Xavier Becerra
Steve Hilton is turning Xavier Becerra’s record as Health and Human Services secretary into one of his biggest lines of attack—accusing his Democratic opponent of weakening the screening process for adults taking custody of unaccompanied migrant children and overseeing a system that Hilton says left more than 319,000 children unaccounted for.
Becerra served as secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under former President Joe Biden from 2021 to 2025, overseeing the Office of Refugee Resettlement, the agency responsible for caring for unaccompanied migrant children before placing them with sponsors in the United States.
During that time, Hilton says more than 319,000 unaccompanied migrant children went missing after being released from HHS custody.
His claim is based on a Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General audit that found Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) could not effectively monitor many children after their release to sponsors.
The audit found more than 291,000 children had not been placed into immigration proceedings, and more than 32,000 failed to appear for scheduled immigration court hearings—a combined total of more than 319,000 children whose whereabouts ICE could not effectively track.
As evidence, Hilton’s campaign has repeatedly pointed to leaked audio from an internal HHS meeting in which Becerra criticized staff for moving too slowly in releasing unaccompanied migrant children to sponsors.
This is:
Xavier Becerra, in a leaked audio recording, confirms that he transformed HHS into one of the largest child trafficking operations in U.S. history.
He admits that children were to be placed as fast as possible, like products moving down an assembly line, without… pic.twitter.com/n7DoBP0IWF
—RealRobert
(@Real_RobN) July 28, 2026
“This is not the way you do an assembly line,” Becerra said.
“We need to get discharges up… Every time we have to go to the Hill and explain why we’re spending so much money… we’re spending more than $1,000 a day for kids who may not even have the legal right to be here.”
Hilton has also highlighted testimony from former case managers in the Office of Refugee Resettlement’s Unaccompanied Children Program, who alleged they were pressured to approve sponsors despite unresolved concerns.
“We were constantly getting information that was false, and we were supposed to go with it,” one former case manager said.
The whistleblower also alleged that some sponsors could not identify the child they were claiming, submitted fraudulent identification, and, in some cases, there was no confirmation the child ever arrived at the listed address.
CALIFORNIA DEM SAYS 85,000 MISSING MIGRANT CHILDREN WERE JUST TRYING TO MAKE MONEY
California Democrat gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra was asked about 85,000 migrant children reported missing under the Biden Admin — many later found working overnight shifts in… pic.twitter.com/31PKGo5Fr2
— NewsForce (@Newsforce) May 15, 2026
While Becerra has not responded to Hilton’s recent claims, he dismissed similar allegations in a May interview with KTLA. When asked about a New York Times report stating that 85,000 migrant children were unaccounted for, Becerra responded, “What you just read is not accurate—I don’t know if you got those talking points from Donald Trump.”
The Daily Signal contacted Becerra’s campaign for comment but did not receive a response by publication.
Lance Christensen, vice president of government affairs and education policy at the California Policy Center, told The Daily Signal many well-intentioned Americans who support accepting migrant children don’t see the dangers many of those children faced in the hands of Becerra.
“It breaks my heart because a lot of parents probably felt desperate in their home countries for any number of reasons. They often sent their children north alone. Those children fell into the hands of smugglers, traffickers, and cartels that used them to make money and didn’t care about their welfare.”
“Xavier Becerra was one of the central figures in this whole process and absolutely dropped the ball,” Christensen said. “Because he dropped the ball, we have literally hundreds of thousands of children—we have no idea where they are. They got through a system and have now become basically a commodity for human trafficking.”
While stressing that he supports legal immigration, Christensen argued compassion must be paired with safeguards.
“I’m all about welcoming people in—but there has to be a process, and it has to be done with wisdom and order. If you just let people run across the border, you can’t control a lot of the illicit, illegal activity that’s happening, often to the detriment of young children, women, and other innocent people.”
[Editor’s note: This story originally was published by The Daily Signal.]
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[ H/T WorldNetDaily ]
