An Iowa Latino leader says several children from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras who crossed into the U.S. along the southern border are now living in Iowa, but their arrival has been kept quiet to avoid controversy. Joe Henry is the state director of the League of United Latin American Citizens of Iowa.

Just this past Monday Governor Terry Branstad repeated his opposition to having any of the unaccompanied kids who came into the U.S. from Central America placed in Iowa.

State and federal officials now confirm up to 139 undocumented children from Central America were relocated to Iowa in the past six and a half months. Henry says many of the children need mental health counseling because of the violence they were subjected to before they got to the U.S., but the governor’s stand makes that difficult.

A spokesman for Branstad says the federal government didn’t notify state officials when these immigration children were being placed in Iowa. After questions from reporters this week, the governor’s staff confirmed nearly 12 dozen unaccompanied kids had been placed in Iowa homes since the beginning of the year, but “it remains unclear” whether all those children are from Central America. Branstad’s spokesman says the governor is concerned the situation “may encourage others to attempt the very dangerous journey across Central America and Mexico.”