Just days after announcing that a plan to reuse a World War II-era internment camp to jail migrant children has been halted for now, the Trump administration is reportedly looking for permanent locations in California, Florida, and Virginia to use as future baby jails. “The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services sent letters to Florida lawmakers Monday,” The Washington Post reports, “saying it is looking for vacant properties in those locations to build permanent licensed facilities for children under age 18 who have entered the United State illegally without a parent or guardian.”
In Florida, it would presumably replace the Homestead prison camp, which is unlicensed because it’s a “temporary emergency shelter.” That facility is dwindling in size and is no longer accepting new children “because it simply held too many to safely accommodate during a hurricane,” Miami New Times reported. But permanent or not, kids do not belong in any detention facility, period, something echoed by one Florida legislator who received the letter.
“Received an email from the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) letting local lawmakers know that they are exploring Central FL as an option for opening a migrant detention camp for undocumented children,” tweeted state Rep. Anna V. Eskamani. “No. We should be closing camps, not opening new ones.” Meanwhile, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis “is aware of the plan to search for sites in Central Florida,” tweeted a reporter, “but his spokeswoman, Helen Ferre, would not say whether he would welcome such a facility in the state.”
The focus right now should be to make sure that kids who are currently detained can be placed with family members already here, or suitable sponsors, as soon as possible. There’s a reason for the urgency: Detained teens who are 17 get turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody when they turn 18. Some of the teens detained at Homestead say they’ve been jailed for as long as 100 days, and fear what will happen on their 18th birthday should they not be released to a guardian by then.
But states that could become new locations for the Trump administration’s plan should know what to expect, and it’s the children themselves who have already shared their horrific stories.
"Sometimes it's really hard having to stay here. A couple of girls since I've been here have been cutting themselves,” a minor detained at Homestead for five months said in May. "I have spent a lot of time crying and the other girls too. When the other girls cry, I try to tell them that they should try to be patient, focus on where they are now and to not think about the future or getting out to their families. But that's hard to do."