WHAT: Lunch Briefing
WHEN: Thursday, March 28, 2019
HOST: Susan Werth, Miami Committee
On March 28th, Human Rights Watch’s Senior Immigration Researcher Clara Long, shared her experience monitoring the conditions of unaccompanied immigrant children held in the Homestead Immigration Detention Center.
Homestead houses over 2,500 teenaged migrants who are surrounded by tall fences, under constant watch by guards, and not permitted to leave. The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) claims that Homestead is an "emergency influx shelter" and therefore, falls outside the jurisdiction of the Flores Agreement. This loophole leaves vulnerable young people unprotected from the harms of indefinite, inhumane detention.
Clara’s trip to the Homestead Detention Center is part of a series of visits and dispatches to the US border in recent months by Human Rights Watch. A future report, and her broader investigative work, will be the foundation for our advocacy work to pass rights respecting immigration policies in the U.S.