Los Angeles Times
By Michael Muskal
July 15, 2014
Demonstrations
began Tuesday in the Arizona town of Oracle, the latest municipality
trying to come to grips with the surge in children and women from
Central America who
have illegally crossed into the United States in record numbers,
straining local patience and politics.
The
demonstrations, both those in support and in opposition to the arrival
of about 40 to 60 children to a local youth services facility in Oracle,
near Tucson, began
peacefully, Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu told the Los Angeles Times.
He said there were about 150 people on each side of the issue in the
town and that they were being kept three miles apart.
“I
have personally spoken to both groups and both groups have yelled at
me,” Babeu said. “We have enough deputies here and there is a wonderful
three-mile distance separating
them.”
Babeu,
who has spoken out against illegal immigration and in favor of stepped
up security at the border, said the buses with the children are expected
to arrive around
midday, heading to Sycamore Canyon Academy. He was especially critical
of federal officials who have not returned his calls for information
about the arrival, nor has anyone been willing to discuss the overall
policy of moving the children inland from the
border, he said.
“I have enough problems with drugs and I don’t need any more on immigrants compliments of President Obama," the sheriff said.
The
protests in Oracle follow demonstrations in Murrieta, Calif., where
locals blocked buses carrying immigrant children who were en route for
processing. But the issue
of how to deal with the children has sparked protests and discussions
in town governments from Texas to Michigan and from the West Coast to
Maryland in the East.
Local officials complain that they are not being kept informed about the arrival of immigrants in their states.
“We
want to know the names of those individuals, who their sponsor is,”
Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman told reporters over the weekend. “Is their
sponsor legal? What communities
did you send them to? Why are they conducting a secret operation,
essentially, transporting them all over the country … and the federal
government won’t tell us what’s going on.”
There is also the question of who will pick up the tab and whether the immigrants will be a drain on the local tax base.
"Carroll
County will not become a repository for Obama's failed immigration
policies," Commissioner Richard Rothschild, of Maryland, said this week
after officials were
told that a local facility might be used to house immigrants. The idea
is "in no way, shape or form approved by the governing body of this
county."
Federal
officials have said that the number of women and children arriving in
the United States from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras has
skyrocketed in recent months.
More than 57,000 unaccompanied minors have been apprehended after
illegally crossing the border since October, a number that is expected
to increase in the coming months.
In
general, the immigrants are held for a short period at the border then
are transferred to Health and Human Services custody. The agency then
places them in government
facilities, including emergency shelters in Oklahoma, California and
New Mexico, and in private facilities with which the government has
contracted. Many have been given notice of future court proceedings and
have been released.
The
Obama administration has asked Congress for $3.7 billion to help deal
with what the president has called a humanitarian crisis at the border.
On Monday, 38 immigrants
who had illegally entered the United States and had been held at a U.S.
detention center in Artesia, N.M., were returned to Honduras. U.S.
officials said the flight reflected their determination to stem the tide
of migration.
The
fight over immigrants has been especially vitriolic in Arizona. As the
current crisis evolved, Gov. Jan Brewer sharply protested efforts to
bring the children into
Arizona.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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