Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) said the influx of child immigrants is harming his state’s education system and creating a financial burden.
“President Obama’s failure to enforce basic immigration laws is now causing a huge financial burden for Louisiana,” Vitter said on Tuesday.
{mosads}Thousands of children from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala have been detained along the U.S.-Mexico border this year. Some of the children have been released to family members inside the United States until their deportation or refugee hearings.
Vitter said his home state has taken more than 1,600 unaccompanied children and that it could cost Louisiana nearly $7 million to educate them this school year.
“This rapid influx puts an additional burden on teachers who will be expected to accommodate non-English speaking students,” Vitter said. “That’s not fair to the teachers and not fair to the students in the classroom.”
Vitter and other Republicans have blamed the increase in unaccompanied minors trying to immigrate to the United States on Obama’s deferred deportation program for children brought illegally into the United States by their parents before 2007. But the administration points out that the children coming now aren’t eligible for the deferred action.
Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala — where most of the children are traveling from — have also experienced spikes in drug violence, causing some of the children to flee for their lives and seek refugee status.