Senate demands solutions for migrant children

WASHINGTON—The Senate is seeking answers from the Obama administration amid frustration over federal agencies’ botched care for unaccompanied migrant children.

On Friday, Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., co-authored a letter with Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz, and James Lankford, R-Okla., seeking clarification on the Obama administration’s plans to expand the refugee resettlement program. A congressional investigation found officials with that program had lost track of thousands of unaccompanied alien children (UACs). Many refugee children, primarily from Central America, fell into the hands of human traffickers who exploited and abused them. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) was responsible for placing the children with sponsor families, according to the investigation, but HHS officials failed to run proper background checks on the families or even write down some of their addresses and phone numbers.

Twelve days ago, a Senate hearing led by Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., revealed those findings after the six-month investigation and cross-examined HHS officials. McCaskill demanded HHS to take responsibility for the failure, but the witnesses denied culpability. The Missouri senator gave the HHS seven days to provide documentation proving it lacks legal authority to monitor placements of unaccompanied migrant children. That documentation is still pending, well beyond the one-week mark, and the Senate continues to grow angrier.

“I believe the [HHS] can right some of these wrongs by monitoring these children,” McCaskill wrote in a statement yesterday. “But the agency has refused to do so, claiming it lacks the legal authority with no justification for that claim. I am shocked, frankly, and I expect an answer immediately.”

The United States received more than 90,000 migrant children since 2013, and 2014 set a record for the most ever. The HHS claims it was under-equipped to handle the volume of migrant children, but denies it is responsible for moving them from government shelters into dangerous homes.

From October through December 2015, more than 14,000 unaccompanied minors crossed the border, showing the influx of refugees is not slowing down and this year could set another record. It is still unclear how the Obama administration plans to handle the surge.

“This is shameful what has happened. … We have to recognize what our policy is doing,” Johnson said at the HHS investigation hearing. “We have become efficient at dispersing these children and sweeping it under the rug.”

Last year, Obama raised the limit of refugees allowed into the U.S. from 70,000 in fiscal year 2015 to 85,000 in 2016 and 100,000 in 2017. The changes came amid an influx of migrants from the Middle East to Europe. Then, last month, Obama approved the largest-ever increase to refugee aid. He authorized $70 million from a special fund that will expand the Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance program.

Secretary of State John Kerry said the expansion would address the need for more resources for refugees from Central America, but didn’t give details. With the HHS debacle looming, the Senate is skeptical of the move, and the letter demands clarification to specific plans no later than Feb. 17.

“Please describe, in detail, when the expansion of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program will take effect,” asked Senate members in the Friday letter. “Exactly how many more Central American refugees will be admitted in FY2016 pursuant to this expansion and what is the purpose for the amendments to the program?”