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After touring a shelter in the Chicago area that houses children from a recent rush of unaccompanied minors to the U.S. border, Sen. Dick Durbin on Monday said he wanted to make it clear the youths are not a danger to Illinois citizens.
“My friends, you would want to adopt these children if you spent five minutes in the room with them,” Durbin said at a news conference at Loyola University Chicago in Rogers Park. “They are lovely, beautiful little kids.”
His remarks come after Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., and some other GOP lawmakers alleged that some of the children may be gang-affiliated or at risk of being recruited by gangs.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services called the allegations “rumors” and said in a statement on its website, “Many of these children are fleeing violent situations in their home country and choose to leave rather than join a gang.”
The shelters are run by the nonprofit Heartland Alliance, which has a contract with the HHS to care for the children. The location of Heartland’s nine facilities, which house about 429 kids, are undisclosed for security reasons. About 319 children are in foster care in Illinois, said Ashley Huebner, an attorney for the National Immigrant Justice Center.
