Xavier Becerra’s big lie on child labor

Published May 7, 2026 5:00am ET | Updated May 7, 2026 4:08pm ET



Democrats blame President Donald Trump for all of their problems, and nowhere is that more true than in California, where former President Joe Biden’s health and human services secretary, Xavier Becerra, repeatedly invoked Trump during a May 5 debate to avoid accountability for his own disastrous record on child labor while in office.

Becerra came under attack not from the debate moderators, or even from the Republicans onstage, but from former Rep. Katie Porter, who, while deflecting attention from her own past leadership problems, accused Becerra of “not being able to account for undocumented children who wound up in child labor.” Becerra responded by denying that this ever happened.

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