HOMESTEAD, FLA. (WSVN) - A new group of Congressional delegates toured the Homestead migrant detention facility as Democrats and President Donald Trump continued to butt heads on what to do with migrant families.
The lawmakers held a press conference outside the facility at the end of their visit, Monday afternoon.
“This is the United States of America. We’ve got to be humane. We’ve got to treat people with decency, no matter where they’re from, and we got to start doing it now,” said U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist, D-Fla.
The key person at the event was U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., who serves as the chairwoman of the subcommittee that oversees the Department of Health and Human Services.
Health officials at the department manage the Homestead facilities and others like it.
“We did not see children mistreated, nor would we,” said DeLauro.
“We did not get a neutral, last-minute picture of what’s going on in this facility,” said U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla. “We gave them notice because we were required to give them notice. Otherwise they wouldn’t have allowed us in.”
The visit comes as Democratic Congress members and the Trump administration remain at odds over policies like immigration.
“The goal is to get these children to placements and out of a temporary facility that waives standards and doesn’t have to comply with state law,” said DeLauro.
Lawmakers raised questions surrounding what seems to be a very slow relocation process to sponsors or family.
“Why aren’t they moving to leave this place and to be with a family member?” said DeLauro.
As minors remain in custody at the detention centers, delegates said, education is a pressing concern.
“How can the children possibly be learning in that environment? They’re not taught by certified teachers. There are no standards, and it must change,” said Wasserman Schultz.
“It’s a joke. I mean, you couldn’t hear yourself think in that place. I don’t see how any child can learn anything,” said Crist.
The Trump administration has continued to insist that conditions at the facility are good.
Vice President Mike Pence visited a facility in Texas last week and reported migrants telling him that they were being treated fairly.
However, Democrats claim that conditions at the facilities are inhumane. Delegates said their focus is on ensuring migrant children are moved out of the holding facilities and back with their families or a sponsor.
“They need to stop being detained in what is a secured facility with guards all around it and no ability to move freely,” said DeLauro. “No child should be held in these kinds of conditions.”
Monday evening, Health and Human Services spokesperson Mark Weber said reunification with family members and sponsors is speeding up, to such an extent that the Homestead facility is no longer taking in migrant children.
In a statement, Weber said, “No additional unaccompanied alien children are being placed at Homestead … By speeding up the unification of children with parents, close family relatives or other sponsor … space is beginning to open up in the standard network of shelters.”
The delegates’ tour of the detention center comes as Immigration and Customs Enforcement was set to carry out mass raids across the country, including Miami, over the weekend.
U.S. officials say around 2,000 immigrants who have final deportation orders were the ones being targeted.
Speaking at a news conference, President Donald Trump called the operation a success.
“Many, many were taken out Sunday, you just didn’t know about it,” he said. “Focus on the criminals. Much easier just to go to general population, that’s easy, but I don’t do it the easy way.”
However, local officials and immigration advocates said they’re unaware any ICE activity took place in Miami over the weekend.
“I didn’t get any information that said that there was any unusual activity happening here,” said Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez.
“We haven’t seen it. It hasn’t materialized. I’m not sure what this was about,” said City of Miami Mayor Francis Suarez.
Trump indicated ICE officers rounded up undocumented immigrants, but did not provide locations or numbers.
“The truth is, it started a number of days before yesterday, but yesterday was very successful. People come into our country illegally, and they go out legally,” he said.
On Monday, the Trump administration announced they will try to ban migrants who try to pass through another country before arriving to the U.S.
The ban would bar them from seeking asylum.
The policy is set to go into effect on Tuesday.
“I’m sure, like most of the actions he’s taken that were revolting and unfair and undemocratic and un-American, related to immigration that this will be challenged in court and struck down,” said Wasserman Schultz.
Experts believe the new asylum policy will face an intense legal battle in the days and weeks ahead.
Delegates said they plan to return to the Homestead detention center in two weeks. They said they also plan to bring administrators who run the facility and others to a congressional hearing in the nation’s capital at some point in the near future.
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