According to documentation obtained by congressional investigators, the Department of Health and Human Services sent unaccompanied minor children to sponsors who listen their address at a strip club in Florida. Once the kids got there, they were pimped out by "family" members.
When asked about this horrific situation during a hearing on Capitol Hill Wednesday, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra had no explanation for the practice and little condemnation for the lack of oversight.
"U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) could not monitor the location and status of all unaccompanied migrant children (UCs) or initiate removal proceedings as needed. During our ongoing audit to assess ICE’s ability to monitor the location and status of UCs who were released or transferred from the custody of the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), we learned ICE transferred more than 448,000 UCs to HHS from fiscal years 2019 to 2023. However, ICE was not able to account for the location of all UCs who were released by HHS and did not appear as scheduled in immigration court," an Inspector General report released in August details.
Prior to the hearing, incoming Border Czar and former Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Tom Homan explained at least 300,000 children are missing and vowed to try and find them.