The Department of Health and Human Services says it needs two, or three, or maybe seven years to provide complete details on unaccompanied minors entering the United States, according to a new public records lawsuit.
The Center for Immigration Studies has been waiting almost a year for copies of “text messages received, and text message responses thereto, by the Office of Refugee Resettlement National Call Center from January 1, 2021,” through December 2023.
The call center is a “helpline for unaccompanied children, sponsors, and their families to support them throughout their reunification process, including after the child is released to a sponsor’s care,” according to the initial public records request.
The conservative immigration think tank initially filed its Freedom of Information Act request on Dec. 18, 2023, nearly a year ago.
Now, it is suing HHS for slow-walking documents, as the department has given a large time frame and will not promise to keep a faster pace — even one that is slower than the norm.
The department first said it could process the 13,000 messages at a rate of 150 per month, according to the lawsuit. This works out to about seven years.
The think tank countered that it should not take that long since the messages work out to the equivalent of 335 Word document pages and “the average production rate for most FOIA litigations is around 500 pages a month.”
This is for a request, after all, that has been granted “expedited processing.” Who knows how long the department would take for a normal request?
After being pressed, HHS said it could try to work fast for a few months, but there are no promises it will continue at that pace. Keeping up what it considers a fast pace could still take up to two years.
This is simply too slow.
“The disclosure of the requested records will shed light on the operations or activities of the government as it pertains to the federal government’s responsibility to execute and regulate immigration laws and policy,” the think tank wrote in its initial request.
Releasing the records will also help the think tank’s experts analyze the information and inform the public how the government’s “operations” will affect “U.S. economic and security interests, the environment, and the potential strain on public and private institutions and their resources.”
It is important the documents come out sooner rather than later, as immigration, including unaccompanied minors entering the country, continues to be a problem. Even two years is far too long since there will have been an entire congressional term and half of either Kamala Harris’s or Donald Trump’s presidency.
There will be budgets passed, laws formulated, and executive orders issued that address immigration policy, including unaccompanied minors. President Joe Biden wants $5.5 billion alone for resettling children and a total of $6.5 billion for “refugee and entrant assistance.”
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The slow-walking of the request deprives the Center for Immigration Studies and other experts from learning whom this money might go to and what minors are enduring at the border. Furthermore, it is needed to help lawmakers determine how the billions of taxpayer dollars will be used. Information sent to the hotline could provide insights into violence at the border, drug trafficking, and the abuse of children.
The Center for Immigration Studies and the public in general deserve to know this information. The one positive sign in this affair is that HHS, unlike the Department of Treasury, at least is responding to the request instead of just ignoring it.
Matt Lamb is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is an associate editor for the College Fix and has previously worked for Students for Life of America and Turning Point USA.