"Over 300,000" unaccompanied migrant children have been released into the United States over the past three years, rather than returned to their home countries, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra testified Wednesday in Congress.
Becerra quoted the numbers while speaking to the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee about his department's budget for 2025, when he was asked about the numbers of children released, including those going to unrelated adults, reports The Washington Examiner.
However, he would not provide a number when Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., asked him how many of the children the HHS followed up on after they were released to sponsors.
"It's not a statutory obligation, but we make a commitment to try to follow up with every child that we place with at least three phone calls to this child and three phone calls to this sponsor," Becerra said.
The figures he shared were in line with the HHS website reports that 392,000 children were released to sponsors since October 2020, including the last four months of former President Donald Trump's administration.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection data shows more than 464,000 unaccompanied minors were apprehended at the border between the first month President Joe Biden was in office in Jan. 2021 through Jan. 2024, with many arriving after the Department of Homeland Security decided not to send children back to Mexico as the Trump administration did during the pandemic.
While Biden has been in office, between 125,000 and 150,000 children have arrived annually, marking more than in 2014 under former President Barack Obama and 80,000 with Trump in 2019.
Ordinarily, unaccompanied immigrant children are taken into custody by the Border Patrol, with HHS to take control of them within 72 hours.
The increased number of children after Biden took office forced the creation of tent cities along the border to house the children, and then HHS eased its vetting and screening of sponsors to speed the process.
This means only the main sponsor undergoes criminal public record checks. However, household members are not screened and the law does not require a sex offender registry check.
Once a child is released into the United States, he or she may stay until immigration court proceedings are held, which can sometimes take up to a decade.
Becerra commented that HHS does provide children with a hotline number the child can call if someone is neglecting or abusing them, "where we will try to make sure they get assistance."