Oregon Senator Ron Wyden demands answers on rise in detention times for unaccompanied minors
WASHINGTON, D.C. (KTVZ) -- Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden has expanded a comprehensive investigation into the federal agency responsible for the care of unaccompanied children. The inquiry by Sen. Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, follows disturbing reports of abuse, neglect, and harm in federally contracted facilities, including allegations of sexual abuse of a 3-year-old child.
The expanded investigation specifically targets the Office of Refugee Resettlement, or ORR, due to a five-fold increase in detention times for unaccompanied children since the current administration took office. Wyden sent letters to Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and HHS Office of the Inspector General T. March Bell seeking answers regarding these concerns.
Sen. Wyden has overseen bipartisan investigations into ORR under presidents from both parties since he became the top Democrat on the committee. Wyden's letter to Secretary Kennedy laid out two dozen lines of inquiry. These included the circumstances surrounding the sexual abuse of a 3-year-old in ORR custody, information on other children facing similar abuse, and the dismantling of ORR's child-welfare mission. The letter also addressed the rise of coercive self-deportations, increasing lengths of stay in ORR custody and the elimination of communication channels with sponsors and legal representatives.
Wyden criticized the Department of Health and Human Services' handling of unaccompanied children. "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 Secretary Kennedy. He further stated that the administration is converting ORR into a targeting mechanism for Department of Homeland Security enforcement against families and failing to use its resources to protect vulnerable children from trafficking and exploitation. "You are not operating in ignorance of these harms. You have chosen them," Wyden added.
The second letter, sent to HHS Office of the Inspector General Bell, highlighted the absence of ongoing substantive oversight work by the OIG related to ORR. Wyden demanded a full accounting of the watchdog agency's oversight work plans related to this issue and a review of 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 claim about children in ORR custody during the previous administration, a claim that Secretary Kennedy has continued to use as a defense against accountability. Since Trump's second term began, Wyden has spotlighted several attempts by the administration to undermine the rights and well-being of children under their care. These attempts include pressuring children to self-deport, actively funding facilities with known records of abuse and neglect, withholding legal representation, and failing to enforce anti-human trafficking measures.
