NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Governor Bill Lee and other state leaders called for transparency from the Biden administration after reports surfaced about migrant children traveling through Tennessee.
He sent a tweet right after the reports came out, calling on the Biden administration to "secure the border and stop scattering children across the country."
In a news conference Wednesday, Gov. Lee stood by his statements.
"States don't know when the unaccompanied minors are being brought into the states and that's the biggest challenge for us," Lee said.
The White House says the children were traveling as part of a program to unite them with family and sponsors already in the US.
That program has been in place since as early as 2014, and for all four years of the trump administration.
Public federal data shows around 5,000 migrant children were released to families and sponsors in Tennessee under the Trump administration and about a thousand from October 2020 until now.
So we asked Governor Lee, why is he expressing concern now, but not last year?
"All I'll talk about today is what's happening today in Tennessee, that's the thing I've spoken to, there are children that are being brought into our state that we're not being made aware of and that's very concerning to us so that's what we're speaking out on," Governor Lee said.
So, what's different about the transparency now?
"Knowing the children that are coming, where they are, where they're being delivered to our state and what's happening to them," the governor said.
The Biden administration is now publishing daily reports about unaccompanied children being brought into the country. The data shows about 360 unaccompanied children are placed into US custody on average each day.