WASHINGTON — House Judiciary Committee chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, subpoenaed Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra on Tuesday, calling for Becerra to provide case files for unaccompanied child migrants who have been charged with crimes in the U.S. after being released by HHS.
In the letter informing Becerra of the subpoena, Jordan details previous requests his committee has issued for case files, arguing that the administration's response has been "woefully inadequate."
The committee asked for the files as part of oversight into "mismanagement of the placement of unaccompanied alien children," which Jordan says resulted in some children "committing heinous criminal acts against Americans."
Jordan cited his own previous letters to Becerra multiple times. A November letter from Jordan cited media reports about allegations of murders and assaults, where the committee requested case files for the alleged perpetrators.
In his February letter, Jordan said that HHS has previously "noted its concern for the privacy interests of criminal aliens and asserted that the Committee lacked a legitimate oversight purpose to obtain the case files."
Jordan said that his committee agreed to review HHS documents in private "as an accommodation" but also alleged that documents provided by HHS included "pervasive redactions."
An HHS spokesperson in a statement pushed back on Jordan's subpoena, arguing that House Republicans appeared to be "offering a false pretense for a subpoena while still refusing to take action on immigration reform and border security."
"As much as we realize that House Judiciary Republicans would like to build a narrative of stonewalling, the facts remain clear: HHS already voluntarily shared the documents in question to the Committee weeks ago," the spokesperson said. "The sole information sought by the Committee is the personally identifiable information, medical records, and protected health information of children."
The spokesperson added that it was "unclear" what purpose "such personalized information" would serve.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday evening.
Jordan, a staunch critic of Becerra and the Biden administration, also served the HHS secretary with a subpoena in January.
