White House 'Livid' After HHS Allows Migrant Kids To Sleep In Buses Overnight

Senior officials at the White House were “livid” after the Health and Human Services (HHS) allowed migrant children to sleep in buses overnight before being sent to their family members.

Children who migrated to the United States unaccompanied by their parents were forced to wait on buses in a Dallas parking lot overnight. The owner of one of the bus companies said the children had been eating and using the bathroom inside the bus, as first reported by NBC News.

In at least one case, a 15-year-old child was forced to wait on the bus from Saturday to Wednesday before being flown to Seattle to see his family.

White House officials on Friday hopped on a call with HHS officials to discuss the NBC News reporting. Senior officials also pressured the agency to launch an investigation into the incident, which would include finding out how many children waited in the buses, for how long, and whether the contractor was responsible for the incident.

“This is being taken very seriously both at the White House and HHS,” a person familiar with the call on Friday told the publication. “The White House is livid.”

It is unclear whether HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra was present during the phone call, which the source described as “senior level.”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki responded to NBC’s reporting, calling the situation “outrageous” and “unacceptable.” She vowed to probe "how we got to this point, how this possibly happened."

"They do not meet our standard for childcare, that is true for the president, it is true for the Secretary of Homeland, Health and Human Services, it is true for everyone involved across government," Psaki said, adding: "There's no excuse for this kind of treatment. In terms of what the consequences will be, I just can't predict that before an investigation has concluded."

The incident comes as tensions rise between the White House and the HHS over the latter's handling of the influx of unaccompanied migrant children crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. On March 30, President Joe Biden allegedly “lashed out” at Becerra during an Oval Office meeting for failing to answer his questions about how the agency plans to take care of migrant children, two people familiar with the conversations told The New York Times.

There are currently over 20,000 migrants in HHS facilities, with migrants being housed at 200 sites across multiple states in the U.S.