Arizona rushes aid to site holding migrant kids, complains of fed plan bringing them to state

Article author: 
Bob Christie And Elliot Spagat
Article publisher: 
The Register Guard
Article date: 
Saturday, June 7, 2014
Article category: 
National Issues
Medium
Article Body: 

PHOENIX — Angry about the federal government sending from Texas to Arizona immigrants who are in the country illegally, Arizona officials say they are rushing federal supplies to a makeshift holding center in the southern part of the state that's housing hundreds of migrant children and is running low on the basics.

Gov. Jan Brewer's spokesman, Andrew Wilder, said Friday that conditions at the holding center are so dire that federal officials have asked the state to immediately ship the medical supplies to the center in Nogales...

... the (illegal) immigrants were mostly families from Central America fleeing extreme poverty and violence.

...432 unaccompanied minors detained in Texas arrived in Nogales on Friday, with 367 more expected both Saturday and Sunday.

...children will be vaccinated and checked medically. They will then be sent to facilities being set up in Ventura, California, San Antonio, Texas, and Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

...17 or younger. The official estimated three of every four were at least 16.

...the program that has shipped unknown thousands of adult migrants and their children to Arizona since last month shows no sign of stopping, he said...
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Homeland Security started flying immigrants to Arizona from the Rio Grande Valley in Texas last month after the number of immigrants, including more than 48,000 children traveling on their own, overwhelmed the Border Patrol there.

The immigrant children were flown from Texas, released in Arizona, and told to report to an ICE office near where they were traveling within 15 days.

Brewer sent an angry letter to President Barack Obama...she hadn't received a response to her letter by Friday...

...Officials say about 100 lawyers and paralegals will be enrolled as members of AmeriCorps in a new division called "justice AmeriCorps."

Immigration officials can immediately return Mexican immigrants to the border, but they are much more hard-pressed to deal with Central American migrants who illegally cross into the U.S. In recent months, waves of migrants from nations south of Mexico have arrived in Texas.

The Homeland Security official said that legally, only their parents or guardians can take custody if the government makes the children eligible for release.