The Biden administration recently announced that it plans to reopen a detention center for migrant children in Homestead, Florida—essentially imprisoning children who have come to the U.S. seeking refuge. Many are fleeing violence and poverty and seeking asylum in the United States.
The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) is among those groups rallying opposition to reopening the detention center. In an email to activists, Lis-Marie Alvarado of AFSC Florida wrote that AFSC “worked with partners and community members in Florida and across the country to shut down the detention center in 2019, when it held around 2,000 children under President Trump. Now we’re mobilizing to stop the Biden administration from reopening the center—and urging them to instead prioritize uniting migrant children with family members or sponsors and promote community-based alternatives to detention that are in compliance with the rights of children.
“President Biden must keep his promise to reunite children separated from their families and treat immigrants with the respect and dignity we all deserve. Reopening Homestead—or any child detention center—places young people in greater danger, especially in this pandemic. Detention centers are places where social distancing is impossible, health care is inadequate, and abuses are rampant. And studies have shown that detaining children causes lasting trauma. The cost of that to children, families, and our communities is incalculable.
“Environmental conditions at this detention center also pose potentially serious health and safety threats to the children who would be housed there, including possible exposure to toxic chemicals from a neighboring Superfund site.
“We need your voice today. Please join us in pushing to keep families and communities together and say no to locking up migrant children. Tell President Biden: Keep Homestead detention center closed—and end the detention of migrant children today!”
