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O'Malley/White House Immigration Spat, Carper Immigration Plan Criticized

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ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) - Gov. Martin O'Malley's administration is working to find temporary shelter in Maryland to help immigrant children who have been crossing the border from Central America without due process.

The Maryland Department of Human Services issued a statement of need on Monday to locate licensed providers who could care for unaccompanied children. It will be published on July 25 in the Maryland Register. That's an official state government publication that is issued every two weeks to temporarily supplement the state's code of regulations.

O'Malley, a Democrat who is considering running for president in 2016, was outspoken about the issue at the National Governors Association meeting in Nashville, Tennessee.

O'Malley told reporters there Friday: "We are not a country that should turn children away and send them back to certain death."

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Governor Martin O'Malley

O'Malley, White House Dust Up

Meanwhile, days after O'Malley criticized a White House proposal to deal with the immigration crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border, reports surfaced of a leaked phone call between the governor and a top Obama aide. The details appeared to make O'Malley look hypocritical. He publicly criticized the White House's calls to speed up deportations of children, while pleading with the administration to not send them to one site in his state.

O'Malley, a possible presidential contender, has publicly accused the White House of leaking the conversation.

Senator Carper's Plan

Senator Tom Carper says the way to stem the tide of undocumented immigration from Central American countries – including unaccompanied children – is to stimulate their economies the way the U.S. did with Colombia and Mexico.

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Senator Tom Carper (D-De)

But experts told a congressional panel yesterday that such efforts would be difficult to duplicate in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador – the origin of many of the some 57-thousand unaccompanied minors who have fled their countries.

The Wilmington News Journal reports that they also told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that the violence is also too widespread.

In addition, the U.S. would be dealing with three different countries.

President Obama has asked congress for $3.7 billion to deal with the current surge in unaccompanied minors from Central America. 

Don Rush is the News Director at Delmarva Public Media. An award-winning journalist, Don reports major local issues of the day, from sea level rise, to urban development, to the changing demographics of Delmarva.