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- Feb 16, 2016
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Why the Migrant Child Crisis Is Roiling the California Governor Race
The Times broke the story that has become a dominant line of attack against Xavier Becerra, the Democratic front-runner. Here are five things to know about it.
15 May 2026 ~~ By Hannah DreierIn the first years of the Biden administration, thousands of children crossed the border alone and ended up working in some of the most dangerous jobs in the country. Migrant children as young as 13 suffered chemical burns on overnight factory shifts, had their limbs mangled by conveyor belts or fell to their deaths from roofs.
I broke this story in 2023. I didn’t expect that three years later, the reporting would become a major line of attack in the California governor’s race.
Opponents of Xavier Becerra, the Democratic front-runner, have been excoriating his tenure as secretary of Health and Human Services, the federal agency that was responsible for finding safe homes for those children. In the past two weeks, campaigns have spent more than $6 million on commercials in English and Spanish using my reporting (and even my voice, taken from interviews I did), according to AdImpact, a tracking service.
One ad says that “more than 85,000 migrant children went missing” under his watch. Another says that during Mr. Becerra’s tenure “kids suffered from forced labor, trafficking and abuse.”
~Snip~
Did children disappear on Mr. Becerra’s watch?
In debates, Mr. Becerra has been grilled again and again about the whereabouts of 85,000 children who went “missing” while he ran H.H.S.
The children didn’t vanish. But the reporting found serious breakdowns in how H.H.S. vetted sponsors and safeguarded children.
H.H.S. is responsible for children when they first cross the border. Caseworkers care for them in government shelters, vet the adults who come forward to take them in and then follow up with a phone call a few weeks later to check in.
~Snip~
What exactly happened to migrant children?
In 2021 and 2022, children migrated to the United States in record numbers, usually from impoverished towns in Central America. Most of them were not reuniting with parents but living with sponsors who often encouraged, helped or even forced them to work. Thousands ended up in punishing jobs that were illegal for minors — cleaning slaughterhouses or working at lumber mills or in roofing.
This failure went far beyond H.H.S. Labor Department inspectors did not effectively enforce child labor laws. Schools declined to report that their students were working long hours in jobs that should have been off-limits. Multinational companies ignored young-looking faces on their factory floors.
Within H.H.S., many staff members were angry with Mr. Becerra. Again and again, they sent up reports, including some that reached his level, warning that children appeared to be at risk.
This week, the same H.H.S. employees told me they were frustrated that the California race seemed fixated on claims about 85,000 “missing” children. What troubled them more, they said, was that the government rushed to release 250,000 children and then did so little to find out what became of them.
Did children die?
Children did die after being sent to their sponsors. Others were catastrophically injured.
Here are just a few I found: Andrés Toma, 16, fell to his death three months after being sent to live with an uncle. Antoni Padilla, 15, lost the ability to speak after falling from a roofing job. Marcos Cux, released by H.H.S. at age 13, was working at a chicken plant when a machine tore open his arm. When I met him, it hung limply by his side. It’s unclear whether these children received H.H.S. follow-up calls, or whether a call would have mattered.
~Snip~
The changes were finally made near the end of 2024 and 2024 by President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who instructed his aides to take immediate action after the first article was published.
Mr. Becerra was repeatedly called before Congress and questioned by both Republicans and Democrats. But then, as now, he said that what happened to the children after they were released from H.H.S. shelters was not his responsibility.
Commentary:
Unfortunately, most Americans know that The NYT was and previously was covering for Biden Administration and Xavier Becerra. They don’t get to pretend to be the good guys now.
As the NYT points out:
“In [2021-2023], thousands of children crossed the border alone and ended up working in some of the most dangerous jobs in the country. Migrant children as young as 13 suffered chemical burns on overnight factory shifts, had their limbs mangled by conveyor belts or fell to their deaths from roofs...”
Just how many of the 85.000 California or estimated 3 50,000 US illegal minors were sold into sex trafficking ?The companies and employers need to ruined and people put in jail, needless to say that Beccerra's lack of interest, responsibility and incompetence should not allow him to run for office ever again.
