More than three dozen Republican senators have called on the Biden administration to cancel a Department of Health and Human Services proposal that would allow the government to stop vetting certain adults who apply to take custody of an unaccompanied immigrant child.
Thirty-nine GOP senators, led by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), sent HHS officials a letter Monday in which they threatened to overturn a proposed rule by Congressional Review Act legislation they alleged would wipe out the screening process of adults seeking to take in children who come over the border alone. They called the proposal "alarming, dangerous, and potentially illegal."
"The Proposed Rule makes most vetting for sponsors of unaccompanied minors simply optional," the 39 senators wrote in the letter to Office of Refugee Resettlement Director Robin Dunn Marcos and Administration for Children and Families acting Assistant Secretary Jeff Hild.
"[The rule] reveals chronic foot-dragging — if not total reluctance — when it comes to protecting vulnerable children," the senators wrote. "It provides ample protections to government bureaucrats at the expense of children."
HHS put forward a rule in September that would not require government employees and contracted workers at its Office of Refugee Resettlement to follow certain vetting procedures for adults who wish to take custody of the child.
"In effect, ORR accepts a sponsor’s representations almost entirely on face value. ORR then delivers the child at taxpayer expense and free-of-cost to the un-vetted sponsor, opening up the possibility that a vulnerable child could fall into the hands of a potentially criminal or drug-addicted sponsor," the senators wrote.
The government agency does not require that the home where the child would live be inspected beforehand, nor would the adult's employment background be necessary. The government would also not require child welfare officials to interview members of the household where the child would live, fingerprint the adults in the household, or conduct a background check with the country of origin's criminal records in the case that the adult sponsor is not a U.S. citizen.
Even more concerning, the lawmakers said HHS had already begun enforcing the rule internally, unbeknownst to the public. The Washington Examiner reached out to HHS for comment.
Children who come into the United States illegally are smuggled by Mexican cartel organizations that have been paid or are owed money for moving the child over the border. Children often arrive at the border with a name or phone number of a family member or friend in the U.S. for border officials to contact.
Border Patrol initially takes custody of a child and is supposed to turn over single children to HHS, which then holds a child for roughly one month while it searches for an adult to release the child to live in.
But amid the unaccompanied child crisis that erupted at the start of the Biden administration when President Joe Biden elected not to turn away children as had been protocol during the coronavirus pandemic, more children than ever before began to cross the border. Since Biden took office, well over 300,000 children without parents have come over the border and been apprehended.
A New York Times report published earlier this year found that the HHS was not able to get into contact with more than 85,000 children whom it released to sponsors, igniting fury among Republicans for how the Biden administration had lost children. The New York Times report found some children had been trafficked into the U.S. against their will or forced into dangerous jobs instead of being placed in school.
Monday is the final day for public comments to be submitted on the rule under the government's regulatory process.
Republicans threatened to shut down the proposal before it becomes policy by forcing a vote on congressional disapproval of the final rule.
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"The Proposed Rule is wholly unworkable and ORR should discard it and its current practices," the senators wrote. "If not, Congress will have no choice but to introduce a resolution of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act."
Read the full letter here: