that has been here before, but the fact is, we haven't heard from anyone from the department of health and human services. department of health and human services. i'll also implore the majority and the administration to try to schedule this hearing at a time when gives us time for statements and questions. i understand his appearance is truncated so that members will not havea full five minutes, even after a year and a half of questions. it's impossible to do oversight if you don't have time to ask questions and follow up. the missionof department of health and human services to enhance health and the wellbeing of all americans. unfortunately this administration appears to be more focused on advancing an ideology than fulfilling that mission. despite congress's inability to repeal the affordable care act and the public's resounding opposition to repealing and sabotaging the law, the administration continues to destabilize the health care system, for example its efforts to expand the sale oflow quality health plans which do not offer coverage for people with preexisting conditions, will continue to incre

and members of the committee. thank you for inviting me to discuss the policies and priorities of the department of health and human services and the president's budget for this agency for fiscal year 2019. it's an honor to be and to serve as a secretary of hhs, whose mission is tone hands and protect the health and welcome back of all americans. it's a vital mission and the president's budget clearly recognizes that. the budget makes significant strange investments in hhs' work. among other targeted investments the budget requests $34.8 billion for the national institutes of health, $5.8 billion for the food and drug administration, $9.3 billion for head start, and $6.2 billion in childcare funding. the president's budget especially supports four particular priorities that we have laid out for the department. issues that the men and women of hhs are hard at work on already. fighting the opioid crisis, increasing the affordability and accessibility of individual health insurance, tackling the high price of prescription drugs, and transforming our health system into one that pays for value. first, opioid addiction and overdo

second, children in dhs and hss custody are being well taken care of. the department of health and human services office of refugee resettlement provides meals, medical care and education allege services to these children. they are provided temporary shelter and hhs works hard to find a parent, relative or foster home to care for these children. parents can still communicate with their children through phone calls and videoconferencing. a parent that's released from custody can be a sponsor and ask hss to release a child back into their care. further, these minors can still apply for asylum and other protections under u.s. immigration law if eligible. we take allegations of mistreatment seriously, and i want to stress this point. we investigate, we hold those accountable when and if it should occur. we have some of the highest detention standards in the country. claiming these children and their parents are treated inhumanely is not true, and completely disrespects the hard working men and women at the office of refugee resettlement. third, parents who entered illegally are by definition criminal

bureaucratic nightmare regular because you have the department of justice the department of homeland security and the department of health and human services all working. with a piece of this. situation themselves and there's seems to be fairly little cross agency communication there so what we have here is as you mentioned earlier something of a public relations disaster for the white house and the republican party yeah i'd like to get more details on the public relations the sausage because clearly the white house is currently in damage control we've seen a lot of pictures of children in cages and now we have the first lady making the surprise visit to the center. yes and this was intended to show the first lady's compassion and that the whole trump family was very concerned about these these children but as you mentioned he she wore this jacket a thirty nine dollars sort of military drab olive green jacket which had the words i don't really care do you cross the back now you know. the lani a trump is a former fashion model this is a woman who cares about what she wears and she's aware all the time of what she puts on when she gets dress

of the children wailing? >> i have been to detention centers. i would reference you to our standards and the care provided, not just by homeland security but the department of health and human services. >> is that the image of the country you want? >> the image i one of this country is an immigration system that secures our borders and so -- uphold our humanitarian ideas and congress needs to fix it. bush said this is cruel and she supports an application of the law, and the current first lady said we should be a nation of laws and do so with heart. do you have anything you want to tell them. do you believe there is a component of this policy, you are using in a way that is more intense than other administrations and creates the separation issue? >> calling attention to this matter is important. this is a very serious issue that has resulted after years and years of congress not taking action. i would thank them for their comments and their concern. i share the concern. congress needs to fix this. major: this is not cruel? >> this is not a policy. dhs policy is to enforce the law. bush compared this to japanese internment during world war ii. do you believe that the effect , butis p

but it's going to take time for the department of homeland security and the department of health and human services and downstream with the assistance of the defense department to get these kids back into the arms of their parents where they shouldn't have been taken in the first place. but there will be a plan that's presumably being worked on right now to unscramble this mess. >> juliette, a spokesperson from the department of health and human services, which technically right now as we understand it is in charge of most of these kids told cnn they're quote awaiting further guidance on the implementation of the executive order. as i said. so they're awaiting the implementation. who is going to give them that guidance? >> the white house should. there's a national security staff and a homeland security staff. there's a new homeland security adviser. this is a complicated issue and it's requiring not just hhs, dhs, dod, all the acronyms we talk about, but state and local officials, ngos, nongovernmental organizations helping out, the private sector with the prison -- the child prison owners. so thi

department of health and humanity services. welcome, secretary azar. >> chairwoman fox and ranking member scott -- >> secretary azar, i ask you to raise your right hand. do y do you swear the testimony you give will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? >> i do. >> let the record reflect secretary azar answered in the affirmative. i think you understand the lighting system. i'm not going to read the script. it's a five minute time. when one minute is left, the light will turn yellow. at the five-minute mark, the light will turn red. >> thank you for inviting me to discuss the policies and priorities of the department of health and human services and the president's budget for this agency for fiscal year 2019. it's an honor to be here and to serve hhs. it's a vital mission and the president's budget clearly recognizes that. the budget makes significant strategic investments in hhs's work. among other targeted investments, the budget requests $34.8 billion for the national institutes of health, 5.8 for the food

this bipartisan bill will require the department of health and human services and d.e.a. to increase the amount of education done to ensure that pharmacists, physicians and the public understand that pharmacists ha both the right and the responsibility to deny possible apply fraudulent prescriptions. pharmacists are often the last line of defense in the fight against drug abuse. pharmacists are alled to exercise sound professional judgment to decide whether a prescription is legitimate and should be filled. this bill would make sure everyone in the prescribing chain from doctors to pharmacists to patients know what a pharmacist can and should do. by empowering pharmacists to the fullest extent, we can reduce the number of opioids on the reets and slow the flow of opioids. i thank mr. carter who is the only pharmacist in making this bill a reality. i would like to thank the national community pharmacist association for their support and help thrugho the drafting of this bill and i thank chairman walden and ranking member pallone for their support. thank you, and i yield bac

of the federal government. three agencies are responsible for the detachment and resettlement of children who enter the u.s. illegally with their families. the department of: security, the department of health and human servicesice. homeland security run detention centers, like the ones toured by democratic lawmakers from the house and senate earlier this week, our temporary shelters where illegal minors are housed for the first 72 hours on u.s. soil. these shelters are also the source of ongoing and explosive controversy in washington and across the nation. after their first 72 hours, minors are transferred into the custody of the department of health and human services. they remain there for an average of 57 days. now multiple hhs officials tell fox news to 100 facilities they run nationwide in 17 states aren't being fairly represented. they claim their centers are a far cry from those run by the department of homeland security. among the services hhs claims they provide to minors in their custody our classroom facilities, where teachers and instructors provide lessons. full medical facilities and access to treatment. three meals per person per day. clothing and options to participate in field trips and oth

the department of health and human services formed a new task force to tackle the challenge. ut lawmakers say it is slow and confusing. >> i think these children have been sent off. they may have a number but when they go through the department of health and human services, they get a different number. >> 25 members of congress spoke out near mcallen texas. barbara lee was there. >> this process, is such a dehumanizing process. these children are going to be traumatized. this is part of the trumpet ministration's issue here. they are in cells and in cages. >> one immigration lawyer says she sees no movement from the government when it comes to reunifying families. >> the government is not making an effort to do that. efforts to reunite children and reconnect them are being done agencies like ours. most parents are still in the criminal process. >> customs and border protection say they're going to expedite the reunification of families but the agency does not have that type of infrastructure to get it done quickly. advocacy groups are now recommending to use this tent city in

and again, i would reference you to our standards. i would reference you to the care provided not just by the department of homeland security but by the department of health and human services when they get to hhs. >> but is that what you want out there, children the image? >> the image i want of this country is an immigration system that secures our borders and upholds our humanitarian ideals. congress needs to fix that. yes. >> i wanted to give you a chance to respond to laura bush an op-ed she says it's cruel and she supports an application of the law even the current first lady melania trump said we should be a nation of laws and do so with heart. do you have anything you want to tell them do you believe they're misunderstanding the situation or do you believe there's anything in this policy which as you've outlined other administrations have done but you're using it in a way that is more intense and creates the separation issue. >> what my response would be is calling attention to this matter is important. this is a very serious issue that has resulted after years and years of congress not taking action, so i would thank them both for their comments, i would thank them

sponsors with is keeping track of children and reporting their workouts to ice and so i think what we're going to see is actually more children. department of health and human services will be on. able to reach and this is problematic because you know they have put in safeguards to make sure that children are being released to. sponsors that are going to treat them well but that's not always the case and so i think that there needs to be some kind of safeguard where a child who's in a trafficking situation or a child who is being abused feels comfortable reaching back out to the opposite refugee resettlement or another child welfare agency without fear that they will be turned over to ice if they do so ok and erica for international audience is an acronym for all of refugee resettlement and wrecked picking up on what you said here on twitter sent us a chain of tweets and in it she says as a lawyer on twitter pointed out given the current close cooperation between nice and just which is the health and human services we probably don't want our government keeping close tabs on these kids and their families anyway it would only lead to more deportations of those who are

services they are entitled to receive. many frail, disabled or otherwise home-bound patients benefit from and even rely on medicaid personal care services and home health services. yet the department of health and human services office of inspector general, o.i.g., found in recent years that the existing program safeguards at the time were often ineffective. despite the fact that they were intended to prevent improper payments and to ensure medical necessity, patient safety, and quality care. furthermore, the o.i.g. warned the fraud in this area was on the rise. which endangers vulnerable patients and wastes taxpayer money. e.v.v. systems were developed to protect some of the most vulnerable medicaid recipients. last congress in response to the o.i.g. report, i wrote and included a provision in the bipartisan 21st century cures act, to require state medicaid programs to use e.v.v. to attract all personal -- track all personal carer ises -- services conducted in a patient's home. in the time since the implementation, i have received feedback that more time is needed to implement e.v.v. systems. to make sure they are properly and fully integrating the e.v.v. technology. this year i worked with congress

just a subset of a larger portion of children that, you know, crossed here without their parents and are also in the o custod the department of health and human services. it's just very unclear what the path is for reuniting them. robert: what is also unclear, yeganeh, is what is being done from the federal perspective. you wrotehis week for reuters about how one child stopped eating and fell into depression at one of these centers. another who could walk on his own now asks his mother to carry him everywhere. a third child started biting other children. there is a federal response to ree medical, psychological issues these chi are facing? yeganeh: those stories from all from children kept at family detention centers. there are only three in the united states able to house families together. experts have found that any sort of detenon for child whether in one of these centers or at a harsheril fy is damaging to the child. they really urge the government to be limited in their usef family detention. you know, even putting aside thoseue i the government only has like 3200 beds in these familyettion centers and so, you know, in one month alone they daine

. >> they didn't let us bring our cameras inside, but the department of health and human services took these photos of the shelter where we saw a facility pushed to capacity, crammed bedrooms, kids in line for food. the kid here don't get out much, spending almost 22 hours a day indoors. they also don't talk with their parents very much either. and we were told cases of psychological distress is also something they see here. with some of the kids being medicated for mental health issues without their parents even knowing it. >> psychological distress from kids who are separated from their parents. it's something over decades we have learned as a global society is a terrible thing to do. we're going to be discussing why we continue to separate children from their parents at our borders. all right. it's a day of protests across the nation as we get our first look inside america's largest detention facility for migrant children. take a look at the video given to nbc news by the department of health and human services, which is in charge of these shelters. almost 1500 boys spend, as you ju

second, children in dhs and hhs custody are being well taken care of. the department of health and human services office of refugee resettlement provides meals, medical care, and educational services to these children. they are provided temporary shelter and hhs works hard to find a parent relative or foster home to care for these children. parents can still communicate with their children through phone calls and videoconferencing. a parent who is released from custody can be a sponsor and asked hhs to release the child back into their care. further, these minors can still apply for asylum and other protections under u.s. immigration law if eligible. we take allegations of mistreatment seriously. i want to stress this point. we investigate. we hold those accountable when and if it should occur. we have some of the highest standards in the country. claiming these children and their parents are treated inhumanely is not true. it completely disrespects the hardworking men and women at the office of refugee resettlement. third, parents who entered illegally are by definition criminals. illegal entry

ese department of health and human services is scrambling to reunite families separated at the border under president trump's zero-tolerance immigration policy. hundreds more children held by customs and border protection were expected to be back with t.eir parents by last night. ineya villarreal is in tornillo, texas, with the latest on the border crisis. >> set the children free! set the children free! >> reporter: protesters along the south texas border took a stand against the separation of families, stopping a bus briefly while chanting, "set the children free." >> te eldozen children could be they're in cells, and they are in cages. >> reporter: 25 members of congress spoke out saturday after gaining access to the federal detention facilities near mcallen, texas. >> and we asked to speak to somebody who was there, and, as they opened the door, these 20 or 30 mounds of silver mylar became little girls. odey stood up. ehey were scared. some had been crying. >> reporter: but the government's plan to reunite families has been slow and confusing. at a bus station near the border, doz

and introduce our guest. >> to all of you, thank you so much for welcoming us here. i want you to know how grateful we are at the department of health and human services for the work you do for these children. we are privileged to be with you. i am just delighted the first lady is with us to hear from you. >> thank you so much for having me here today. i am glad i am here and looking forward to seeing the children. first of all let me begin to thank you for all that you do. for your heroic work that you do everyday. and what you do for those children. we all know they are having do. fear without their family. i want to thank you for your indness. i am here to learn about your facility which i know you have hildren on a long-term basis. i would also like to how to help these children to reunite with their families. thank you for all that you do. thank you all for what you do. thank you very much. >> thank you for being ere. everyone around the table here can introduce themselves and ive a brief explanation of your agencies. >> i'm am the chief patrol agent of the u.s. border atrol. we are the first encounter for unacompanied children who come to our co

second, children in dhs and hhs custody are being well taken care of. the department of health and human services office of refugee resettlement provides meals, medical care, and educational services to these children. they are provided temporary shelter and hachs works hard to find a parent, relative, or foster home to care for these children. parents can still communicate with their children via phone calls and video conferencing. a parent who is released from custody can be a sponsor and ask hhs to release the child back into their care. these minors can apply for asylum and protection under u.s. immigration law, if eligible. we take allegations of mistreatment seriously. and i want to stress this point. we investigate. we hold those accountable when and if it should occur. we have some of the highest detention standards in the country. claiming parents and children are treated inhumanely is not true. it completely disrespects the employees working at the settlement. third, parent who is entered illegally are by definition criminals. illegal entry is a crime as determined by congress. by enter

and challenge with really. human drama playing out of how to really reconnect the children that have already been separated from their parents now the department of health and human services runs the shelters like this one behind me that has thousands of children that have been separated they've just started this task force to try to bring all of the different government agencies together to figure out how they're going to do this reunification process and it's clearly not going well and if there is a clear plan it certainly has not been articulated to anybody at least not publicly and at least what we're seeing here on the ground and what we heard from these lawyers and what we're seeing everywhere else is that there just is not any indication of any significant reunification happening again we're outside this shelter and actually it's a little different when you said that the shelter for. infant children is actually down the street were there earlier this one is actually for boys there are hundreds of migrant children boys in this shelter and we've seen no sort of reunification at all happening here no buses coming up to pick up any of the kids nothing at all that we've

and it varies from agency to agency. therefore, what i'm proposing in this bill is a task force that gets together two representatives of the department of health and human services, the department of education, the department of agriculture and the department of labor, together -- to get together and look for solutions and look for best practices. the secretary of health and human services is also supposed to appoint four other members to this task force. i don't want this to be one of the task forces that's hanging out there for too long. they've got to come back with recommendations within nine months and hopefully we'll use these recommendations by this time next year, on this floor. it is very frustrating, like i id, to attend these hearings and hear among the experts such divergent opinions as to how to save some lives here. we really cannot be spending more time on programs that don't work or having the agencies not work with each other. i look forward to strong leadership from this committee. i expect that they will be taking advice from strong local leaders who have done what they can to address this epidemic around the country. we must put our full weig

>> reporter: in a release by the department of health and human services the agency says they have a ocess to ensure that family members know the location of their children and have regular communication after separation. but federal public defenders in el paso say in a number of zero tolerance criminal cases their clients have not been told where their children are. >> so when the president says that the stories of grief are overexaggerated at the border, how do you contend with that? >> i would say mr. president, come to el paso and i will show you stories that are real stories of grief and sadness. madep the ppleheir and they're ldldis.r: sy a gaon o bot rcan and democratic politicia housing hundreds of unaccompanied teenagers. 23 of them were recently separated from their families-s and there are at least seven girls inside. >> most surprising thing you saw in there as you're walking through, what really kind of caught your eye? >> you know, just the fact that you look around. i mean, we're in the middle of the desert. and you've got a tent city here. i think it's in many ways a m

website that touts 70 years of experience caring for at-risk populations, and with a number of government agencies including the u.s. department of the health and human services at the fairfield facility would speak to me.a woman working on site told me to leave the private property."the woman didn't identify herself, she escorted me to onto this public sidewalk, and handed me a business card, with the contact information for the department of health and human services."repeated calls to the agency were not returned. congressman john garamendi--speaking from his cell phone at the border--said he has worked to get details on the children housed in fairfield...and federal agencies are stonewalling him. rep. john garamendi: "we've been stonewalled by the refugee response organization specifically responsible for caring for these kids, little response from ice and the border patrol."garamendi is scheduled to tour a texas border detention facility saturday.the trump administration has asked the department of defense to create space on military bases to house up to 20-thousand children.a similar plan four years ago designated travis air force base as a possib

coordination between law enforcement agencies and the department of justice and scientists and researchers at the department of health and human services. together, this bill strikes a balance between giving law enforcement the ability to stop the flow of deadly synthetic drugs while allowing the research community to study these dangerous drugs, identify the root causes of addiction, and advance the latest cures for serious illnesses. mr. chairman, we cannot stand idle as criminal manufacturers and distributors of synthetic drugs continue to flood our country and destroy the lives of countless americans. not one more family should feel the pain that the family felt after the synthetic drug shipped from china took garrett's life. sitsa is a bipartisan bill and i commend mr. katko of new york and miss rice, also from new york, for their efforts in moving this legislation forward. i urge my colleagues to support sitsa and bring an end to the era where manufacturers and distributors can freely profit from selling these dangerous drugs and destroy so many lives. i yield back. the chair: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from pennsyl

hhs, the department of health and human services and oor, part of, the part of resettle many, but how will the larger part be reunited. there were a group of democratic congressmen had a lot of questions for reuniting them. >> my concern is what is the plan to reunite those 2400 children still in custody? number two, why are you building prison camps in naval stations for 45,000 if you'll reunite families and president trump is not rejected and said we're not doing zero tolerance anymore. you're still separating them and now you'll have family prisons with whole families in there. there has to be a better way. >> what do you say to supporters of the administration who argue, look, it's very sad seeing these images of these children, the families should not be separated but the law needs to be enforced and borders need to be secured. what do you say? >> why put children in cages if. if you're christians and believe in family values and believe in the american creed written on the statue of liberty how can you tolerate this? there has to be another way to do this. those congressmen that

departments of the interior and agriculture and moving to the epa. sounds like it makes sense, and renaming the department of health and human services to the department health and welfare. the welfare department will be in charge of the food stamps program. the plan would give the department of agriculture more authority and give them powers currently given to the food and drug administration. the work on civil projects would move to the departments of transportation and interior. perhaps the most controversial of all, the proposal seeks to combine the departments of education and labor. supporters say it would create a consistent through line between school and the job market. critics argument it would make it easier to defund both departments. with me now, john harwood. john, when you lay it out basically, it sounds like the benefits of consolidation could be very good. because government agencies and bureaucracy are filled with lots of fat. >> there are benefits consolidation. i think on education and work force, the education and labor departments, that does make sense. there's increasing focus on apprenticeships, on job training. things that tie

late last night, the department of homeland security and the department of health and human services outlining a reunification process for the 2053 separated minors in custody as of june 20th. they say the reunification process is a coordinated effort between federal agencies. i.c.e. has already, quote, coordinated with hhs for the reuniting of the child prior to leaving the united states. some children who are in custody who are separated from their families at the u.s.-mexico border that their parents have already been deported and are no longer in the united states. we have asked dhs for specific numbers how many children in their custody that might have occurred to, and for more information on general so are far, jon, we have not heard back. jon: there are two, or were two republican bills in the congress. congress voted down the so-called goodlatte immigration bill. will members vote on the other republican, the so-called compromise plan? >> they say they plan to this week, a vote on the so-called compromise bill was delayed two times but say they do plan on voting on it this we

of the truly irresponsible things for this and this is where you do tay a consequence in the real world and people suffer, and the department of homeland security is one department and the department of health and human services is anothe department and a handoff of the children -- to hhs and then the parents in dhs custody and they didn't know -- and how do the people coordinate. >> so add another -- >> and it is a disgrace. it is boring to talk about governance and it does matter and it is a disgraceful ins dent in pursuit of a policy trump and the chief of staff john kelly and sessions had sort of -- trumpeted as a great innovation and i agree it is a disgraceful moment and he should be held can accountable. and congress has dropped the ball. we have committees with oversight and people -- >> i asked senator johnson if he would hold a hearing on this and he said no. >> isn't that amazing. or craft legislation regardless of the president or get together with senator cruz or feinstein and say we don't care about the ridiculous talk from the white house, we'll get together and try to solve the short-term problem and we have slightly different views or compromise but no one in the congress has much stomach to

and border protection from the linked article transfers to the department of human services. so when federal department picks them up, they take them to another vertical department called the department of health and human services and hhs, health andse human services supposed to do and keep these kids for a short period of time until they can be placed with sponsors. that is how the system works. the sponsors then are supposed to ensure they stay safe and k t them to their appropriate immigration proceedings. unfortunately based on the investigation, often that does not happen. what happened in this case is our investigation was able to reveal these kids, brought over from guatemala from these traffickers taken into custody, they've gone to hhs for short-term detention facility then sent out to sponsors and guess who the sponsors were that they were given to? the traffickers. they were given to the traffickers, not to family members or friends with someone who could be trusted. you think of a surrogate family or foster family. they were put in the custody of the human traffickers. they did not get these people and as a result they took these kids north, took them to my state of ohio which is

>> so we broke yesterday that the department of health and human services has created an interagent task force to try -- interagency task force to try to reunite the kids with parents. a lot of the parents have been dpoe deported to central america. it will be a big effort to send the kids to central america. that would be fraught with legal challenges because of the gang follows and extreme dis-- gang violence and extreme disorder in countries that it is illegal to send people back unless their asylum claim has been heard. >> our guest a couple of minutes that said it's congress' responsibility to reunite children with families. what's the administration do? do they feel they have a greater responsibility than they would have before the zero-tolerance policy was implemented to reunite especially parents in central america back with their children here in the u.s.? >> i think the trump administration, they view it as a political crisis. as long as there are thousands of kids without their parents, this is going to be a headache for them. they don't see congress doing much to solve this i

alien number of their child and even if they did, it wouldn't do much good because that number is changed once the child is taken into custody by the department of health and human services, and then flown somewhere across the country into foster care. so, the matching up of these families is going to be very difficult, but it should be the one and only priority for this administration at this point in time. because the pain and suffering that is being endured is unthinkable. >> we spoke with congressman coffman, your colleague, who is a republican, who has been very critical of this administration, in particular when we talk about this policy that was enacted to separate the families to begin with. he seemed to believe there was a plan to get the different systems, the different organizations, parts of this government that are involved in the immigration system together to then enact this reunification. did you get the sense that there is a plan, they're trying to pursue? >> no. not at all. in fact, the staff at all the facilities are really operating with no policies, no new policies, so the president, you know, signs an executive order, and then washes his hands of it

and again, i would reference you to our standards. i would reference you to the care provided, not just by the department of homeland security but by the department of health and human servicesthey get to hhs. >> but is is that the image of this country you want out there, children -- >> the image i want of this country is an immigration system that secures our borders and upholds our humanitarian ideals. >> reporter: over the weekend former trump chief strategist steve bannon appeared on "this week." >> we ran on a policy very simply to stop mass illegal immigration and limit illegal immigration, get our sovereignty back and to help our workers. okay? and so he went to a zero tolerance policy. zero tolerance. it's a crime to come across illegally. and children get separated. >> reporter: as the fight rages on, and with policy makers at odds, it is the experience of those detained children that is of greatest concern. for "nightline" i'm marcus moore in mcallen, texas. >>> next, the dangers in south and central america that drive families to seek safety in the united states. if your moderate to severe ulcerative colitis or crohn's symptoms are holding you back, and your curr

alex cesar is a secretary of the department of health and human services. mr. secretary, thanks for being here. you saw steve's report. what is your reaction to that? you heard the pediatrician talking about her assessment of those kids. >> we take excellent care of these children who are entrusted to our care. we get kids who are unaccompanied. these are kids who have been sent by their parents to cross into the united states by themselves, often with a smuggler, sometimes traffic into the country. or whose parents have brought them here and crossed illegally and then been arrested for paralegal crossing. we provide them with education, meals, medical care, dental, vision, athletic time, they get entertainment. they get psychiatric care. we are providing excellent care to these kids until we can get them placed with a sponsor. >> bret: you brought some video. we haven't been able to accept it on our own, with our own cameras, these facilities. these videos are from two different facilities and include girls and young children as well. first, will you let other

we learned from political, the department of health and human services creating a task force to deal in some capacity with what's happened here. what is your sense of the magnitude of the confusion, the chaos and engagement from this administration in trying to figure out what needs to happen next? >> it's clear at this stage they did not have a plan for reunification, or at least it wasn't a priority. as this has all unfolded throughout the week, it is clear the administration was surprised by the backlash. the "washington post" and the "times" this morning, we are learning more about the fact that steven miller loves these images, he loves the sight of asylum seekers and undocumented people in these detention facilities. and i think that's particularly alarming if you're an american who is repulsed by these images of people in cages and children and babies separated from their parents. so i think this administration, their priorities seem to be not aligned with really just american values in this moment. and i think that the priority right now should be to immediately and as quickly

and we're seeing the ramifications of that now there are so many challenges primarily that there are so many government agencies involved in this the border patrol department of homeland security department of health and human services all of these agencies have a hand in trying to reunite in some way the children with the parents but there's no over arching system in place to actually make this happen also many of the children have been transported to shelters outside of texas there are some in florida some in new york as well as over ten other states this is a very difficult problem as well and many of the children young as young as eighteen months old so they can't even communicate with social workers to tell them what their name is who their parents are this is a challenge and forget that some of the parents have already been deported out of the country back to central america without their children how do you really night people that are in other countries that have been deported back with their kids that are here in the u.s. a huge challenge that no one seems to have an answer to the longer this goes on there's a real possibility that some of the children that are currently separated from their parents will ne

and face criminal charges for illegal entry. obviously the executive order last week put a stop to that separation, but there's still thousands of children in that system, and the department of health and human services are tasked with caring for these children. and now with the case of this 15-year-old child who left the premises, the question is what kind of protocols should be in place to make sure that those children do not wander away from the facility. because the facility stated earlier that they are not a detention center and they can only do what they're tasked with the law enforcement agencies which is to care for those children in those facilities. >> now part of the plan for reuniting the thousands of families separated at the border. here's what we do know from the development of homeland security, when immigrant families first cross the border, they are detained and the parents are taken to i.c.e. custody and the children are turned over to the department of health and human services. 2,000 children remain with h hrk s. in some cases children sand their parents won't be reunited. the media hasn't been allowed to film inside those centers where these children are being held, even lawmake

have to show me proof. >> she says the children were supposed to be reunited, the department of health and human services made a new task force to conquer the challenge, but lawmakers say it is slow and confusing. >> i think these children have been sent off, but when they go through the department of health and human services they get a different number. >> 25 members of congress spoke out saturday outside a facility in texas. east bay congressman was there. >> it is such a dehumanizing process. these children are traumatized. so, this is part of this trump >> theare in cells and they are in cages. >> one immigration lawyer says she sees no movement when it comes to reunified in -- reuniting the families. >> efforts are being done by agencies like ours, most of the parents are still in the criminal process. >> customs and border protection say they were going to expert the reunification of families but experts don't have that type of infrastructure to get it done quickly. advocacy groups are now recommending to use this tent city in texas as a temporary solution.>> meantime, protesters at another facili

and june 9th. those separated children were placed in the care of the department of health and human services while their parents remain in the custody of the department of homeland security. >> you've got a big legal mess here. on one hand zero tolerance policy which basically says, we don't want to release people pending trial. and you've got a requirement that they're only allowed to keep someone with a kid there for 20 days. and there's going to be a tension between those two. >> reporter: the chaos compounded by the administration's mixed messages. >> we can't do it through executive order. >> we are keeping families together. >> reporter: even the first lady's trip, meant to send a message of compassion, instead sewed the threads of confusion as these photos surfaced, the message on the back of her jacket, "i really don't care do you." her spokes woman saying, it's a jacket, there was no hidden message. after today's important visit to texas, i hope this isn't what the media is going to choose to focus on. >> this was inexapplicable. images matter. this was about images and this is among the

and we're seeing the ramifications of that now there are so many challenges primarily that there are so many government agencies involved in this the border patrol department of homeland security department of health and human services all of these agencies have a hand in trying to reunite in some way the children with the parents but there's no overarching system in place to actually make this happen also many of the children have been transported to shelters outside of texas there are some in florida some in new york as well as over ten other states this is a very difficult problem as well and many of the children young as young as eighteen months old so they can't even communicate with social workers to tell them what their name is who their parents are this is a challenge and forget that some of the parents of already been deported out of the country back to central america without their children how do you really night people that are in other countries that have been deported back with their kids that are here in the u.s. a huge challenge that no one seems to have an answer to the longer this goes on there's a real possibility that some of the children that are currently separated from their parents will never

end the widespread practice of taking children from their parents at the border the department of health and human servicesuncertain of the reunification process. let's tell you about a child. in just hours an immigrant of guatemala, hoping, hoping to be reunited with her 7-year-old son after appearing in federal court in washington. the judge ordered him to be flown to her. after darwin was taken from her at an arizona holding facility. she said it's like they're putting a knife in your chest and killing you. i want to see my son again, please. the mother and son have only shared one phone call. the mother said he's never spoken to me with such sadness and a knot in his throat. one of more than 2,000 of these stories caused by the u.s. government. cnn's paw lo sandoval. any word on how others might be reunited? >> reporter: jake, civil rights attorneys here in south texas definitely want an answer to that question that there's still not clarification on. some of the attorneys traveled here to the federal courthouse in mcallen and said they witnessed something they haven't seen since the implementation of

and give a brief role of what it is you all do within your agencies. should we start with you? >> brian harrison. i'm the deputy chief of staff and secretary at the department of health and human services'm chief of the border patrol, and we encounter the many unaccompanied children that come into our country. >> good morning, i'm maggie wynn. i work with children who are sheltered here. >> i'm the clinician here. we provide all the mental health services and the support while they're on their journey and upon their reunification. >> i'm a case manager . my role here is reunification. >> i'm the shelter unit manager and i take care of the everyday operations with the children. >> i am beth reha. i'm the medical coordinator here at new hope. we do the health screenings for all the new children. >> good morning, i'm the lead teacher aide and i make sure these kids get the best education we can give them so they can have a successful life. >> hello, good morning. i am with hhs and i work with a program in reviewing the cases of the children who will be reunited with their family members. >> i'm a field supervisor for the division of child separations. it's nice to meet you. >> thank you v

officers at i.c.e., or people at the office of refugee resettlement which is the department of health and human servicescilitate these reunifications but as you say the point really is everyone is just scrambling tooth and nail to find some way of connecting parents and kids before the parents are deported and the kids remain here in the u.s. >> have you -- since you've been reporting on this, have you seen an influx in national resources from anywhere in terms of people trying to goetz down there and provide effective advocacy. is this existing local groups that are trying to pick up the slack and upscale to meet this big new need from this big new policy or are they resources there to try to help. >> it's an interesting question. it's hard to tell what the national scope of all of this attention has allowed local advocates to do. there's obviously a handful of local advocates who are in the trenches. there are a number of national organizations, you mentioned one earlier, the women's refugee commission, then there are groups like las americas or the florence project in arizona that have done more loca