Up to 1,000 children held by immigration authorities now living in Homestead compound

Source: The Miami Herald



BY DOUGLAS HANKS AND BRENDA MEDINA

dhanks@miamiherald.com
bmedina@elnuevoherald.com

June 18, 2018 08:29 PM

Updated 9 hours 31 minutes ago

The Trump administration has reopened a 1,000-bed Homestead facility that once housed minors who entered the country illegally and alone, reviving a compound at a time when the White House is under fire for a new policy that separates children from parents detained by immigration authorities.

It wasn't clear Monday what role the Homestead Temporary Shelter for Unaccompanied Children is playing in the Trump administration's crackdown on illegal immigration: housing children who entered the country without parents, or housing them after authorities took them from their parents after the family entered the United States illegally, or a mix of both.

A spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the shelter, declined to clarify in an email interview on Monday, saying both categories of children are categorized as "unaccompanied alien children."

"Homestead is an active temporary unaccompanied alien children program facility," the spokesman, Kenneth Wolfe, said in an email.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article213411029.html