Unlike Weak Kristi Noem, Gov. McMaster Cracks Down on Biden Border Crisis by Blocking Unaccompanied Minors from Being Dropped Off in SC

On Monday, Governor Henry McMaster (R) of South Carolina issued Executive Order 2021-19
effectively blocking the Biden administration from forcing undocumented, unaccompanied migrant children into state-owned foster care or group homes. McMaster believes the current conditions of South Carolina’s foster care system warrant this order.

This executive order comes in response to South Carolina’s Department of Social Services’ (DSS) Director Micahel Leach’s letter on April 8th informing Governor McMaster of the federal government’s inquiries to, “transport an unknown number of unaccompanied migrant children from the southern border and place them in South Carolina foster care and group homes licensed by DSS.”

Governor McMaster’s response was this: “South Carolina’s children must always be given first priority for placement into foster care and the State’s strained resources must be directed to addressing the needs of its children. Allowing the federal government to place an unlimited number of unaccompanied migrant children into our state’s child welfare system for an unspecified length of time is an unacceptable proposition. We’ve been down this road with the federal government before and the state usually ends up ‘on the hook.” DSS Director Leach responded to Governor McMaster’s concerns surrounding the state’s child welfare system with potential solutions to fix any issues in a letter dated April 10th.

Leach listed off a number of reasons that led to the executive order passed by McMaster. Any influx of new children into the system would negatively affect the service given to the American citizens currently in the welfare system. This is especially true considering that the federal government is offering a board rate, “approximately three times the State-paid board rate, which would incentivize providers to accept migrant placements rather than the State’s placements, or to reserve space for such placements in order to capitalize on the opportunity.”

Also, these migrant children are often abandoned and uninsured so the timeframe in which they will be in the state’s care is unknown. Lastly, a large placement of migrant children from distant geographical areas into local foster/group homes would pose a coronavirus health risk to current children in the welfare system. Leach said, “South Carolina has made positive strides in vaccination but there are still many citizens who have yet to receive the vaccine, and a majority of children in foster care are not yet eligible for the vaccine.”

Governor Kristi Noem (R) of South Dakota and other Red State governors have taken a different approach by being hands-off. Noem and the others have not addressed the fact that illegal immigrants are being dropped off throughout the country including in red and swing states which some believe is an attempt to change these states to blue.

In 2019 Noem welcomed more refugees to the state when given an option by Trump an executive order to opt-out of the Refugee Resettlement Program. She has yet to say or do anything about the illegal immigrant drop-off happening around the country.

Considering all of these conditions, McMaster decided to prioritize South Carolina children above migrant children. Media Right News hopes that all U.S. governors will follow suit and put the livelihoods of American citizens above illegal migrants flooding into our country uninvited!