Immigrant Children Spark Baltimore County Exec Letter To Feds

TOWSON, MD — The county executive wants the federal government to disclose where Baltimore County is housing children who have been separated from their parents at the U.S. border. Baltimore County Executive Don Mohler requested information about the children and the organizations charged with their care "to ensure children are being treated humanely," he wrote in a letter Wednesday to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

“Like millions of Americans, and as a parent and grandparent, I have been appalled by the images of children being separated from parents and housed in detention camps,” Mohler said in a statement to his constituents, letting them know he filed a Freedom of Information Act request for details about the detention of immigrant children in Baltimore County.

"This correspondence is intended to express my dismay over the actions of our federal government and my grave concerns about the well-being of children separated from their loving parents and placed in Maryland," Mohler wrote in the letter. "Based on news reports, which are, unfortunately, the only sources of information I have regarding this matter, Baltimore County is now home to some of the immigrant children who have been so cruelly separated from their parents."

His request came the same day that watchdog organization ProPublica released a map of locations around the country where children were being detained without their parents pending immigration proceedings.

One location in Maryland is in Baltimore County, at 3300 Gaither Road near Windsor Mill.

Mohler issued his letter one week after Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh sent a similar request for information upon finding that Maryland was one of 17 states where the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement was sending some of the 2,300 children separated from their parents since the Trump administration instituted its zero tolerance policy.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the "zero tolerance" policy in April, calling for the prosecution of anyone caught entering the U.S. illegally. Federal authorities reportedly separated more than 2,300 kids from their families as a result, with images broadcast on TV showing some held in a cage at a Texas facility.

Federal authorities consider the kids to be "unaccompanied alien children," putting them under the jurisdiction of the Office of Refugee Resettlement.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the office, operates more than 100 shelters in 17 states, a spokeswoman said in an email to Patch.

"Although not confirmed by federal officials, it appears as if some of these children may have been relocated to Baltimore County," Mohler wrote in his letter, addressed to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex M. Azar II.

"I have a responsibility to the people of Baltimore County to make sure that these children are being properly cared for," Mohler said in a statement. "We can’t do that unless we know where the children are located."

Once he identifies where the children are, Mohler said he plans to visit the site(s) to make sure they are being cared for in a safe, secure place.

On Tuesday, Frosh announced that Maryland joined a lawsuit spearheaded by the Attorney General of Washington declaring the separation of parents and their children at the U.S. border unconstitutional. Other states that have joined the suit are California, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and D.C.

Maryland had the fifth most children of any state in the U.S. placed with sponsors from ORR in 2017, according to court filings, which said there were 3,000 such cases; and in fiscal year 2018, the state has so far received 901 unaccompanied children.

The lawsuit calls for an injunction.

"Immigration officials are sending separated children to Maryland without the most basic information about the children or their parents, or how to connect them with one another. And many of the children have come with little or no information and are too young—as young as 18 months—to communicate with caregivers or social workers trying to track down relatives who could take them in," the complaint states. "Thus, the sheltering organizations that are housing the children do not know how to identify, let alone locate, the children’s parents, who risk deportation before they can find or be reunited with their children."

The states have asked for transparency in the government.

"ORR is using facilities in Maryland to facilitate the Administration’s family separation policy without providing the transparency that would allow Maryland to ensure the safety and security of its residents, including the parents and children who have been separated from one another under the policy," the lawsuit says. "ORR has provided no information about the care and circumstances of immigrant children detained within Maryland’s borders—where they are being held; what condition they are in; where their parents are; whether they have adequate food, clothing and shelter; whether they have access to medical care and legal
representation; or when and how they will be reunited with their families."

— With reporting from Patch editor Noah Manskar.

Image via Shutterstock.