement-boston-about.
15
E-mail from Off. of Ass. Sec’y for Legis., U.S. Dep’t of Health and Human Servs., to Comm. staff, H. Comm. on the Judic. (Nov. 8, 2023) (on file with Comm.).
16
E-mail from Off. of Ass. Sec’y for Legis., U.S. Dep’t of Health and Human Servs., to Comm. staff, H. Comm. on the Judic. (Mar. 13, 2024) (on file with Comm.).
17
Transcribed Interview of Robin Dunn Marcos, Director, Off. of Refugee Resettlement, U.S. Dep’t of Health and Human Services (June 8, 2023) at 15, 48, 56, 90 (on file with Comm.) [hereinafter Transcribed Interview of Robin Dunn Marcos].
Reward Your Curiosity
Everything you want to read.
Anytime. Anywhere. Any device.
No Commitment. Cancel anytime.
