Alex Azar must resign as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). HHS is complicit in the mishandling and abuse of asylum-seeking children.

The children have been traumatically separated from their parents along the US-Mexico border by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, and then transferred to the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), part of HHS.

As the person in charge of HHS, Secretary Azar is ultimately responsible for all its failings. His supervision of ORR is at best inadequate and at worst partly to blame for the chaotic response to the situation on the border. His early silence in the face of the children’s forced separation was tantamount to complicity. His carelessness in keeping records that would allow rapid reunification was incompetent. His snail’s-pace effort to reunite children with their parents is cruel and disregards a court-imposed deadline. It is shocking that his agency is enabling the physical, emotional and medical mistreatment of these children.

Secretary Azar claimed he could identify the number of separated children “in seconds,” and that it should be easy for parents to find their separated children. However, a majority of parents still have no idea where their children are. His agency has yet to devise a comprehensive plan to reunite parents and children.

His agency’s estimate of the number of separated children has varied significantly in public briefings without a satisfactory explanation for the discrepancy. As the agency’s chief, it is his responsibility to promote transparency and provide accurate reporting.

Further, Secretary Azar blames separated children’s suffering only on the parents asking for asylum in the US, disregarding the actions of US government agencies at the border and the role played by zero-tolerance policies. He will not admit basic facts about the treatment experienced by children in US government custody. He maintained it is “incorrect” to say that children are in cages despite reports and photos from multiple sources showing exactly that.

Additionally, human rights lawyers allege that children in HHS custody are being locked up summarily and given psychotropic drugs without their consent. These actions defy all common legal and moral approaches to keep the best interest of the child at the forefront.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has clearly stated that detention of immigrant and refugee children amounts to child abuse, is traumatizing, and can have long-term harmful effects on their mental and physical health. Alex Azar and his agency are minimizing and trivializing these children’s suffering.

For these reasons, as health care providers, educators, researchers, and other professionals, and as family members, caregivers, neighbors, and patients, we call for Secretary Azar’s resignation.

Sign the petition here.

Organizational Signatories (in alphabetical order)

American Medical Student Association

Clinicians for Progressive Care

Doctors for America — New York

Long Island Inclusive Communities Against Hate

National Physicians Alliance

Progressive Doctors

Social Security Works

Together We Will Long Island