Thread: Ca & Virginia Say They Could House Border Children with Nat'l Guard Facilities

The article does not mention if they found any chagas bugs, lice, or other invasive larvae, parasites on them nor if they are vaccinated children.....

Dec 25 2015, 1:33 pm ET by The Associated Press

Only Two States — California and Virginia — Say National Guard Facilities Could House Immigrant Children

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Only two states say their National Guard operations could provide facilities to house unaccompanied immigrant children following a request for options from the government.

California and Virginia told the National Guard Bureau they have facilities that could be used but they would require additional funding if asked to meet federal requirements.
((2 minute video clip is here available at story link below))

Other states responding to the National Guard Bureau's request late last month say they aren't set up to handle that kind of housing or they lack the proper facilities.

Ohio also voiced concern about the government's oversight of the program, pointing to a case of labor trafficking at a large egg farm in the state earlier this year.

The "government has attempted to increase capacity and push people through the system too quickly causing unintended consequences," Ohio Adj. Gen. Mark Bartman said in the state response obtained by The Associated Press.

Bartman said he and Gov. John Kasich have concerns about the government's ability to safely handle the increased number of children in refugee resettlement programs.

Kasich, a Republican candidate for president, raised similar issues in an August letter to President Barack Obama. Among his concerns was a lack of information shared with the state about children settled in Ohio.

U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican running for re-election, has pushed for an investigation into the way the government screens sponsors getting custody of unaccompanied children.
Immigrant families, many of them mothers with children, board a bus headed to the downtown bus station in McAllen, Texas on April 30, 2015. Seth Robbins / AP, file

The government says about 1,100 children have been released to sponsors in Ohio's Franklin, Hamilton and Tuscarawas counties.

A total of 10,588 unaccompanied children crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in October and November, compared with 5,129 who crossed during the same two months last year, according to the U.S. Border Patrol.

U.S. immigration policy dictates that unaccompanied minors trying to escape dangerous situations can't be turned away. ((you can thank open borders gw bush for that act, which needs to be repealed but do not count on O to do that.))

In the Ohio case, federal prosecutors say several teens were fraudulently plucked from U.S. custody by conspirators posing as friends or family who forced them to work as virtual slaves on egg farms near Marion.

The case occurred at a time when the country's immigration system was being overwhelmed by unaccompanied children fleeing unrest in Central America.

The Guard request to states was part of a bigger request by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to the military looking for possible sites. The request sought facilities large enough to hold 300 beds for two months.

Although Virginia told the National Guard Bureau it would consider the request if funding became available, questions remain about the viability of such an operation, said Virginia Guard spokesman Cotton Puryear.

"While we are very sensitive to the needs of these unaccompanied children to find adequate housing, our primary concern is the possible negative impact on the readiness of units," Puryear said.

In California, all facilities would require work for fencing or other items to meet the requirements, said California Guard spokesman Brandon Honig.

Earlier this month, HHS Director Sylvia Burwell formally asked the Defense Department to provide up to 5,000 temporary beds within 30 days for the minors.

The government has recently assessed Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico; Fort Hood, Texas; Joint Base Lewis McChord, Washington; Fort McCoy, Wisconsin; and Naval Station Great Lakes, Illinois, for potential use as temporary shelters, according to HHS.

The government's expansion of its temporary ability to house children "is a prudent step to ensure that the Border Patrol can continue its vital national security mission to prevent illegal migration, trafficking, and protect the borders of the United States," said HHS spokesman Mark Weber.

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/imm...igrant-n485906

The woman interviewed at the end of story appeared at the border with her 2 children and she says her husband is here in the USA (illegally?). She used the magic words "fleeing violence". There is also the mention of our forces FINDING A FAMILY MEMBER within 5 days for each child crossing into the USA - do we really have the time & money for all this? Eventually the entire family parents, sibling, aunts, uncles, cousins will be allowed here & any anchor babies yet to come....

Surge in Children, Families at the U.S. Border May Be the 'New Normal'

by Mark Potter and Elizabeth Chuck 12/19/15

(2:54 video clip here)

A dramatic spike in unaccompanied children and families trying to slip in across the U.S.-Mexico border may be "the new normal," officials say, with some believing the surge is linked to a federal ruling that ended long-term detentions.

The number of apprehensions of unaccompanied minors and family units — legal guardians with children under 18 — rushing the nation's southwestern border peaked last year, then fell off as Obama tapped the Federal Emergency Management Agency to figure out what to do about the young refugees.

But in recent months, apprehensions have proliferated again: More than 10,000 undocumented children have been stopped in just the last two months, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The 10,588 apprehensions are a 106 percent increase over the same Oct. 1 through Nov. 30 period from last year, when 5,129 kids were picked up.

Apprehensions of family units have jumped too, with 12,505 detentions in those two months, representing a 173 percent increase from last year's 4,577 seizures in the same time frame.

"We could very well be seeing the new normal," Gil Kerlikowske, commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, told NBC News.

Sources told NBC News that many Border Patrol agents and officials believe there may be a link between the current surge and a federal court ruling over the summer, when U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee ordered federal officials to change how long they detain the thousands of mothers and children who are caught crossing illegally into the U.S. while fleeing violence in their home countries.

In a scathing ruling in which Gee said it was "deplorable" that families and young migrants are languishing in detention centers, she argued long-term detention is also in violation of an 18-year-old court settlement that restricted how long the government could house migrants while they pursue asylum. She gave federal officials until Oct. 23 to change the policy.

Under the new rules, an unaccompanied minor must be released from a federal detention center to a relative elsewhere in the U.S. after no more than five days, and their parent should be, too, so long as officials have determined they are not a flight risk. In rare exceptions, migrant children and families can be held up to 20 days, Gee ruled.

The decision came several months after Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson condemned long-term detention as "an inefficient use of our resources."

Critics call the number of migrants flowing into the country a security threat, but Homeland Security officials say families and kids crossing through is a humanitarian matter — not a threat in any way.

"People wouldn't be caught up in this kind of smuggling activity unless they felt a really strong reason why they have to flee their home country to begin with." Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, is among those who have spoken out against the new White House immigration policy, which he calls lax.

"The word is, come on ahead and the border is open, the Obama administration is going to take good care of you," Goodlatte told NBC News.

The new rules are "making the border less secure," he added.

"That word in turn is getting back to Guatemala, to El Salvador and Honduras, and the coyotes, human smugglers that are bringing people up from those countries, are spreading that word and it is catching on like wildfire," Goodlatte said.

But Wendy Young, president of Kids in Need of Defense, which offers free legal services to unaccompanied migrant children, said keeping children in long-term detention once they arrive in the U.S. after a harrowing journey here can have a "devastating impact."

Plus, she added, the wave of migrants is driven more by the increase in gang and drug-related violence in their own countries — not a switch in policy once they arrive.
"It is certainly true that smugglers will use this kind of information to propagandize to try and attract more migration so that they can make more money," she said. "But I think fundamentally, we need to understand that people wouldn't be caught up in this kind of smuggling activity unless they felt a really strong reason why they have to flee their home country to begin with."

Sister Norma Pimentel is the Catholic Charities Director at the Sacred Heart Humanitarian Respite Center in Texas' Rio Grande Valley, which welcomes families once they have been released from detention centers by Border Patrol. The center offers them food and a warm shower.

"They're lured into wanting to leave their hometowns because of how the violence is going on in their countries," Pimentel told NBC News. "It's not safe to be there, they're afraid for their lives, and they find that others are doing the same. So they seem to find it very convenient, well, let's leave here and maybe hopefully somewhere up north may have a better opportunity to live more in safety."

Vilma de Montano crossed into the U.S. to be with her husband and to escape violence back home in El Salvador. NBC News
Vilma de Montano, a mother of two teenagers, came from San Ramon, El Salvador, to the U.S. She and her children traveled through harsh terrain and on several buses during their 25-day journey.

She told NBC News she came to the U.S. illegally to meet up with her husband because her children were being forced to sell drugs at school in El Salvador, or else be killed.

"It hurts to leave our country. I love my country," she said.

But, she said, if she and her kids can stay in the U.S., "I think it will be better." (($$$$-in other words))

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/imm...normal-n482691

Children???? they are already having kids.