O'Malley defends position on immigrant children and Carroll site

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Source: Baltimore Sun

Gov. Martin O'Malley came under fire Wednesday for advocating for thousands of children entering the U.S. illegally while simultaneously trying to waive the White House off a potential shelter in Westminster, Md.

CNN and others reported that O'Malley spoke Friday with White House adviser Cecilia Muñoz and requested that the administration reconsider its assessment of a former Army Reserve Center in Carroll County. A White House official confirmed the conservation to The Sun but declined to comment on the nature of the call.

Late last week, at a meeting of the National Governors Association in Nashville, O'Malley urged compassion for the children and argued that they receive due process before being deported. The comments came as the Obama administration is seeking to alter legal protections for the children in order to expedite their removal.

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"What I said was that would not be the most inviting site in Maryland. There are already hundreds of kids already located throughout Maryland," O'Malley said of his phone conversation with Muñoz in an interview Wednesday on CNN.

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O'Malley aides dismissed the idea that the governor was being hypocritical by advocating for the children while opposing the Carroll County shelter. They said they have worked cooperatively with the federal government on potential sites and also pointed to a "statement of need" to be published later this month that solicits licensed providers to care of the children.

Read more: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/blog/bal-omalley-defends-position-on-immigrant-children-20140716,0,5429179.story

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1. Washington Post article

O’Malley , Obama aides spar over unaccompanied immigrant children

Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, a stalwart ally of President Obama, has landed in an escalating fight with the White House over what to do about thousands of unaccompanied children streaming across the U.S. border.

It started Friday, when O’Malley declared that returning the children to their home countries, as Obama has suggested, would send them “back to certain death.” That prompted an angry response from White House officials and accusations of hypocrisy when O’Malley opposed locating a shelter for the children in a Maryland county.

But the Democratic governor, who is considering a bid for president in 2016, did not budge from his position in interviews Wednesday.

“We are Americans, and we do not return refugee kids who find themselves on our doorstep back into war-torn or famine-racked places where they will face certain death,” O’Malley said. “I think we have to act like Americans.”

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2. WaPo missed this part:

"What I said was that would not be the most inviting site in Maryland."

O'Malley aides dismissed the idea that the governor was being hypocritical by advocating for the children while opposing the Carroll County shelter. They said they have worked cooperatively with the federal government on potential sites and also pointed to a "statement of need" to be published later this month that solicits licensed providers to care of the children. . .

Meanwhile, the state's leading immigration advocate group, CASA de Maryland, supported O'Malley's decision to question the Carroll County site.

"When we heard about the proposed Westminster site, our immediate thought was that the only place in Maryland less hospitable to children fleeing violence in Central America would be inside the Frederick County Sheriff's Department building," said Kimberly Propeack, an attorney with the group.

"We think he is right to question why the administration would propose the most anti-immigrant locations rather than the many other parts of the state where children will be sheltered and loved," she said.