Gov. Bobby Jindal sent a letter to President Barack Obama on Thursday, protesting the more than 1,000 unaccompanied immigrant children who have been released to sponsors in Louisiana. The letter said the placement of the children in the state could have "potential negative ramifications."
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services posted data on its website showing that sponsors in Louisiana received 1,071 of the more than 30,000 unaccompanied children who crossed the U.S. border from Jan. 1 to July 7.
Jindal says state officials should have been consulted to deal with child safety and welfare issues, including where the children will be housed in a hurricane evacuation, whether they received medical screenings and whether schools will have the resources to enroll them in the fall.
Saket Soni heads the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice, which provides support and services to immigrant workers and families. He characterizes the governor's letter as a cynical, partisan move to exploit a humanitarian crisis.
“The reality is that these children are fleeing violence, and it’s the spirit of our country to take children like these in," Saket says. “History will judge us. History will judge us by how we reacted to Hurricane Katrina — did we come and help? History will also judge us in this moment by whether we helped these children. Instead, I think this letter is part of a fairly cynical ploy to make a dramatic gesture to the administration, rather than lending a helping hand.”
Saket also implored Governor Jindal and Senator Landrieu to encourage legislators to release funding that would allow the children to access needed services, like assistance with social workers, health care and filing asylum claims.
The population of undocumented workers in Louisiana is estimated to be around 65,000, according to the latest numbers from the Pew Research Center. Very few statistics exist about the number of undocumented children in the state.
