Abbott revoking licenses a form of child abuse

In another episode of his political blame game, Gov. Greg Abbott signed a proclamation last week declaring that the arrival of noncitizens in Texas is creating a “disaster.”

To punish the Biden administration for causing this, Abbott ordered the suspension of the child care licenses of 52 federally funded shelters housing some 4,000 unaccompanied immigrant children. Yanking these licenses is child abuse by pen.

The “disaster” is the “ongoing surge” of people unlawfully entering the U.S. who, theoretically, wind up released in Texas. But the numbers don’t support this. Border Patrol apprehension statistics are artificially inflated as they include people apprehended but immediately expelled under Title 42, a cruel Trump-era ban on entry of all adults and most families because of false COVID concerns, which the Biden administration has continued. As of March, Title 42 led to the expulsion of more than 650,000 migrants who never left a Border Patrol processing station.

Other than satisfying Abbott’s gripe that the feds can’t make him license shelters, there’s nothing to be gained by suspending the licenses — and much to lose.

The governor is giving these children three months to find a new home before he evicts them as shelters can’t legally operate without state licenses. The Flores settlement, the outcome of a class-action court case that is the law concerning the detention and release of children, requires facilities detaining children to have state licenses.

Companies that run shelters pay for child care licenses, but immigrant children aren’t housed by the state. They are in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, or ORR, which is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The program is federally funded.

ORR runs a nationwide network of shelters, which hold kids as they are processed for release to their families. ORR contracts mostly with for-profit companies — BCFS in Texas is an exception — to set up and run the shelters. Shelters are staffed by local residents. Food, clothing and other necessities are purchased from community merchants. Electricians, plumbers, teachers and others are locally sourced.

Abbott has said migrant kids negatively impact the state’s woebegone foster care system. This is a red herring. There is no link between state foster care and federally funded ORR shelters. ORR has its own foster care system for children in transition or who don’t have sponsors.

Then there is M.D. v. Abbott, a class-action lawsuit brought by children in foster care claiming they were subjected to serious harms by the neglect and abuse of the Texas Department of Family Protective Services, or DFPS. After years of legal wrangling and a finding of deliberate indifference by the agency, the court agreed and ordered the government to fix the system.

In 2019, a federal judge found Abbott, in his official capacity as governor, and other state officials in contempt of court for failing to take the ordered actions. The fine was $50,000 a day for the first week, rising to $100,000 for every day until he complied.

Problems persist. A May report from the independent monitors overseeing compliance with the remediation is an indictment condemning the state for continuing to expose children to “serious risks of harm.” Calling the system broken, they found DFPS unwilling to take steps to fix it.

Among other things, the state continues to house children in unlicensed facilities. Several operations with histories of abuse, neglect and safety violations have simply closed and opened under new names. Last year the number of reported cases of sexual abuse or sexual violence increased 22 percent, and 23 children in care have died since summer 2019, according to the report.

That’s what I call a disaster. Unaccompanied children are allowed to enter the U.S. as they are exempt by law from Title 42 expulsion to protect them against trafficking. The nationwide shelter system accommodates 13,500 children, but COVID distancing protocols have sharply decreased capacity. To handle the recent influx of children, caused in part by Title 42 separation of families, ORR has set up emergency intake sites, which are exempt from licensing. The state of Texas can’t regulate these. If Texas could, I suspect Abbott would strip those licenses, too.

If the state-licensed shelters aren’t allowed to continue, children will be shipped to these emergency sites, where their release will be dramatically delayed, subjecting them to escalating psychological damage and keeping them in Texas longer. That’s more child abuse.

Texas needs a leader who can think strategically and find innovative solutions to the challenge of caring for immigrant children. Texas deserves a leader who can collaborate, not polarize, who leads with compassion, not damnation, who is morally engaged and doesn’t pretend his cruel conduct serves a worthy purpose.

I like Texas, and I like Texans. I can’t help but think this meanspirited political posturing on the backs of babies isn’t playing well. At least I hope it’s not.