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Fallin Complains About Costs of Immigrant Children: Read The Governor's Letter

Mary Fallin-Twitter

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Gov. Mary Fallin is complaining to federal officials about the potential cost to Oklahoma from unaccompanied immigrant minors who are released from a temporary shelter at Fort Sill and placed with sponsors in the state.

In a letter Monday to President Barack Obama, Fallin complained that Oklahoma taxpayers are being forced to subsidize the costs for education and health care for children who are placed with sponsors in Oklahoma.

Fallin says her office was given no advance notice of a plan by federal officials to use the vacant barracks for U.S. Army troops to house up to 1,200 mostly teenagers from Central America who were caught trying to enter the country illegally.

Fallin asked Obama to provide her with a timeline and strategy for closing the Fort Sill facility.

Below is the text of the Governor's letter:

The President
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Mr. President:
As you know, on June 13, the federal government began transporting minors who had been apprehended illegally crossing into the United States to Fort Sill, a U.S. Army Base in Oklahoma.

While I was not given formal or advance notice from your administration of this action, federal officials have since communicated that the capacity of the facility is for 1200 minors; all costs at the facility are being covered by the federal government; and the lease for the temporary shelter lasts for 120 days (expiring on October 10). Information about the operation at Fort Sill has come largely through informal conference calls, off-the-record and private meetings, and media accounts. I have taken – as have several elected officials and media outlets – a guided and heavily scripted tour of the facility, on which no photographs were allowed and virtually no interaction with caseworkers or children was permitted.

The result of this secrecy is that the true nature of this facility has largely been obscured to the general public. I write to you today to ask you to formally explain the following reports, in writing, to the people of Oklahoma; and to request a timeline and a formal strategy be offered for permanently closing the facility for illegal immigrants at Fort Sill.

The following has been communicated to my office, either through federal officials or contractors at the Fort Sill facility:

  •  Vastly more than 1200 illegal immigrants have been held at Fort Sill. The facility acts as a clearing house for illegal immigrant minors to be temporarily housed until they can be placed with sponsors throughout the nation. It is reasonable to assume that hundreds – perhaps thousands – more minors have been housed at Fort Sill than the 1200 person capacity that is being reported.
  •  Slightly more than half of the children placed with sponsors are ever expected to return with their sponsor to immigration court, and less than half will eventually be deported. The federal government appears to be knowingly placing children with sponsors who are themselves illegal immigrants, with the expectation that they will disappear rather than return for an eventual court date and deportation.
  • Federal officials have confirmed that at least 212 unaccompanied minors have been located with sponsors in Oklahoma. We are told to expect that number to rise almost daily.

  •  Children placed with sponsors are eligible for state funded education and emergency health care. The state of Oklahoma is now being asked to shoulder the cost of paying to send these unaccompanied minors to public schools. Additionally, Oklahoma health care providers and health care consumers are essentially subsidizing emergency care for illegal immigrants at our hospitals, with no reimbursement from the federal government.

  •  The Fort Sill facility is “temporary” in name only; the federal government plans to stay well beyond the initial 120 day lease. I have already heard informally from federal officials that the lease has been extended without any consultation from my office.

Provided these reports are true – and I have no reason to believe they are not – your administration appears to be pursuing a course that actively shifts the costs of Washington’s failed immigration policies onto our states. You are intentionally placing a greater burden on our already over-burdened education and health care systems. Even more disturbing, the federal government appears to have gone to great lengths to distract and confuse the public from discerning the true nature of these policies.

I am therefore requesting confirmation of the above reports, which have been informally passed on to my office by federal officials. I would also like an explanation for my constituents as to why the policy of your administration is to ask the state of Oklahoma to indefinitely host a large population of illegal immigrants and to pay for their educational and health needs after they are released from Fort Sill.

Most respectfully,
Mary Fallin
Governor