Mass. Protesters Rally Against Sheltering Kids in Border Crisis

Gov. Deval Patrick offered Camp Edwards in Bourne as potential temporary landing spot for undocumented children

At the Otis Rotary in Bourne, Massachusetts, more than a dozen people held signs for a good part of the day, protesting a proposal to house undocumented children from other countries on Cape Cod.

"It's not a good thing for the country, not the way it's happening," said Bill Duggan. "No one here is against immigration, it's the illegal part of it."

Gov. Deval Patrick said Friday that he has told the federal government to look at two locations in the Bay State as temporary shelters for children who cross the U.S. border alone: Camp Edwards on the Cape and Westover Air Reserve base in Chicopee.

The governor says the shelter would be managed by the federal government, open for four months. He says it would handle up to a 1,000 children.

"I'm not sure the Commonwealth is fully prepared to handle this influx right now," said Worcester County Sheriff Lewis Evangelidis, who just returned from a tour of the U.S.-Mexican border in Texas.

He says this country's failed immigration policy is allowing undocumented children and others to enter the U.S. in droves.

"The Mexican drug cartels get a fee on every person that comes across the border - everything that comes across the border - whether it be narcotics, legitimate trade or human trafficking," said Evangelidis. "They are exploiting our weak immigration and lack of enforcement to people in Central America, and saying to them, 'We will transport you to America. Once you land on soil, you're as good as in."

The governor says the children will be processed by immigration officials and will not attend local schools. He says all the costs will be picked up by Washington, but opponents like the protesters in Bourne are not convinced that will happen.

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