Republican Steve Hilton Corners Biden HHS Head Becerra on Missing Migrant Children in California Gubernatorial Debate
Republican Steve Hilton used Wednesday night’s California gubernatorial debate to press Democrat Xavier Becerra on unaccompanied migrant children who passed through the Department of Health and Human Services while Becerra was secretary.
The CNN debate in Burbank, moderated by Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, was the only scheduled face-off between the two finalists. Hilton, a British-born business executive and former Fox News contributor, trails by more than 20 points, according to RealClearPolling. Becerra is a former California attorney general who served as HHS secretary in the Biden administration.
On immigration, Hilton said Becerra had been responsible for 479,000 unaccompanied migrant children and for their welfare in “camps” the department ran. He said Becerra dismantled vetting that was supposed to place children with a safe family or sponsor, and that thousands were sent to sex and labor traffickers. He said hundreds of thousands of children Becerra was responsible for are still missing, including 100,000 under 10.
This was a total SMACKDOWN.
Far-left Democrat Xavier Becerra just got completely EXPOSED by Republican Steve Hilton for losing track of hundreds of thousands of migrant children during his time as HHS Secretary.
Becerra just stood there looking nervous as Hilton laid it all out. It was absolutely brutal to watch.
HILTON: “When you were HHS Secretary, you were responsible for 479,000 unaccompanied migrant children and for their welfare in camps that you ran.”
“You sent them because you dismantled the vetting that should have made sure that they were with a safe, protective family or sponsor.”
“You sent thousands of young children directly into the clutches of child sex and labor traffickers, hundreds of thousands of children that you were responsible for are still missing today, 100,000 of them are under ten years old.”
When Becerra attempted to play off the narrative as just another “Trump talking point,” Hilton landed his final haymaker:
HILTON: “It was the New York Times — and they won a Pulitzer Prize for it!”
There’s just no coming back from that. Becerra knew it was over.
— Overton (@overton_news) October 1, 2026
Becerra treated the charge as a Trump campaign line. Hilton answered that the reporting was The New York Times, and that the paper won a Pulitzer for it in 2024.
The newspaper reported that HHS lost contact with more than 85,000 children over two years and could not reach about a third of the migrant children it tried to call. Separate federal figures have put the number of children who entered Office of Refugee Resettlement custody during his tenure at 475,000.
Hilton did not stop at the children who were lost. In a later exchange that also circulated from the debate, he asked whether HHS had told states to mask toddlers and to give young children the COVID vaccine.
Becerra said the department gave guidance, “that’s not mandatory,” and that medical professionals decided how the vaccines should be used. Hilton said there was no public-health justification for masking 2- and 3-year-olds and called Becerra a career politician who followed “groupthink.”
BRUTAL: Steve Hilton rips far-left Democrat Xavier Becerra to SHREDS over his absurd COVID-era HHS guidance for young children.
Hilton then destroyed Becerra’s entire image by labeling him as nothing more than a career bureaucrat who simply followed the “groupthink” — even when it meant masking toddlers.
Savage play by Hilton.
HILTON: “Did you give guidance to the states?”
BECERRA: “We gave guidance, that’s not mandatory. It’s not mandatory.”
HILTON: “Why did you suggest — forcefully — that children should be given the COVID vaccine?”
BECERRA: “Forcefully? We didn’t suggest…the medical professionals who helped develop the vaccine are the ones who decided what we should do with the vaccines…”
HILTON: “When he was HHS Secretary, he suggested that children, young children should wear masks, two and three year olds wearing masks.”
BECERRA: “That’s right!”
HILTON: “There was NO public health justification for ANY of that!”
“He went along with the groupthink. This is why you can’t trust him, because he’s been a bureaucrat and a career politician all his life, and he goes along with the groupthink instead of actually standing up for facts, and in this case, the science.”
“He went against the science, and along with the politics and the groupthink.”
“That’s why he can’t be trusted!”
Game over.
— Overton (@overton_news) October 1, 2026
Dan Walters, a columnist for online news site CalMatters, wrote after the debate that the hour followed a pattern. Hilton blamed decades of Democratic control, Walters wrote, and Becerra answered with “Trump”:
“‘All you say is Trump, Trump, Trump,’ Hilton said when the issue was immigration. ‘Trump, Trump, Trump,’ Becerra responded.”
The race is for the seat Newsom leaves in January. Election Day is in November. Becerra’s campaign has treated the migrant-child attacks as recycled federal talking points. Hilton’s campaign has treated The New York Times investigation, and the larger custody numbers, as Becerra’s record. Neither candidate settled the count on stage.
The exchange is now the clip both sides are circulating.
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