SC can’t house unaccompanied immigrant children, Gov. McMaster orders. Here’s why
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster issued an executive order Monday to block unaccompanied immigrant children from being placed in South Carolina foster care facilities and group care homes.
The move was in response to inquiries from President Joe Biden’s administration, according to the executive order and a letter provided by the Governors’ Office. The S.C. Department of Social Services said the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration of Children and Families asked on April 1 if they had resources to place migrant children within the state.
DSS Director Michael Leach informed the governor of the request in a letter dated April 8, a copy of which was provided by the governor’s office.
In the letter, Leach said six private providers in the state expressed interest in housing migrant children, a move that could bring in extra pay from the federal government. Children would have been housed for about 35 days, and the providers would work directly with federal officials during that time.
“It is our understanding that the ACF is offering these provider businesses very favorable terms for placement assistance,” Leach wrote.
However, as of Thursday, no immigrant children have been placed, according to Leach.
According to McMaster’s executive order, DSS found taking on a number of migrant children would potentially stretch the department’s resources and the state’s capacity for foster care placements. McMaster feared that the placement of migrant children in state facilities would cause the “ultimate displacement of South Carolina’s most vulnerable children in an already-strained system,” according to a statement from the Governor’s Office.
“South Carolina’s children must always be given first priority for placement into foster care and the State’s strained resources must be directed to addressing the needs of its children,” McMaster wrote to Leach in a letter provided by the Governor’s Office. “Allowing the federal government to place an unlimited number of unaccompanied migrant children into our state’s child welfare system for an unspecified length of time is an unacceptable proposition. We’ve been down this road with the federal government before and the state usually ends up ‘on the hook.’”
With those concerns in mind, McMaster ordered DSS to “take any and all necessary and appropriate action” to prevent migrant children from being placed within the state’s group care and foster care facilities.
“This heartbreaking humanitarian crisis on our border was created by the Biden administration,” McMaster tweeted after issuing the order Monday. “Sending unaccompanied migrant children from the border to states like South Carolina only makes the problem worse.”
“My executive order ensures that South Carolina’s most vulnerable children come first and the valuable services and care they receive are not disrupted,” McMaster added.
McMaster’s order follows a trip to Texas over the weekend to visit South Carolina National Guard soldiers working along the border.
State licensed facilities that do not follow the order could lose their license or face other penalties from DSS, according to the executive order.
McMaster’s order comes as Republicans continue to denounce the Biden administration’s response to undocumented immigration along the southern border. Specifically, Republicans have criticized the administrations lack of progress when it comes to removing migrant children from holding facilities, a promise made by Biden on the campaign trail.
The Biden administration opened 11 new facilities to house migrant children and get them out of Border Patrol facilities within the last month. Those facilities cost millions of dollars a week to operate.
As of March, Customs and Boarder Patrol reported 18,890 unaccompanied children in their custody.
This story was originally published April 12, 2021 at 1:33 PM.
