Becerra denies North Carolina officials’ claims that Biden HHS may open migrant children facility

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Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra denied claims by North Carolina officials who said the Biden administration was seriously considering opening an emergency facility to house unaccompanied migrant children in the state.

Rep. Richard Hudson, a North Carolina Republican, asked Becerra in a hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday about a Washington Examiner report that the Biden administration had reached out to Greensboro officials about housing as many as 800 children at a boarding school property in a residential neighborhood.

“There is no plan that we have to show for children in North Carolina. We are always looking for sites where we can provide the type of safety and security that children need, and we have sites throughout the country, but there is no plan I can tell you right now to shelter children in North Carolina,” Becerra said.

NORTH CAROLINA CITY COULD BE NEXT TO HOUSE UNACCOMPANIED MIGRANT CHILDREN

HHS is responsible for holding children who have come across the southern border without a parent or guardian. Children are taken into custody by Border Patrol agents and then transferred to the HHS Office of Refugee Resettlement, whose employees will hold the children for approximately one month while they search for a sponsor in the United States to discharge the child to. Amid the influx of 45,500 children at the border since Feb. 1, HHS has opened more than a dozen facilities to hold children due to a shortage of existing spaces.

A Greensboro official said HHS conducted a site assessment at the American Hebrew Academy, an international boarding school, as its next site to hold up to 800 children. The city said the Biden administration reached out about the school. The boarding school closed in 2019 due to financial troubles.

HHS has visited the Greensboro site twice in recent weeks and is not expected to announce its decision until the summer. HHS would contract medical, security, food, and other services for the site, but Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughan claimed it could lead to “as many as 800 jobs” for local residents. The federal government would provide on-site security and medical needs, independent of city and county resources.

In March 2020, the Trump administration opted not to arrest anyone who illegally crossed the border and instead turned them back so that Border Patrol stations would not become crowded with people amid the coronavirus pandemic. In early February, the Biden administration chose to stop turning away children without guardians, which resulted in more than 18,000 children showing up at the U.S.-Mexico border in March, the most recorded in a single month.

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Since January, the government has spent approximately $3 billion on costs associated with housing children who have crossed the southern border.

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