TN Gov Found Out About Illegals Dumped in State on HHS Website

Even after Republican Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam asked the Obama administration to notify him in advance if they wanted to send illegal immigrants to his state, he discovered that more than 700 illegal immigrant juveniles had been dumped in his state when he looked at a Health and Human Services website. 

On Friday, Haslam slammed the Obama administration for not notifying him advance even after he and other governors, at the July 13 National Governors Association meeting in Nashville, “met with Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia Burwell” and “emphasized to Secretary Burwell the need to be informed of any children being relocated to our states.”

“It is unacceptable that we became aware via a posting on the HHS website that 760 unaccompanied children have been released by the Office of Refugee Resettlement to sponsors in Tennessee without my administration’s knowledge,” he wrote in a letter to Obama and Burwell. “Not only was our state not informed prior to any of the children being brought here, I still have not been contacted and have no information about these individuals or their sponsors other than what was posted on the HHS website and subsequently reported by media.”

Haslam said that since the “influx of immigrant children could have a significant impact on state and local governments,” he needed immediate answers concerning how the federal government located sponsors, what medical screenings the juveniles have gone through, the immigration status of the sponsors, how long they will remain in Tennessee, and more specifics concerning the overall process. 

He said that the “little information being made available to the public or to state leaders” just “creates confusion and could be very problematic.” For instance, Haslam said that “the start of school is approaching for many districts across the state, and the federal government’s actions have caused great uncertainty around this issue.”

The Health and Human Services Department revealed on Thursday that 30,340 illegal immigrant juveniles have been dumped in states across America this year. Many governors found out for the first time that they had illegal immigrant juveniles in their states.