There have been no children jailed at the Homestead prison camp for migrant kids in Florida since the beginning of August, and that’s the way it should stay. But even though the prison camp has remained empty for nearly two months, the Trump administration has kept the empty jail running to the tune of $33 million, officials told a House committee this week.
Office of Refugee Resettlement acting director Jonathan Hayes told the House Oversight Committee hearing on Wednesday that Homestead “is costing taxpayers $720,000 a day,” the Chicago Tribune reported. “That's $600 a day for each of 1,200 empty beds. When kids are present at the facility, the cost is $750 a day per child.”
Hayes told legislators that if staff were to be removed, “you're looking at a minimum of 90 to 120 days in order to reactivate the staff back” should children again be jailed there soon, which the administration said could happen in October. "Six hundred a day for 1,200 nonexistent human beings at Homestead right now every single day?” Rep. Mark Pocan asked. "It's the beds, yes, sir, to keep them there,” Hayes replied.
But I would be remiss to not mention what else is at play here: profits, and lots of it. Homestead has been a privately operated prison camp run by Caliburn International, and sitting on the board of directors of that company is none other than John Kelly, the former Homeland Security secretary and chief of staff for the kidnapper in chief, Donald Trump. ”Why are we bankrolling the pockets of a private company for running an empty facility?” Pocan later tweeted.
“Though thousands of Caliburn employees lost their jobs after the shutdown, at least 1,000 are still showing up to work,” the Chicago Tribune reported. “‘We play board games, cards, watch movies and sometimes play sports,’ one worker told the Herald on Wednesday. ‘We're just waiting to see when the kids come back. 'Til then, we chill.’” ‘Til then, we chill, then resume even more profiting at the expense of vulnerable children.