Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton intensified his attacks against Democratic opponent Xavier Becerra during a campaign stop in Fresno, accusing the former U.S. health secretary of placing migrant children at risk.<\/p>\n
Hilton displayed a wanted-style poster featuring Becerra and shared video testimony from a child who passed through the federal government\u2019s system for unaccompanied minors.<\/p>\n
Driving the news: Hilton alleged that Becerra pressured the Department of Health and Human Services to move children out of crowded shelters and place them with adult sponsors more quickly.<\/p>\n
Hilton argued that the accelerated process weakened safeguards used to verify sponsors.<\/p>\n
He alleged that the resulting placements exposed children to sex trafficking, labor exploitation and disappearance.<\/p>\n
One child featured by Hilton alleged that he was threatened with deportation and that federal officials threatened retaliation against his family.<\/p>\n
Hilton described the facilities operated during Becerra\u2019s tenure as \u201cmigrant child abuse camps.\u201d<\/p>\n
The backstory: Becerra led the Department of Health and Human Services from March 2021 until the end of the Biden administration.<\/p>\n
The department\u2019s Office of Refugee Resettlement is responsible for caring for unaccompanied migrant children and determining whether prospective sponsors are suitable to receive them.<\/p>\n
Investigators found that:<\/p>\n
16% of the reviewed files lacked documentation showing that one or more required safety checks had been completed.<\/p>\n
Nineteen percent of children released while certain background checks were pending had files that were never updated with the results.<\/p>\n
22% of the cases did not receive timely follow-up calls.<\/p>\n
The inspector general recommended additional safeguards, better documentation and stronger monitoring. The department agreed with the recommendations.<\/p>\n
Reality check: The inspector general\u2019s findings documented deficiencies in the federal program but did not conclude that Becerra personally directed abuse or characterize the facilities as \u201cabuse camps.\u201d<\/p>\n
Becerra has denied Hilton\u2019s allegations.<\/p>\n
What they\u2019re saying: Becerra\u2019s campaign responded by turning the criticism back on Hilton and President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n
The campaign accused Hilton of supporting an administration whose immigration policies separate children from their parents and cited recent fatal encounters involving federal immigration agents.<\/p>\n
The big picture: The allegations mark an increasingly combative phase of California\u2019s gubernatorial campaign.<\/p>\n
Becerra and Hilton advanced from the state\u2019s June primary and will face each other in the Nov. 3 general election. Becerra finished first with 28.1 percent of the vote, followed by Hilton with 24.6 percent.<\/p>\n
Hilton has also challenged Becerra to participate in six televised debates. Becerra\u2019s campaign says the candidates will debate but has not committed to Hilton\u2019s proposed schedule.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton intensified his attacks against Democratic opponent Xavier Becerra during a campaign stop in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425213,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-425212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}