Help Shut Down Detention Center for Immigrant Kids Separated from Families

By MUUSJN on Sunday, May 26th, 2019

BACKGROUND

The American Friends Service Committee, along with social justice and faith partner organizations (including the National Immigrant Justice Center, United We Dream, the Franciscan Action Network, Sojourners, the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, the Unitarian Universalist Association, the UU Service Committee) has been collaborating to demand that the Homestead Detention Center near Miami, Florida be shut down.  They have declared that the week of June 9 – 16 be a time of focused action to demand that Congress and the Secretary of Health and Human Services shut down the Center and expedite efforts to reunite youth with their families or sponsors. This email will provide background information and let you know what you can do.  

The U.S. Government is currently holding at Homestead Detention Center over 3,000 teenagers, many of whom were separated from their families by U.S. immigration officials. Most of these youth were crossing the border fleeing violence and poverty in three Central American countries of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.

According to the American Friends Service Committee, instead of being released to family members or other sponsors, many are spending weeks or even months in inhumane detention facilities some attorneys have called prisons. Because Homestead is a federal emergency influx facility, immigration advocates say it’s not required to comply with state child welfare laws.  

Furthermore, the Homestead Detention Center is the only child detention facility in the U.S. that is operated by a for profit business, the Caliburn International Corporation that runs the facility through a contractor, Comprehensive Health Services.  The federal government has approved the expansion of the number of teens being held in this facility from 1,320 in December 2018 to 2,350 in March 2019 to 3,200 beds in mid-April 2019.  The longer children stay in this facility, instead of being promptly matched with their parents or with sponsors, the more profit Caliburn can make. In April, the Caliburn Corporation cancelled offering a $100 million stock offering on its services after there was an outcry about the company making money off the children. 

Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) who was allowed to visit Homestead in March 2019, said you should have an “expedited process to have kids placed with sponsors”. “The principle is you don’t keep kids locked up”. Other Florida legislators have not been allowed to tour the facility.  The former head of Department of Homeland Security, Kirstjen Nielson, said in April that the process of placing children in the custody of sponsors in the U.S. “encourages more migrants to make the trip north”.  Shortly after that statement, Nielson was fired by a Trump tweet for not doing enough to stop migration to the U.S.  

The American Friends Service Committee is sending three messages to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Alex Azar:

  • “Reunite children with their sponsors as quickly as possible and end collaboration with the Department of Homeland Security that interferes with reunifications”;
  • “Close the Homestead Temporary Shelter for Unaccompanied Alien Children and stop using emergency influx facilities”;
  • “All children deserve to live in safety and peace. It’s time to reunite children with their loved ones.”

ACTION OPPORTUNITIES — JUNE 9TH TO JUNE 16TH: 

  1. Sign a petition calling for the shutdown of Homestead. Click HERE for the petition.
  2. Assist children and young people to write letters members of Congress. Click HERE for AFSC letter writing toolkit.  Sit down with your children or grandchildren to help them with this letter writing. Post cards could be written by adults of kids at your club or place of worship.
  3. Send an email letter to members of Congress to call for a shutdown of Homestead. Click HERE to complete this on-line letter.  It’s quick and easy! 
  4. Share concerns on Facebook/social media. Copies of children/youth letters or pre-made graphics could be posted on your organization’s Facebook page.  Click HERE for graphics. 
  5. If you have friends/family in the Miami area of Florida, encouraged them to sign up HERE for an interfaith vigil, training and action scheduled for June 16th.

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