Gov. Brewer tours migrant kids’ facility, blames crisis on feds
Jun 25, 2014, 2:19 PM | Updated: 3:46 pm
PHOENIX — Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer said Wednesday the federal government wasn’t doing its job securing the border, which has led to the influx of migrant children into the state.
Brewer toured the facility in Nogales with Homeland Security Director Jeh Johnson. Hundreds of unaccompanied migrant children have been temporarily housed at the site.
Johnson said that while “this is not an ideal situation … it looks as if they’re being well taken care of.”
Brewer agreed, saying the “Border Patrol is doing a fantastic job to the best of their capabilities to maintain the children that are here. They’re clean, they’re getting fed, they’re getting medical attention.”
The outgoing governor blamed the Obama administration for not sending a strong message “to these countries that our borders are closed. We need a federal government to step up and secure the border. It’s problem that we’ve been facing for years now. …
“I don’t know how America can absorb it all.”
Brewer and Johnson both spoke with some of children.
Johnson said the government was in discussions with several Central American countries and continued to emphasize that there was no free pass for the children arriving.
A facility is being readied in Tucson, Brewer said, that will hold 280 children.
