Hodgson opposes Gov. Patrick's decision to house unaccompanied minors

BOSTON (MyFoxBoston.com)— Bristol County Sheriff Tom Hodgson said Monday that he opposes Governor Patrick's decision on sheltering unaccompanied minors.

Hodgson recently visited the Texas border to get a first-hand look at the immigration crisis. In an interview with FOX 25, he stated that housing the unaccompanied minors is less than a humanitarian crisis, and more of a leadership issue.

“[The Governor] is reacting more in a broad bureaucratic way around the political agenda as opposed to understanding the issue, going to the border, talking to people on the border who understand what’s going on,” Hodgson said.

Last Friday, Governor Patrick called the recent surge of undocumented children in the U.S. is a humanitarian crisis. He announced the two locations being considered to shelter undocumented children. About 1,000 children could be sent to Massachusetts to be sheltered for four months. These children would be given housing and schooling from local communities.

Hodgson said the government should not be sending unaccompanied minors to different states, and proposed sending administrative judges to the border instead. He said the short time these children will be in Massachusetts would continue to overflow the school system and increase crime in local communities.

“When they are allowed to stay which most of them probably will be, they get in to these neighborhoods wherever it maybe be, foster care, some relative, legal or illegal,” Hodgson said. “They walk into a neighbored street they become vulnerable, they become the targets of predators because predators can pick right up on it.”

Hodgson said that the second step in his plan to solve the immigration crisis would be to secure the border by increasing border patrol.

Cox Media Group