Haslam says he was not told of unaccompanied minors

Gov. Bill Haslam says in a letter to President Barack Obama that his administration should have been informed about the placement of 760 unaccompanied minors in Tennessee.

The Republican governor complains in a letter released Friday that the Department of Health and Human Services did not tell officials in Tennessee directly that unaccompanied immigrant children had been released into the custody of sponsors living in the state.

Instead, they learned of the minors through a posting on the HHS website, a practice that Haslam said was "unacceptable."

"Not only was our state not informed prior to any of the children being brought here, I still have not been contacted and have no information about these individuals or their sponsors other than what was posted on the HHS website and subsequently reported by media," he wrote.

Haslam asked the Obama administration to answer a series of questions, including the process for determining the children should be released, whether they received medical screenings and where the children now reside.

"Tennessee is a diverse and welcoming state, and we also understand that this is a complicated issue," Haslam said. "However, an influx of unaccompanied immigrant children to the state, with little information being made available to the public or state leaders, creates confusion and could be very problematic."

Reach Chas Sisk at 615-259-8283 and on Twitter @chassisk.