Trump Appointee Who Oversaw Refugee Office While 'Zero Tolerance' Policy Was Enacted Is Departing HHS

Scott Lloyd served as director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement during the tumultuous time period when the government was separating children from their families at the border. Lloyd testified in February that he failed to alert HHS leaders about the health risks of separating migrant children, and HHS leaders previously concluded that Lloyd mismanaged efforts to reunite families.

Politico: Former Trump Refugee Director To Depart HHS

Scott Lloyd, whose nearly two-year tenure leading the Department of Health and Human Services refugee office sparked lawsuits and congressional inquiries, will leave the Trump administration next week, HHS announced Wednesday. Lloyd ran the refugee office for most of 2017 and 2018 as HHS was taking custody of thousands of migrant children separated from their families under the administration's zero-tolerance border enforcement policy. The administration struggled to reunite those families after a federal court order, and House Democrats this year have probed Lloyd’s role in the separations and whether his testimony before Congress was truthful. (Diamond, 5/29)

The Hill: Trump Appointee Who Oversaw Refugee Children Office To Leave Administration

He is best known for his role in the administration's short-lived "zero tolerance" immigration policy that resulted in thousands of migrant children being separated from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border. ORR took custody of those children, but the agency faced criticism for its slow reunification efforts. Some children remain separated from their parents. (Hellmann, 5/29)

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