Page 240 - Hhs News Today

Can you just explain how besides the employees that arent getting paid, how services are affected to regular -- to every day americans, like hhs not being fully operational, homeland security, et cetera. >> sure. so we know that about a full quarter, 25%, of federal government continues to be shut down. these are food inspectors, these are custom inspectors at the port of baltimore and other places. there are also federal contractors, these are the men and women that are janitors in buildings, t...

This hour president trump and dhs secretary are huddling behind closed doors the talk about border security. its a meeting thats set against the backdrop of a partial government shutdown over that very topic. word from hhs that more than 14,000 unaccompanied migrant children are in custody here on christmas eve. not the case so for one little girl in particular whose voice you may remember. msnbc has been following the story of one family and has an update. >> reporter: 7-year-old alison might n...

Their court case. a majority of them have family members as pasponsors. we should be able to release these kids. hhs made a decision earlier this week that i think is going to help this problem by strae streamlining the administrative process. we want to make sure we are putting kids in a safe environment, and we want to make sure we close this temporary facility by the end of the year. >> do you believe up until that move you talked about this week, the federal government was slow walking the a...

>> they were thinking this could be a deterrent from people coming here, just like separating children from their mothers arms. they thought that was a potential deterrent. if you are messing with children as your strategy for border security then you need to go back to the drawing boards. new leadership at hhs, orr, thats the office of refugee resettlement which is managing the settlement, and they are making tough decisions thats better, one, for our country and its in line with our values. >>...

Leadership at hhs and overturned one of the rules that were making it longer to have, and that were increasing the length of time that a kid was staying in some of the detention facilities, and so they recognized the impact that it was having. the head of the o.r.r.r. whi wi is the office of refugee are resettlement should have the decision, and this should reduce the amount of time that kids are staying this the detention facilities and close a facility like the one in my district by the end of...

Also theres 2,000 positions in border patrol that are unfilled. we need to be making sure were focusing on reducing that. this is where the -- our money should be focused on and also if you want to deal with illegal immigration you have to address the root causes and that is violence and lack of economic opportunities in the northern triangle, thats honduras, el salvador and guatemala. we should be talking about how do we strengthen the state department and usaid. i was down in those countries r...

I would probably have a better chance of getting it from the folks on the ground down in torneo, but this is -- i just recently this a conversation with senior leaders in hhs, they are committed to making sure kids are put in safe families and reducing the wait times. this is something that i instructed the folks on the ground to ensure that hhs back here in washington, d.c. knew all these categories of folks so that we can try to reduce it and close that facility. >> congressman, you talked abo...

Well again. the republicans have no alternative to the affordable care exact they have been refusing up to this point, to sit down with us. >> bottom line, when congress was republican controlled, there was no alternative that was able to pass. we know of course the dems take over the house in january, so most people im speaking with say listen, whatever steps forward are likely to be legal and not legislative. >> dana: well keep an eye on everything, the government, i mean, they have a responsi...

These stations, in these remote lotions and they dont make it easy for these people to seek help. and actually, there are more people like her and her father who were forced to go to these remote locations because theyre being asked to wait when they try to enter the legal way and claim asylum through legal ports of entry. >> those remote locations, we should just be clear, theyre called iceboxes because theyre kept so cold. those have been around forever. and then not being medically staffed. t...

Theres a lot of back and forth, the flores settlement was reached to figure out if you are apprehending families at the border, is it better for children to stay with their parents or do you need to put them into protective services run by hhs where their needs may be better taken care of. people argue its better for children on either side of the issue. the fact is the trump administration escalated the number of separations that were taken place when they put into effect that zero tolerance po...