HOMESTEAD, FLA. (WSVN) - A small group gathered outside the Homestead facility to demand the release of children being held there.
“We need to save these children, we need to stand and march for these children,” said community activist Millie Raphael.
A day earlier, on Tuesday, Senator Bill Nelson and Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz were denied access to the holding facility in South Florida.
The politicians returned to Washington D.C. with a message for fellow lawmakers.
“They don’t want us to know what is going on in there,” said Nelson.
“This cannot go on, what is the Trump administration hiding?” said Wasserman Schultz.
This comes just after President Donald Trump signed an executive order to reunite child migrants with family members, Wednesday afternoon.
Immigrant rights groups and activists, however, plan to proceed with a “March to Keep Families Together” in Homestead this Saturday.
Marchers are planning to meet at the corner of Southwest 288th Street and 137th Avenue, at 4 p.m.
Raphael said the goal is to get the children out of the detention facilities and reunited with their family.
Miami-Dade Public Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho weighed in on the issue.
“We cannot remain silent,” said Carvalho.
The district issued a letter to the secretary of Homeland Security inquiring about educational services available for the children.
“Why weren’t we notified? Are they not children of the same God?” said Carvalho. “Where is the heart and compassion for children who are ripped from the loving arms of their parents?”
The Miami-Dade Community Relations Board met Wednesday to discuss taking action.
“We demand that this type of action stop immediately,” said Rabbi Solomon Schiff.
City of Miami Mayor Francis Suarez departed from Miami International Airport to visit the border to see the children’s conditions firsthand.
“To see the conditions that the children are in, to see firsthand what we’ve heard, seen pictured of and read accounts of,” said Suarez.
While the separation process is ending, just beginning is the process to make sure children already in government custody are safe and getting the care they need.
Among the children held in Homestead, 94 were separated from their parents. Undocumented children are also living in Cutler Bay and Miami Gardens.
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