Chairman Jordan Subpoenas HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra for Criminal Unaccompanied Alien Children Case Files

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) subpoenaed U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra for the case files of unaccompanied alien children (UACs) who have been charged with committing crimes while in the United States after being released by HHS. 

Since June 2023, the Committee has requested several HHS case files for criminal aliens charged with serious and violent crimes, including theft, brutal assault, and murder. The Committee has followed up on its requests on numerous occasions and attempted to engage with HHS in good faith, but has been stonewalled by HHS, which has baselessly withheld the case files for months.
 
As an extraordinary accommodation to HHS, the Committee agreed to review the case file materials in camera; however, once Committee staff began to review the documents, it became clear that HHS had applied pervasive redactions to the documents—without notice to the Committee. Across multiple case files, HHS redacted information about whether specific UACs had "identifying scars, marks, or tattoos"—information that can be indicative of gang affiliation. Worse, HHS went so far as to redact information explicitly requested by the Committee, including information shared with HHS by other agencies and immigration case history information.
 
By unilaterally redacting the case files, HHS rendered the requested materials provided for in camera review all but useless, frustrating and impeding the Committee's investigation into HHS' release of criminal aliens into the U.S.

Read the full subpoena cover letter to Secretary Becerra here.