Lee Gelernt, the deputy director for the American Civil Liberties Union's Immigrants’ Rights Project, testified to the House Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday the over 85,000 unaccompanied migrant children that the federal government has lost track of are not really "missing."
Gelernt was questioned multiple times by Republican members on how he can justify claiming the ACLU does not believe the tens of thousands of children are not in danger.
Gelernt maintained each time he believes the children's sponsors are simply not picking up the phone from a government agency because they are scared of the government.
"It's interesting to me that you just make the assumption that because the sponsors aren't answering the phone that you guys don't believe these 85,000 kids are missing," Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ) said to Gelernt.
"That's based on talking to people and years of working in this area, that sponsors generally do not like answering the phone from a government agency or do not know who's calling. But our belief is that these are not children who are lost," Gelernt replied, adding the federal government does do background checks.
Gelernt's assertions are not true, based on reporting from the New York Times. In their in-depth story, the Times revealed those who worked with or for the federal government who tried to raise the alarm over lack of vetting to sponsors, some of whom were getting multiple kids, were fired after trying to put a stop to it.
Jallyn Sualog, who was the most senior career member Health and Human Service's division responsible for unaccompanied migrant children under the Biden administration, said she was moved out of her position after she tried to warn the federal government of the lack of vetting.
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