Iowans still working to find homes for unaccompanied immigrant children

Federal officials announced this week they're no longer searching for temporary housing for the recent surge of unaccompanied immigrant children.

Emily Barson, the principal deputy director in the Office of Intergovernmental and External Affairs within the Department of Health and Human Services, said in a letter sent to Massachusetts officials that progress is being made on processing immigrant children on the Southwest border.

'HHS has also proactively expanded capacity to care for children in standard shelters, which are significantly less costly than temporary shelters,” Barson wrote. 'As a result of this progress, HHS is no longer seeking facilities for temporary shelters for unaccompanied children at this time.”

Several organizations within Iowa have been working to find homes and shelter for the many children crossing the border from Central American countries into the United States.

The 'Keep IJH Open” group has floated the idea of placing the children in the Iowa Juvenile Home facility in Toledo. This idea was backed by AFSCME, Iowa's largest public employee union. The Eychaner Foundation, a Des Moines non-profit, launched a '1000 Kids for Iowa” campaign to find Iowans willing to open their homes to unaccompanied immigrant children.

'Our goal is to put children in independent homes,” said Rich Eychaner, the founder of the Eychaner Foundation, which is committed to promoting tolerance and non-discrimination. 'In our minds, (placing children in military facilities and warehouse type housing) was not a humane or just solution.”

Eychaner said the recent announcement will have no effect on the foundation's efforts.

'We're finding Iowans to be incredibly open and caring,” said Eychaner of efforts to find homes for immigrant children. The organization reports 236 children have been offered homes and 206 homes willing to take in children have been identified.

The timeline for placing children in Iowa homes is dependent on the federal government, Eychaner said. The foundation is working to simply receive offers from Iowans willing to open their home to the children.

A recent meeting was held in Dubuque where a goal was set to find proper housing for approximately 100 kids, he said. The foundation is hoping to have a meeting in Cedar Rapids within the next two weeks.

Jimmy Centers, a spokesman for Gov. Terry Branstad, repeated a consistent statement on Thursday that the governor is 'deeply empathetic for the unaccompanied alien children” but reiterated that the policies from the federal government were lacking in creating a strong border, 'sending a signal of false hope and jeopardizing the lives of unaccompanied alien children who are currently making a very dangerous journey from Central America.”

Centers said that he was unable to comment on the number of unaccompanied immigrant children currently in Iowa since he said the 'Obama administration hasn't kept states apprised of placements.”