A group of House Democrats paid a visit to a shelter for migrant children on Tuesday and sharply criticized the facility, calling it “chilling.”
Democratic Reps. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (Fla.), Donna Shalala (Fla.), Joaquin Castro (Texas) and Sylvia Garcia (Texas) visited the temporary shelter for unaccompanied migrant children in Homestead, Fla.
Castro, the chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, called the system of facilities for migrant children part of a “morally bankrupt system.”
Mucarsel-Powell vowed to reunite the migrant children in Homestead with their families.
The Homestead shelter is said to be the largest facility for unaccompanied children in the country, currently housing roughly 1,575 people between the ages of 13-17, according to CBS News’s Miami affiliate.
{mosads}The Department of Health and Human Services announced in December that it would be adding 1,000 beds to the shelter.
Homestead initially opened in 2016 after a record number of migrant children crossed the border. It closed in 2017 but reopened in March last year to accommodate an influx.
Migrant children who illegally cross into the U.S. must be sent to a government shelter, like Homestead, where they stay until they can be united with relatives or other sponsors while awaiting immigration court hearings, under the so-called Flores agreement.
The Trump administration is reportedly working on new regulations that it says would terminate and replace that rule.
The administration tried to curb families illegally immigrating by enforcing a “zero tolerance” policy that resulted in children being separated from their parents. President Trump eventually retreated from the practice after intense bipartisan backlash.