Branstad says children at border not refugees

DES MOINES - Gov. Terry Branstad said Monday he does not regard the unaccompanied children who came to the U.S. border from Central American countries to be refugees.

However, state Sen. Jack Hatch, D-Des Moines, Branstad's rival in the 2014 governor's race, said the vulnerable minors do qualify as refugees. He said he would like to see state agencies work with faith-based groups to provide humanitarian aid as part of an Iowa tradition dating back to former Republican Gov. Robert Ray.

'The humanitarian need at the border is paramount,” Hatch told reporters Monday. 'The moral sentiment of Iowans is to let them in.”

Branstad said children smuggled into this country illegally is different from the 1970s, when Ray led a national effort to resettle refugees from Southeast Asia who were uprooted by political upheaval and who immigrated to the United States legally.

'I am one that believes very much in welcoming people,” Branstad told his weekly news conference. 'But I also believe in the rule of law.”

Branstad said leaders in other states also have balked at the idea of housing unaccompanied children because of ongoing concerns about the nation's immigration policies.

'The whole problem was created by the Obama administration's failure to meet its responsibility to secure the border. They have failed to do that,” Branstad said.

'We're very empathetic and wanting to help, but it would not be wise for us to say if you can somehow get here illegally, then you can stay. That would be just the wrong signal and would make a bad situation much worse,” Branstad said.

Hatch said the Central American children who are victims of human trafficking and violence should be granted refuge in this country under a 2008 law signed by President George W. Bush. Last week, Hatch called on Branstad to join him in establishing an 'Iowa Coalition of Mercy” to offer humanitarian aid.

'This is not a political issue,” said Hatch, who offered to remove himself from the effort to avoid partisan entanglements. 'We have never turned our back on that kind of humanitarian aid because of a political environment. Gov. Ray set the standard. He created a legacy for us to live up to and Gov. Branstad has fallen far short of that.”

Branstad said the thousands of children from Guatamala, Honduras and El Salvador came here in part because of misinformation that they would be allowed to stay in the United States, a problem that needs to be dealt with by the nations of origin.

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