O'Malley doesn't want children from the border to come to Westminster, Md. Gov: No border kids to Md. facility

Martin O’Malley says that deporting the children detained at the border would be sending them to “certain death” — but he also urged the White House not to send them to a facility in his own state.

Hours after the Maryland governor and prospective 2016 presidential candidate became the most prominent Democrat to criticize the White House on the issue, Domestic Policy Director Cecilia Muñoz called O’Malley to complain.


But before they hung up, O’Malley told Muñoz not to send any of the children to the facility in Westminster, Md., that the White House was looking at. It’s a conservative part of the state, he warned. The children were at risk of getting harassed, or worse, he said.

( Also on POLITICO: Borderline behavior)

This only inflamed tensions between the White House and the Democratic governor who’s been trying to stake out room on the left for a possible presidential run.

White House aides confirmed the Friday conversation but declined further comment. But O’Malley aides say he’s been trying to find an alternative to the Western Maryland location, and there’s already one possibility at the preliminary stages of the process.

“We are working as quickly as possible to determine if that facility can be licensed, if the federal government wants to use that site,” said a senior O’Malley administration official.

That site isn’t in Baltimore, the official said, but that doesn’t mean Baltimore is off-limits in the future.

“We haven’t taken Baltimore off the table,” the official said, adding that “it would be important to get the buy-in of the Congressional delegation and local officials” before making any decision.

“Governor O’Malley has been discussing this issue for weeks with the White House, he has helped identify ways Maryland can assist with this humanitarian crisis, and he has directed the Maryland Department of Human Resources to take the steps necessary to find licensed providers who might be able to care for these children in Maryland,” said O’Malley press secretary Nina Smith.

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