Rep. Lee Terry, a Nebraska Republican,
has introduced a bill that would force the federal government to tell states and Congress the locations where it is keeping the illegal immigrant children flooding the southern border.
Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman has been making the same demand since some of the children were housed in his state without his prior knowledge. Oklahoma Gov.
Mary Fallin made the same complaint Wednesday.
Terry told Fox News Channel's
"Your World with Neil Cavuto" on Wednesday his bill would force the Department of Homeland and Security and the Department of Health and Human Services to tell governors and Congress the locations and how many children were being housed at each facility.
The bill also would require the government to notify those entities of each illegal immigrant's court date and whether he or she showed up for court.
So far, the bill has only Republican co-sponsors, Terry told Fox News.
He said he just met with Homeland Security and HHS officials who assured him that notifications already are taking place. But, Terry added, Gov. Heineman says 200 children were recently delivered to Nebraska, and no one was told beforehand.
"Our schools are surprised. The clinics that they are going to get immunizations are surprised," Terry said. "So, obviously, we're not being told the truth."
Many of the children
are arriving with diseases such as tuberculosis, officials with the Texas Department of State Health Services have said.
"It seems to me like they don't want the public knowing what is really going on and what the health consequences are of this humanitarian crisis," Terry told Fox News.
"Your World" guest host Stuart Varney also talked to Mayor Judith Kennedy of Lynn, Massachusetts, who said a wave of children from a certain Guatemalan province are overtaxing her city's school system.
Kennedy said 248 unaccompanied children from Guatemala ages 14-17 have arrived in the last two school years. They typically don't speak English or Spanish, but a village dialect of their home province, and they have little or no formal schooling.
Lynn has had to increase its school budget this year 9.3 percent and cut all of other city budgets between 2 and 5 percent to make for the influx of the unaccompanied children, Kennedy said.
So far, no federal money has been obtained to help offset the city's cost. Kennedy said she plans to travel to Washington, D.C., next month to speak to members of Congress about funding.
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