Gov. Deal Writes Blistering Letter to Pres. Obama
According to the report from the Georgia capitol, the federal agency Office of Refugee Resettlement placed 1,154 children from Central America in the care of sponsors during the first six months of the year — all without allegedly notifying Deal, who found out from other lawmakers who complained of sharp increases in student attendance at schools in their districts.
“This came as a complete shock to me as the governor of this state,” Deal wrote in a statement. “I’m sure it will also shock the local communities around the state where these individuals currently reside. “It is unconscionable that your administration failed to pick up the phone, email or send a letter to my office to inform us that these children were being sent to our communities,” he continued. “These are communities that must provide support to these children and families as they wait the appropriate adjudication of their immigration status.”
According to the Atlanta-based media, no one from the White House has responded to inquiries at the time this story was first reported.
Deal said he learned from state lawmakers in parts of Georgia that they were informed of an inexplicable “surge in school enrollment of children from Central America,” though Deal did not reveal the location of the schools in question.
Read the rest of Gov. Deal’s statement below:
“The state of Georgia has received no guidance from the federal government about what it plans to do with these children, even though we’ve read news reports that
federal agencies have touched base with private charitable organizations in the state,” Deal said. “Before any children are sent to Georgia, we need to know their federal status and the plan for returning them to their parents or guardians. We are particularly interested to know if the children will be classified as ‘refugees,’ which would entitle them to all social welfare benefits available to Americans.
Between Medicaid and school enrollment, this would come with a large price tag for Georgia taxpayers, and that’s unacceptable. Georgia already holds a disproportionately large refugee community, and I’ve worked with Democratic state representatives who asked me to help deal with the challenges of large refugee
communities lacking job and language skills needed for self-sufficiency. These challenges are compounded when the refugees are children here without their families.
“Just this week, we learned from a federal agency that – unknown to us – from Jan. 1 to June 30 the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement released 1,154 unaccompanied children to sponsors – typically a parent or other family relative – residing in Georgia. I have also heard from state legislators in certain areas of the state of a recent surge in school enrollment of children from Central America.
“Our hearts and sympathy go out to the children who are the victims of this humanitarian crisis. This should not have happened and would not have happened if not for the Obama administration’s ill-conceived immigration policies. Circumventing the rule of law leads to unintended consequences, and that’s certainly the case here.
“We all want to see these children safety returned to their home countries. Before the federal government asks states to take in children who don’t have a family to live with here, we need to get serious questions answered about the children’s federal status and the government’s short- and long-term plans for resolving this issue.”
— Gov. Nathan Deal
