Xavier Becerra’s incapability to trace tens of 1000’s of migrant youngsters whereas U.S. well being secretary — leaving many to be abused and compelled into harmful work circumstances — is exploding as a defining concern within the California governor’s race.
After his Republican rival Steve Hilton unveiled new whistleblower allegations over baby labor and intercourse trafficking of youngsters as younger as six on Monday, a former senior adviser to the Division of Well being and Human Companies slammed Becerra’s lack of oversight and claimed not less than 130,000 had been nonetheless lacking.
In 2023, a New York Occasions investigation discovered that over two years, the company couldn’t attain greater than 85,000 youngsters and the company misplaced contact with a 3rd of migrant youngsters.
However Chris Clem, a senior adviser at HHS in 2025 after serving 27 years within the U.S. Border Patrol and retiring as chief of the Yuma Sector in Arizona, advised The Put up the quantity was far greater and pinned accountability for the disaster instantly Becerra, who was Joe Biden’s HHS secretary on the time.
“The only largest border disaster of our lifetime and the most important quantity of children — this does rise to the secretary’s stage, and he ought to have had a finger on the heartbeat each day,” Clem mentioned.
Clem questioned whether or not Becerra discovered from his expertise as HHS and mentioned Californians must be involved.
“When he was accountable for children earlier than, he didn’t do an excellent job of it,” he mentioned.
Throughout Becerra’s tenure as HHS secretary from 2021 via early 2025, almost 480,000 unaccompanied migrant youngsters crossed the U.S.-Mexico border and entered the custody of the Workplace of Refugee Resettlement, the HHS division accountable for caring for migrant youngsters.
“Numbers are all the time humorous as a result of a part of the issue was the dearth of accountability at HHS on the time,” Clem advised The Put up.
Clem’s feedback comply with troubling allegations in The Put up from a caseworker on the Pomona Fairplex emergency consumption middle that younger youngsters in Southern California had been launched into the care of inadequately vetted sponsors, siblings had been separated, and weak minors vanished after leaving federal custody.
The whistleblower alleged some youngsters had been later trafficked for intercourse or labor. Kids had been additionally allegedly woken at 2 a.m. or 3 a.m. and handed small baggage of belongings earlier than being taken away.
“We don’t know who was going to be transporting the kids,” the whistleblower mentioned, including she now suspects the timing was so “no person would see the kids leaving the ability.”
In June, Homeland Safety Secretary Markwayne Mullin mentioned that the Trump administration had discovered not less than 146,000 migrant youngsters had been unaccounted for through the Biden administration.
In line with Clem, Becerra’s emphasis on quickly releasing youngsters from custody with out thorough vetting — Becerra infamously in contrast the method to a Ford “meeting line” — was an abdication of his duties.
“It was about getting children out of presidency custody as quick as attainable, and that’s the place the horrors occurred as a result of there was little or no vetting of sponsors,” Clem mentioned.
“That’s after they develop into lacking.”
Clem added, “[Becerra] did go to his amenities, so he can’t act like he didn’t know.”
Jonathan Underland, a spokesperson for Becerra’s marketing campaign, defended the candidate’s document as well being secretary and put the blame for the lacking youngsters on President Trump’s first time period in workplace.
“The place Sec. Becerra rebuilt the kid safety methods Trump gutted, Steve Hilton has proudly allied himself with the president who put these youngsters in hurt’s manner — who illegally despatched a father to a overseas jail, whose separation insurance policies proceed to take youngsters away from their mother and father, and whose ICE brokers shot two fathers useless this month,” Underland mentioned.
“Hilton is purchased in. He doesn’t get to money out now.”
Jeff Nesbitt, who served as Becerra’s public affairs chief at HHS, defended the California governor candidate in a press release to The Put up.
“Secretary Becerra inherited a disorganized, chaotic mess from President Trump’s first time period,” Nesbitt mentioned. “He and his HHS crew re-built the sponsorship and vetting community from the bottom up through the Biden administration.”
He added that no youngsters had been “misplaced.”
“HHS’ position is to search out sponsors for them whereas their instances are below evaluate within the immigration legislation system. Becerra’s HHS crew labored onerous to search out unaccompanied migrant youngsters correctly vetted sponsors. As soon as they had been positioned with sponsors, in response to congressional authorization, that was the tip of HHS’ accountability for them.”
Hilton, who has made Becerra’s document at HHS a central concern of his marketing campaign, mentioned the controversy strikes on the core of the Democrat’s case for governor, with extra allegations of wrongdoing anticipated to emerge within the coming days and weeks.
“That is going to be a defining concern for Becerra as a result of it defines him,” Hilton advised The Put up.
“He retains telling us that the rationale California ought to elect him governor is due to his expertise — let’s take a look at how he ran HHS.
“He failed essentially the most fundamental activity of humanity and decency, which is defending the weak youngsters that had been in his care.”
Hilton rejected the concept that the issues stemmed merely from an overwhelmed federal forms.
“This wasn’t incompetence. This wasn’t an company that was overwhelmed and simply couldn’t cope,” he mentioned. “These stunning abuses of youngsters occurred as a direct results of deliberate motion taken by Becerra.”
