Small Texas City Fights To Allow Shelter For Unaccompanied Migrant Children
By , KRIV.COM
Published December 27, 2016
It’s a busy day at the Centennial Mexican restaurant in League City, Texas.
And while the main entrees are cooking up in the kitchen, in the dining area something else is brewing … conversations about a controversy which has hit this small town.
“For me, we need to extend out a hand to these kids; because you were a kid, I was a kid,” says Carlos Rivas.
He is talking about a League City resolution introduced by one of its council members which would prohibit any unaccompanied minors who crossed the U.S. Mexico border illegally from finding refuge or shelter in this area.
“They are wrong, because it can be your kid, or someone else’s kid who is living over there,” adds Rivas.
The topic has literally divided not just people at this restaurant but residents of League City, many of whom have seen these images of young boys and girls being held at detention centers all along the border.
“There is a legal way to do it, that’s one thing, and then there’s the illegal way. You have to go back,” says Keith Murray, who’s against housing immigrant children.
“At this point and time I feel it was necessary due to the inaction from the federal government and from our state government, that we needed to do something locally,” says Heidi Theiss, council member of League City.
She presented the resolution this past Thursday, fearing detention centers and temporary housing could soon start popping up with little notice from the state and federal government. So she says she jumped ahead of them, all in an effort to protect the city.
Theiss explains, “I have the facts and the statistics and the reports to back up my concerns and this is a way to show the people of League City that we are responsible to them.”
Recent reports show the U.S. Border Patrol and the Department of Homeland Security are facing the tough task of find temporary shelters for over 52,000 unaccompanied minors.
“We need to take care of our people. We can’t take care of everyone in the world,” says one resident.
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