The man who was behind the Department of Health and Human Service’s decision to release thousands of children who traveled unaccompanied to the U.S. into the interior of the nation has resigned effective Jan. 31. His statement comes just before a House hearing on the HHS’s response to the surge of children across the border over the summer. In his resignation letter, Eskinder Negash, director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, wrote, “For those of you who have known me a long time, you know that I am not a political man. My ‘platform’ is and has always been simple: ‘put the refugees first.’ When I was appointed to be the Director of ORR, I arrived with that simple goal foremost in my mind. I am pleased to say that over the past six years, we managed to keep the refugees first in just about every conversation – even when they were being overshadowed by the ever-increasing budgetary and political challenges, the influx of unaccompanied children … or other emerging political considerations that threatened the continued funding of everyone served by this office.” For such a commitment to serving the people the department was created to serve, it’s too bad there aren’t more people like Negash in, say, the VA or even the DMV. However, for being a non-political man, Negash sure knows how to time a resignation. More…