Homestead detention center for unaccompanied minors should never reopen | Opinion
Last May, the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law (CHRCL) filed a motion challenging children’s lengthy detention at the prison-like Homestead Temporary Shelter for Unaccompanied Children, also called Homestead Detention Center, a for-profit child detention center for migrants.
The document noted prison-like rules, including no touch or contact allowed and banning kids’ ability to communicate in their native language. One child said: “The rules here are that you can’t touch anyone. Sometimes your friend is crying because they can’t stand being here any longer and you want to be able to give them a hug.
“But you can’t because it’s against the rules.”
Last year, several migrant advocacy groups held continuous protests at the site. The detention center was ordered closed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and vacated in August, although for the stated reason of hurricane-safety concerns.
However, recent reports have said that there are plans to reopen the center.
As physicians, we strongly oppose this idea. At some U.S. detention facilities, children have had to sleep on cement floors and lived with constant light exposure, insufficient food and water and extremely cold temperatures.
Some have been victims of sexual assault and abuse. According to a February 2019 Axios article, there were thousands of allegations of sexual abuse against unaccompanied minors in government custody. The report covered conditions from October 2014 to July 2018. The Office of Refugee Resettlement, which cares for unaccompanied minors, received a total of 4,556 allegations of sexual abuse or sexual harassment. Of these, 178 were accusations that adult staff members had sexually assaulted the immigrant children.
Moreover, even if all the living standards were being met, the children are missing physical and emotional contact with their families. These adverse childhood experiences can put their future health, including cardiovascular health and life expectancy, at risk.
We chose this profession to help end human suffering with empathy. One of the most memorable moments of our medical education has been integrating the Hippocratic Oath into our daily lives and the care we provide. A great number of medical professionals has been moved by our calling of doing no harm to speak out to help these children.
In 2018, the Trump administration instituted the zero-tolerance policy under which adults who entered the country illegally were criminally prosecuted. Under this policy, children were separated from their parents. Given this humanitarian crisis, medical groups have sprouted all over the nation to express their concern and commitment to seeing that children are treated with compassion.
Several chapters of the Latino Medical Student Association, for example, have spoken out against family separation and detention. Doctors for Camp Closure, which has a national membership, also organized a march in Washington D.C., in October and another in Philadelphia in November. It is planning another march this year.
On an individual level, physicians have organized medical clinics for migrants who are or have been held by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security or traveled to the southwest border to volunteer their medical skills. Detention centers are also a conducive environment for outbreaks of infectious diseases, such as influenza. A group of concerned doctors offered to administer vaccines at a border detention facility to prevent the flu, but DHS denied them access.
We wholeheartedly support the permanent closure of the Homestead Detention Center. In order for these children to form proper emotional and social attachments, they must be cared for, loved, hugged and nurtured by their own families.
These are the humanitarian values that must be upheld.
Lorena Del Pilar Bonilla, M.D., wrote this on behalf of Claudia Alejandra Alvarez, D.O.; Franklyn Rocha-Cabrero, M.D. Julie Graves, M.D., MPH, Ph.D.; and Clarissa Zafirov, M.D.