GOP rep urges HHS to halt reported plan to release child migrants before background checks completed

EXCLUSIVE: Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, R-Tenn., on Wednesday wrote to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra, urging him to change course after reports that the department will allow migrant children to be released to sponsors before background checks are completed, and is allowing staff to work at facilities without FBI checks.

"I am greatly concerned by these deeply troubling reports and I hope the agency will reverse course on these policies to ensure they are not further endangering these migrant children," the congressman wrote in a letter to Becerra, obtained by Fox News.

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Fleischmann, who serves as the ranking member of the House Appropriations Homeland Security subcommittee, cited a Wall Street Journal report which said that unaccompanied migrant children in HHS custody could soon be released before sponsors’ background checks have been completed.

The Journal reported that child welfare officials will conduct checks after the minor is placed with a sponsor.

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The move comes as the Biden administration scrambles to cope with a dramatic influx of migrant children to the border. There are more than 5,000 child migrants in Customs and Border Protection (CBP) custody and more than 11,000 in HHS custody.

The administration has been quickly moving to build and open new facilities to house migrant children, while also loosening capacity restrictions to allow them to house more migrants. The agency recently put out a call for federal volunteers to help with the backlog.

A separate KOSA report said HHS is no longer requiring staff at migrant centers to pass an FBI background check to work there.

Fleischmann cited the reports and noted that a 2016 Senate report found that HHS under former President Barack Obama placed more than a dozen children into the care of human traffickers after not conducting background checks.

"It is jarring that the Biden administration has not learned from the mistakes of the past," Fleischmann wrote.

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The letter comes a day after HHS announced that a group of 500 migrant children was arriving at an emergency site in Fort Bliss, Texas -- one of several "emergency intake sites" being used by the agency to provide housing.

"Additional capacity is urgently needed to manage both enhanced COVID-19 mitigation strategies and the increasing numbers of UC referrals from CBP," HHS officials said in a statement. "HHS is aggressively working with its interagency partners to ensure that UC are safe and unified with family members or other suitable sponsors as quickly and safely as possible."

Fox News’ Thomas Barrabi contributed to this report.