DES MOINES – Multiple news outlets have reported that as many as 139 undocumented children have been relocated to Iowa in recent months.
During an interview with Radio Iowa, Joe Henry, state director of the League of United Latin American Citizens of Iowa, said children have arrived from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. They crossed the southern border at Texas.
“There’s a number of Latino families who have extended family members who are in those three countries, so they have been driving down to Texas and elsewhere to pick up those children and bring them back,” Henry said. He also said state officials are keeping this influx quiet because Governor Terry Branstad opposes allowing the children into Iowa. Branstad said on June 14th that he has empathy for the children but that the first step necessary was to secure the border, and that he did not want to send the message that it is acceptable to send children to the United States illegally.
Under current law, immigrant children from other countries that do not border the United States and who cross into the country by themselves are turned over to federal authorities. They are then often reunited with parents or placed with other relatives who already live in the United States while they await an immigration court to decide their future. The process oftentimes takes years.
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