Let me tell you about Xavier Becerra — the Democrat running for governor of California. Not the campaign ads. The record.
Because the record says this man was put in charge of migrant children and lost track of over a hundred thousand of them. And now he wants the keys to the biggest state in America.
Read that again. Then vote accordingly.
1. THE LOST CHILDREN
From 2021 through early 2025, Xavier Becerra was the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services under Joe Biden. One of his direct responsibilities: the Office of Refugee Resettlement — the division in charge of nearly 480,000 unaccompanied migrant children who crossed the border during his tenure.
Here's what happened to those kids on his watch:
- A 2023 New York Times investigation found the agency could not reach more than 85,000 children — and had lost contact with a third of all migrant children in its care.
- A 2024 HHS Office of Inspector General report found that during Becerra's tenure, 16% of required sponsor safety checks were never conducted, 19% of children were released to sponsors without completed child abuse checks, and 22% never received a required safety follow-up after placement.
- Reports of illegal child labor soared 69%, and children placed through Becerra's rushed system ended up working in meatpacking plants, car factories, and seafood processing facilities. Some sponsors were literally renting children out to staffing agencies.
- A former HHS senior adviser, Chris Clem — 27 years in the Border Patrol — says the real number of missing children is at least 130,000, and pins it directly on Becerra: "When he was in charge of kids before, he didn't do a very good job of it."
Why did this happen? Because Becerra pushed his staff to release children as fast as possible — even if it meant skipping vetting. The director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement quit after Becerra threatened to fire her for not releasing kids fast enough. His own people told him to slow down. He sped up.
At the CNN gubernatorial debate, Steve Hilton confronted him with it: 479,000 children under his watch, vetting dismantled, thousands handed to traffickers, over 100,000 still missing — 100,000 of them under age 10.
Becerra's response? His campaign called it "an outright fabrication."
The New York Times, the HHS Inspector General, and his own former staff disagree.
2. EVEN HIS OWN PARTY SAYS HE FAILED
This isn't just Republicans talking. Democrats who worked alongside Becerra have said it on the record:
- Xochitl Hinojosa, a former Biden administration official, on CNN: "He was not effective in governing. He was not an effective HHS secretary. And if you ask any cabinet secretary, they would tell you the same thing."
- Axios reported in 2024 that White House official Susan Rice berated Becerra over the migrant crisis — with one former official saying it happened "at least once a week."
When your own administration thinks you're incompetent, that's not partisanship. That's a performance review.
3. THE LAWSUIT MACHINE
Before HHS, Becerra was California's Attorney General from 2017 to 2021. His signature achievement? Suing the Trump administration more than 120 times.
That's not governing. That's litigating. Four years as the state's top law enforcement officer, and his legacy is a pile of lawsuits — while California's homelessness exploded, gas prices soared to the highest in the nation, and the state's crises deepened.
Hilton said it plainly at the debate: Becerra spent his AG years suing to block water for California farmers. Becerra's answer was essentially that California has a right to regulate its own water. Fine — but where was that energy for the state's actual emergencies?
A governor who defaults to lawsuits is a governor who doesn't know how to build anything.
4. TWENTY-FIVE YEARS, AND CALIFORNIA GOT WORSE
Becerra has been in public office for 25 years — state assemblyman, 24 years in Congress, Attorney General, HHS Secretary. He is the definition of a career politician.
And what happened to California during the era he helped lead? The state with the highest gas prices in America. Nearly 1 in 5 Californians in poverty. 45,194 homeless in the city of Los Angeles alone — up 3.4%. A state people are fleeing.
He didn't cause all of it single-handedly. But he was in the room for 25 years, and the room produced failure. Now he wants a promotion.
5. WHAT GOVERNOR BECERRA MEANS FOR CALIFORNIA
Let's be blunt about what happens if he wins on November 3rd:
- More of the same, with less competence. The one-party machine keeps humming, run by a man his own colleagues called ineffective.
- A governor who can't manage a crisis. He was handed 480,000 vulnerable children and lost track of over 100,000 of them. California's emergencies — fire, homelessness, cost of living — are bigger and harder. What does that track record predict?
- Lawsuits instead of solutions. His instinct as AG was to sue. As governor, that instinct becomes vetoes, mandates, and courtroom battles while the state burns — literally.
- Zero accountability. The Becerra playbook: deny, deflect, call it fabrication. He did it with the missing children. He'll do it with everything else.
THE BOTTOM LINE
I'm a gay Republican, formerly homeless, holding a Section 8 voucher in a state that keeps pricing people like me out. I don't have party loyalty — I have a memory and a calculator.
Xavier Becerra lost children. Not metaphorically. Real children, handed to traffickers and labor brokers, while he rushed the paperwork and threatened the people telling him to slow down. His own party says he couldn't govern. His record as AG is 120 lawsuits and a state in decline.
And the Democratic machine wants to hand him California.
On November 3rd, you have a choice: the career politician who failed upward, or something different. I know how I'm voting.
Measure the record, not the ads.
— Kerry Lewis
SOURCES
- New York Times, 2023: investigation finding HHS could not reach 85,000+ migrant children; lost contact with a third
- HHS Office of Inspector General, 2024: 16% of sponsor safety checks not conducted; 19% released without child abuse checks; 22% without follow-up
- NY Post, July 2026: former HHS senior adviser Chris Clem on 130,000 missing children under Becerra
- Washington Examiner: ORR director quit after Becerra threatened firing over release pace; child labor reports up 69%
- CNN / debate reporting, Oct 2026: Hilton confronts Becerra on 479,000 children; Becerra campaign response
- Axios, 2024: Susan Rice criticism of Becerra; Xochitl Hinojosa CNN remarks
- CalMatters / Fox LA / KTVU, Oct 2026: Becerra's 120+ lawsuits as AG; governor's race overview
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