UPDATE: The federal government has cancelled plans to house UAC in Lawrenceville VA but now considering placing children at Virginia Intermont College in Bristol Va. Story here. Congressman Morgan Griffith’s response here.
A crowd of a 1,000 people packed the Brunswick County high school auditorium in the tiny town of Lawrenceville last night to object to federal government’s plan to house 500 unaccompanied alien children (UAC) at the closed St. Paul college in their town. Officials from the department of health and human services (HHS) apologized for the lack of communication with the town prior to setting their plan into motion. The children had been due to arrive on Thursday. Officials tried to persuade the town’s people that the their plan would bring in large sums of federal money to their cash strapped town of 1,500. The people of Lawrenceville were having none of it. A long line of people stood up to speak out against the plan. One town resident said,
“Please take your UACs and relocate them to D.C., where you can keep a very close eye on their welfare and keep them out of our backyard,”
When federal officials made a humanitarian appeal to the residents, talking about the needs of unfortunate children from crime filled Central America, a resident received loud applause when she responded,
“We cannot save the world unless first focused on children in poverty in the United States,”
After the meeting Congressman Robert Hurt called HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell asking her to listen to the will of the people and cancel the plan. The federal government has not said if they will continue to move forward and house UAC in Lawrenceville, VA.
