HHS, Baldwin County to speak Tuesday about illegal immigrants
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NOLF Silverhill, a little-used Naval outlying field on Baldwin County 54 north of Silverhill, Ala., is one of two locations the federal government is considering for the placement of approximately 2,000 unaccompanied minors who entered the U.S. illegally. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services are expected to send representatives soon to Baldwin County to inspect this air field and another one near Orange Beach as possible resettlement locations. (John Sharp)
By John Sharp
on June 09, 2016 at 12:10 PM
Representatives with the Department of Health and Human Services will answer questions Tuesday from the Baldwin County Commission about President Obama's plan to house illegal immigrant children at two rural airfields.
The meeting, which is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. at the county's annex building in Robertsdale, is open to the public. The session will be teleconferenced, meaning the public will be able to listen in to the commission's telephone conversation with the federal officials.
But Commission President Tucker Dorsey said the meeting is not structured for the public to ask questions of the HHS representatives.
"It's not a debate and the general public doesn't get to ask questions with HHS," Dorsey said Thursday. "We have a list of topics to ask them and to find out when they are coming (to inspect the air fields in Baldwin County). It's not a public forum."
He added, "We'll have a dialogue with them and that will be it."
Commissioner Chris Elliott said if a larger-than-expected crowd attends the meeting, the county could relocate it to a nearby auditorium.
Elliott said the public will have a chance to comment at the end, which is typical for regularly-scheduled commission or work session meetings.
The meeting will represent the first time HHS representatives will speak publicly about a plan to house illegal immigrant children in Baldwin County. The agency's intentions were first announced on June 3 by U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, who then subsequently vowed to the fight placement of the minors at two Naval outlying fields near Silverhill and Elberta/Orange Beach.
Little information has come from the federal government about the resettlement plans, other than a HHS spokeswoman confirming that representatives with the Office of Refugee Resettlement plan to visit the county to inspect the sites.
Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley, last week, said the children would be from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. County officials said this week that as many as 2,000 children, unaccompanied by their parents into the U.S., could be coming.
Criticism from local officials has surfaced throughout the week. Among them is Rep. Bradley Byrne, R-Fairhope, who noted that neither airfield has adequate housing, sewage or other infrastructure for the children.
Elliott, in an email Wednesday, listed 10 items he would like to discuss during the meeting. Among them are questions about access to public utilities such as roads, water, sewer, health care and educational resources; the nature and type of construction of housing at each site; emergency evacuation protocols; security risks for unaccompanied minors; and timeframes for the project.
"The concerns are legitimate and they are infrastructure related," Elliott said. "This has nothing to do with where these folks are coming from. These concerns are about education and health and safety and security. These folks that they are bringing broke the law to get here."
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