President Barack Obama's administration is transporting illegal immigrants around the country in a "secret operation" without informing state and local officials, said Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman.
White House officials "said they believe in transparency in government. Why won't they be transparent on this situation? What are they hiding?" Heineman, a Republican, told "Fox & Friends" on Monday. "Why are they conducting a secret operation, essentially, transporting them all over the country?"
Heineman said GOP Sen. Mike Johanns of Nebraska found out a "couple days ago" that 200 illegal immigrants had been sent to the state, adding, "No one has notified us of that."
After placing calls to the Department of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services to find out details, Heineman said the federal government "won't tell us what's going on."
"We want to know the names of those individuals. Who their sponsor is. Is their sponsor legal? What communities did you send them to?" he asked.
Nebraska officials would "treat these kids humanely, as long as we have them," Heineman said, but added they had to know who the illegal immigrants were to "keep track of them."
Heineman said he hoped legislation in Congress would include language that spelled out that "governors, mayors, other local elected officials deserve to know when [the federal government is] sending these individuals to our states."
He said many of the costs to care for and educate the illegal immigrants would fall to taxpayers.
"Who's going to foot the bill? In all likelihood, that means legal taxpayers are going to pay for services for illegal individuals," he said.
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