Knoxville News Sentinel - 1,361 Migrant Children Placed in Tennessee

News Article

By Michael Collins

The number of unaccompanied minors placed with sponsors in Tennessee after illegally crossing the U.S. southern border is higher than previously reported, according to new government figures released as the new Republican-led Congress begins its assault on President Barack Obama's immigration policies.

Some 1,361 unaccompanied migrant children from Central America have been released to sponsors in Tennessee over the past 15 months while they awaited immigrant proceedings, according to the new federal data.

Between October 2013 and September 2014, some 1,294 unaccompanied minors were placed with sponsors in Tennessee -- significantly higher than the 909 children the government previously reported had been placed in the state during that period. Since last October, another 67 migrant children have been released to sponsors in Tennessee.

"The problem is getting worse, and the proof of that is in their own numbers," said U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, R-Ooltewah.

On Wednesday, House Republicans moved to nullify Obama's recent executive actions on immigration by preventing him from using federal funding to carry out the policies.

Ignoring the threat of a presidential veto, the House voted 237-190 to block executive actions Obama announced in November to provide temporary relief from deportation to some 4 million immigrants in the country illegally. In a separate vote, the House decided 218-209 to end a policy that granted work permits and stays of deportation to more than 600,000 immigrants who arrived in the U.S. illegally as children.

Both measures are attached to a bill providing $40 billion in funding for the Department of Homeland Security.

The votes were "simply another effort to get the administration to enforce the immigration laws that are already on the books instead of making up their own laws, which even the president has said in the past he does not have the power to do," said U.S. Rep. John J. Duncan Jr., R-Knoxville.

The latest figures on the number of migrant children placed in Tennessee were divulged in a letter from Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell to Fleischmann.

Burwell was responding to a letter organized by Fleischmann and signed by all nine Tennessee Republicans in Congress last fall. The lawmakers sent their letter to Obama and demanded to know where the minors in Tennessee have been placed and asked other questions, such as what types of vaccinations the children have received and how long they are expected to be in Tennessee.

In her response, which Fleischmann's office received on Dec. 31, Burwell offers no explanation for why the number of unaccompanied minors placed in Tennessee is higher than what the administration reported last fall.

The children's arrival was part of a surge of border crossings last summer that caught the Obama administration off guard and caused consternation among officials in states where the unaccompanied minors were placed while they awaited an immigration hearing.

Officials objecting included Gov. Bill Haslam, who complained that Tennessee was not warned that some of the children were being placed in the state and said the influx could have a significant impact on state and local resources.

The largest concentration of unaccompanied migrants in Tennessee ended up with sponsors in Davidson County, which received 353. Shelby County was second with 285. Other counties where the children have been placed included Hamilton, 166; Sevier, 110; Knox, 89; and Rutherford, 56.

Addressing concerns about the health of the children, Burwell said the minors have undergone a thorough health screening and have been given vaccinations to protect against communicable diseases.

The sponsors with whom they have been placed have undergone background checks, she said. Potential sponsors are asked about their own immigration status but are not disqualified based on immigration status alone, Burwell wrote.

Fleischmann said he was dissatisfied with the administration's response, which he called "inadequate" and "vague."

"The answers were nebulous. … We still don't have the specifics that my letter had requested," he said.

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