Xavier Becerra wants to be the next governor of California, and apparently his resume includes overseeing a system that lost track of 319,000 children. That's not a typo. Three hundred nineteen thousand kids just vanished on his watch as Health and Human Services Secretary. But sure, let's give him a promotion.
As USA Journal reported, a woman named Juana Rebecca Perez Santay has gone on camera, using her real name, to describe what happened to her after Becerra gutted the vetting procedures at HHS that were specifically designed to keep migrant children safe. She crossed the border at 17 years old and ended up with child traffickers. This is not something to joke about, and her testimony is genuinely harrowing.
She was forced into 20 hour work days without pay or water. She slept on a ceramic floor with men surrounding her. A drunk man attempted to assault her while her sponsor told her to let it happen. She stated plainly on video that she was sexually abused because of Xavier Becerra's administration. Her words, not some anonymous leak.
So what exactly did Becerra do? He stripped away the safeguards, including fingerprinting, background checks, and home studies, that existed to verify the adults picking up these children were actually safe people. His priority was getting kids out of detention facilities as fast as possible. Speed over safety. Over 480,000 unaccompanied minors crossed during his time running HHS. One hundred forty thousand of them still cannot be located.
Let that marinate for a second. A man who presided over a system that cannot account for 140,000 children is now the likely next governor of the most populous state in the country. That's like hiring a babysitter who lost your kid and then asking them to watch the whole neighborhood.
Steve Hilton shared testimony calling these revelations "the most disturbing Becerra Tapes yet." Journalist Jennifer Van Laar pointed out that this single testimony represents just one of more than 500,000 children who crossed without a parent or guardian under Becerra's responsibility, raising the obvious question of how many others suffered similar fates.
This information comes from HHS Inspector General reports, whistleblower testimony, and now a firsthand account from someone who lived through it. Juana's closing message was directed at Becerra himself, asking why he never protected her and warning that his becoming governor would be horrible because she wouldn't want other children to experience what she endured.
Perhaps the most jaw dropping detail? Becerra actually toured the Pomona Fairplex migrant facility while children inside were reportedly being trafficked, and he called it "a model" for the rest of the nation. He launched his gubernatorial campaign without uttering a single word of accountability for those missing kids.
California voters now get to decide whether any of this matters at the ballot box. The real question is whether they're even paying attention.
Read more conservative news commentary at: USA Journal News
