Is the Obama administration about to place illegal immigrant children at the Naval Support Activity complex at 700 Robbins Ave. in Lawndale?
The site is one of six across the country being considered as possible housing for illegal immigrant minors detained at the southern border, according to an email sent from the Department of Defense and made public by Alabama Republican Rep. Martha Roby.
DOD wrote that the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement needs space to shelter the illegal minors. Two of the sites will be in Florida and Colorado.
Six other possible sites for housing up to 5,000 minors are Air Force bases in Alabama, North Dakota, Florida, Massachusetts and California and the Robbins Avenue location.
HHS and the Navy have already made a site assessment of vacant buildings at the local property.
There has been a recent influx of kids, mostly from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala.
Children without parents or other legal guardians apprehended at U.S. borders by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security are transferred to HHS, which is legally required to shelter and care for them until they are released to the appropriate sponsor, usually an American relative, while their immigration cases are adjudicated. HHS assumes responsibility for their educational, medical and other needs. Grantees administer the site, so there is a potential for jobs.
Roby wrote a letter to HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell opposing the housing of illegal immigrant detainees at Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base in Montgomery.
“It is entirely inappropriate to house illegal immigrants at this or other active military installations,” she wrote.
North Dakota Republican Rep. Kevin Cramer wrote a letter to Office of Refugee Resettlement Director Robert Carey opposing the housing of illegal minors at Grand Forks Air Force Base.
“At a time when our nation faces serious security threats both at home and abroad, the full resources of the United States military should be directed toward the constitutional responsibility of defending the country, not the housing of illegal immigrants,” he wrote. ••
