After Multiple Reports of Abuse, Neglect and Harm to Children, Wyden Expands Comprehensive Investigation Into Trump and Kennedy’s Treatment of Children

After Multiple Reports of Abuse, Neglect and Harm to Children, Wyden Expands Comprehensive Investigation Into Trump and Kennedy's Treatment of Children

Finance Ranking Member Widens Inquiry Into Office of Refugee Resettlement's Role in Mass Deportation Operations, Seeking Answers on Shocking Child Sexual Abuse and How Indefinite Detention Has Rapidly Expanded Wyden Demands Health Department Watchdog Explain Lack of Oversight

Text of the Letter to HHS / Text of the Letter to Inspector General's Office

Washington, D.C. - Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., expanded a sweeping investigation into the federal agency responsible for caring for unaccompanied children, following disturbing reports of abuse in federally-contracted facilities and a five-fold increase in detention times since this administration took office.

"I am [...] expanding my investigation of HHS's handling of unaccompanied children in ORR care and custody and seek information related to the Department's failure to enforce its own release timelines, its dismantling of the accountability structures Congress requires, and its tolerance of placement conditions that ORR cannot and will not adequately monitor, and in which children are being harmed," Wyden wrote to Kennedy. "Rather than protecting the welfare of children released to sponsors, this administration is converting ORR into a targeting mechanism for DHS enforcement against their families. The administration is also failing to use the full scope of its resources to ensure vulnerable children are not subject to trafficking and are receiving well-being measures to prevent future exploitation. You are not operating in ignorance of these harms. You have chosen them."

Wyden expanded his inquiry into the treatment and care of unaccompanied children in the care and custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) through two letters to the Trump administration. The first, sent to Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., lays out two dozen lines of inquiry including: the circumstances surrounding the sexual abuse of a three-year-old in ORR custody, information on children facing similar abuse, the gutting of ORR's child-welfare mission, the rise of coercive self-deportations, the increasing lengths of stay in ORR custody, and the elimination of communication channels with sponsors and legal representatives.

The second letter was sent to the HHS Office of the Inspector General (OIG) T. March Bell, highlighting the fact that HHS OIG has no ongoing substantive oversight work in progress related to ORR and demanding a full accounting of the watchdog agency's oversight work plans related to this issue, as well as recommendations that have not been implemented.

"OIG's independence from HHS leadership is precisely what gives [the] office its statutory authority and public legitimacy," Wyden wrote to Inspector General Bell. "The current workplan does not reflect that independence and children are being harmed because of it."

The letter to HHS also addressed a widely debunked claim about children in ORR custody during the previous administration that Robert Kennedy has continued to use as a shield against any attempt at accountability on his watch. In a hearing with Kennedy last month, Wyden noted he has conducted bipartisan investigations into ORR under presidents from both parties since becoming the top Democrat on the Finance Committee.

Since Trump's second term began, Wyden has put a spotlight on numerous attempts by the Trump administration to undermine the rights and well-being of children in their care, including pressuring them to self-deport, actively funding facilities with known records of abuse and neglect, withholding legal representation, and failing to enforce anti-human trafficking measures.

The text of the letter to HHS is here. The text of the letter to HHS OIG is here. A fact sheet on Trump's record on unaccompanied children is here.

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