FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. _ As outrage grew about family separations at the border, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson and U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz were denied entry to a shelter in Homestead where more than 1,000 migrant teenagers are being housed.
The Florida Democrats said they wanted to tour the Homestead Temporary Shelter for Unaccompanied Children and inspect conditions.
After being blocked from entering the center, Nelson accused the Trump administration of a "cover-up."
"This is a federally contracted facility," he said. "This is in my state of Florida. We are being denied entry to see about the welfare of children as well as to see about children separated from parents."
Nelson said that federal officials "are obviously hiding something," and he was told at least two weeks' notice must be given to tour the facility.
Wasserman Schultz called for the resignation of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, who has defended the policy of separating children from their parents who try to illegally cross the U.S. southern border.
The agency that oversees the Homestead facility _ the Department of Health and Human Services _ has also refused to explain to reporters the facility's role in President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown. A request by the South Florida Sun Sentinel to tour the facility was denied.
Ken Wolfe, a spokesman for the agency, wrote in an email the shelter serves as "a temporary unaccompanied alien children program facility" but offered few additional details.
The shelter was opened in 2016 amid an influx of unaccompanied children seeking to escape violence in Central America. The temporary shelter in a government building near the Homestead Air Reserve Base was closed in March 2017.
It reopened in February and is presently housing 1,192 teenagers, Wolfe wrote in an email. He did not elaborate on how the teenagers ended up in the facility.
The new population did not receive media attention until Wasserman Schultz announced it at an event Monday.
The federal government contracts with Cape Canaveral-based Comprehensive Health Services to run the Homestead shelter. Gail Hart, a company spokeswoman, declined to comment and referred questions to the Department of Health and Human Services.
The separations are the result of a "zero tolerance" policy implemented by the Trump administration. The policy has resulted in everyone who is apprehended entering the country illegally _ including those seeking asylum _ being charged criminally. That generally results in children being separated from their parents.
Nielsen defended the separations, saying her department is enforcing the laws on the books. Previous administrations have separated families at the border, although at lower rates, and children in detention facilities are provided meals, education, medical care and television, she said.
But critics _ including prominent Republicans _ say the policy of splitting up families is inhumane.
The investigative news website ProPublica released a recording Monday from a detention center of children crying and calling for their mothers and fathers. A border agent is captured on the recording joking, "We have an orchestra here."
Republican Gov. Rick Scott _ who is running against Nelson _ said Monday he does not favor separating families at the border, but he did not reference Trump by name in his statement or call for an immediate end to the practice. Scott was in Puerto Rico on Tuesday.
Nelson has co-sponsored a bill that would prohibit the practice of separating children solely as a deterrence to prevent people from migrating to the United States.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., wrote on Twitter that he favors changing "the law to allow families to be held together at family facilities & shorten detention with expedited hearings." Rubio tweeted Tuesday he is finalizing a bill that would allow families to be kept together pending an expedited hearing.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush _ who faced Trump in the GOP primary in 2016 _ called on Trump to "end this heartless policy."
