Trump administration taking money from AIDS programme to pay for separated migrant children

The Trump administration is taking money from a healthcare programme established to tackle AIDS/HIV to fund the soaring costs of caring for the children it separated from their families under the president’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy.

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), the agency tasked with caring for minors taken from their families, has started funding this effort with money left over from an HIV/AIDS programme in 2016.

The Ryan White HIV/AIDS programme provides HIV-related health services to people without sufficient health care coverage or financial resources, according to its website.

An ACF spokesperson confirmed to The Independent that the agency was using some of the $17m in left over funds to care for migrant children, saying that the funds transfer would have “no impact” on the programme’s operation. Congress was notified of the funding transfer in 2017, and the move took place this year, the spokesperson said.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which oversees the ACF, has also suggested using $79m intended for its refugee resettlement programmes to fund the care of migrant families, according to internal documents obtained by Slate. The move could reduce funding for services like medical assistance, English language instructions for refugees, and programmes for torture survivors, according to the outlet.

HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

HHS is seeking out these additional funding streams in order to care for the more than 2,000 children the Trump administration separated from their families at the US-Mexico border. The department has spent at least $30m to house these children in the last two months, according to Politico, with housing costs reaching up to $1.5m per day. Specially contracted “influx” shelters can reportedly cost up to $800 per child per night.

These expenses will likely increase as the administration works to reunite the children with their families, under orders from a district court judge.

HHS has reportedly spent $10m on additional case managers and support staff to support this effort, and even more to deploy public health workers to refugee shelters. But the administration has so far reunited only 58 children with their families, according to the latest court filings.

HHS may soon face even more pressure to reunite the families, this time from Capitol Hill. Democratic senators introduced a bill on Wednesday calling for the immediate reunification of all separated families, and the establishment of a permanent system of coordination between agencies and non-governmental organisations to protect detained immigrants with children.

Senator Kamala Harris, who helped introduce the bill, admonished the administration for a “stunning lack of transparency and accountability has left thousands of children in need of reunification”.

“The administration must stop dragging their feet on finding the parents of the children they forcefully separated, and we must insist the Trump administration reunites every child taken from his or her parent with a verifiable and transparent process,” added Senator Bob Menendez, a co-sponsor of the bill.

The bill’s sponsors suggest paying for the the effort not with healthcare funds, but with $50m in appropriations from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).