North Dakota Officials Not Told About Illegal Immigrant Placements In The State

If you’re on Democrat email lists your inbox has probably been about as flooded as mine has with dozens and dozens of email pitches for fundraising, a reaction to the House Republican lawsuit (and Republicans, supposedly, pushing to impeach President Obama).

Yesterday alone I received 25 fundraising emails about impeachment and Boehner’s lawsuit.

We’ve also heard President Obama himself accuse Republicans of refusing to work with him. Earlier this week President Obama advised Republicans to “stop just hatin’ all the time” (you can always tell when Obama’s target audience is low information voters because he starts dropping his g’s).

But doesn’t cooperation work both ways?

A state legislator forwarded to me an inquiry he sent to Legislative Council asking for information regarding the placement of unaccompanied illegal immigrant children in our state. It’s been widely reported that 4 children have been placed in the state, but what’s interesting is that state authorities aren’t being given any information at all about the placements.

From the email sent by Alex Cronquist of Legislative Council (emphasis mine):

A representative of the Adjutant General provided us information which states 4 unaccompanied children have been placed with sponsors (typically a parent or relative) in North Dakota. A representative of the North Dakota Department of Human Services stated the department was not involved in nor made aware prior to the placement of the 4 unaccompanied children with the sponsors. The sponsors are responsible for the well-being and care of the unaccompanied children while their immigration cases are being processed.

This morning I had Senator John Hoeven on the radio, and I asked him if he had any more information about these placements. Do we know if more are coming? Are the placements being coordinated with the states?

Hoeven told me that the Obama administration isn’t cooperating at all with the states, and that there is no information he can access about the placements.

So, in the political sphere, President Obama and Democrats would have us believe that Republicans are just haters who refuse to cooperate. But in the actual public policy sphere, President Obama is refusing to with state and local governments on a very controversial issue.

Whatever your position on illegal immigration, and the placement of these particular illegals, there are valid reasons to be concerned. Some of these “children” are in their late teens, and reports have indicated they may have criminal records. With the school year approaching, there are questions about where these kids will go to schools. Will they be eligible for social programs? What burdens are they going to represent to the states and local communities where they are being taken in?

We don’t have answers to these questions, because the Obama administration is refusing to cooperate. Even as he attacks his political enemies for refusing to cooperate.

By the way, where is Senator Heidi Heitkamp on this? She took a stand on state’s rights in the US Senate yesterday. You’d think, then, that she’d be concerned about this.