All kids should be treated the same — with dignity and respect, no matter their immigration status. Children should be able to grow up with their families, friends and communities. A child should have the freedom to be a child. Children should be in homes with their loved ones. Instead, they have been locked up in detention centers, and kept away from their families for weeks and months at a time. These centers don’t prioritize the health, safety, and well-being of children.Homestead: no home for children Homestead was set up as a temporary facility for children seeking safety in the United States. It has become a place that kids enter with no idea when they will be freed. It is not equipped to care for, to protect, or support the kids detained there. Since March of last year, the Homestead facility detained more than 14,300 children, the equivalent of 200 school buses full of children. And there is no end in sight. In late October, the U.S. government reported is not renewing its contract with Comprehensive Health Services, the company operating Homestead. However, the U.S. government wants to keep it open to be able to detain kids there again.The U.S. government should stop using facilities like Homestead, detaining children on account of their immigration status, and close Homestead once and for all.
