Transcripts For CSPAN Refugee 20240706

Live before a subcommittee on cspan3. Watch in our free mobile video or online at sees and. Org. Cspanshop. Org is our online store. There is something for everything. Shop now or anytime at cspanshop. Org. The director of the office of Refugee Resettlement testifies on the treatment of unaccompanied children at the u. S. Mexico border. This is about 90 minutes. President biden has worked to roll back policies that worked to maintain operational control of the southwest border and reducing the number of people who are coming here in the first place. As a federal judge commented, the administration turned the border into a meaningless line in the sand. The judge stated the actions were like posting a flashing sign that we are open. In 2021, the department of homeland 30 made 1. 7 million encounters with inadmissible area aliens. The disastrous border policies created more of the largest Human Trafficking and smuggling operations in the world. Cartels charge a fee. Border patrol agent told me they charge 5,000 to 10,000 for individuals from asian including chinese nationals for the rights to cross. Most are single adults, many are children, more than 250,000 in the past few years. Not surprising with so many more people crossing, a lot of unaccompanied minors are coming across as well. The department of children and families published results from interviews connected with unaccompanied children about how they into the united date. The children in little about individuals who brought them, described them as coyotes. That is what we have. Kids are being brought apart by for who dont know. One said several members were robbed hooray. We have a humanitarian along ths administration created. The department of health and Human Services has a statutory obligation to care for unaccompanied alien children referred into its custody by the department of Homeland Security. It must also ensure these children are placed in the care of appropriate sponsors in the u. S. Who are capable of providing for their physical and mental wellbeing. Too often thats not happening. Instead, reports indicate that secretary becerra has pushed to instill a culture at orr that prioritizes quote Assembly Line speed in releasing unaccompanied alien children to poorly vetted sponsors across the country to the detriment of our childrens safety. And ill tell you its particularly aggravating to see all these kids come across the border and have the press not cover whats going on when these kids may never see their parents again. And just a few years ago, we had the press screaming about broken families. Director marcos predecessor was reportedly threatened with dismissal from what secretary becerra considered to be insufficient discharges of unaccompanied children in orr custody. She resigned shortly thereafter. Reports revealed that many of these poorly vetted sponsors exploit children once in their care. A florida statewide grand jury identified several abuses of Migrant Children in sponsors care. The grand jury found evidence of unaccompanied children fleeing sponsors who were selling them for sex. One was found to have been offered for sex to men by her aunt who she never met before. One unaccompanied child reported that their sponsor had previously been sent to prison for a felony battery of a child. They found out that unaccompanied children were dropping out of school and worked to pay off cartel debts. Remember, a lot of these kids had to pay their way or go into debt to the cartels to come in this country. You gotta think, how are they paying off that debt . A recent New York Times report indicates that nearly two thirds of all unaccompanied minors work illegal full time jobs likely to pay off their debts to cartels for smuggling them into the country and to sponsors for providing basic necessities such as food and housing. Today, i want to find out a little bit more how the unprecedented levels of illegal border crossings incentivized by President Bidens policies have led to historic encounters of unaccompanied alien children that have overwhelmed orr and endangered Migrant Children. We will also examine orrs efforts moving forward to ensure adequate care and safe discharge of these children into the care of appropriately vetted sponsors. And we also want to find out what efforts are being made to reunite these children with their parents. In any event, id like to recognize my good friend, Ranking Member garcia, for the purpose of making an opening statement. Rep. Garcia thank you very much, mr. Chairman, and i also want to thank our witness. I know that this is a very difficult job and i wanted to start first by talking a little bit about the office and the role it plays and how important it is and also address some of the concerns that i think many folks of the country have. First, the office of Refugee Resettlement is have has absolutely a Critical Mission in this country. When i was mayor of long beach, orr actually opened an Emergency Shelter from july, right around july 2021. We had about almost 1600 Migrant Children that orr reunited with family or sponsors. I met dozens and dozens of these children at the center. It was a heartbreaking experience, but also i saw firsthand the incredible work that the partners on the ground, the immigration defense attorneys, the social workers, the doctors were doing to assist all of these Young Children, many of who were scared, what wanted to see family, and many also who are very grateful to be here in this country trying to escape a very difficult situation back home. And so i just first want to thank all of the workers at orr who i know do a very hard job in this country. But it is also important to note that we are concerned any time that children are placed in unsafe conditions. And we believe that to be, of course, not just heartbreaking but unacceptable. We want to make sure that we have an agency that supports legal asylum. And folks that who come as refugees are not victims of Human Trafficking. I think we can all agree on that. We also know that these refugees and these children are some of the most Vulnerable People that we have, and these people need a helping hand to build their lives. Immigrants, folks seeking asylum, they make contributions to our community. I personally am an immigrant myself. I came as a small child. I know how difficult that process is and i see these kids just wanna have the same opportunities that were given to me and to others in this country as well. Now, one of the most critical things that we do to make sure that we can do is make sure that our office of Refugee Resettlement is strong, is wellfunded, and is doing the important work that they have in this country. When an accompanied child arrives at the border, the child is quickly transferred out of the custody of Homeland Security and into the office of Refugee Resettlement. The orr is tasked with placing the least restrictive settings, be the best possible, the best interest of the child while the Legal Immigration process proceeds. The office, the process allows the department of Homeland Security to do its job while protecting children. And so we know that studies, we know that orr policies try to connect these kids with their sponsors as soon as possible. We all can agree that kids should not belong in cages. I want to thank hhs and the white house for transitioning the way that we serve children coming into our care. We also have to get kids out of unsafe shelter conditions and into sponsor homes. I know about 90 of kids that are in orr custody end up in as sponsors that are direct family, and others are other types of sponsors that i know are vetted as best as possible through orr. We need to make sure we have conditions that are safe for all of our children. And we want to make sure we have enough trained and qualified managers, social workers that can really cope with the influx that we have of children that arrive at the border and the plans and systems that are in place to deal with this demand are gone through a process of vetting for sponsors and that all suspicious partners are flagged. Hhs must ensure that immediate follow up happens when children request assistance regarding labor exploitation or the safety, security of their placement. We also need to have a serious conversation about how we make sure that were fully enforcing our labor laws and Holding Corporations accountable when they knowingly and illegally profit from child labor. So i personally support legislation to crack down on these unethical employers. We also wanna make sure that an unaccompanied children have the full range of services they need, including Mental Health care to keep them safe. And certainly, and hopefully, our colleagues are committed to securing those resources. We want to make sure that we are not attacking asylum, but that we are actually working to ensure those that are seeking asylum are being treated in a way that is fair and with respect. We also wanna make sure that we are not that we are focused on increasing funding, that the needs that are real at orr actually receive additional funding support. Right now, there are bills being marked up that would actually stop additional funding, that would roll back and eliminate orrs ability to even do any post release followup. So we know that some of these bills that are moving through the house and the Committee Process would actually hurt our efforts to make corrections and to improve orrs capability of supporting children throughout the entire process. We also wanna make sure that were doing everything we can through this committee to be serious about getting funding for the department of labor. Very important cause. Im grateful we have this opportunity to work with you and make the necessary improvements. Thank you. Im pleased to introduce our witness today, robin dunn marcos, the director of the office of Refugee Resettlement, or orr as we refer to them today, in the administration for children and families at the u. S. Department of health and Human Services, a position shes held since september of 2022. I look forward to hearing from director marcos today. I dont know if i look forward to it but we will hear about it anyway. Pursuant to Committee Rule 9g, the witness will please stand and raise your right hand. Do you solemnly swear and affirm that the testimony that youre about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth . So help you god. Let the record show the witness answered in the affirmative. Ok. Now ill open things up for myself to ask a few questions. First, we need your opening statement. Director marcos chairman grothman, Ranking Member garcia, members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today on behalf of the department of health and Human Services. Since assuming my position as orr director in september 2022, i have led a dedicated team who are committed to ensuring the safety and wellbeing of every child in our care. I have also visited 18 care provider programs and shelter facilities. I have met children we serve, and i have witnessed the commitment and devotion of our staff. Providing for the safety and wellbeing of the children in our care is not only our mandate, it is also our guiding principle. Under the Homeland Security act of 2002 and the trafficking victims protection reauthorization act of 2008, orr is legally required to provide for the care and custody of all unaccompanied children from the time they enter orrs custody following a referral from the department of Homeland Security or other federal entity until they are released to a vetted sponsor. The flores Settlement Agreement establishes minimum standards for specific services for orrfunded programs to provide for unaccompanied children for their care and wellbeing while in orr custody. Orr provides childappropriate Services Including education, health care and counseling services, Case Management services, recreation, access to Legal Services, access religious services. Pursuant to that, we conduct Due Diligence to provide Due Diligence to provide for a childs physical wellbeing. Orr works in the best interest of the child to safely expedite the release of unaccompanied children to a parent or other appropriate sponsor and has thorough screening processes for all sponsors. This includes verifying the relationship to the child, speaking with the childs parents, conducting separate interviews with the child and sponsor, collecting the sponsor information, administering background checks, home address verification, public records and sex offender registry checks, as well as fbi checks in certain cases. Orr also conducts home studies if it may provide Additional Information about the sponsors ability to care for the child. While orrs custodial responsibilities end when a child is discharged, our concern does not. We have policies in place to promote childrens welfare as they transition into a new community. Although children and sponsors are not required to participate and may not answer for a variety of reasons, in fiscal year 2022, care providers made contact with either the child, the sponsor or both in more than 81 of households. In addition, the call center connects children and sponsors with resources in their community and is required to report any safety concerns, including exploitation or abuse or trafficking. Orr is continually assessing and implementing improvements. I am pleased the memorandum of agreement will further expand our work together. Orr has launched an audit with two concurrent efforts. A review of unaccompanied children released in calendar years 2021 and 2022 to an unrelated sponsor who sponsored more than two unrelated unaccompanied children. An ongoing review of current vetting requirements for potential sponsors who have previously sponsored unaccompanied children. Orr intends to provide information on the findings from this audit. Furthermore, this administration more than doubled the rate of children provided prs, serving more than 40 of children compared to just over 20 in 2021. We are currently on track, with the support from congress, to achieve our goal of providing all children with prs by the end of 2024. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. Children who have come through orrs care face unique challenges and we will safeguard their wellbeing following orr discharge. I am happy to address any questions you may have about our critical work. Audio check, testing. We will start in about one minute. Chairman grothman in the past administration, we heard a lot about people being separated from parents. I know cell phones are common all over the place. How many percentage wise of these unaccompanied kids coming across do we wind up talking to one parent or both parents . Director marcos thank you, chairman. We reunite 85 of the kids with close immediate that is not the question. It could be an uncle they have never seen before. What percentage do we talk to one. And what percent do we talk to two parents so that the children are safe. Director marcos we do everything we can to speak to child sponsors when the parent is not the sponsor. Chairman grothman percentage wise, say we have a group of 1000 unaccompanied minors, what percent do you talk to one parent, two parents or no parents . Director marcos i will have to get back to you on that. Chairman grothman ok. We know there are fraudulent identifications. Do you ever find that . Director marcos our vetting process is done in a way that if there are fraudulent documents, they would be identified in the process. We have a number of steps in place. Chairman grothman one final thing. It was reported in the New York Times, you have lost or do not know where 85,000 unaccompanied minors are. Was the New York Times right . How frequently do we check in with these kids who enter without their parents . Director marcos thank you for that question. I would like to set the record straight. We did not lose anybody. We provide safety and wellbeing calls between 30 and 37 days after release. Orrs custodial authority ends when they are discharged. However, our concern does not. We have a number of things in place where we try to maintain contact. Chairman grothman if we had 1000 people six months after they were released, how many of those 1000 people do we know where they are . Director marcos orr does not monitor or track the whereabouts of children after they are released from our care, however, we are very committed to continuing to provide support. Postrelease services is our best option to provide continual care for them. Chairman grothman is the 85,000 number right . Director marcos we do not track or monitor. Chairman grothman the answer is no. Is that right . Apparently it is. Director marcos orr works within the statutes and authorities. Chairman grothman i will take that to mean we do not know where they are. Congressman garcia . Rep. Garcia i would like to submit statements from the u. S. Committee for refugees. Without objection, i want to get that into the record. I want you to clarify a little bit further for the committee this number that is being brought up as far as the unaccompanied children. Sponsors are not currently required to connect themselves with orr once the child is released. There is no legal requirement for the sponsor to continue to work with orr. Director marcos that is absolutely correct. The sponsor is not required to report to us. Rep. Garcia it is important to note that there is no official tracking system post release to the sponsor, 85 of which are family. That is something that is within the statute and within the framework of your work. Many of these families are migrants themselves and there is not a positive relationship with the government because of the dehumanization that happens to these families. We want to make sure every kid is placed into a safe situation. Are there new measures being put into place or how are you addressing some of these reports . Director marcos orr is dedicated to continue improving processes. Every sponsor goes through a thorough vetting where we reviewe documents they submit, we talked to the child and the sponsor, we run a public records check, criminal check, sex offenders registry check. If there is any concern, we can do a home study. We also have a Quality Control process in place where the case manager is making a recommendation about this particular release and we have a third party who is weighing in with the information that has been provided and whether they believe the release would be safe and appropriate. An orr professional approves, denies or sends it back for Additional Information. We make sure both children and sponsors know about the orr National Call center. It is a 24 7 hotline that can provide a number of different resources. I have recently started doing regular meetings with the ncc. Rep. Garcia any time anybody reads about child labor, what are we doing through the department of labor to ensure that this does not happen to these children . Director marcos we completely agree that child labor exploitation has no place in our society. Orr is working closely with the department of labor. We just signed an agreement where we will provide much more coordinated information sharing. We have brought a number of steps in place that when a particular area or location may be flagged that we can do everything up to temporarily stopping placements until we are satisfied the child is going into a safe setting. Rep. Garcia part of the mission of orr is to make sure the child is placed quickly. How do you ensure case workers are not being pushed to act too quickly . Director marcos thank you, congressman. A very important question. Because it is our job to release children to vetted sponsors without undue delay. We have gone to a seven day work week. When i have gone out to visit programs, i asked have they ever felt pressured to release to an unsafe situation. I have been told no or our staff listens. They consult with us. We are making the best interests of the child in every single decision. Rep. Garcia if a child is placed in unsafe situations, does orr have the legal power to remove them from the sponsor . Director marcos orr does not have the authority. Our custodial authority ends when the child is released to a vetted sponsor. Rep. Garcia that is a very important part. That is something that is concerning to me personally. That once a child is placed in the sponsors home, orr does not have the legal power to remove that child from the sponsor. I want to thank you. It is very difficult work. We are concerned about the safety of every child. Thank you. Are we all going to get extra time . Chairman grothman we have an easygoing chairman. I went over which is why i allowed i may want to go over, too. It shows a very disjointed process because if you do not know the results, how do you get it at the very beginning . In an effort to make sure the people who are applying to be sponsors are actually fit to care for those children. One of the forms was improved to ask basic questions about fitness of care for children. Including background, income, Health Insurance and so on. These were very basic questions. I would like to enter these into the record. The other form was one the attending sponsor needed to sign. It details obligations the sponsor would have while serving and reminds them of all criminal penalties for providing false information. I want to enter this into the the Biden Administration canceled both of these key upgrades, which means the orr reverted to the previous form. Which put children who were smuggled at risk. Director marcos, i would like you to make a commitment to resubmit the forms that were introduced during the previous administration. They asked for the right information to make sure a person who applies to be a sponsor is actually fit to have a child in their home. Can you make that commitment to me right now . Director marcos thank you, congressman. What i cannot commit to is a review, of those forms. And i want to assure that we continually review our policies and procedures. I have to stop you, i know we are limited in our time here. It seems that you reverted back to the previous form, which was inadequate. Can you recommit to me right now that you would look at these forms and start implementing . Director marcos congressman, i respectfully do not believe that our current vetting is inadequate. We had lots of problems. That is something for you to think about. It showed over and over again those forms were not adequate. It is unacceptable that you cannot make that commitment. Those forms now are a joke. They were written in a way where it seems like they are not trying to learn about or track the lives and fitness of the sponsors. In theory, if orr is vetting sponsors, you would have a statistically significant rejection rate. What is that rejection rate . Director marcos i am not sure what our rejection rate is. I have to stop you again. You knew you were coming into these hearing and you knew that these numbers will be asked. It is inappropriate behavior of somebody of your caliber. Inappropriate. If you cannot have these numbers, you cannot make good policy. I find it a shame that you do not have these numbers in front of you. And the people behind you do not have them. We all look at children differently than adults. Children are dependent upon adults and parents to do the right thing. I find it unacceptable your performance so far this morning. I will demand that you have those numbers. What any member here asked for, immediately have those numbers. I hope you never repeat this performance again. I yield back. Thank you, mr. Frost. I think we can all agree that child trafficking is unacceptable and the reports of the victim in florida city is truly heartbreaking. I am appalled by yesterdays report in the New York Times that shows the administrations lack of action when they knew about these violations. One child is too many. As somebody who comes from an immigrant family, this is something that i hope the administration will work on to ensure it is not a problem in the future. And that we have a wellfunded immigration system that is rooted in love and compassion. These values drive my immigration policy and i see that missing from a lot of the republican politicians. Right now, in my state, Governor Desantis and his buddies in the state are moving forward a bill that would make it a thirddegree felony punishable by five years in prison to transport somebody who was undocumented. I have to call out the hypocrisy. I think the administrations failure on protecting these children is appalling. But at the same time, we see this hypocrisy and suddenly caring about undocumented children and unaccompanied minors, my question is this, a bill like this that is being supported in florida that makes it a thirddegree felony to transport an undocumented person, how would that impact your work in being able to place an unaccompanied child in a safe environment . Director marcos our Legal Authority as provided by congress requires us to provide for the safety and wellbeing of children in our care and to release them without undue delay to a vetted sponsors. The bill your speaking of, these measures make our job more difficult. When you speak of the compassion of caring for children, i can assure you, hundreds of staff across this country, this is their mission, they personally believe in what we are doing and they are doing everything within the authority and resources provided to provide good care for these children and to release them to appropriately vetted sponsors. Thank you. It shows we have this problem showcased on the committee where we have a party that wants to take this problem, using it for political points rather than actually wanting to ask the problem. Fix the problem. That is why i point out this bill in florida at will continue to make conditions unsafe for unaccompanied children. Tomorrow, the Judiciary Committee has a republican immigration bill that will continue to cause harm to our immigration system. One section will codify the trump administrations mandate that orr share information about the sponsors home with ice so that they can target a sponsors with the threat of arrest and deportation. How would this bill affect your ability to place children with their parents or legal guardians . Director marcos thank you, congressman. It creates a chilling impact on sponsors coming forward. We know Child Welfare best practice, a child is best placed with their family in the community, not a congregate care setting. How might arresting or threatening people who come forward to sponsor a child affect the availability of good sponsors . Director marcos once again, her our job is to release children as safely and quickly as possible. We want them released to their parents, to their legal guardian, to their aunts or uncles or other sponsors as appropriate. Thank you. Politicians may talk about their desire to help children, but every time they have had the opportunity to pursue policies that would help the most vulnerable, we see them use it to score political points. I do not for one second buy the lie that republicans on this committee give a dam about actually fixing the problem. I yield back. My good friend from arizona. Thank you, mr. Chairman. It is pretty weak sauce when you come in and ask if federal official to come in on a state law that has not even been passed. I thought that was interesting. This faux compassion for my calling across the are, thats what it is. I want to thank director marcos for being here today i want to , thank you for your genuine attempt to response to respond to my letter on this topic. You indicate that the office of refugee lost contact with sponsors of unaccompanied children. In the New York Times piece that came out, dhs lost contact with more than 85,000 children. I recognize that his post that is post placement by your office but you do make the calls. You have made a quarter of a million phone calls to followup. You said in your letter we cannot make people answer the phone. I get that, but it is a woeful process that once we place these children and i think on the front end, contrary to your testimony, there is a lot of holes in the vetting process and then we lose track of them. I also want to point out something. The majority of all uacs are boys. Two thirds of them. 72 are between the age of 15 and 18. Is that accurate . Director marcos what was the last percentage . 72 . Director marcos that sounds correct. When we talk about this and we think about it we focus on babies, toddlers and preteens. That is about 15 . But the reality is the vast majority are in that critical age of 1518. I am going to ask consent to enter the following to the record. The New York Times piece, my letter to orr director marcos. My letter to hhs. And the response from director marcos. Without objection, so ordered. I think you are telling us you do not disagree with the 85,000 number of children we have lost contact with. I am not saying you lost them, but we have lost contact. We dont know where they are. Is that fair to say . Director marcos we attempt to make a safety and wellbeing i understand that. Lets get to the point. When you made the call, you did not get a response, the letter says you usually make free three calls, you get no response, 85,000 times. Is that right . Director marcos in 81 of the calls, we are you did not have contact with more than 85,000 kids. Is that fair to say . Yes or no . We are not saying what is the percentage, 85,000 children that were placed by you you made the , calls to check on them, 85,000 of them you have no idea where they are. You dont want to answer the question, thats fine. We are going to go to a different topic. Lets talk about a whistleblower named linda. She pointed out there were individuals, children, that she did not think were placed appropriately. She said one sponsors said he was going to employ three boys at a construction company. One sponsor, two children, who would have to work off the cost of bringing the north. She contacted his supervisor and said it was urgent, and within days, the children are released to those sponsors. Not long after that, she is fired. Are you familiar with that case . Director marcos congressman, i read it in the New York Times. You are not personally familiar with it . No i joined orr in september , 2022. Ok. They mention five additional whistleblowers who were terminated for raising red flags with regard to placement of children. Are you familiar with any of those cases . That article is a couple of months old. Director marcos congressman, i believe that many of are you familiar with those cases . Did you look into the New York Times, the whistleblowers that were listed, did you look into either of them as they were terminated after raising issues . Director marcos that article just came out. We have a team looking into it. The recent case, the first New York Times article is more than a month old now. Director marcos there are protections for whistleblowers so i would not necessarily know about specific cases. Did you bother to even look into these . Sounds like you did not. Matt haygood, a senior director at one of the largest organizations for the directory of immigrants sent to an email regarding trafficking concerns. He talked about trafficking and said there was no followup. Are you working to make corrections when you get tipped off that there are people trafficking in these children . Director marcos absolutely. When the concert is raised to a concern is raised to our office we are following up on it. I cannot speak to what happened before i came. I cannot speak to what happened during the border backup, i can tell you that today orr, we are hearing come up we are listening, we are making sure sponsors and children have more information and know how to get help. Last question i will ask you. Uacs, if they are from mexico or canada, their return home they are returned home immediately. Is that a policy that should be enforced for all countries . To return them to their families. Director marcos orr is not a Law Enforcement agency and that is outside of my jurisdiction. So you do not want to comment on that. Is that right . Director marcos my mission as orr director you dont want to opine on that . My mission as the director i guess the answer is you do not. Thank you. Congressman perry. Director, as i understand it, orr has a statutory application to care for the unaccompanied obligation to care for the unaccompanied child, is that what i am reading here in your mission or your mandate echo director marcos that is correct. There was a law, an obligation to care for these individuals. If that is the case, why is it on march 22, orr remove the proof of address requirement . Exempting members from submitting a background check or providing identification . How does that aid in the obligation . Move proof of address requirement . Director marcos i think what you are referring to was in the spring of 2021. March 22, toy 21. 2021. When there were children backed up over 4000. So we just remove the requirement, lowered the standard. There are a number of layers. How does that enhance . Maybe i should ask the question this way. Does that removal of the proof of address requirement for the household members that are submitted for these children that we are trying to find a place for, does that enhance your obligation to care or does it not enhance it . Director marcos we checked the addresses of all sponsors. It says proof of address requirement existent exempted under proof of address i get it, you ask. You asked them what their addresses, and to give you an address and you write it down and that is the end of it. There is no requirement for proof of address. Director marcos i do not think that is a fair characteristic of the vetting process that our staff goes through. Let me ask you this them. On march 31 of 2021, orr eliminate the background check requirement for immediate relatives. Other than a parent or guardian. Why would that be, how does that enhance the u to care echo . Obligation to care . Director marcos orrs belief is that a child is best with their parent. I believe that as well. How do you know that they are with their parents, how do you know . Are you familiar that the department of Homeland Security under its new statute shall create a biometric entry and exit data system, even though they have not. They have not implemented anything like that, other than asking and public information, how can you be sure it is their parent . Director marcos we go through a number of the vetting procedures. We asked the child and the parent or the sponsor questions on the same day, we verify things with consulates. What is the percentage of children that are reunited with their parents, but how do you prove that, what is your percentage how do you prove that, what is your percentage what is the percentage, i note you have this number thing. You are stalling. Just tell me. Do you have a clue . Director marcos i believe 37 37 end up with their parent. Do you ever refer for charges for abandonment. Do you understand that is a felony offense in these children are coming to the border without their parent. Which qualifies them as unaccompanied. Are these charges ever referred for abandonment echo . Director marcos orr is not a Law Enforcement. I did not ask you to enforce the law. Do you ever refer . If you found somebody doing a criminal act to one of these children, you are not a Law Enforcement agency, would you refer the charges in that case . We would how many have you reported for abandonment . Director marcos our job is that zero . They are all coming to the border unaccompanied and that means they do not have their parent, right . Director marcos our job is to provide for the care. God bless you, we want you to do the job. I am not reading from stuff that i made up. Or are sent over 100 unaccompanied silk children to a Single Family house in texas. If this vetting process is working, how does this happen . Whistleblowers knowingly transferred uacs to criminal criminal and sex traffickers. If this was working, how does that happen yet a florida grand , jury pointed out an incident where a male was vetted and proceeded to violently murder his sponsor. Im sure you saw it in the news. If this process is working, how are these things occurring . These children are unaccompanied because somebody has abandoned them. Why do we not refer charges for abandonment . My goodness, if your job, so if your standard torque statutory obligation is to care for those minors, my goodness, if you saw somebody beating up a little kid you would call the police echo . Director marcos of course i would. Thank you. I yield the balance. Thank you for coming here today. You just received a number of questions about your ability to vet unaccompanied minors, to respond to the overwhelming demand on your office to address what is a significant problem. I am just going to ask you first, what are the very specific requests you would have in order to be able for your office to do your job to its fullest capability . What can congress do for you . Director marcos thank you, congressman. Hey think that one of the issues that we hear about today is what happened to the children after they leave our care. I think that the children are safe and well cared for, while they are with or are, and we do Everything Possible to release them to a wellvetted sponsor. Most are family members. I think that one of the things that we would appreciate congresss support on expanding our post Relief Services, post Relief Services on opportunity for professional staff to continue to support the child, the sponsor and the whole household making sure that the child is connected with services , making sure that the child is attending school, making sure that the child does not fall into exploitative situations. I think continued support in expanding postrelease services and Legal Services are critical to providing care for these children after they leave our authority. It is interesting to me that is the number one request that you have. My democratic colleagues and i submitted an appropriations request specifically to build additional capacity and strengthen the postrelease services for all unaccompanied children. I hope that my colleagues on the others of the aisle will support that request because i think we all are concerned or at least should be concerned about unaccompanied minors coming in to the country and providing the services that they need. One of the things you mention is Legal Services. As a lawyer, i am concerned about representation of these unaccompanied minors. Even more so, a process that addresses the peculiar needs, especially the emotional needs, where you often have very Young Children who do not speak english, who go before judges for adjudication. Can you offer some thoughts on how that process could be improved . Director marcos thank you, congressman. Orr has been working with partners to do Everything Possible to make sure children have representation pro bono if not available. It is critical to making sure the children have their rights protected, make sure they understand the immigration process and they show up for their hearing. Again, the postrelease services, which not only do we want to expand to 100 , but also Legal Services, those are the most Critical Services we can provide these children to keep them out of harms way after release from her care. Our care. The other thought is and a colleague of mine and i had made a recommendation along these lines and i am curious what your thought is, to have a separate court that is designed to address the needs of unaccompanied minors, so that we have judges with expertise in those areas, we have the rep. Services there. Wrap around Services Provided there. Can you describe whether that might be successful there or perhaps another recommendation that you would have to address the specific needs of unaccompanied minors . Director marcos i think anything that can be done to support the unique and complex needs of these children is welcome. Finally, when you are addressing the unaccompanied minors that come in, can you break down what the most common situation is of how they find themselves to be unaccompanied minors . Director marcos thank you, congressman. That is a great question. Many of the children are fleeing gang violence. Many of them have unique and complex situations. I can tell you about a child diagnosed with a terminal illness, took the journey to the United States so he could join his mother and sisters. Our team worked hard to get them reunited. He spent the last six months of his life with his mother and sisters. Another young adult who was gang raped by gang members reported it to the police and bat brought that brought on greater heat from the gang and they targeted her and her family and she made the decision to leave for her safety and joined and ought and is doing well. They are very complex and many of them are heartbreaking. The professional staff at orr does everything we can to provide professional services. Thank you for all of the work you are doing in a very difficult situation. I yield back. Thank you. Congressman higgins. Thank you for being with us today. What happens when these minors turn 18 . Director marcos when they turn 18, we report that dhs and we provide them with a plan to related quirks but they are out of your supervision . Director marcos that is correct. Just to clarify this for america, when we discussed unaccompanied minors, americans envision a lost, frightened, slow child. Abandoned, small child. And as compassionate children of god, every american wants to just hug that child and care for that child. What they are talking about here is not a lost and abandoned and frightened child. The vast majority of the socalled children are actually undocumented illegal young adults. They come into your system with whatever vetting. I am not going to argue about it because you have no answers. They come into your system with whatever standard of vetting you decide that month to enforce. They get sent at the expense of the American People to their home of recorded destination. They are 16 or 17 years old. And they are out, man. They are into the fabric of our country. They turn 18. They are gone. Of course, you say 81 . You chose your words very carefully. An intelligent american woman. You said 81 you have spoken to the sponsor of the child. I would be willing to bet that 90 , you spoke to some adults i am the phone that identified himself as, yeah, i am the sponsor. Yet, that is that. Check that box. It is not really a child. It is a 17yearold adult about to be out of your system. What does your department do with reports from local Law Enforcement when they are investigating a criminal action that include allegations of physical or psychological trauma or abuse for the young adults or socalled children that are allegedly under your care . How many reports do you receive from local or state Law Enforcement . These young, undocumented adults are scattered across america . They are coming into contact with local Law Enforcement. What does your organization do . What does your organization do . How frequently do you look at reports from local or state Law Enforcement that involve criminal investigations where your minor has been in that investigation, not necessarily as a suspect . Director marcos thank you, congressman. When they are released to abetted the sponsor, we do not track children, however if Law Enforcement or cps, we become aware, we absolutely cooperate, support. It is local Law Enforcement and cps that have the jurisdiction for children once they have been released from our care. If the call does come into the National Call center reporting exploitation or abuse, we work with local Law Enforcement entities, as well as the office for trafficking in person, dhs, etc. I appreciate your response. My time is expired. Chairman grothman thank you. Rep. Porter this hearing is about a system that is failing kids, that exploits my Great Children for a profit. Where and grip fails to stop corporations from breaking child labor laws. What practices has your agency employed to ensure that children are only seeking safe and ageappropriate Employment Opportunity once released to sponsors . Director marcos orrs custodial authority ends when the child is released to a sponsor. However, we tried to make sure that both the child and the sponsor understands labor laws, they understand where to get help if theyre found to be in an exploitive or abusive situation. We have entered into an agreement with the department of labor and are working more closely. We are also providing increased training to our staff to make sure they are best equipped to provide the orientation and guidance to children. We are making sure every child that the parts our character has the National Call center and knows how to get help. Rep. Porter today you might expect that a democrat would say that is good enough. The truth is hhs can and do more to vetted sponsors and to follow up with kids and they must be given sufficient resources by congress to do that. Nobody gets a pass from me today, not when the number of minors employed illegally has increased by 283 since 2015. Hhs is not getting the past. Hhs is here. I am worried about who was not on this panel. Director marcos, who hires child laborers . Is it your agency or big corporations . Director marcos it is private industry. Orr does not employ children. Rep. Porter will assign more than 100 minors to work overnight shifts in Hazardous Conditions and meatpacking plants across eight states . Your agency or big corporations . Director marcos big corporations. Rep. Porter who employed Migrant Children several Automotive Manufacturing plants in alabama . Director marcos big corporations. Rep. Porter we do not have big corporations on the panel today. We do not even have the agencies that are responsible for enforcing child labor laws. I hope we have a followup hearing, because if we are serious about solving the problem, we need to hear from the actors who are part of creating it. Can you tell me what steps your agency is taken to better coordinate with the department of labor and state agencies . Specifically, what are you doing, because it is concerning to me to hear you talking about educating children and sponsors when we have evidence that those tools are failing kids. It is not getting followed up on. Specifically, what are you doing . Director marcos there is a number of things we are doing. I want to state that orr is dedicated to continuous improvement. We take this job so seriously. This is about children, so we will never get to the goalpost. We will continually improve to care for the children. We are working with the department of labor. We have a number of things were looking at in terms of protocols when a report comes in. We can add additional supervisory review. We cant stop placement to a particular zip code. We can stop placement to a particular zip code. We have to make sure we are providing proper vetting and that we are releasing to a sponsor that will provide for care and wellbeing. So, stopping placements, working with local Law Enforcement as appropriate. There is a number of steps that we will continue to lean in on this to help resolve the situation. Rep. Porter Corporate America needs to be held accountable for putting children in danger to boost their profits. It is gross and wrong. I am calling on your agency as well as the department of labor and the white house to continue to provide answers to the committee on how it will address these abuses. In your testimony, you talked about how you brought down the time to placement. How you brought down the time to within 30 days. But it is not just about the time. It is about the quality of life for these children. I am asking you to do better. I yield back. Chairman grothman congressman sessions. Rep. Sessions thank you very much. I want to thank our witness. Can you please tell me about your visits to the border . Director marcos congressman, i have made one visit to the border as the director of orr, my primary responsibility when was that one visit . Director marcos i started in september, i believe it was october or november. You started in september of 2022. Director marcos that is correct. Since then, you visited the border one time. Where did you visit . Director marcos i visited el paso. The border is dhss that is not my question. What did you see when you were there . What was the purpose of your visit . Director marcos i wanted to understand the full process that the children that come into our care go through and i wanted to see firsthand that part of the process. What were your evaluations of that . Director marcos that these children experience an incredible amount of trauma in their journey to the United States and it is frightening and scary to be processed and not understand what may be happening to you. So these are children and many times they are with people that may or may not be directional parents. We have heard stories. I have been to the border seven or eight times and heard the stories directly from people who are federal agents and others who have said it is very routine that a person was put up with an older person, and they found out that was not even there family. I have heard you say today about the extreme conditionspeople wie illegally to the United States of america. At any point, have you expressed this to this administration that the task that you are faced with, the important task of dealing with children, that perhaps what these children are going through which would be lifelong images of not only disparity but of disrespect and harm to their lives was encouraged, aided and abetted by a policy that the president of United States of the Democratic Party is encouraging . Have you ever express that or thought those ideas . Congressman, respectfully my focus has been on the job i was hired to do. So another words you have no authority or responsibility to report, hey, mr. Secretary, we are looking at, we are creating a circumstance here that is harmful and destructive to peoples future. Weve already heard a member of this committee suggest that they should come here and not be able to get jobs, not be able to work and blame corporations for that. What is hard for me to understand, how this administration continues to encourage not only violations of the law but bring people, millions of people here and thrust them to the streets and then we wonder why we have drug epidemics and crime rampant in our country. Just bring them here, let them sit on the side of the road. This is an embarrassment, and my opinion, and i think most people that i represent in texas, that we are encouraging this behavior. We are encouraging this, not only violation of the law, against the dignity of men and women by encouraging this inducement of this process so it is my hope that next time that when you leave here that you may go back and say, you know maybe we are encouraging bad, not just illegal behavior, but things that will harm peoples future. I want to thank you for taking time to be here today. I hope you will consider some of the feedback that this subcommittee offers to you when i want to thank you for your service. I yield back my time at mr. Chairman. Thank you much. Thank you mr. Chairman. Thank you all for being here. Since President Biden has been in office, there has been over 4. 8 million migrant encounters that the sock at the southwest border not include not including those that evaded Law Enforcement. This crisis has overwhelmed federal officials and endangered the wellbeing of unaccompanied Migrant Children as a result. According to data since march 2000 21, hhs has averaged 11,000 11,000 children in its care per month. 2015, the annual total released into the custody was 27,000. 2022, that number was approximately 100 27,000. That is nearly a fivefold increase. Congress has been attempting to conduct oversight for years. Agency decisionmakers have willfully obstructed our constitutional mandate as detailed by finance committee report. The Biden Administrations week border policies have not only divided the masses but incentivized the agencies responsible for processing them to sacrifice the livelihoods of children for the sake of political posturing. There is a simple solution to begin humanely addressing the backlog of resettlement cases. Securing our border. Director marcos, operating under the assumption that many unaccompanied and alien children either dont possess an id or lose intentionally, discard as they approach our border. Is there a process and pays in place to verify their age . Thank you congressman. Dhs is the initial assessment of the children and provides biographical information. They fingerprint everyone over 14 years of age. We received this information on a child when they come into our care. Has there been an instance in which the age verification process has proven that someone claiming to be a child has actually been an adult . That has happened and when it happens, we have very strict policies and anyone suspected of an adults that came into the program would be isolated, would not be around children and we would go through steps to verify the age of that individual. In the event received intelligence that unaccompanied unaccompanied alien child has been abused by their sponsor, what protocol is in place to alleviate the situation . A is done immediately. We refer to local Law Enforcement, Child Protective Services and other federal entities as appropriate. Approximately 66 work fulltime jobs. The biting demonstration only began to take direction corrective action following the publication of this piece. With the administration unaware or unwilling to address it at the risk of drawing further attention, i can only speak since ive joined, our team has been working with dol on cases i believe since 2021. We have just formalize an agreement and are leaning in to increasing policies and procedures to combat this. This is a whole of government approach. Please hear me when i say this. We want you to be successful, but sadly today you are not. Mr. Chairman i yield back. Looks like thats all we have. I would like to ask any closing comments . Thank you mr. Chairman. I want to thank our witness again for being here today. I want to also remind the committee that this is a very broad question. You have a piece of a very serious problem we are trying to address. While we are having this conversation, we know that House Republicans solution is try to attempt to end immigration and asylum. These are Building Blocks for our country. Just this week, they are marking up a bill that will end any sort of support and in the work that you are doing. This bill requires importation for unaccompanied children and would drive and document a children in the u. S. Underground. As we know its been discussed today. Children may attempt to completely cut ties and their sponsors with all Government Agencies including those designed to support and protects them from unlawful labor practices to avoid the risk of deportation. These bills, if they pass would make children more vulnerable to exploitation. We have a situation in front of us where we want to assist in the work of protecting children and expanding our followup process ensuring more children are safe, we should be funding these agencies appropriately. We should uplift the work we are doing while ensuring children are safe and protected. Thank you and i yield back to the chairman. Thank you for coming over. I think i speak for probably the majority of the members on the panel. Im very disappointed of all the answers you are unable to give us. To me, overall weve gone from the final year. Covid was half of the final year. Having 15,000 unaccompanied minors to deal with. Within a couple of years has shot up to hundred 28,000. The entire year was covid related so a lot of these problems yield from the open borders policy. You cant go from 15,000 to 120 thousand and think youre not going to be able to remotely handle them. Im very disappointed that you dont know percentagewise those 128,000 you did dna testing on. And of the Border Patrol does it occasionally and is not unusual to find that a situation that they were lying about, whether a kid is related or not. If you dont know the present of these kids. You talked to two parents, i would like to know and i think its relevant, a couple of years ago under the passive ministration, nothing worse than having children separated from their parents for a few weeks. Now we are children being separated from their parents for the rest of their lives. You know how many times contact with parents . There was a very good question here. The sponsor rejection rates, any of the sponsors inadequate. You dont know what the percentage of that rate is. The fact we dont know where 85,000 unaccompanied minors are according to the New York Times is kind of scary. And it was not necessarily your responsibility but to say 85,000 kids running around in this country, we dont know where they are. Thats just unacceptable. You are unable you are unable to ask a question whether its to prevent whistleblower retaliation and ensure, that something we should know about. I think we do not have an adequate response as to what we know about other people and these families. You imply we find an uncle. There are people who dont know their own goals. There are people who have never met their own goal before in their life. Sometimes these sponsors are in the household. They do the one person we dont have a background check on her we do but of the people we dont. So a lot of people have been asking questions and presumably you will get thats they will get back to us in a week or two with the answers. Im glad we had a hearing. At i guess a takeaway on the hearing is if you let this opendoor policy, part of the opendoor is more to me we have a lot of unaccompanied minors attached from their parents come into the country and not surprisingly we have no idea where they are winding up. Or no idea whether they are safe or not. In any event, thats it. With that, without objection, all members legislative days with to submit to submit materials and additional questions for this witness which will be forwarded to the witness for her response. If theres no further business without objection, subcommittee stand adjourned. Thank you. Its a mess you know. [indiscernible conversations] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2023] Congress Returns tuesday for legislative business and votes. The house gavels back in at 12 on eastern. Leader this week, they will consider the House Republicans Border Security bill. House and Senate Leaders are scheduled to meet with President Biden tuesday at the white house you ta about the federal debt limit. The senate is back in session lawmakers will debate more of President Bidens executive nominations. 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