Homestead Child Detention Center (petition)

The Homestead Child Detention Center may reopen despite multiple reports of sexual abuse and dangerous living conditions.

Sign the petition: Keep the Homestead Child Detention Center closed forever.

Dear MoveOn member,

Under Trump, the Homestead Child Detention Center functioned as a prison for children coming to the U.S. seeking refuge and safety. Unless we act, it could reopen, imprisoning more children and separating countless families. 

Will you sign this petition urging the Biden administration to keep the Homestead Child Detention Center closed forever?

Reopening emergency influx centers that operate as mass detention centers for children is not an acceptable option. In 2019, the Homestead Child Detention Center in Florida was shut down due to multiple horrifying reports of sexual abuse, dangerous living conditions, and years of organizing to lift up these problems.^1,2 The Homestead Child Detention Center must stay closed.

Detention centers are places where abuses are rampant, health care is inadequate, and social distancing is impossible, creating lasting trauma for many. The cost of that to children, families, and our communities is incalculable. Reopening Homestead—or any child detention center—places young people in greater danger, especially during this pandemic.

Environmental conditions at the Homestead detention center pose serious health and safety threats to the children who would be caged there, including possible exposure to toxic chemicals, waste, and substances from a neighboring Superfund site known to cause cancer and other diseases. This is inhumane.

In 2019, when the Homestead detention center held around 2,000 children under President Trump, we came together with partners and community members in Florida and across the country to shut it down for good. Now, we're mobilizing to stop the Biden administration from reopening the center.

Instead of contributing to further trauma to the undocumented community, we must prioritize uniting migrant children with family members. President Biden and his administration promised to reunite children separated from their families and to treat immigrants with the respect and dignity we all deserve. Making right on that promise must include keeping the Homestead Child Detention Center closed for good.

Click here to add your name to this petition, and then pass it along to your friends.

Thanks!

–Kristin Kumpf, American Friends Service Committee

Sources: 

1. "Sex abuse claims revealed at Homestead shelter, where staff was not vetted for child abuse," Miami Herald, July 15, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/150291?t=11&akid=292288%2E10220574%2EZnABGi

2. "HEALTH AT RISK," American Friends Service Committee, August, 2019
https://act.moveon.org/go/150292?t=13&akid=292288%2E10220574%2EZnABGi

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