Gov. Doug Ducey: ‘My concern is to get children reunited with their parents’
Jun 28, 2018, 4:59 AM | Updated: Jun 29, 2018, 11:26 am
FILE - In this Friday, June 22, 2018, file photo, a young immigrant holds his belongings in a Homeland Security bag while waiting to enter the bus station after being processed and released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, in McAllen, Texas. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)
(AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)
PHOENIX — Arizona’s governor is ready to help undocumented-immigrant children.
Gov. Doug Ducey told reporters after a Wednesday event that he is being briefed almost daily on the Arizona-Mexico border situation.
“My concern is to get children reunited with their parents,” he said, “and to see what role the state can play in that.”
The governor said he supports strong border security, in part to protect Arizona from drugs trafficked by Mexican drug cartels.
And yet, he says, separating children from families is not the best course. Immigration reform, he said, is the best answer.
“There’s all kinds of opportunity for immigration reform here,” Ducey said. “It’s something that Congress … (has) been talking about it for the last decade. They haven’t been able to get anything done.
“I’ve been outspoken – not only advocating what’s possible here in the state of Arizona, but what I think would be better policies.”
The Trump administration recently ended its practice of separating children from their families when detained for crossing the border illegally, but its “zero tolerance” policy for prosecuting illegal border crossers remained in effect.
As adults awaited criminal hearings, children were separated from them and placed in detention centers. Some were hundreds of miles away.
Ducey confirmed Wednesday that Arizona facilities are housing 1,654 immigrant children, including 328 who were separated from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border.
A federal judge in California ordered Tuesday U.S. immigration authorities to reunite, within 30 days, separated family members at the U.S.-Mexican border. Children under five years of age must be reunited with parents or family within 14 days.
Recently, TIME Magazine said it obtained an internal draft memo from the U.S. Navy outlining military-base housing for adult undocumented immigrants.
The Marine Corps Air Station Yuma may be one of the bases under consideration.
A Pentagon spokesman did not confirm any plans. He told the Military Times the agency’s being proactive and looking at facilities in case the Department of Defense asks for help housing these persons.
