Snyder Welcoming Unaccompanied Minors, Calls for Immigration Reform

Gov. Rick Snyder announced Thursday that he wants more immigration-friendly laws in the United States and is welcoming nearly 100 children to Michigan among the thousands that have crossed the southern border.

Wellspring Lutheran Services of Farmington Hills will provide housing and stability for a group of the unaccompanied children while social workers work with immigration officials, WDIV, Channel 7, reports.

The children are males between the ages of 14 and 17, primarily from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, The Oakland Press reports.

“It’s really terrible the whole situation with the undocumented children,” Snyder said. “And that’s really generated the crisis that you’re currently talking about.”

The governor doesn’t expect the children’s arrival to affect Michigan’s economy, but does see a need for immigration reform, he said at a business roundtable meeting in Washington, DC.

Snyder said about 92 of tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors who have crossed the borders are temporarily in Michigan, but it’s difficult to estimate how many of them are from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.

Some immigration opponents have argued sheltering the children will cost the state money, but Snyder says that’s a non-issue.

“With respect to the impact on Michigan, it’s not going to be costing the state of Michigan,” Snyder said. “The federal government is paying for all that.”

Snyder said that he has always encouraged the federal government to solve the problem of large numbers of unaccompanied minors entering the United States, describing himself as the “most pro-immigration governor in the country.”

“Immigration is what made our country great,” he said.

The problem with the unaccompanied minor children is symptomatic of larger issues surrounding the failure of Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform, the governor said.

Forcing graduates who are international students to leave this country “is absolutely dumb,” he said.

Snyder insist that students would create more jobs if allowed to remain here.

“This is another subject matter where we’re being let down, not just on the kids but the whole issue of immigration reform,” Snyder said. “ Let’s get it solved. One of the things that made us a wonderful country is the fact that most of us come from someplace else or our parents did.”

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PHOTO: Gov. Rick Snyder, who describes himself as the most pro-immigration governor in the country, said nearly 100 unaccompanied minor children from Central America will be temporarily sheltered in Michigan. (Photo: Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)