The post Gov. Reynolds declines request to house migrant children in Iowa first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported more than 172,000 immigrants seeking entry to the country in March alone, up 71% from the prior month, according to USA TODAY. That includes 18,890 unaccompanied children from Central America — double what the agency reported in February.

Many of the children have been housed in temporary housing facilities. Photos from the federal agency show a temporary processing facility in Donna, Texas, where the children rested on mats on the floor with foil blankets.

Reynolds was asked Thursday morning by WHO Radio host Jeff Angelo if any of the migrants or migrant children are being moved to Iowa. She said the state was asked to do so, but said no.

“We don’t have the facilities. We are not set up to do that,” Reynolds said. “This is not our problem. This is the president’s problem. He is the one that opened the borders. He needs to be responsible for this, and he needs to stop it.”

Iowa already has issues with trying to place current foster children into homes, Reynolds said.

More: Migrant encounters up 71% in March as Biden administration grapples with border

Republicans nationally have blamed President Joe Biden, a Democrat, for causing the surge in Central American immigrants seeking to cross the border. The Biden administration has denied responsibility but has said it would treat unaccompanied immigrant children more humanely than they were treated under the Trump administration.

On March 31, an official with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Darlene Taylor, asked an Iowa administrator how many residential child care beds and how many home-based child care beds were available to help with the placement and care of unaccompanied children. Taylor wrote that she was asking all of the states in her region: Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska.

Iowa Department of Human Services Director Kelly Garcia responded that “Iowa is not in a position to take unaccompanied minors at this time,” according to emails provided by the department to the Des Moines Register.

Iowa Department of Human Services spokesman Matt Highland wrote in an email to the Register that the decision was due to the state’s limited resources and administrative concerns while acknowledging it “is an incredibly saddening and difficult situation.”

“We have an obligation to take care of our children first and absent the resources or a clear and comprehensive plan for federal support, we were unable to accommodate the request,” Highland wrote.

House Minority Leader Todd Prichard, D-Charles City, said Thursday he was disappointed in the governor’s stance.

“I think it’s unfortunate that we’re not willing to help and to show that Iowa is a generous and welcoming state,” he told reporters. He said former Gov. Robert Ray, a Republican who welcomed refugees from Southeast Asia, “took the opposite approach. And the crisis at the border is a humanitarian crisis. Like so many things it wants to be played as a political football and … play the blame game, but I’m disappointed that we as Iowans aren’t standing up to help.”

Nick Coltrain is a politics and data reporter for the Register. Reach him at ncoltrain@registermedia.com or at 515-284-8361.

Source: https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2021/04/08/biden-border-wall-child-migrants-migrant-children-iowa-kim-reynolds-not-state-problem/7144792002/

The post Reynolds says border surge is ‘not our problem,’ declines federal request for help with child migrants first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The numbers in March indicate the steady rise has continued. During the first four days of the month, more than 1,500 unaccompanied migrant minors were taken into custody, according to the data. The Office of Refugee Resettlement, the federal agency charged with housing these minors, has been receiving an average of 337 children per day, according to figures shared with Congress.

In January, the refugee office’s network of shelters and foster homes received more than 4,000 unaccompanied children — a 19% increase from December.

The post U.S. shelters received more than 7,000 migrant children in February, posing early border test for Biden first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

On Monday, ProPublica reported that 19 migrant children in U.S. custody at a Chicago shelter called Heartland Human Care Services had tested positive for coronavirus. On Tuesday, that number had nearly doubled to 37, the organization said, reflecting the reality that the virus transmits quickly and especially between people in close quarters. For already vulnerable unaccompanied migrant children, that means that being taken to a detention center can be a danger to their health — and one that the government may be downplaying.

While coronavirus cases have generally been less serious in children than in adults, these positive tests mark a turning point in the coronavirus outbreak for those in U.S. government custody. The federal government is essentially the legal guardian of children who are placed in custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) when they arrive in the United States with no parent. Letting them get sick is a testament to the conditions of shelters and this administration’s attitude toward immigrants, advocates say.

Research shows transmission is highest in places where individuals are forced to live in close proximity with one another, which is why officials are concerned about those held in jails, detention centers, prisons, and now, shelters for children who are immigrating.

Two employees also tested positive at the shelter, ProPublica reported. The outlet also noted that last week, the ORR had only confirmed six coronavirus cases among minors in U.S. shelters, all of which were reported in New York. “ORR has not provided updated figures, despite repeated requests since Friday,” ProPublica noted.

The Chicago-based Heartland Human Care Services, run by the organization Heartland Alliance, is contracted through the ORR. Heartland Human Care Services operates three shelters in Chicago. The organization told Mic in an email that they have tested all of the children in their care, whom they refer to as “participants,” even those who are asymptomatic. The organization has a total of 69 children in its custody, and of the 37 who have tested positive so far, 28 displayed no symptoms — fever, dry cough — at the time of testing, Heartland said.

“We are operating under the assumption that we will see additional positive diagnoses as we receive results from the other tests that have been administered,” the statement read, “and the steps we are taking to ensure the health and safety of our participants and staff are based on that assumption.”

The organization has stated that children who test positive for COVID-19 are immediately moved into an “isolated environment,” though the statement does not expand on what that means exactly or what kind of medical care the children have received. Workers at the shelter who tested positive were encouraged to stay home to reduce the spread of coronavirus and were also provided additional personal protective equipment, the statement said, such as N95 masks, gowns, and gloves.

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Lydia Holt, a spokesperson for the ORR, told Mic in an email that none of the children who have tested positive while in federal custody have “required” hospitalization. Neither the statement from Heartland Alliance nor from the ORR detailed the severity of the symptoms.

The ORR, run by the Department of Health and Human Services, works with organizations at the state level to temporarily house children seeking to immigrate who are unaccompanied by parents. Heartland Alliance operates three shelters for children up to age 17 who are immigrating; as of March 20, the organization hasn’t accepted any new children into their shelters, a fact it attributes to the Trump administration’s decision to halt immigration and allow border agents to deny asylum requests outright at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Holt wrote in the email to Mic that the ORR has stopped placing children at shelters in states hardest hit by the coronavirus outbreak, such as New York, California, and Washington, out of an “abundance of caution.” A total of 87 children, whom the ORR refers to as “unaccompanied alien children,” have tested positive for COVID-19 while in custody of the federal government, Holt said.

The Homeland Security Act of 2002 mandates that children seeking to immigrate to the United States without their parents must be “promptly placed in the least restrictive setting that is in the best interest of the child.” A majority of the 2,500 children in ORR custody are from Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, and as of February, the average stay in a shelter contracted out by the government was 55 days. There has so far been little information offered publicly as to how coronavirus is impacting the resettlement efforts.

Source: https://www.mic.com/p/a-single-chicago-shelter-for-migrant-kids-has-reported-37-cases-of-coronavirus-22811893

The post A single Chicago shelter for migrant kids has reported 37 cases of coronavirus first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.