Madison, Milwaukee Will Not House Immigrant Children

HHS Regional Director Informs Madison Mayor Paul Soglin That Children Will Be Housed In Locations Closer To Border

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Many of the children who had been detained crossing the border have found housing in the South. Photo: DN (CC-BY-NC-SA).

Plans for two Wisconsin cities to house immigrant children from Central America stuck on the southern U.S. border are indefinitely on hold, now that the number of children crossing the border has dropped.

Kathleen Falk, the regional director of the federal Department of Health and Human Services, wrote a letter to Madison Mayor Paul Soglin saying that there is no longer a need for the temporary shelters that church and local government groups were offering up for the children in Milwaukee and Madison.

Last month, it seemed possible that as many as 300 children might be coming to Wisconsin. Falk, however, wrote that many of the children have found temporary shelter with local sponsors closer to the border while immigration courts process them for temporary asylum or deportation.

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State Assembly Speaker Robin Vos had spoken out strongly against housing the children, and Gov. Scott Walker had expressed concern that the children would be drain on the state’s social service programs. Nevertheless, Soglin and Milwaukee Catholic Charities director Father David Bergner had both offered up sites in their cities where the children could stay.

The letter from Kathleen Falk said the situation at the border is fluid, and that it’s possible the flow of immigrant children could increase again.