BORDER/CHILDREN/HHS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “A senior Department of Health and Human Services official told lawmakers on Thursday [2-7-19] that he had raised concerns about separating families apprehended at the US-Mexico border to three Trump appointees before the administration’s controversial “zero tolerance” immigration policy was announced…White said he had shared those concerns with then-director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement Scott Lloyd, then-acting Assistant Secretary for Children and Families Steven Wagner and HHS counselor Maggie Wynne. The Office of Refugee Resettlement is a component agency of Health and Human Services. During the hearing, White drew a clear distinction between his agency, which is tasked with caring for and placing unaccompanied children with sponsors in the United States, and the Department of Homeland Security, and repeatedly noted that he did not know the policy would be enacted until it was publicly announced. White said neither he nor any career personnel at the agency responsible for the care of unaccompanied migrant children would ‘ever’ have supported the government policy that led to family separations.”
–Priscilla Alvarez and Geneva Sands, “HHS official says he would never have supported family separation tactics,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, February 7, 2019 6:39 pm