Democratic candidates demand closure of for-profit child detention facility

[babylonsister]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by Yonnie3 (a host of the General Discussion forum).

Democratic candidates demand closure of for-profit child detention facility
By Gabriela Resto-Montero Jun 30, 2019, 11:27am EDT


Activists demonstrating outside of a detention facility meant to serve as temporary quarters for migrant teens were joined by Democratic presidential candidates this week as conditions at the center and others like it have come under increased scrutiny following reports of a lack of basic sanitation at a Texas facility.

The candidates visited Homestead, a youth detention facility run by the private for-profit company Caliburn International on behalf of the federal government, while in Miami for the first Democratic primary debates. Many of the candidates, including Sens. Kamala Harris and Kirsten Gillibrand, South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, former HUD Secretary Julián Castro, author Marianne Williamson, and former governor of Colorado John Hickenlooper visited as part of a group organized by Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, who represents the Miami-Dade district where the Homestead shelter is located.

“Immigration reform should be a top issue in this presidential election,” Mucarsel-Powell said. “Every 2020 presidential candidate ought to visit the Homestead Detention Center and join us in denouncing Trump’s cruel immigration policies. We need these children in safe homes and facilities and close this detention center down.”

None of the candidates were allowed in. Doctors and other professionals who have been inside have described the conditions as being harsh; recent reporting has found children are being held at the facility for extended periods of time, far longer than the few days the average child is supposed to spend there. As Vox’s Catherine Kim reported:

While Caliburn insists that it only runs “temporary emergency shelters,” critics are questioning how “temporary” applies when children are being held for weeks. According to a report from the New York Times, 1,162 out of about 2,300 children had been held at the center for at least 20 days. The longest held child was a Guatemalan boy, who had been held there for more than 122 days, or four months.

The report is even bleaker when it comes to facility conditions: Children at the shelter complain about loud noises and a lack of privacy, and although most shelters often take the children for trips outside the perimeters for a change of scenery, most children at Homestead do not get to leave the facility unless they are heading to a medical appointment. While government-run shelter must follow strict standards — such as releasing a child after 20 days or having a strict vetting process for staff — Homestead does not have to abide by such rules because it is privately owned.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who visited the site Wednesday ahead of the main delegation, climbed one of the ladders activists have set up at the facility’s perimeter in order to look over its fence and interact with children in the facility’s yard. She described seeing a “harsh, packed-down field” surrounded by temporary shelters in the South Florida heat, and called Homestead’s existence “a stain on our country.”

She has has called for investigation into Caliburn, and for an inquiry into how President Trump’s former chief of staff, John Kelly, came to be on its board after Caliburn won a $341 million no-bid contract to run the facility.

Many of the other candidates called for the facility to be shuttered; Harris pledged to shut down private detention facilities if elected, and Buttigieg lamented taxpayer dollars being used to fund Homestead. The Homestead facility costs US taxpayers $1 billion a year to run, which breaks down to roughly $750 per child per day.

“What is being done in that building is being done in our name and with our money and it is wrong,” the mayor said. “But if it is our tax money, our country, then it is our obligation to bring about something different and that is what we are here to do. We will say no more to prisons for children.”

more...

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/6/30/20074048/democratic-2020-candidates-homestead-child-detention-facility-florida

[kimbutgar]

1. We needs pictures of the terrible conditions and use them in the 2020 election against

All repukes, not just fat donnie. The party that calls itself the party of values and Christianity treat innocent children little animals in cages. We need to low blow all these repukes in the next election cycle and show them as cruel, heartless and only caring about big money donors.

How you treat children is an indicator whether you really value life.

[in2herbs]

2. I posted on another thread about the US leasing a cruise ship and housing the asylum seekers

on a cruise ship. Families wouldn't need to be separated, there are medical facilities on board, cooking facilities, water, soap!, individual rooms, etc. The ship could be docked off shore so the need for CBP would be reduced. These cruise ships can accommodate 5,000 people. These human beings would be in humane conditions while awaiting decisions on their asylum claims.

[Yonnie3]

3. Locking after a review by Forum Hosts

Per the announcement on Feb 20, 2019 by site administrators, all discussion of the Democratic Primaries and candidates belongs in the Democratic Primaries Forum. Please re-post there if you like.