Officials launch two reviews

Federal officials launch two reviews into Trump’s handling of migrant children

By DAN DIAMOND

The GAO and the Health and Human Services inspector general both launched reviews Wednesday into the Trump administration's handling of thousands of migrant children separated from their families at the border.

The GAO told Rep. Frank Pallone (N.J.) that it will audit the systems and processes used to track families as they were separated, including how the HHS Office of Refugee Resettlement monitored each minor in its care, according to a letter obtained by POLITICO.

Pallone, the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, last week urged GAO to audit HHS and the Department of Homeland Security as the agencies work to reunite children in their custody with their parents. President Donald Trump issued an executive order last week purporting to rescind the separation policy, but agencies said they lacked the authority to put families back together.

Meanwhile, the HHS inspector general announced that it will review the safety and health protections in the agency's shelters for migrant children. Senate Democrats last week called for the review, citing reports that some children were receiving substandard care.

HHS and DHS have been widely criticized for a seemingly haphazard approach to family separations. District Court Judge Dana Sabraw — who on Tuesday night ordered migrant families to be reunified within 30 days — called the Trump administration's lack of procedures to track families a "startling reality."

HHS Secretary Alex Azar on Tuesday defended the administration's tracking system, claiming that parents should be able to locate their children “within seconds” using an online government database. He said hundreds of children separated at the border have been placed with a parent or relative, though more than 2,000 kids remain in his department’s care.

The agencies also face logistical challenges as they work to put families back together. Bob Carey, who ran ORR under former President Barack Obama, told POLITICO’s "Pulse Check" podcast on Tuesday that “all the systems” in the refugee office were developed to reunite children with parents who were already in the United States.

“That’s very different from trying to reunify a child with a parent who may be in a detention facility,” he said.