Half-billion dollars shifted to migrant children in custody
Money was intended for research, other services
WASHINGTON — Federal health officials are reshuffling nearly a half-billion dollars this year to cover the expense of sheltering a record number of migrant children in the department’s custody, according to government documents and officials.
In a recent letter to several members of Congress, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said the department is moving “up to $266 million” to house children from other countries who are on their own, diverting money originally intended for biomedical research, HIV/ AIDS services and other health-care purposes.
HHS also has given its “unaccompanied alien children” program all $180 million available from a discretionary pot of public health money — a fund the Obama administration used to help implement the Affordable Care Act, a law that President Donald Trump has sought to undermine.
These figures, for the fiscal year that ends this month, provide a first glimpse into how much the Trump administration has been spending on migrant children in government custody, who arrived unaccompanied by an adult or were separated from their parents at the border. Congressional Democrats have been asking for this information for months, and the administration still has not disclosed an overall amount.
The reshuffled sums fall within the HHS secretary’s authority to move money among the programs within the sprawling department, and even critics say it is not improper. Federal figures show that the department has transferred money into its programs for migrant children refugees four years since 2012.
But the shifting of $446 million to shelter immigrant youngsters this year is greater than the combined total during the past half-dozen years — and more than double the previous largest transfer, in 2017.
The number of children in custody of HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement is at an all-time high — now more than 13,300.