The controversial Chattanooga shelter housing unaccompanied migrant children for eight months placed 17 children in Tennessee, including one in Chattanooga and one in Cleveland, according to Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga.
Gardenhire presented the figures to Tennessee Department of Children's Services Commissioner Jennifer Nichols during a Thursday afternoon hearing of the state's special committee investigating migrants and refugees. Nichols could not confirm the data at the time.
The state senator said the level of public outcry over the shelter exceeded the number of children placed in Tennessee through the Chattanooga shelter operated by the Baptiste Group. The state suspended the organization's child care license July 1 over safety concerns.
"That's hardly enough to move the needle on something," Gardenhire said. "That's just my opinion."
In a seven-minute back and forth, Gardenhire asked representatives from the Department of Children's Services four times when the state first learned about possible child abuse at the facility. Court documents released from a closed-door hearing in July about the suspension showed the state declined to investigate a child abuse complaint against an employee at the shelter weeks before it acknowledged alleged abuse at the facility and a month before Chattanooga police charged that employee with sexual battery.
The state said the abuse complaint, which later became central to its argument for shutting down the shelter, did not meet its criteria for an investigation.
"I'm asking you now, today, when was the first time an incident was reported to DCS concerning the Baptiste Group home in Highland Park in Chattanooga, Tennessee?" Gardenhire asked the Department of Children's Services officials, in his fourth attempt at the question. "Was it June 3, the first time? Or was it May 21, the first time?"
Screenshot from the Aug. 12, 2021, hearing of Tennessee's Study Committee on Refugee Issues.Helen Rodgers, assistant general counsel for the Department of Children's Services, responded by saying the state was barred from answering the question in public.
"All the department can say in a public forum is whether or not a child abuse investigation was commenced or not," Rodgers said. "That is the current statute."
Gardenhire noted much of the current immigration system, which includes the system for housing unaccompanied minors, was passed under former President George W. Bush and Republican leaders.
The state has two choices, Gardenhire said, between being able to provide education and medical treatment, as well as place the children with a vetted sponsor, or those children could come into Tennessee communities without any such oversight or guidance.
"We need to decide what we're truly trying to accomplish here," he said. "Are we trying to run out a business in Chattanooga, in my district, that employs over 110 people, U.S. citizens, and I'll repeat that again. One hundred and ten people, in my district, that are now unemployed until this thing is settled, that are U.S. citizens. Most of us in this room would kill for a company that would hire 110 people in their district."
Last month, the Baptiste Group sued Tennessee over its decision to revoke the organization's residential child care license, arguing the state's decision was discriminatory and it was treating the migrant shelter differently than similar Tennessee agencies dealing with children and youth.
The only residential child care license the Department of Children's Services has suspended since 2016 was that of the Baptiste Group.
The state formed a special committee to investigate immigration in May after news broke that unaccompanied children were being flown into Chattanooga and housed in a shelter in Highland Park before being placed with sponsors. The state had approved a license for the facility in May 2020 and children began arriving in November 2020, but a video of children getting off a plane in Chattanooga in May sparked outrage and calls for an investigation.
Contact Wyatt Massey at wmassey@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6249. Follow him on Twitter @news4mass.