Jim Jordan demands Biden admin answer for multiple violent crimes committed by unaccompanied minor border crossers

The Biden administration was served with a subpoena on Tuesday, demanding that the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) answer for the massive number of illegal immigrants who came into the US as minors, only to be charged with violent crimes. House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan of Ohio has asked for the case files since the summer of 2023, but due to the "woefully inadequate" response from HHS, he has now subpoenaed HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra.

The letter states that the Judiciary Committee is "conducting oversight" of HHS's "mismanagement of placement of unaccompanied alien children [UAC]." In terms of processing at the border, border agents process minors, and are prevented from holding them past 20 days per the Flores settlement, when they are released to HHS. Once the children are in the hands of HHS, they are sent to sponsors in the US.

HHS has a history of failing to properly vet those sponsors and per a new report from the Office Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services, there were substantial "gaps in sponsor screening and followup" which has "raise[d] safety concerns for unaccompanied children."

"Since June 2023," Jordan's letter to Becerra reads, "the Committee has requested several HHS case files for criminal aliens charged with serious and violent crimes, including theft, brutal assault, and murder." That Committee followed up, but to no avail until, per Jordan, "HHS finally provided a response that included a variety of baseless excuses to justify withholding the requested criminal alien files." Additional materials arrived to the Judiciary with heavy redactions or restrictions, which Jordan said is a violation of the separation of powers.

"HHS’s failure to provide the requested case file materials hinders the Committee’s ability to fulfill its constitutional oversight obligations and is unacceptable," Jordan wrote.

"The Supreme Court has recognized that Congress has a 'broad and indispensable' power to conduct oversight, which 'encompasses inquiries into the administration of existing laws, studies of proposed laws, and surveys in our social, economic or political system for the purpose of enabling Congress to remedy them.'"

"Pursuant to the Rules of the House of Representatives, the Committee has jurisdiction to conduct oversight of matters concerning federal immigration law to inform potential legislative reforms. These potential legislative reforms could include reforming HHSORR’s [HHS Office of Refuge Resettlement] placement process, including to ensure criminal aliens are held in secure placements rather than being released to a sponsor, or to enhance the level of scrutiny ORR applies in vetting UACs and potential sponsors before UACs are released in the care of a sponsor," he concludes.

Biden's Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has also been facing scrutiny from the Republican-led House, which went as far as to impeach him. That impeachment now moves to the Senate.