A former Biden official says Xavier Becerra mocked migrant children as “little Juanitos and Juanitas” at HHS, a charge his campaign calls fabrication as he runs for California governor.
The allegation lands as Becerra, the former U.S. health secretary, seeks the California governorship and faces fresh questions from Democrats who once worked beside him in Washington.
A former Biden administration colleague told the Post that Becerra stood out for the way he talked about the children pouring into federal care after the border surge.
The former official put it bluntly.
“I never heard a single person disparage immigrant children,” the former official said. “He was the only person who brazenly said, ‘these little Juanitos and Juanitas.’”
Becerra’s campaign rejected the claim as “an outright fabrication.”
The same period produced another scene that stuck with colleagues. In spring 2021, soon after Becerra took over the Department of Health and Human Services in March, White House officials scrambled on a Zoom call to move unaccompanied migrant children out of crowded detention facilities.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was nearly in tears describing what the children were enduring, the former official said. Then the camera cut to Becerra.
“We cut to Xavier Becerra, and I can only describe it as dead-fish eyes. There was nothing there,” the former official said. “You would expect at that moment for the person responsible for the biggest humanitarian crisis to show some emotion. But no. No emotion. No response. Nothing there.”
A White House participant on the call later remarked that “it didn’t even seem like he was paying attention,” according to the source.
Concerns about Becerra’s performance surfaced within weeks of his arrival at HHS, the former colleagues said.
Senior White House adviser Susan Rice regularly demanded answers on the child migrant crisis and, per one former official, berated Becerra in front of staff at least once a week.
“Susan does not bite her tongue,” the former official said. “She lost it. It was a common occurrence.”
The source added that Becerra “didn’t seem to have a desire” to do the job. Another former Biden administration colleague summed up his tenure with a single word: “meh.”
“His resume does more justice than his political skill and acumen,” that source said. “There is a lot to be desired as far as his leadership is concerned. I think that governing is going to be very difficult and challenging.”
Mayorkas could not be reached for comment. Rice did not respond to requests for comment.
The human cost of that period still hangs over the record. A 2023 New York Times investigation found Becerra had pressed staff to speed up placements of migrant children, using an “assembly line” comparison.
The Post reported in August that roughly 330,000 cases involving children released during his tenure remained unresolved, including people who have since turned 18. An agency adviser said investigators identified more than 40 children who died after being processed by the agency.
Those figures are the backdrop for the “Juanitos and Juanitas” allegation. Critics inside the administration saw a secretary more interested in moving numbers than tracking outcomes.
Becerra spokesperson Jonathan Underland answered the former officials by email.
“Jealousy breeds contempt, and Becerra accomplished more in Washington than most politicians do in a lifetime,” Underland wrote.
The campaign credits Becerra with helping create a $35 insulin cap, negotiating down prescription drug prices, and a role in the Affordable Care Act. Two sources familiar with the ACA’s passage scoffed at the writing-credit claim.
The campaign also blamed the child migrant crisis on Donald Trump. Becerra’s gubernatorial pitch includes two hours of free electricity a day and down-payment help for first-time homebuyers.
Those doubts followed Becerra back to Sacramento. After ex-congressman Eric Swalwell’s gubernatorial campaign collapsed in April under sexual assault allegations, party insiders, including allies of Gov. Gavin Newsom, settled on Becerra as the safe choice. One Democratic political consultant explained the logic in plain terms: “There were too many flavors, so they chose vanilla.”
An unnamed Democratic state legislator said he was “not impressed,” called Becerra a “figurehead” who “deferred to staff” and “didn’t take leadership positions,” and sketched the early-term strategy.
“The first two years, you don’t want to rock the boat,” the legislator said. “And you can just go against Trump.”
A California Democratic political consultant was sharper on vision.
“If Xavier Becerra has any vision for Californians, he hasn’t shared it,” the consultant said. Asked about detailed plans: “There are none.”
Veteran Democratic strategist Steve Maviglio said Becerra “has been hidden and really hasn’t said much,” adding, “That’s concerning to a lot of people.” Maviglio called him “quietly effective” as attorney general from 2017 to 2021, then warned: “Voters deserve to know what his vision is for the state.” The campaign told Maviglio it would roll out more proposals and press events in October.
Pollster Paul Mitchell of Political Data, Inc. noted Democrats’ registration edge could deliver Becerra as much as 60% of the vote and asked why he would abandon a low-key approach since the June primary: “Why waver from that strategy?” Mitchell added that Becerra still “has to get ready to govern,” and said, “I don’t see the benefit.”
Not every Democrat is sour. Lorena Gonzalez, president of the California Labor Federation and a former assemblymember, called Becerra “engaged and persistent” as attorney general and said, “On the things that he really cares about and wants to push, he’s going to be hands-on.”
Former Democratic state Sen. Steve Glazer recalled him as “very serious and professional,” and noted “the tough part of the job is deciding which levers to pull to advance your agenda and manage the desires of legislators and special interests.”
Republican challenger Steve Hilton, the former Fox News host, has shown no such patience. He has called Becerra an “empty suit” and said the new reporting matches what he has heard for years.
“California needs to wake up before it’s too late and we put the world’s fourth largest economy in the hands of a complete idiot,” Hilton said. “That’s not my word for him, that’s the word of people who worked side by side with him for years.”
One former colleague went further still: “I do not think he is qualified to be the governor. I don’t think he’s qualified to be the boss of anything.”
California voters now have to decide whether a secretary who left hundreds of thousands of migrant-child cases hanging, and who colleagues say shrugged off the kids in his care, is ready for the largest state economy in the country.
