No state in the union could be more sympathetic to the Obama administration or to its immigration policies than Vermont (where I live). But there is only so much a small state, and a sympathetic governor, can do. As the Burlington Free Press reports, when Washington asked if Vermont could find a way to house 1,000 of the young people who recently arrived at the border:
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Vermont lacks the capacity to host a large number of unaccompanied immigrant children, Gov. Peter Shumlin wrote to the the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Monday. The federal government had asked Vermont and other states whether there was a 90,000-square-foot facility that could host up to 1,000 children. Vermont looked for options in Burlington and statewide.
Nothing came of this search which turned up facilities that could handle 100 and fewer of the immigrant children. Shumlin also:
… offered to “assist” Massachusetts in its offer to host children at military bases
Tempting as it is to find proof here of political hypocrisy, it isn’t the case. If Vermont could have helped, it would have. And sacrificed to do it.
There are limits.
