The building of a hotel casino in Tunica County, Mississippi, may be used for the creation of a new “influx care facility,” that may serve as the home for up to 2,000 immigrant minors who are unaccompanied. The proposal was discussed last week, as announced by the news outlet WREG.
The building that may be used for the new influx care facility is the once popular Harrah’s Hotel complex. The venue has been closed to visitors ever since 2014 when its casino was demolished. The location was once a popular gaming and hospitality destination, offering more than 1,300 hotel rooms and one of the largest casino gaming floors in the region.
However, the expansion of gambling in nearby states ultimately led to the downfall of the once popular hotel casino in Tunica County. The Board attorney for the Tunica County Board of Supervisors, John Keith Perry, who was recently quoted by the publication, spoke about the proposal to use the former casino hotel as a facility for unaccompanied immigrant minors.
He revealed: “Obviously, anything that deals with immigration is a hot-button issue.” Perry said that while the Board is aware of the potential possibility of using the vacant hotel complex as housing for minors, he said that there isn’t any formal approval for that project.
He disclosed that a private company is interested in acquiring the property from its current owners. According to Perry, if the location is used to house immigrant minors, it must adhere to the tough federal regulations for such activities. He said that in case the project receives a green light, the housing facility would be “self-contained.”
Opponents Voice Their Concerns
But while the new facility may house children, which is unlikely to cause any concerns for the security of Tunica residents, the project may have a be purely financial issue.
K.C. Hamp, Tunica County’s sheriff, who was interviewed by the Associated Press, revealed that there are insufficient funds for such a large-scale project that would take care of immigrants. The sheriff explained: “When it concerns public safety, public healthcare, along with child protective services, Tunica County does not have a local hospital in the event of an emergency.”
On the other hand, Cedric Burnett, a representative from District 9, also criticized the potential project saying that it won’t benefit Tunica or the state of Mississippi. He predicted that the project may benefit a handful of people, namely “the person who’s selling the land, and the person that’s actually got a large contract with the Federal Government to house the immigrants.”
Burnett said that the vacant location could better be used to “complement the gaming industry” in the region. He added that the county relies on tourism and gaming helps with that.