‘Not our problem’: Gov. Reynolds declines request to house migrant children in Iowa

https://www.kcci.com/article/iowa-governor-kim-reynolds-says-she-declined-request-to-house-migrant-children-in-iowa/36063989

‘Not our problem’: Gov. Reynolds declines request to house migrant children in Iowa

By Cynthia Fodor

April 8, 2021

DES MOINES, Iowa —Gov. Kim Reynolds said Thursday during a radio interview that she declined a request by the Department of Health and Human Services to take in immigrant children being held at the U.S. border with Mexico.

The governor talked about the request during an interview with Jeff Angelo on WHO Radio.

Reynolds said Iowa does not have the facilities to help and that her priority is to protect the health and safety of Iowans.

“We will not do that,” Reynolds said during the interview with WHO Radio. “We do not have the facilities. We are not set up to do that. This is not our problem; this is the president’s problem. He’s the one who opened the borders. He needs to be responsible for this and he needs to stop it. So, at this point, no.

Reynolds went on to say that the state already struggles to place Iowa children into foster homes.

According to The Associated Press, nearly 19,000 children traveling alone were stopped at the Mexican border last month.

Many migrants are fleeing poverty and violence in Central America.

Joe Henry, political director of LULAC Iowa, said the state would be asked to provide refuge for about 300 children.

In a statement to KCCI, Henry said, “As you know, Iowa has always been a welcoming state for refugees, under Gov. (Robert) Ray with southeast Asians in the ’70s and ’80s, and even with Gov. (Terry) Brandstad, when 50,000 refugees were fleeing Central America every month during the summer of 2014.”

Henry explained that Iowa’s elected leaders are being asked if they are willing to provide refuge for, “only several hundred children and family members” and that other states are asked to do the same.

He went on to say, “Shame on the governor and those Iowa county sheriffs who are pandering to their hateful political base!!!”

Ten Iowa sheriffs added their names to a nationwide letter calling on President Joe Biden to address the border crisis.

The sheriffs come from counties across the state, Carroll, Green, Luca, and Grundy counties.

The letter says, in part, “you must act now before our nation’s public safety resources are overwhelmed with the criminal side effects of unchecked illegal immigration.”