"There is no evidence that HHS leaders ever tried to stop this abhorrent policy," said Rep. Diana DeGette. | Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Photo Congress Federal health official warned of risk of separating migrant children A career official said he told three Trump appointees about the health risks to kids, long before the administration announced the border policy.

A federal health official testified Thursday he warned three Trump appointees about the potential health risks of separating migrant children from their parents more than a year before the administration announced the controversial policy.

Jonathan White, a career civil servant who helped lead efforts to reunify thousands of separated families, told a congressional oversight panel he first learned in February 2017 the administration was considering separating migrant families.


He said he quickly encouraged the Department of Health and Human Services officials to intervene to stop the policy, but he said they told him the administration would not implement the policy — though it would later be formally announced in May 2018 before being scrapped amid public uproar about six weeks later.

During the hearing of the House Energy and Commerce oversight committee, Democrats attacked the abandoned border policy as inhumane and faulted health officials for not opposing it.

"There is no evidence that HHS leaders ever tried to stop this abhorrent policy," said subcommittee chair Diana DeGette (D-Colo.). "As the agency dedicated to the health and welfare of children, we need to know why."

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The defunct "zero-tolerance" border policy was originally crafted by the Department of Homeland Security and then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The HHS refugee office took custody of the separated children but didn't have a role in setting the separation policy.

HHS Secretary Alex Azar declined committee requests to testify at the hearing. Azar, who joined the administration in January 2018, didn't know about the policy as it was being devised, an individual with knowledge told POLITICO.

White, the career HHS official, said he had raised concerns to Scott Lloyd, then-director of the HHS refugee office; Steven Wagner, then-acting assistant secretary for children and families; and counselor Maggie Wynne.

The Trump administration reported last year that more than 2,800 migrant children had been separated from their families at the border. An inspector general report last month found that "thousands" more children may have been separated by the Trump administration than previously known, months before the policy was announced.

HHS assistant inspector general Ann Maxwell, who helped write that report, testified Thursday that some HHS officials raised questions about whether the count of separated children was accurate.

Lloyd, the former HHS refugee director, has since been moved to the department's office for faith and community initiatives. He is scheduled to testify at a House Judiciary Committee hearing about family separations on Tuesday. Democrats have long called for HHS to fire Lloyd, citing his reported mishandling of the separated children and efforts to block pregnant minors in the government's care from receiving abortions.

The Trump administration reportedly implemented the zero tolerance policy last year to deter border crossings. Public health experts have warned that the forcible family separations likely caused lasting trauma to the children.

Republicans on the committee stressed they opposed the family separation policy and joined Democrats in raising questions when news about separations broke last summer.

"While I support strong enforcement of the nation's borders, I want to make something very clear: I support keeping families together," said Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), the Energy and Commerce Committee's top Republican.

