House passes resolution to condemn using schools as migrant shelters
Isabel Bembow Tamayo holds Liam Centeno, 1, in the Iglesia Rescate school classroom that is converted into a bedroom for her family, Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2023, in Hialeah, Fla. Isabel, her mother and two siblings arrived on an overcrowded boat from Cuba. In the last 18 months, an estimated 250,000 migrants and asylum-seekers like her, mostly from Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Haiti, have made their way to the Miami area, with only precarious legal status and often without work permits.
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House Republicans on Thursday passed a resolution condemning the use of elementary and secondary school grounds as migrant shelters.
The resolution, which will not have practical consequences, passed on a purely party-line vote, with 219 Republicans in favor, and 206 Democrats against.
Still, it adds another chapter to the ongoing partisan wrangling over how to handle asylum seekers released into the country.
“Using school facilities as shelter for illegal aliens instead of as schools, as they were intended, creates a host of issues ranging from safety hazards for young children to a freefall of security issues as a result of not providing the adequate accommodations or security screening,” Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa), the author of the resolution, said in a floor speech.
Miller-Meeks said her resolution “bans the Biden administration” from repurposing schools, but the measure doesn’t have the power to compel the administration, and it’s been local jurisdictions, not the federal government, engaged in the practice.
Democrats opposed the resolution, saying it was based on dangerous stereotypes.
“It’s Republicans spending time — and taxpayer dollars — to trot out stereotypes of migrants as dangerous and dirty and who knows what else,” Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García (D-Ill.) said in a floor speech.
García noted that many of the migrants seeking shelter are not undocumented, but rather asylum seekers with pending cases in immigration court.
“Let’s remember who Republicans are targeting with this language,” he said.
“They’re targeting migrants — many of them asylum seekers — who come to this country, who risk their lives — and to our cities — seeking safety and stability.”
But the Republican resolution played on tensions growing in large Democratic-controlled cities, where shelter space is limited.
In May, New York City announced it was considering converting up to 20 school gyms into temporary housing for migrants, as the city ran out of shelter space to accommodate newcomers.
The announcement drew backlash from some parents, who complained their children would not benefit from the facilities.
Republicans supporting Thursday’s resolution leaned on that point.
“At a minimum it deprives students of their space for recess and physical education and imposes financial burdens on schools for cleaning and housing,” Miller-Meeks said.
Democrats also attacked the resolution as an issue fueled by Republican Govs. Ron DeSantis of Florida and Greg Abbott of Texas, who have for months shipped migrants to Democratic jurisdictions without coordinating their arrivals.
“They’re targeting migrants trafficked by GOP governors as a political stunt,” said García, who was born in Mexico.
“This resolution is part of the same stunt, designed to sell fear and hatred — to make primetime slot pieces on Fox News. It’s dangerous for immigrants like me and the community I represent.”
