As news that immigrant children were being separated from their parents grew over the past week the spotlight has been almost entirely on Texas detention centers. Today though we are learning of another facility in Homestead, Florida, a facility visited today by a Florida Senator and Congresswoman. The Miami Herald reports:
“U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson and Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz were denied access Tuesday to a Homestead facility where as many as 1,000 unaccompanied immigrant children are being held.
Nelson and Wasserman Schultz, both Democrats, tried to enter the Homestead Temporary Shelter for Unaccompanied Children a day after Wasserman Schultz announced that she’d learned Health and Human Services had transferred hundreds of children to the South Miami-Dade site. The center, which HHS says is only temporary, held unaccompanied minors during the Obama administration.”
The company running this facility told us we would be welcomed to tour the facility. HHS then denied us entry and said that they need “two weeks notice” to allow us inside. That’s ridiculous and it’s clear this administration is hiding something.
— Senator Bill Nelson (@SenBillNelson) June 19, 2018
This is not a good day for our country. The Trump administration will not let us check on the welfare of the children being held in Homestead, FL. These are kids who were taken from their moms and dads. They are scared. And this administration should be ashamed of itself. pic.twitter.com/DbrknSuEIT
— Senator Bill Nelson (@SenBillNelson) June 19, 2018
The American people deserve to see the cruel way the Trump Administration is treating children. https://t.co/172YZd6IwN
— Debbie Wasserman Schultz (@DWStweets) June 19, 2018
The Miami Herald also reports:
“Wasserman Schultz said Tuesday that she has learned there are two additional facilities housing younger children in Miami Gardens and Cutler Bay. An HHS spokesman declined to comment.”
This makes you wonder how many other facilities will be needed before the President puts a stop to this.
