On Tuesday, over 100 protesters and supporters of the unaccompanied minors flocked to Oracle, Arizona, where a bus was expected to transport 40 children to the town's Sycamore Canyon Academy.

According to Associated Press, however, the bus never came. Protesters stopped a bus at one point, but they soon discovered that it was a bus carrying kids from a YMCA.

Sycamore Canyon Academy, which specializes in troubled youths and those in the criminal justice system, said that it made a deal with the Department of Health and Human Service to teach a "small number" of the tens of thousands of undocumented minors, mostly Central Americans, who recently crossed the U.S. border at the school, sparking outrage. The Department of Health and Human Service would not confirm the location or any other migrant shelters.

"All this was done in secrecy, and that's where a lot of people are upset," Sheriff Paul Babeu, the protest organizer, said Tuesday. "My concern [is] where's the federal government? Why are they not here? Why did they not hold a town hall to answer some of these questions?"

Babeu was not alone with his concerns. Some carried signs saying "Return to Sender" and "Send 'em to Coyote Obama," according to CNN.

"If you're going to send unaccompanied juveniles to another state in another jurisdiction, there's legitimate concern that other members of this community have about public safety and public health," Babeu said. "Give us the information."

"We already have our hands full fighting the Drug Cartels and Human Smugglers. We don't need unaccompanied juveniles from Central America being flown into Arizona - compliments of President Obama," he added in a statement on the Pinal County Sheriff's Office Facebook page. "These children should be returned to their home country - not to Oracle, Arizona paid for by American taxpayers."

According to an anonymous Fox News Latino source, 57,000 unaccompanied minors, mostly from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, have been caught at the border since October, and 1,254 had been deported back to their home country by the end of June.

"I'm protesting the invasion of the United States by people of foreign countries," Eldon Rhodes, an Oracle resident, told CNN affiliate KVOA. "This is about the sovereignty of our nation."

Some, on the other hand, came to Oracle to support the children. One trumpeter played "Star-Spangled Banner" with a Mariachi twist, for example, while others carried "Bienvenidos Welcome" signs. Babeu reportedly directed his words towards both sides of the debate, asking people to be civil, to keep the roads clear and to abide by the law.

"We are concerned that Oracle not be viewed as monolithically anti-immigrant, anti-children," Frank Pierson, a 35-year-old Oracle resident and president of St. Helen Catholic Church's parison council, told CNN affiliate KGUN. "We think the angels of our better nature need to be reflected through efforts like this one."
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Follow Scharon Harding on Twitter: @ScharHar.

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