Former Biden Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra wants to be the next governor of California. And during a May 5, 2026 gubernatorial debate, he got confronted with one of the ugliest chapters of his time running HHS: the fate of hundreds of thousands of unaccompanied migrant children released from federal custody. His response? Blame President Donald Trump. Deny the problem exists. Tell voters there were “no lost kids.” That might have worked if the paper trail didn’t already exist, written by his own government’s watchdog and by members of his own party. Becerra: "The Trump campaign in 2024 talked about 'lost kids' when there were no lost kids." The Biden DHS' own Inspector General found that over 300,000 migrant children went missing under their watch. pic.twitter.com/jyrNSzQs2n — Greg Price (@greg_price11) May 6, 2026 The confrontation came from an unlikely source. Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a fellow Democrat running for governor, pressed Becerra directly on whether he was proud of how migrant children were handled under his watch at HHS. Becerra’s defense was simple: Donald Trump lied about it. He told the debate audience that “the Trump campaign in 2024 talked about ‘lost kids’ when there were no lost kids.” Villaraigosa wasn’t buying it. He fired back by invoking New York Times reporting that won a Pulitzer Prize for exposing the child migrant crisis and a 2023 letter from 26 House Democrats to Becerra himself warning of child exploitation on a massive scale. It’s not my talking point or MAGA’s — the New York Times won a Pulitzer Prize for exposing the child migrant crisis that happened under Xavier Becerra’s watch. 26 Democrats in Congress called it a national shame. pic.twitter.com/OyQjtPNAyx — Antonio Villaraigosa (@AVillaraigosa) May 7, 2026 The Daily Caller reported on the full debate exchange and how it turned into a Democrat-on-Democrat fight over a Biden-era HHS scandal: During the May 2026 California gubernatorial debate, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa pressed former Biden HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra on the handling of migrant children under his watch. Villaraigosa referenced approximately 85,000 migrant children and alleged that some had been harmed, exploited, or killed after being released from federal care. Becerra pushed back by blaming President Trump, insisting that Trump had lied about the migrant children situation and that the 2024 Trump campaign used fabricated claims about “lost kids.” Villaraigosa challenged that framing by pointing to the New York Times investigation that won a Pulitzer Prize for exposing the crisis, as well as a 2023 letter from 26 House Democrats sent directly to Becerra voicing alarm about child labor exploitation. The exchange turned the issue into an intra-party confrontation rather than a Republican-versus-Democrat argument, with a fellow Democrat forcing Becerra to answer for the Biden administration’s record on the safety of migrant children released from federal custody. Becerra had no answer for the documentation from his own party. Let’s be clear about why Becerra’s debate denial was so brazen. His own administration’s inspector general had already documented the scope of the problem in black and white. On August 20, 2024, the DHS Office of Inspector General issued Management Alert OIG-24-46, titled “ICE Cannot Monitor All Unaccompanied Migrant Children Released from DHS and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Custody.” Read that title again. That came from the Biden administration’s own watchdog. The DHS OIG laid out the situation in stark terms: The inspector general found that ICE could not monitor the location and status of all unaccompanied migrant children or initiate removal proceedings as needed after they were released from federal custody. From fiscal years 2019 through 2023, ICE transferred more than 448,000 unaccompanied children to HHS. The watchdog said ICE was unable to account for the location of all unaccompanied children who were released by HHS and did not appear as scheduled in immigration court. ICE reported that more than 32,000 unaccompanied children failed to appear for their immigration court hearings during that period. Additionally, more than 291,000 unaccompanied children had not been issued Notices to Appear in immigration court as of May 2024, meaning the legal process to even track them through the system had never begun. The OIG recommended that ICE develop automated systems and a formal process to identify and report children who fail to appear, and to share that information with HHS. The fact that these basic tracking systems did not already exist under the Biden administration tells you everything about the priority this received. To be precise about those numbers: the OIG did not present them as a single confirmed list of physically missing children. What it documented was a system that could not track where these kids were, could not get tens of thousands of them to show up in court, and had not even begun the legal process for hundreds of thousands more. That is a system with no ability to claim “no lost kids.” And the inspector general wasn’t the only warning Becerra received. A year before that report, members of his own party sounded the alarm in writing. A May 25, 2023 congressional letter from 26 House Democrats to Secretary Becerra laid out the crisis in terms no one could misunderstand: The Democrats wrote to express deep concern about labor exploitation of migrant children documented in an investigative news series. The letter described firsthand accounts of children suffering forced labor, trafficking, and abuse after being released from HHS Office of Refugee Resettlement custody. It cited HHS data showing that reports of labor trafficking involving migrant children had increased by approximately 1,300 percent over five years, and Department of Labor data showing that illegal child employment by U.S. companies had risen 70 percent. The lawmakers warned that ORR might not be adequately screening sponsors or ensuring the safety of children after discharge. They cited testimony that ORR had lost contact with about one-fifth of the children released from its care in fiscal year 2022 and asked what actions HHS was taking to locate those children and verify their condition. The letter called the prevalence of child labor exploitation a “national shame” requiring immediate action. That letter was addressed directly to Xavier Becerra. Twenty-six House Democrats. A 1,300 percent increase in trafficking reports. One-fifth of released children gone from contact. A “national shame.” Becerra received that letter, and now he stands on a debate stage three years later and tells California voters there were no lost kids. President Trump told the country this was happening. He was called a liar for it. The Biden administration’s own inspector general confirmed the tracking failures. Twenty-six congressional Democrats confirmed the exploitation and the lost contact. And now Xavier Becerra, the man who ran the agency responsible for these children, wants voters in California to believe none of it was real. The records are public. The letter has his name on it. The OIG report was published under the administration he served. Becerra can call it a talking point all he wants, but the receipts came from his own government and his own party — and they document a catastrophic failure to protect the most vulnerable children in federal custody.