Anniston FEMA facility will be used to house young illegal immigrants, Rep. Mike Rogers says plan 'misguided'
FEMA's Center for Domestic Preparedness in Anniston.
The White House's plan to use a Federal Emergency Management facility in Anniston to house some of the minor children flooding across the U.S. border is being met with harsh criticism from Alabama lawmaker Rep. Mike Rogers.
Rogers, R-Saks, said he was informed in an email today of the plan to house children at FEMA's Center for Domestic Preparedness. He responded with a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson.
Rogers said the plan was "misguided and misinformed" and that the CDP, which provides emergency preparedness training for first responders, was not designed as a housing facility.
In recent weeks, the federal government has scrambled to care for waves of unaccompanied children and young people crossing into the U.S. Fort Sill, Oklahoma is being used to house as many as 1,200 such children and similar shelters are already open at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas and Naval Base Ventura County in Southern California.
It is not known how many children would be housed at the Anniston facility.
Rogers said CDP should not be used to house any number of children.
"The CDP is a world class first responder training facility; however, it was in no way built to house immigration detainees, much less children," Rogers said. "CDP is over 900 miles from the Rio Grande Valley where many of these border crossings occur, and transporting illegal immigrants so far away from the border and their home countries would seem to make this crisis worse.
The CDP is a world class first responder training facility; however, it was in no way built to house immigration detainees, much less children.
"It seems implausible that there is not a temporary facility within 900 miles of our southwestern border capable of housing these individuals without the disruption that I am concerned this transfer would cause to CDP operations."
In addition to the military bases, Health and Human Service is reportedly planning to turn a 55,000 square-foot warehouse in south Texas into a processing center. U.S. law requires children be transferred to the custody of the Health and Human Services Department within 72 hours of their arrest.
]So far this year, more than 52,000 unaccompanied minors have been arrested for entering the U.S. illegally.
Rogers said he believes many of the minor children are coming to the U.S. under the false belief they will be granted legal status, something he said was fostered by the Obama administration.
Such an influx, he said "could put deep and challenging stresses on the local community's health system."
Last week Rogers questioned Johnson during House Homeland Security Committee hearings.
"Right now, we have a crisis and I don't see the Administration doing anything about it – other than trying to house the children. I understand the humanitarian basis for that, but we need to send a signal to these other countries that it's not going to work. You can't send your children up here and let them stay," Rogers said during the hearing.
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