Nebraska Governor Given Runaround on Illegal Immigrants Sent to His State

Nebraska’s governor said this morning that they’re still trying to figure out who shipped 200 illegal immigrants to his state.

Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Neb.) recently discovered that the transfer had taken place and notified Gov. Dave Heineman (R).

“No one has been notified — notified us of that,” Heineman told Fox this morning. “So I’ve been on the telephone the last couple of days. The Department of Homeland Security referred me to the secretary of Health and Human Services.”

“We want to know the names of those individuals, who their sponsor is, is their sponsor legal, what communities did you send them to?” he said. “Why are they conducting a secret operation essentially, transporting them all over the country and now, we learn, to Nebraska and the federal government won’t tell us what’s going on.”

“Hey, I want to help the president here. He said he wants to return them expeditiously. The only way you’re going to be able to do that is you got to be able to keep track of them. We need to know who they are.”

Today the Nebraska delegation is going to formally request the information, the governor said.

“And then if this bill in Congress comes up for some sort of debate, I hope the Congress will insert language that says governors, mayors, other local elected officials deserve to know when they’re sending these individuals to our states,” Heineman said. “And you’ve already seen this is bipartisan. The governor of Colorado, John Hickenlooper, good friend, he’s already expressing concerns for his state. It’s going to happen all over America and I’m concerned it’s 200 today. How many is it tomorrow?”

“…Now I want to emphasize, we’re going to treat these kids humanely as long as we have them. But at the end of the day, the president has already said they need to be returned expeditiously. The only way you’re going to do that and why we’re concerned is you got to be able to keep track of them.”

What concerns him most, Heineman said, is the lack of transparency from the federal government.

“They know who they are, where they’re sending them and again, they won’t tell us whether they’re arriving by bus, by plane, by car. I have no idea and I have no idea what communities they’re going to in our state,” he added. “And then again, who’s going to foot the bill? And in all likelihood, that means legal taxpayers are going to pay for services for illegal individuals.”