Arizona State Senator Kelly Townsend is calling on state and local leadership “to keep a close eye on” newly arrived migrant children and the organizations tasked with their care. Townsend, who has been a vocal advocate for children who become wards of the state, says she wants answers from the Biden administration as well.
“I am concerned about the well-being of these children,” said Townsend. “Regardless of where you stand on the issue of illegal immigration, history shows us that children have been mistreated, molested, and held longer than the 72-hour maximum.”
“I would like to know what the state is doing to ensure that they are being kept in humane conditions and are not being further victimized,” continued Townsend. “I am concerned for their welfare, I am disturbed that they have been subjected to these dangers in the first place, and I want to know what the Federal government is doing to mitigate the situation.”
Townsend is calling on the Biden administration “to take the necessary measures to reverse the flood of persons coming to this country with an expectation of easy entry.”
“This is no time to invite the masses into our country during a pandemic,” Townsend said. “I call on the President to reverse course and ask these folks to enter the legal way. If not, they should return home and not risk their children’s safety and wellbeing by sending them here on their own.”
Townsend’s demand for information and increased oversight follows weeks of silence from Governor Doug Ducey and Attorney General Mark Brnovich regarding the issue of the trafficked children who have been pouring into the state.
The duo’s silence prompted former State Rep. Bob Thorpe, who fought for answers regarding the care of Unaccompanied Minor Children (UAC) during the border surge of 2018, to call them out in an interview on KFYI’s James T. Harris show.
In 2018, Thorpe and Democratic Rep. Kelli Butler wrote to Southwest Key’s then-CEO, Juan Sanchez, to request a tour of the organization’s facilities and detailed information about its operations. While they were able to meet with company representatives and state employees tasked with licensing the facilities, who assured them the children were being adequately cared for, Thorpe and Butler were denied an opportunity to have full access to the facilities.
In 2019, Sanchez, who referred to himself as “El Presidente” in presentations to staff and the migrant children, was forced to step down as head of the organization he founded after one of his employees was convicted of sexually abusing a migrant child.
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