Chuck Grassley holds HHS Unaccompanied Children's program contractors accountable

Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley sent a letter on Monday to 23 contractors and grantees who received billion-dollar sums from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to house hundreds of thousands of immigrant children who were in the U.S. illegally.

Grassley said that last year he "sent an urgent inquiry to two dozen organizations that provided care for, or services related to, unaccompanied children in the custody of HHS."

According to the senator, the organizations under review have received $9.3 billion in taxpayer money through HHS, and during the Biden-Harris administration, they chose not to respond to Congress.

Grassley stated that he will not accept "further delay while children are at risk."

According to the senator, "It's unacceptable for recipients of taxpayer funding to refuse to provide information to Congress about the use of those funds. And it's beyond unacceptable for these federally-funded entities to refuse to answer questions designed to determine whether they protected children."

Grassley explained that he is "determined to protect UACs in U.S. custody and expose, through my oversight, fatal defects in the process for the purposes of ending child trafficking and other forms of exploitation."

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. assured Grassley of 'complete transparency' regarding the matter. Meanwhile, Tom Homan, the border czar, has promised a rescue operation for the missing minors.

Last month Donald Trump announced a major reform for the UC program calling for the collection of fingerprints from adults who serve as sponsors for these children.