mental health care in government custody.

ORR currently has about 5,700 unaccompanied migrant children in custody. That is down from a high of about 16,000 in December 2018, a significant spike that accompanied a wave of migration from Central America and a policy change that increased the average duration of custody.

That policy change, implemented in June 2018 and discontinued in December, required fingerprint background checks of all household members of a relative seeking to sponsor a child in U.S. custody. Previously, only the sponsor was required to be fingerprinted. Officials have since said they do not believe it improved the vetting process for sponsor families.

Policies by the Trump administration — in particular, those that led families to be separated – received repeated criticism during Wednesday's hearing. They were implementedduring the tenure of former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, who in April joined the board of directors of the company that operates the Homestead facility, Caliburn International. That relationship, which was first reported by CBS News, was also criticized during the hearing.

"What troubles me deeply about Homestead is that this is a private contract with Caliburn International, where Secretary John Kelly sits on the board," said Congresswoman Katherine Clark, a Democrat from Massachusetts. "And they wrote in their SEC filings as they announced plans to go public 'border enforcement and immigration policy is driving significant growth for our company.' Significant growth at what cost to the human experience?"