Female Staffer Arrested, Tennessee Suspends License of Shelter for UACs

This is actually an update of news from Tennessee that I posted at Refugee Resettlement Watch in May with updates in June about the controversial night-flight of Unaccompanied Alien Children (mostly teenagers!) to Chattanooga, Tennessee.

So many posts I write at RRW could just as easily be posted here at ‘Frauds and Crooks!’

See here:

Tennessee Proof: Planes Land in Dark of Night Loaded with Migrants

And here:

Tennessee Republicans Blustering about UAC Drop in the State

Now comes news from the Associated Press that problems at the Chattanooga shelter have resulted in its closure.

From AP at the WaPo:

Tennessee suspends shelter license following staffer arrest

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — Tennessee officials on Thursday suspended the license of a Chattanooga shelter for immigrant children after one of the employees was arrested following abuse allegations.

The move comes as Tennessee’s top Republican leaders have called for more scrutiny surrounding the shelter. They allege the federal government has not been transparent when pressed about immigrant children moving through the state.

That rhetoric only intensified after Department of Children’s Services Commissioner Jennifer Nichols told lawmakers that in early June during an unannounced inspection of a Chattanooga shelter, a young boy reported he had witnessed “an act that, in our policy, would substantiate and require an investigation” while at the facility.

The WaPo had no photo of Duarte, but local news does. https://wdef.com/2021/07/01/tennessee-suspends-baptiste-group-shelter-license-following-staffer-arrest/ 

In a news release, Nichols on Thursday cited the abuse allegation and other issues that had plagued the shelter over the past month as reasons for the suspension.

According to the suspension summary, the department was alerted on June 15 that a 16-year-old boy had “absconded” from the shelter.

A week later, the department was told all the youth had been moved from the facility. On Wednesday, the Chattanooga Police Department announced that a staff member had been arrested and faced criminal charges.

Police officials say 35-year-old Randi Duarte faces charges of sexual battery by an authority figure, coercion of a witness and tampering with evidence. Police received a complaint in late May and worked with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Homeland Security and the Hamilton County District Attorney’s office to investigate the allegation.

The shelter is run by the Baptiste Group….

There is more.

Trump goes there…..

I have thought over the years about the “tender-hearted” women who are often the driving forces behind inviting the world to live in America (like Taylor in Greeley).

Duarte’s arrest reminded me that President Trump, just last week in Ohio, reread “The Snake” during his first rally back on the campaign trail.

Here he is with the crowd-favorite in 2017: