By David Larson
Carolina Journal
Starting in July, unaccompanied children (UACs) from the southern border are scheduled to be transported to and housed at Greensboro’s American Hebrew Academy.
Now, North Carolina’s Republican congressional delegation has penned a letter to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) acting director Andrea Chapman asking for more details.
“Due to the failures of the Biden administration to secure our southern border, every state, including North Carolina, is now suffering from the impacts of the Biden border crisis,” the letter said.
The letter continued by saying, “Given the effects of this crisis and decision to house UACs in our state, we demand answers to the following questions to help protect our constituents.
- When did communication between the ORR and the American Hebrew Academy begin, in relation to using the Academy as a transition site for UACs?
- What plans do you have in place to ensure standards of humane treatment of UACs at the Academy? Specifically, what plans do you have to prevent overcrowding, violence, and outbreaks of disease from occurring?
- Are there other locations in North Carolina your office is in discussions with to house UACs?
- What actions are being taken by the Biden Administration to ensure the use of the Academy as a transitional campus does not pose a danger to North Carolina communities?
- How much money are the taxpayers paying to house UACs in North Carolina? How much money are taxpayers paying to house UACs across the nation?”
Rep. Richard Hudson, R-NC8, who organized the effort, released a press statement on June 23 as well. In it, he says that Becerra told him in 2021 that there were no plans to house migrants in North Carolina.
“We are always looking for sites where we can provide the type of safety and security that children need, and we have sites throughout the country, but there is no plan I can tell you right now to shelter children in North Carolina,” Becerra is quoted as saying in the Washington Examiner.
In the WFMY story breaking the news of the plan, it says that DHHS will “provide schooling, mental and medical services, case management, legal services, and recreational opportunities” at the vacant 100-acre campus valued at $84.5 million.
“It is important to remember we are talking about a transition site for children. The facility is not a permanent home for unaccompanied minors,” Guilford County Commission Chairman Skip Alston is quoted as saying in the story. “ORR is legally required to provide for the care and custody of all unaccompanied children (UC) referred by DHS to ORR until they are appropriately and safely placed with a vetted sponsor. I can only imagine how emotionally and mentally difficult it must be to be a child in a new country, with a new language, to be all alone and separated from the comfort and support of the people you know who love and care about you.”
In Hudson’s press release, he blames the need for emergency transitional housing for children separated from guardians on President Joe Biden’s chaotic border policies.
“The need to settle UACs across the country stems from unprecedented numbers of illegal migrants crossing the southern border,” Hudson said. “Since President Biden entered office, nearly 3 million illegal migrants have been encountered at the border, including 239,416 illegal crossings in May, the highest monthly total ever recorded. In addition, more than 5,300 pounds of the deadly opioid fentanyl have been seized at the border, enough to kill more than 2 billion people.”
U.S. Reps. Ted Budd, Virginia Foxx, David Rouzer, Madison Cawthorn, Greg Murphy, Patrick McHenry, and Dan Bishop, all representing districts in N.C., joined Hudson in signing the letter.
The Biden Administration is totally irresponsible to the American public to allow this intrusion into our lives. These children are not responsible, but Biden certainly is to allow it to happen at all. Policies need to be in place to stop them at the border. We cannot take care of the world and it is time the country they come from be held accountable to their own people instead of dumping them here. We have totally incompetent leaders in Washington and throughout many left-leaning cities. America needs to step up and squash this stupidity just like the parents in Virginia did with the school boards.
Who is going to protect these children from sexual predators and make sure they don’t fall into the sex slave world? Who is vetting them to make sure they are young children and not teen boys looking to come cause chaos in our state through crime, drugs, gangs, etc? How many staff members are going to be at this site and where are they coming from? Too many questions, not enough answers! The people of NC do not want to pay for this!!!!! Send them back and close the border.
From the WFMY2 article: Both Guilford County Commission Chairman Skip Alston and Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughan said this is a welcome announcement.
“This is a unique opportunity for the American Hebrew Academy to continue using its facility for the purpose of educating children and preparing them for their future. The facility will serve a great purpose while helping to place children with a family member or other vetted sponsor. It is important to know that this will not be a drain on any local public resources. These children will not be in the Guilford County School system. The facility will provide its own security. This will be a fully self-contained facility.”
Up to 800 people will be hired to fulfill functions and provide services at the Hebrew Academy.
Jobs will include administrators, teachers, counselors, medical care professionals, and other workers to oversee the facility and meet the needs of unaccompanied children.
Somebody’s paying for all of that! Nothing is free. We do not need to be dumped on to provide nursery, medical, education, and all other aspects of this venture. They belong on the other side of the border.
It’s the law that unaccompanied minors are cared for.
If you don’t like the law, then you should work to get it changed.
Immigration reform legislation that needs to be formulated and passed by Congress is what is needed.
The US came close to such legislation (see: S 744) which was introduced by a bipartisan group of Senators who became known as the Gang of Eight. The bill sought to provide a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants while increasing border security.
Unfortunately Stephen Miller and Jeff Sessions played a key role in ensuring the failure of this legislation as it was headed to President Trump’s desk for his signature.
America needs workers and these adults r hard workers give the adults a work visa as far as these children they wouldn’t be here if they had decent home lives and as Christians we need to make sure they r safe
Leave it to today’s republicans to not want to help children
Leave it to people like you and your party to make chaos out of our economy. You are destroying this nation with your arrogance and “supposed” good virtue. We like accountability and believe government is not a charity organization.
These people are not ‘migrants.’ They’re invaders and should be treated as such. Of course our wonderful Republican leaders Berger and Moore are just going to bend over and take it you-know-where and not do anything to stop this bull.
Lets go Brandon!
JoCo is full of racist