“From what I understand, it’s the first for-profit child detention center,” says Maria Rodriguez, executive director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition. “So just let that sink in.” (1)

It does not make headlines daily, but children seeking refuge in the United States are still being put in cages. In fact, the current administration is expanding a detention center in Homestead, FL for unaccompanied minors so it can hold more than 3,200 children.

The Homestead facility is an unacceptable attack on the human rights of children seeking asylum. Add your voice to those saying “No!” to kids in cages.

The Homestead facility is run by a for-profit corporation named Caliburn, and most of the kids inside have family in the U.S. eager to receive them. Yet when the Department of Homeland Security began to use sponsors’ fingerprints to seek out and detain undocumented family members, many became scared to come forward, and the kids are stuck in limbo. A UU minister, Dottie Matthews, was recently asked by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ (HHS) Center for Faith and Opportunity Initiatives to tour the facility, and she wrote a startling account of her experience.

Putting children into prison camps is monstrous. And it sets a dangerous precedent for expanding incarceration as a solution to human rights problems. This follows a pattern of further criminalizing Black and Brown bodies across the United States and our silence means complicity. We must resist.

• Join our Shutdown Homestead campaign by signing this petition and sharing widely.
• Download the children’s letter-writing toolkit to send letters to Congress and children in detention and share on social media.
• Take part in our coalition’s week of action, Jun 9 – 16.

In solidarity,

The Love Resists Team

Source:
(1) NPR, “Inside The Largest And Most Controversial Shelter For Migrant Children In The U.S.”