Lawmakers Scrutinize Biden Administration for Deployment of Feds to Southern Border

When President Biden issued a solicitation back in March requesting help from the federal workforce to handle the influx of unaccompanied children at the Southern border of the U.S., hundreds of employees from several agencies volunteered.

However, a cohort of Republican lawmakers are now concerned that taking the federal workforce away from their primary duties for a four-month detail risks agency missions.

In a June 4, 2021 letter to Secretary Xavier Becerra, the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), a group of Republican lawmakers made up of Representatives Kevin Brady (R-TX), James Comer (R-KY), Mike Kelly (R-PA), and Jackie Walorski (R-IN) discussed the Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) program administered by HHS and new information that “raises additional concerns about how the Administration is handling the crisis at our southern border and the influx of unaccompanied children that have crossed the border this year.” These lawmakers are the top Republicans on the House Committees on Ways and Means and Oversight and Reform.

The letter furthers that HHS diverted about $2.1 billion in Congressional funds to assist with the caretaking of unaccompanied minors at the border. These funds were taken from various other budgets, like the one for the Strategic National Stockpile, which was depleted after the COVID-19 pandemic. The lawmakers also expressed concerns that the number of unaccompanied minors in custody is putting major strains on the American foster care system.

The letter explained, “Last month in Texas, for example, 282 children spent consecutive nights with child protective services workers at offices, hotels, or churches, because no foster care provider had an open bed.”

While agencies do have discretion on which employees to send to the border depending on their workloads, hundreds of feds have already been deployed to the border. However, HHS has not reported on the number of deployments or the cost to agencies. Lawmakers are concerned that taking these feds away from their primary responsibilities could have a long lasting and unintended negative effect on the workings of various agencies.

The Biden administration has moved most unaccompanied minors out of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) custody to HHS custody, but lawmakers still doubt that the administration has a full grasp on the issue. For example, Senator James Lankford (R-OK), said recently, “Your administration has been touting its recent ability to transfer migrants from CBP custody to HHS custody as a success…but your need to recruit this volunteer force demonstrates again that the federal government lacks the capacity to deal with this crisis.”