Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is requesting documents and data from the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Homeland Security (DHS) "regarding their documented failure to protect over 291,000 unaccompanied migrant children," according to a news release sent out on Wednesday.
A watchdog report published on August 19 found that DHS hasn't accounted for all UCs sponsors or attempted to locate those who did not attend their scheduled proceedings.
Grassley's office said that the Biden-Harris administration "terminated a Trump administration policy that enhanced critical HHS and DHS information-sharing," which has resulted in "broken inter-agency communications channels" and fued the migrant children crisis.
“[The HHS Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR)]’s lax vetting has placed migrant children in grave danger of exploitation and abuse and makes locating these children after placement difficult, something I fear hinders the work of DHS as well,” Grassley wrote in a letter. “I won’t tire in my commitment to protect these children and bring about needed reforms to ensure they aren’t placed in the hands of traffickers and those seeking to exploit them.”
