Indiana lawmakers are closely watching the situation involving hundreds of undocumented, unaccompanied minors who have crossed the Mexican border to come here to the United States.
This week, Gov. Mike Pence wrote a letter to President Barack Obama expressing his concerns about 245 unaccompanied children who are apparently now living here in Indiana.
Pence called the case a “federal mishandling” and said the government should notify states in a more timely manner.
Pence also called for those children to be returned to their families in their home countries and expressed concerns about the costs for Indiana to pay for costs related to education and their health and welfare.
The governor’s letter brought a quick response from lawmakers on both sides of the debate.
“How can we be so inhumane?” asked state Rep. Charlie Brown, D-Gary. “This is the land of the free.”
Brown said he was also upset with fellow state lawmaker Brent Steele, R-Bedford, who sent an email to constituents talking about whether people were being ‘dumped’ in our state.
“That may have been a poor choice of words,” said Brown.
FOX59 asked Steele if he regretted the way his statement came off.
“I don’t regret it at all,” said Steele. “Dump is a word in the English language, and now all of a sudden I don’t care about children?”
“That’s despicable to me that they are using this as an opportunity to make a political point,” said Brown.
But Miriam Acevedo says it’s not about politics. She runs a group called La Plaza and she says these kids need help.
“(We’re) getting calls from families throughout Indiana saying, ‘I have room in my house, if you have children who need a placement we are happy to help out’ so we’re extremely delightful to see how thoughtful and kind people are,” said Acevedo.
Meantime, Indiana’s senate delegation in Washington is also watching the situation closely.
“What we’re trying to do is process them, handle it properly, and then send them back to their own nation,” said Sen. Joe Donnelly.
“They can’t just simply make a decision here in Washington and send unaccompanied children into some community in Indiana and say ‘here they are, take care of them’ so I thought the governor’s letter and request was very reasonable,” said Sen. Dan Coats.
You can watch our entire interviews with Coats and Donnelly in the videos below.
Both senators also address the latest news from the Veterans Affairs scandal, including the looming vote in Congress to supply the VA with a $17 billion package to help improve the system.