Politico
By MARC CAPUTO
June 20, 2018
HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Florida Sen. Bill Nelson and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz were denied access Tuesday to a 1,000-bed federal facility in the state that was opened to receive an influx of immigrant children, some of whom may have been detained due to President Donald Trump’s new family separation policy for the undocumented.
“What they are doing is a coverup for the president,” Nelson said. “The president is dug in on a policy and he doesn’t like all the flak that he’s getting, even from some Republican senators.”
Nelson (D-Fla.) said the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which ultimately denied access to the lawmakers — including state House Minority Leader Kionne McGhee, the district’s state representative — was “being obstinate, headstrong.” He said the agency’s decision was “an affront as the senior senator of this state that an agency head would tell me that I do not have entrance into a federally funded facility where the life and health of children are at stake.”
It’s unclear how many children are being held at the Homestead Temporary Shelter for Unaccompanied Children. Nor was it clear, when Nelson first tried to gain access, how many were taken there under the president’s policy in which minors are being taken away from parents who have requested asylum after crossing the illegally and apprehended by a border patrol agent.
Hours later, Nelson said he was told that 94 children were detained there under the new policy.
Nelson said that Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) had told him that he spoke to a woman in Texas whose child was taken away from her and placed in the detention camp.
The facility in Homestead in the Florida peninsula’s southeast is run by a private contractor called Comprehensive Health Services. It was initially opened in 2016 under President Barack Obama to house a flood of unaccompanied minors who first began pouring across the U.S.-Mexico border in 2014. It was closed soon after but quietly reopened under Trump, which Wasserman Schultz first disclosed to a group of immigration activists and was first reported by the Miami New Times.
The Democratic lawmakers said the private agency and federal government had given them conflicting accounts about their ability to inspect the site, which they said they wanted to check on the children, learn their stories and make sure they’re OK. They all called on Trump to end the new policy, which the president has falsely blamed on Congress.
Nelson called it “bullhuckey” when told he needed to fill out forms and wait as many as two weeks before conducting an inspection.
Wasserman Schultz told reporters “do not be fooled” with Republicans in Congress who say they’ll fix the issue in an immigration bill they’re crafting because the main bill won’t pass the House, the Senate or both.
One of the Republicans trying to craft an immigration bill, Miami Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla), represents the Homestead area where the facility is located but hasn’t commented specifically on it. Curbelo, who opposes family separation and has criticized the president repeatedly over immigration issues, was in Washington on Tuesday listening to Trump address the House Republican caucus.
For Nelson, who’s in a tough reelection fight with Gov. Rick Scott, the controversy has immediate political consequences and national exposure. His press conference and attempted entry into the facility was covered by more than 15 TV stations and multiple radio, print and online publications.
Scott said Monday he does not favor the family separation policy. But he did not call for its immediate end.
Florida’s junior senator, Republican Marco Rubio, said Monday that “the current situation at the border is the result of a choice between the only two options current law and federal court mandates allow: The Obama administration approach of releasing adults who illegally entered with children, which turned our border into a magnet for illegal immigration and traffickers looking to exploit vulnerable migrants; and the current approach of detaining parents, which divides families — something everyone says they want to avoid.”
Neither approach, Rubio said, is acceptable. “Therefore,” he said, “Congress must act to legally allow families to be held together pending their hearing, and to provide funding for the creation of family facilities and for expediting the process of adjudicating illegal entry and asylum. While this third option is not perfect, it is far better than incentivizing future illegal immigration or separating children from their parents.”
Nelson addressed that issue on Tuesday and said families couldn’t wait on Congress. “The president can change this policy with a snap of his fingers,” Nelson said. He said he just wanted to make sure the kids were OK.
“We are here to see this facility to find out how many of these children have been separated from parents, to see the degree to which they are being taken care of, what kind of facility this is, whether they are being adequately provided for,” Nelson said. “Are they sleeping in beds? Are they sleeping on the floor? All of the things that a mom or dad would want to have for their child other than to have their child be with them.”
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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