ALMA, Mich.—A proposal to open a federally funded resettlement center to house illegal alien teenage boys in a small central Michigan city was dealt a severe setback on Wednesday.
The Alma, Michigan, planning commission on Aug. 4 voted 4–2 to reject the conditional rezoning request of Bethany Christian Services (BCS), a Grand Rapids-based non-profit, to open what it said was “a small group shelter for short-term care of low-risk children between the ages of 12 and 17 until they can be reunited with their families or placed in foster care.”
The non-profit had announced plans to contract with the federal government to house and care for between 15 to 25 illegal immigrant youths at the proposed Alma facility, and expects the operation to create about 50 jobs.
The location for the residential resettlement center is on a 6.1-acre site of a former nursing home owned by a non-profit called Masonic Pathways, which intends to lease the large building and spacious grounds to Bethany Christian Services for $385,440 per year.
