Illegal Immigrant Children: Taxpayers Footing The Bill For Petting Zoos And Guitar Lessons
Illegal immigrant children are costing the taxpayers an average of $329 per day for their care. Federal housing facilities for the tens of thousands of undocumented children who crossed the Texas border this year reportedly include petting zoos complete with miniature horses, guitar lessons, and Tilapia fish farm operations.
Iowa Senator Charles Grassley has questioned the hefty price tag associated with the operation of the facilities currently housing illegal immigrant children and their families. According to a new financial report compiled by the Republican Senator’s office, Southwest Key Programs, a government contractor, charged $329 per day per child for the care offered through its California facility in Lemon Grove. Another similar facility in El Cajon is billing the federal government, and by extension the taxpayers, $316 per child each day for care.
Senator Grassley is questioning the manner in which the money is being spent, and noted that the Obama administration is now asking Congress for even more money to handle the surge of illegal immigrants which occurred earlier this year.
“It is disturbing that HHS [Health and Human Services] is funding such expensive facilities despite claiming to be unable to meet basic needs for UACs,” the Iowa Senator said in a letter to HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell.
UACs stands for unaccompanied alien children, the label the federal government has given to illegal immigrant minors who cross the Mexican border without a parent.
A Washington Times report about the conditions at government-funded illegal immigrant children housing facilities, such as those run by Southwest Key Programs, details a vast array of amenities offered. According to the report, “culturally sensitive” music is piped into the rooms of the unaccompanied minors. International phone calls are also permitted so the UACs can talk with their parents back home. The children are also permitted to call parents currently living illegally in the United States.
Senator Grassley’s illegal immigrant children expense report also states that Southwest Key Programs has cultivated an organic orchard so the unaccompanied alien children can have oranges, grapefruit, and lemons for meals cooked inside the kitchen at the housing facility.
The illegal immigrant children are also reportedly given an “allowance” of $1 per day to spend. HHS officials reportedly stated that the details associated with the care of the illegal alien children have been kept from the public because they feel Congress instructed the agency to “protect the children’s privacy,” including the conditions and locations of their care.
The Washington Times made a public records requests to garner the details and costs associated with the care of the illegal immigrant children in July, though HHS has yet to provide the requested documents.
What do you think about the $329 per day illegal immigrant children housing facility bill being levied against American taxpayers?
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