Photo courtesy npr.org
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Gov. Asa Hutchinson has sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to express his concern about the number of inadequately vetted sponsors who are taking in unaccompanied minor immigrants in Arkansas.Nearly 700 unaccompanied minor immigrants have been sent to Arkansas in Fiscal Year 2021, Governor Hutchinson said during his weekly press briefing Monday. This is more than double the number released to sponsors in Arkansas in the preceding years.
“They’re not doing a good job of vetting,” the Governor said, referring to HHS “They’re placing them with people who have no sense of responsibility.”
Mischa Martin, director of the Division of Children and Family Services at the Arkansas Department of Human Services, reports that she was involved in seven specific cases involving unaccompanied minors in the past month.
Some of the children have been abandoned and others are living with sponsors in deplorable conditions, Gov. Hutchinson said. Under state law, DHS has an obligation and responsibility to protect the health and safety of children regardless of their immigration status.
Unaccompanied minors aren’t eligible for Medicaid or other benefits, so the cost of their care falls to the state, he said.
The governor is asking HHS to meet with leaders from Arkansas and other states to explain the vetting process and to identify where the process needs to be improved.
You can read the HHS letter HERE.
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