Nadler, 47 Members Demand Transparency on Migrant Facility Housing Pregnant Girls

Washington, D.C. - Today, Congressman Jerrold Nadler (NY-12) and 47 Members of Congress sent a letter to Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. demanding transparency on its alleged policy of detaining girls, including pregnant girls, at the Urban Strategies San Benito (USSB) ORR facility in Texas. In the letter, the members condemned the Trump Administration for violating established legal precedent requiring unaccompanied minors have access to all reproductive healthcare options and requested information regarding their care.

The Members requested transparency on HHS's practice of housing pregnant girls in Texas, a state without access to abortions, writing, "We write to confirm your agency's alleged practice of placing all pregnant unaccompanied children in the care of a single Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) shelter in San Benito, Texas. If so, this policy would contradict your agency's Field Guidance #21, which requires ORR to place unaccompanied pregnant minors in states that provide access to the full range of reproductive healthcare options."

The members continued, writing, "These children have survived extraordinary hardship to arrive in the United States. All are entitled to the full range of medical care, including reproductive health care, as required by ORR's own regulations. Deliberately placing them in a medically inadequate facility in a state that bans abortion over the objections of the agency's own health officials is a political decision, not based on the welfare of children."

Congressman Joaquin Castro (TX-20) led the letter. Other members who signed the letter include: Reps. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Henry C. "Hank" Johnson, Jr. (D-GA), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ), Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), Andrea Salinas (D-OR), Veronica Escobar (D-TX), Mark Pocan (D-WI), Maxine Waters (D-CA), Sylvia Garcia (D-TX), Jonathan L. Jackson (D-IL), Danny K. Davis (D-IL), Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-CA), James P. McGovern (D-MA), Delia C. Ramirez (D-IL), Mike Quigley (D-IL), Doris Matsui (D-CA), Jasmine Crockett (D-TX), Gilbert Ray Cisneros, Jr. (D-CA), Sara Jacobs (D-TX), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Judy Chu (D-CA), Dan Goldman (D-NY), Frederica Wilson (D-FL), Julia Brownley (D-CA), Lateefah Simon (D-CA), Jesús G. "Chuy" García (D-IL), Adam Smith (D-WA), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Maxine Dexter (D-OR), Kelly Morrison (D-MN), Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Darren Soto (D-FL), Paul Tonko (D-NY), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), Dina Titus (D-NV), Deborah K. Ross (D-NC), Teresa Leger Fernández (D-NM), Seth Moulton (D-MA), Nydia Velázquez (D-NY), Greg Casar (D-TX), Summer L. Lee (D-PA), Adriano Espaillat (D-NY), Maxwell Alejandro Frost (D-FL), James R. Walkinshaw (D-VA).

The full letter is available here.

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