The population of the prison camp for migrant children in Homestead, Florida, has fallen from thousands earlier this year to 774 kids as of this week, with the vast majority of them released to family members already here, the Department of Health and Human Services said. All remaining 774 kids should also be released to homes, but for roughly half of them, a terrifying prospect could await instead.
“Of the 774 kids,” Miami New Times reports, “400 of them were aged 17 or older and are in danger of being transferred to adult Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers” when they turn 18. ICE doesn’t waste any time, either: agents have gone to a children’s detention facility to shackle and detain a minor turning 18 on their birthday—on their actual birthday—because once they’re adults, it becomes much easier for the government to try to deport them.
This is a Trump-era phenomenon. In one instance back in 2017, ICE stormed a kids’ facility in California to shackle Erik Javier Flores Hernandez on his 18th birthday. Advocates said that under the Obama administration, Erik would have likely been released before ICE had any chance to get close to him. Like with so many other Trump actions, the cruelty is the point. “There’s nothing about this arrest that serves any rational policy in the United States government. Period,” immigration attorney David Leopold said at the time.
Government documents examined by Miami New Times reveal that at least 120 kids jailed at Homestead “aged out” and were turned over to ICE. Of those who are 17 right now, “a few kids are mere days from turning 18,” Miami New Times continues, including one listed in the documents as “17.99 years old.” It’s not like officials haven’t had time to place these kids with family members or sponsors, either: “Of the 400 kids, a significant portion has been keep at the facility for more than 80 days, and ten children have been there for more than 100 days.”
Advocates have called for Homestead to be shut down, recently backed by a number of 2020 Democratic presidential candidates. Officials have said that no new kids are being sent to the prison camp, but cautioned that “there are no plans to close Homestead at the moment.” The declining population could also have nothing to do with advocates’ demands: “The facility is also shedding kids because it simply held too many to safely accommodate during a hurricane,” Miami New Times noted.
Kids do not belong in detention, period, but officials are clearly piling on the cruelty for some of them. “I met a young girl today who pleaded with me [because] she knows what happens to kids at the Homestead Detention Center when they turn 18,” Florida Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, a vocal advocate for these kids, tweeted. “Her 18th birthday is next week and on that day, instead of celebrating with friends and family like most 18 year olds, she will be shackled and sent to ICE.”