An Oklahoma Congressman who visited an Army base being used to house illegal immigrant children now wonders what the federal government is hiding after he was denied access to the facility.
“There is no excuse for denying a Federal Representative from Oklahoma access to a federal facility in Oklahoma where unaccompanied children are being held,” Rep. Jim Bridenstine said in a statement following his visit Tuesday to Ft. Sill Army base near Lawton.
The Department of Health and Human Services has set up housing at Ft. Sill and two other military bases – Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio and Ventura County Naval Base in Oxnard, Cali. – to house thousands of unaccompanied alien children, or UACs, who were apprehended at the southern U.S. border.
Bridenstine went to Ft. Sill to observe the conditions under which the 1,200 UACs there are living and to find out to whom they would be released.
But when he showed up at the facility, Bridenstine says he was told by a guard with a security unit which calls itself the “Brown Shirts” that he could not observe the children or their living conditions.
When the congressman spoke to a manager and HHS official, he was told he would have to schedule a formal visit for July 21.
“Any Member of Congress should have the legal authority to visit a federal youth detention facility without waiting three weeks,” Bridenstine said in his statement.
Though unable to get inside the facility, Bridenstine described its exterior.
“A new fence has been erected by HHS, completely surrounding the barracks and covered with material to totally obscure the view,” he said, adding that “every gate is chained closed.”
“What are they trying to hide?” Bridenstine asked. “Do they not want the children to speak with Members of Congress?”
Credit to Dailycaller.com
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2014/07/02/u-s-congressman-blocked-from-entering-child-immigrant-facility/#ixzz36VgiIgQ5
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