South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) speaks on Aug. 26, 2020.
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) said Wednesday, April 14, that her state will not accept the illegal immigrants the Biden administration wants to move in. She said, “My message to illegal immigrants is …… Get back to me when you’re an American.” And several other Republican states have rejected the Biden administration’s request to do so.
In a statement published on Twitter Wednesday, Noem said South Dakota would not accept any illegal immigrants the Biden administration wants to relocate.
According to media reports, the federal government has asked numerous states to reach out and provide housing to illegal immigrants. And Noem’s remarks were a response to the Biden administration’s approach of asking states to foot the bill in the event of a southern border crisis. And the Washington Post reports that the Biden administration is considering sending immigrant families and children to states near the Canadian border for processing.
Several governors reject Biden’s resettlement of illegal immigrants
Fellow Republicans South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts and Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds have each said in recent weeks that they have rejected the Biden administration’s request to accept illegal immigrants into their states. McMaster also signed an executive order directing the state to prioritize the needs of children within South Carolina and prevent the placement of unaccompanied minors in the state’s residential or foster care facilities.
Noem’s spokesman, Ian Fury, told the immigration registry Wednesday morning that the governor has not yet received a request from the federal government, but is already sending a message to take a stand.
To address the proliferation of unaccompanied minors, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said it is seeking to create 13,500 beds and potentially increase capacity to accommodate the steady influx of unaccompanied minors coming across the border. The department has opened several temporary facilities in the past two weeks.
Senior HHS Official Testifies: Refugee Influx May Get Worse
A senior HHS official described the surge in illegal border crossings as “unprecedented” and told a federal judge in a sworn statement that she believes the influx is likely to increase “in the coming weeks and months.
Cindy Huang, director of the HHS Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), wrote in her testimony, “As a preliminary matter, it is important to understand that the current influx is not limited to the January-March timeframe, but is an ongoing challenge. One that is likely to increase in severity in the weeks and months ahead.”
In March, Customs Border Protection (CBP) encountered more than 172,000 illegal immigrants at the southern border, according to data released April 8. That’s a significant increase from the 101,000 in February.
Of those who crossed into the U.S. illegally in March, more than 18,800 were unaccompanied minors, which is almost double the number of minors in February, which was more than 9,300. This compares to 5,585 unaccompanied children in January and 4,993 unaccompanied children in December 2020.
Republicans: Biden needs to take full responsibility for border crisis
Republicans believe the crisis that has erupted at the border is the result of Biden’s reversal of several Trump-era immigration policies that helped curb the flow of illegal border crossings. Among them: Biden changed Trump’s “stay in Mexico” (MPP) policy back to a “catch and release” policy. The move changes the flow of illegal immigrants across the southern border in 2019, which had been greatly curbed by the Trump administration.
Lawmakers believe that Biden’s actions have been interpreted as a signal to potential illegal immigrants to go to the United States. Iowa Gov. Reynolds said last week, “He (Biden) is the one who opened the border. He needs to be held accountable for that, and he needs to stop it.”
The Biden administration, however, has tried to place the blame on the Trump administration. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the previous administration “dismantled the orderly, humane and efficient way of allowing children to make claims in their own country, under U.S. law.”
Biden also tried to downplay the severity of the border situation, saying the influx was driven by normal seasonal patterns, not by new government policies. He said on March 25, “This happens every year. In the winter months of January, February and March, there is a significant increase in the number of people coming to the border. This happens every year.”
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