Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) is demanding the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), as well as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), preserve all records about tens of thousands of Unaccompanied Alien Children (UACs) whom the agencies have lost contact with after they were released into the United States.
In a letter to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra and DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Roy writes that the agencies must ” preserve all existing and future records and materials relating to HHS, [Office of Refugee Resettlement], and DHS policies regarding UACs since January 20, 2021.”
Particularly, Roy said the agencies ought to “prevent the destruction of all documents, communications, and other information, including electronic information, that are or may be responsive to this congressional inquiry” relating to those UACs whom the agencies no longer know the whereabouts of.
“… under the Biden-Harris administration, HHS has lost track of an estimated 150,000 UACs, meaning the whereabouts and well-being of these minors cannot be accounted for, in addition to other allegations of UACs being abused and being poorly vetted to determine whether they are a potential danger to the American people,” Roy writes:
At the same time, the DHS Office of the Inspector General (OIG) found that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) failed to serve notices to appear in immigration court on more than 320,000 UACs, which limited ICE’s chance of contacting UACs when they leave HHS custody, thus reducing opportunities to verify their safety. [Emphasis added]
Indeed, as Breitbart News reported, the DHS IG revealed that HHS and DHS have released more than 365,000 UACs into the U.S. interior from Fiscal Year 2021 through Fiscal Year 2023.
Hundreds of thousands of those UACs, the IG report suggests, are at risk of “trafficking, exploitation, or forced labor” because HHS and DHS have failed to keep in touch with them once they are placed with adult sponsors — the majority of whom are not their biological parents — in the U.S.
Earlier this year, the HHS IG published a report revealing that in 22 percent of cases, HHS officials did not conduct proper and safe follow-up calls to check in with UACs released to adult sponsors in the U.S.
In Fiscal Year 2023, the Labor Department found an 88 percent increase in child labor trafficking compared to Fiscal Year 2019. In 2023, nearly 6,000 children, many UACs, were discovered illegally working brutal and often life-threatening jobs.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at
