South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster has ordered his social-services department to stop the Biden Regime from swamping the state’s network of homes for children with unaccompanied illegal-alien minors.
McMaster, a Republican, acted yesterday.
On Thursday, Michael Leach, who runs the state’s Department of Social Services, told McMaster that Biden’s immigration authorities asked whether the state could accept an “unknown number of migrant children from the southern border and place them in South Carolina foster care and group homes licensed by DSS,” a prepared statement from McMaster says.
McMaster blocked Biden’s move because the flood of unaccompanied minors would deplete resources needed for South Carolina kids and might start a China Virus contagion.
Border agents have apprehended almost 50,000 unaccompanied minors since October, the beginning of the fiscal year. Total apprehensions have topped 550,000.
McMaster’s message: You’re not taking services away from South Carolina kids, Joe.
Mind a Few Thousand Kids?
McMaster moved quickly after Leach disclosed that the Administration for Children and Families, a subsidiary of the federal Health and Human Service Department, contacted his agency on April 1.
ACF wanted to “determine potential support resources in the State of South Carolina for placement of unaccompanied minors from the border,” Leach wrote, and requested “copies of group home and foster home policies and regulations.”
[wpmfpdf id=”123605″ embed=”1″ target=””]DSS raised concerns with ACF, Leach wrote, about “overall bed capacity, the priority for placement of South Carolina children entering foster care, the length of time unaccompanied minors may reside in a placement, the anticipated challenges in locating family, and any unaccompanied minors ultimately entering the SC foster care system.”
In other words, state authorities can’t simply permit Biden’s leftist immigration authorities to dump their problem on the taxpayers.
South Carolina’s children must always be given first priority for placement into foster care and the State’s strained resources must be directed to addressing the needs of its children. Allowing the federal government to place an unlimited number of unaccompanied migrant children into our state’s child welfare system for an unspecified length of time is an unacceptable proposition. We’ve been down this road with the federal government before and the state usually ends up “on the hook.”
Flooding the state with what amount to foreign-born orphans would “strain the State’s capacity for timely and stable placements of South Carolina children who enter the agency’s care,” he wrote.
[wpmfpdf id=”123603″ embed=”1″ target=””]As well:
The federal government plans to financially incentivize private providers in the short term to the extent that these facilities may prioritize the placement of unaccompanied migrant children over DSS-related placements.
The State may ultimately incur a long-term financial burden if families are not located in a timely manner and the federal government ceases providing direct support for unaccompanied minors.
McMaster’s executive order says accepting illegal-alien kids would “unduly limit” space in homes for South Carolina kids and might harm those already in such homes.
One major concern is the China Virus:
Given the ongoing and evolving public health threats associated with the potential emergence and introduction of additional COVID-19 variants in this State originating from different geographic areas — as well as the migrant crisis occurring at the southern border of the United States and the questionable testing processes, quarantine procedures, and congregate facilities apparently being utilized by the federal government in connection with the same — the undersigned has determined that accepting placements of unaccompanied migrant children entering the United States via the southern border into residential group care facilities or other foster care facilities located in, and licensed by, the State of South Carolina would present a threat of harm to the children in such facilities.
Thus did McMaster order “any and all necessary and appropriate action” to stop Biden from placing illegal-alien kids in the state, including revoking or refusing to renew licenses for any facility that accepts one.
[wpmfpdf id=”123604″ embed=”1″ target=””]Border Crisis
The crisis that Biden created at the border, which he now expects state governments to help resolve, worsens by the day.
Last week, Customs and Border Protection reported that border agents had apprehended 172,331 “migrants” — leftist code for illegal aliens — in the month of March.
The figure is a whopping 70-percent increase over February’s 101,028.
If apprehensions continue at the current rate, more than two million will cross by September 30.
H/T: Legal Insurrection
