Steve Hilton Makes Becerra's Missing Migrant Children Record a California Governor's Race Issue

Steve Hilton, the Republican running for California governor, is making Xavier Becerra's tenure atop the Department of Health and Human Services a central attack line, citing a government audit that found more than 319,000 unaccompanied migrant children could not be effectively tracked by immigration authorities after leaving federal custody.

Becerra ran HHS from 2021 to 2025 under President Biden, overseeing the Office of Refugee Resettlement, the agency that houses unaccompanied migrant children before placing them with sponsors in the United States, according to the Daily Signal. Hilton is now Becerra's opponent in the 2026 California governor's race.

What the Audit Actually Found

Hilton's number traces back to a Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General audit, which found Immigration and Customs Enforcement could not effectively monitor a large share of children after sponsors took custody of them.

The audit found more than 291,000 children had not been placed into immigration proceedings, and a separate group of more than 32,000 children failed to appear for scheduled immigration court hearings. Add those together and you get the 319,000 figure Hilton is using.

But the 319,000 is not the same thing as 319,000 children who have vanished without a trace. Kids who haven't been placed into immigration proceedings yet are not necessarily missing. They may simply be sitting in a backlogged system where the government hasn't started the legal process against them or their sponsors. The 32,000 who missed court dates are a more direct signal of kids ICE has lost contact with. Hilton's campaign is treating the whole combined figure as evidence of children who are "unaccounted for," which overstates what the audit itself demonstrated.

The Leaked Audio and Whistleblower Claims

Hilton's campaign has also circulated internal HHS audio in which Becerra pushed staff to speed up releasing unaccompanied children to sponsors. "This is not the way you do an assembly line," Becerra reportedly said, according to the Daily Signal, adding that the government was spending more than $1,000 a day per child and needed to explain the cost to Congress.

The quote shows a real policy priority: move kids out of federal custody faster, partly to save money. Whether that priority came at the expense of proper vetting is the actual dispute.

Former case managers in the Unaccompanied Children Program have alleged, per the Daily Signal, that they were pressured to approve sponsors despite unresolved red flags. One case manager said staff were fed information they knew to be false and told to proceed anyway. The whistleblower account also claims some sponsors couldn't identify the child they were sponsoring, some submitted fraudulent IDs, and in some cases there was no confirmation the child ever reached the address on file.

They have not been tested in a courtroom, and no charges or formal findings against Becerra personally have been reported. They come from unnamed former case managers relayed through Hilton's campaign materials, which is a legitimate but interested source, not an independent investigation.

Becerra's Pushback

Becerra has not responded directly to Hilton's latest attacks, according to the Daily Signal. But he addressed a similar claim in a May interview with KTLA, when asked about a New York Times report citing 85,000 unaccounted-for migrant children. "What you just read is not accurate," Becerra said, adding he didn't know the sourcing behind the figure.

Becerra disputes the underlying numbers being used against him, even as the DHS inspector general's own audit is the source of the larger 319,000 figure Hilton now cites. Becerra has not offered a specific rebuttal to the 319,000 number itself in the material reviewed here.

The strongest case against Becerra is that ICE's own watchdog found systemic failures in tracking children after release, on his watch, and that money-driven pressure to speed up releases is documented in his own words. The strongest defense is that "not tracked in the system" and "missing" are different things, that immigration court backlogs predate and outlast any single HHS secretary, and that the whistleblower allegations, while alarming, remain anonymous and unverified in court.

No criminal investigation of Becerra over this issue has been reported. No court has ruled on the whistleblower claims. The dispute is currently playing out as a campaign attack line ahead of the 2026 California governor's race, not as a matter before any regulator or prosecutor. Whether Becerra offers a direct, on-the-record response to the 319,000 figure specifically, rather than the separate 85,000 figure he's already disputed, remains an open question.