The Biden administration says it has not made a decision on whether the Homestead detention center for migrant children will reopen as the number of kids crossing the border alone continues to surge.
The facility's fate has been in limbo as authorities grapple with how to house the hundreds of unaccompanied minors arriving at the border each day. Two Department of Homeland Security officials told the Miami Herald in February that authorities planned to reopen the polemical detention site. But in the weeks since, Democrats in Congress and immigration advocates have been clamoring for the center to remain closed.
"There hasn't been a decision," said White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, deferring all questions to the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees migrant facilities for unaccompanied minors. "I don't have anything more about the president's personal point of view about specific facilities."
HHS did not respond to an inquiry from the Herald Wednesday.
In mid-2019, dozens of politicians used the Homestead detention center as a campaign stop to highlight immigration issues under then-President Donald Trump. Vice President Kamala Harris, who at the time was a presidential hopeful, was one of them. Now, the surge of migrants showing up to the U.S. southern border amid a global pandemic has become one of the Biden administration's first major crises.
For some, what happens at the Homestead detention center will be a litmus test for how President Joe Biden intends to handle the detention of undocumented immigrants. During the campaign, he vowed to end the practice of holding those who arrive without papers in privately run facilities.
"During their campaign, Democrats made such a strong case for immigration and children at the border that they should have had a plan. And I don't see it," said Eduardo Gamarra, a Florida International University political analyst. "They appear to be very slow in terms of responding to a humanitarian crisis of massive proportions that is only going to get worse."
He added: "They came in and basically discovered a reality that was worse than what they expected and now they have no way to respond very quickly because of lack of infrastructure. And now the paradox is that they have to use what they found until they define a way forward."
As a final decision remains at bay, the facility in unincorporated South Miami-Dade remains on standby. Job postings to hire staff for the future shelter were online as recently as Tuesday but have since been taken down. On a recent afternoon, armed security guards monitored the perimeter of the federal property as immigration activists camped out during the day by the front entrance. Maintenance trucks and painting companies entered and exited frequently and visitors in suits were driven around in golf carts.
In the past few weeks, potential employees have been bused in and out of the property and a sign that says "Bienvenidos," or "Welcome," was seen adorning a building near a rear, secured road through which migrant children in the past have been transferred in and out.
If the center proceeds with opening, who would get the contract to run the facility remains up in the air.
Caliburn — the private company that was contracted under the Trump administration to run the facility — is still interested in running the facility again, a high-level employee confirmed to the Herald Tuesday. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the matter.
Should the facility open, it would be the first time it takes in children since closing in 2019. Shortly before it was shuttered, the Herald reported that John Kelly, Trump's one-time chief of staff, was on the board of the private company, which he remains on today.
Also hoping to get the contract is Serco Group, a UK contractor that has faced allegations of abuse and sexual assault in Britain and Australia, as well as Pacific Architects and Engineers, an immigration biometrics government contractor based out of Kansas City, according to jobs posted online that have since been taken down.
Those job postings were created around the same time the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Government Contracting Services hosted a "virtual industry day" "for upcoming temporary influx shelters under the Unaccompanied Alien Children's Program."
A Caliburn spokesperson deferred all questions to HHS. Serco and Pacific Architects and Engineers did not immediately respond to inquiries from the Herald.
Federal documents also show the government is seeking three separate contracts for influx detention centers from 2021 to 2026, including "child advocate services, legal services, as well as direct care and supervision services." Those documents do not indicate where the centers would be located.
The Homestead facility was abruptly shut down in August 2019 after the Herald reported that the center didn't have a hurricane plan in place. At the time, it supervised as many as 1,200 kids, making it the nation's largest center for unaccompanied migrant children. The federal government defines unaccompanied migrant children as minors who enter the U.S. without a biological mother or father.
Homestead first opened as an emergency influx facility in 2016 under former President Barack Obama as the number of incoming migrants at the border first soared. The detention center shut down and reopened in March 2018 with the same emergency designation before closing again in August 2019.
Lis-Marie Alvarado, Florida director of American Friends Service Committee, told the Herald she's hoping Homestead will remain how she left it: closed.
"We worked hard to shut it down under Trump and it is time for this new administration to change its course and end the detention of children and families in the U.S. for once and for all," she said.
As of Sunday, the U.S. government had 4,276 unaccompanied migrant children in custody.
In a statement earlier this week, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas said, "We are on pace to encounter more individuals on the southwest border than we have in the last 20 years."
On Thursday morning, he urged migrant families not to come.
"It is not safe to take the journey, it is not safe in a time of pandemic to arrive at the border," he said on "CBS This Morning." "It is 'Do not come,' but while we are rebuilding the system that was dismantled by the prior administration."
