Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
HHS Accuses Ethics Chairman Of Impugning Integrity Of Its Staff With Questions About Sexual Abuse Of Immigrants
Politico: HHS Demands Apology From House Ethics Chair For Comments On Abuse Of Migrant Children
Health and Human Services officials refused Thursday to meet with Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.), saying the House Ethics Committee chair must first apologize for stating publicly earlier this week that HHS staff sexually abused migrant children in agency custody. "By deliberately or negligently mischaracterizing the data during a televised hearing, you impugned the integrity of hundreds of federal civil servants," Jonathan Hayes, the HHS refugee director, wrote Deutch on Thursday, in a letter obtained by POLITICO. HHS has been seeking an apology for two days. (Diamond and Bresnahan, 2/28)
In other news —
Arizona Republic: Arizona Clears Southwest Key Shelters To House New Immigrant Children
State health officials Thursday cleared a Southwest Key shelter in central Phoenix to again accept immigrant children, four months after lax background checks caused state officials to ban the company's Arizona shelters from accepting kids.Casa Lighthouse will start housing children once the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement sends children to the facility. It is the first of 11 Southwest facilities that company officials hope to again take new placements; state health officials said they expect to approve more for new admissions in the coming weeks and months. (Pitzi, 2/28)
Arizona Republic: ICE Detention Center Holding High Number Of Infants, Complaint Says
There has been an "alarming increase" in the number of infants being held in a federal immigration detention center, which is poorly equipped to provide adequate medical care to very young children, advocacy groups said in a complaint filed Thursday with the Department of Homeland Security. There were at least nine infants under the age of one detained as of Thursday at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, according to the complaint filed by the American Immigration Council, the American Immigration Lawyers Association and the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (González, 2/28)
