Senator Vitter Learned about the Number of Illegal Children Relocated to His State Via the News, Calls It a ‘Slap in the Face to Taxpayers’

By Ryan Lovelace
August 7, 2014 5:29 PM
National Review

Senator David Vitter (R., La.) has written a letter to the secretaries of the Departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services seeking more information about unaccompanied alien children relocated to Louisiana.

After DHS secretary Jeh Johnson failed to respond to his previous request, Vitter wrote in a letter obtained by National Review Online that he had learned from an anonymous Immigration and Customs Enforcement source that the number of new juvenile cases opened by ICE in Louisiana was 1,259, in addition to 1,956 already pending cases.

Later, Vitter said, an HHS official called Vitter’s information “false” in a news story. He said he learned that HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement acknowledges that 1,071 unaccompanied alien children had been relocated to Louisiana via the same news story.

“Learning about this number via a news story when I’ve written two letters requesting this information is a slap in the face to the taxpayers of Louisiana who you are expecting to accept the UACs,” Vitter wrote. “It also, unfortunately, further illustrates the Obama Administration’s attempts to thwart oversight of the executive branch.”

Vitter wrote that he’s been writing to the Obama administration about unaccompanied alien children being relocated with family members throughout the country since January, but still has not received a response. Now, he’s seeking information about the presence of shelters operating in Louisiana and the number of juvenile cases pending in Louisiana.

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner...-news-calls-it