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Angelenos Divided On Mayor Garcetti's Proposal To House Immigrant Children

Neon Tommy Staff Reporters |
July 21, 2014 | 10:26 a.m. PDT

After a tense standoff between the Border Patrol and residents in Murietta, Calif. transformed the small city into the epicenter of the national immigration debate, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti made a heartfelt pitch to his constituency last Tuesday and proposed housing detained immigrant children in his city.

“As a father, who are we as Americans if we don’t step forward first and say, these kids who are isolated, alone … let’s get them someplace safe and secure,” Garcetti told the crowd at a forum hosted by Politico.

Garcetti said Los Angeles would help provide shelter and care for immigrant children who have been detained after crossing the border illegally from various parts of Central America. But the mayor provided few details as to what the accommodations would entail or when they would occur.

The number of unaccompanied minors crossing the border illegally could climb to 90,000 by the end of September, according to the Washington Post. The massive influx of immigrant children has sparked controversy, both amongst Angelenos and the nation at large. Not everyone is a fan of the mayor's proposal–as evident by this Breitbart headline–so we sent a handful of staff reporters downtown to survey residents' thoughts on the heated debate.

 

Jackson Prince, Kristi Cook, Danielle Brettler, Annabelle Lau, Krystal Lai, May Cui, Leyland Firatli, Lina Takahashi, Nina Brown, Camille Boudreaux, and Victoria Edwards contributed to this story.



 

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