US opens new mass facility in Texas for migrant children
The federal government is opening a new mass facility to hold migrant children in Texas and considering detaining hundreds more youths on three military bases around the country, adding up to 3,000 new beds to the already overtaxed system. The new emergency facility in Carrizo Springs, Texas, will hold as many as 1,600 teens in a complex that once housed oil field workers on government-leased land near the border, said Mark Weber, a spokesman for Office of Refugee Resettlement. The agency is also weighing using Army and Air Force bases in Georgia, Montana and Oklahoma to house an additional 1,400 kids in the coming weeks, amid the influx of children traveling to the U.S. alone. Most of the children crossed the border without their parents, escaping violence and corruption in Central America, and are held in government custody while authorities determine if they can be released to relatives or family friends.All the new facilities will be considered temporary emergency shelters, so they won’t be subject to state child welfare licensing requirements, Weber said. In January, the government shut down an unlicensed detention camp in the Texas desert under political pressure, and another unlicensed facility called Homestead remains in operation in the Miami suburbs. “It is our legal requirement to take care of these children so that they are not in Border Patrol facilities,” Weber said. “They will have the services that ORR always provides, which is food, shelter and water.” Under fire for the death of two children who went through the agency’s network of shelters and facing lawsuits over the treatment of teens in its care, the agency says it must set up new facilities to accommodate new arrivals or risk running out of beds. The announcement of the program’s expansion follows the government’s decision to scale back or cut paying for recreation, English-language courses and legal services for the more than 13,200 migrant toddlers, school-age children and teens in its custody. The Health and Human Services Department, which oversees the refugee office, notified shelters around the country last week that it was not going to reimburse them for teachers’ pay, legal services or recreational equipment, saying budget cuts were needed as record numbers of unaccompanied children arrive at the border, largely from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. In May, border agents apprehended 11,507 children traveling alone. Attorneys said the move violates a legal settlement known as the Flores Agreement that requires the government to provide education and recreational activities to migrant children in its care. Last week, attorneys filed a motion claiming that the government also was violating the decades-old settlement by keeping kids at Homestead for months in some cases, instead of releasing them within 20 days. “If they are going to open the program up in these numbers and they can’t even manage the influx facility that they have in a humane way, then compounding that is going to be disastrous,” said Holly Cooper, an attorney at the Immigration Law Clinic at University of California, Davis who represents detained youth. Advocates have slammed the move as punitive, saying such services are typically available to adult prisoners. “ORR’s cancelling of these services will inflict further harm on children, many of whom continue to languish for months without being placed safely and expeditiously into a sponsor’s care. That is not only unacceptable, it could be in violation of the law,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, a Connecticut Democrat who chairs the House Appropriations subcommittee with oversight on the agency’s budget. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Robert Bentley directs state agencies to resist Syrian refugees
Gov. Robert Bentley on Monday ordered state agencies to use “all lawful means” to prevent the relocation of Syrian refugees to Alabama as he and other governors try to block the refugees because of fears that terrorists will slip in among them. The governor signed the executive order a day after saying he would oppose any effort to locate Syrian refugees in Alabama. “As Governor, the threat associated with allowing Syrian refugees to enter Alabama is too high, and I will not endanger the lives of Alabamians by allowing Syrian refugees to come into our beloved state,” Bentley said in a statement. Bentley is one of several governors trying to hang out the “Not Welcome Here” sign, citing concerns about terrorism after the Paris attacks and reports that one of the terrorists may have crossed into France with refugees. Immigration experts said a state governor does not have the legal authority to block refugees since the placement is done by the federal government. Bentley Communications Director Jennifer Ardis said there are health screenings and other services that state agencies provide to refugees in their resettlement process, and these would be prohibited by Bentley’s order. The order specifically instructs the Alabama Department of Public Health and the Department of Human Resources not to participate in resettlement. The order also directs the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency “to monitor and avert threats” if officials learn a Syrian refugee is living in Alabama. So far, no Syrian refugees have been relocated to Alabama; some have been accepted in nearby states. J.D McCrary, director of the Georgia chapter of the International Rescue Committee, said states can offer an opinion, but ultimately have no say in where refugees are located. “State governments and governors can provide feedback, but ultimately the U.S. Department of State has the final decision,” McCrary said. The Georgia group has helped resettle 59 Syrian refugees over the past two years. McCrary said the refugees are the victims, not the perpetrators, of violence. “The refugees who are coming here are the ones that are fleeing this exact type of violence,” he said. McCrary said the refugees go through an extensive vetting process that can take years. President Barack Obama‘s administration has pledged to accept about 10,000 Syrian refugees, saying the U.S should do more to help those fleeing terrorism. Alabama takes in a low number of refugees overall compared to other parts of the country. The state took in 107 refugees in fiscal year 2014, one of the lowest numbers of any state, according to the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement. Only five states took in a fewer number of refugees that year. Refugees tend to be relocated to places where they have existing family, or community members, to help them, McCrary said. Monsignor Michael Farmer of the Archdiocese of Mobile said the church’s refugee charity has not been asked by the federal government to help with Syrian refugees. Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
